Li, Xiaolin; (2024) The Menstrual Body Reimagined: Menstruation, Sexuality, and Digital Period-tracking in Urban China. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis examines menstruation and sexuality in urban China, focusing on the use and production of (digital) material objects such as sanitary products, contraceptive tools, and period-tracking apps. Based on two years of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Southeastern cities in China, primarily Hangzhou, the researcher worked with urban residents in local communities, LGBTQI+ communities, and a Chinese period-tracking app company. Exploring the intersection of technology and the biological-medical-cultural-individual body, this thesis explores the central theme of the relationship between the individual and society, exploring the interplay of power, cultural influence, tradition, discourse, social relations, and capitalism at the micro level of everyday life. It examines how material culture mediates the relationship between individuals and society and emphasises the fundamental social nature of the biological and individual body from the dual perspective of body time and body space. Sanitary products and contraceptive technologies, shape concepts like body boundaries, body time, medical norms, and gender and sexual ideas related to both the cisgender female body and the transgender body. Period-tracking apps, functioning as self-tracking and predictive tools, connect the past, present, and future of the individual while embedding individual experiences within broader societal contexts, shaping perceptions of body norms and sexual morality. The thesis also explores the interactions between users and developers of period-tracking apps, focusing on features like digital contraception and social media feeds, highlighting both discrepancies and mutual influences between users and producers.

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