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Thursday, October 24, 2013

A gender-neutral menstruation app?



Say what? Apparently, a team of people has created an iPhone app to calculate one's menstrual cycle ... in a "gender-neutral" way. The creators say:
"We understand that sex and gender identity are not the same and we designed our app so it can be used by almost everyone. Mcalc is 100 percent gender neutral and it won't assume anything from your gender while using it... We all have different needs, and Mcalc can suit them accordingly."

Doesn't the fact that only half of the world's population could use a menstruation app already assume something about gender?  Do totally random people have periods, or do women have periods?  Last I heard, it was the latter.  

So, why do we need a "gender-neutral" menstruation app when gendered people who are specifically female are the only ones who menstruate?  Why do we feel a need to take out feminine pronouns or other words associated with women in order to track a woman's cycle?In an effort to promote equality are we hoping to find an artificial way to allow men to experience bleeding, cramping, mood swings, bloating and the like?  Is this app in some way meant to prepare men to experience a simulated menstrual cycle?  Or are we trying to hide the fact that men and women are different, that only women have the capacity to nurture life within their bodies, and that from the age of 12 or 14 their bodies are manifesting that fact?  Do we want to remove the pronouns so that we can pretend both men and women live and love in the exact same way?

You can't make this stuff up.  

3 comments:

  1. I think I have an idea as to why they created this "gender-neutral" app. There are some females who desire to be a male, some females even have medical procedures to change their sex and take steroids to look like a male. My theory is that maybe these females want an app to compliment their "masculinity". Sad, but true.

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  2. This is great, actually, for people who have periods and do not identify as a girl but still have a female body with a regular menstrual flow. I don't see what your problem is.

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    1. If someone is having a period then she is a woman. Calling a menstrual app "gender neutral" is beyond ironic.

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