Intimate data performativity: Taiwanese women’s self-care practices with menstrual tracking apps

Taiwanese women negotiate menstrual tracking apps at the intersection of algorithmic systems, cultural expectations, and embodied experiences. This study harnessed qualitative digital methods combining diary studies and in-depth interviews with sixteen participants to develop intimate data performativity as a conceptual lens. Three interconnected dimensions emerged. First, algorithmic negotiation in embodied knowledge production: users embrace predictive systems while maintaining interpretive agency. Second, integration of tracking into self-optimization practices exposes contradictory dynamics of empowerment and control. Third, data sharing reconfigures intimate relationships as menstrual apps mediate gendered dynamics of care and surveillance. Women actively co-constitute bodily knowledge, regulatory norms, and relationship dynamics through everyday engagement with menstrual tracking technologies. These performative practices exceed binary frameworks of empowerment or discipline.