If your boyfriend has an app to track your period, it’s time to start rethinking your relationship.

The app, Fredrick, works as any typical menstruation app does, but with a twist in the favor of the patriarchy – it was designed solely to be an “honest menstrual cycle navigator for men” to provide its users with a forecast of “her potential mood of the day.”

Despite already being invasive, Fredrick dives even further into the depths of misogyny. It includes calendar updates such as “The Law of Menstruation: never EVER ask if it’s blowjob week,” and, my personal favorite, “Who’s Sarah Tonin? It’s Serotonin, mate. A chemical making her less shitty than last week.”

Thankfully, Fredrick was recently removed from the iTunes App Store due to the uproar it caused, leading some to believe that maybe there are small victories in the world. However, this is hardly the first time women have had to battle for privacy in regard to menstruation.

Although slightly less abrasive than Fredrick, a menstrual calendar app for men is hardly a new idea. Throughout the past several years, apps including TrackMyBitch, Code Red and Period.Me were released with a similar goal, one best summarized by PMS Buddy: to prevent the women in your life “from biting your head off unexpectedly once a month.” Because, evidently, women don’t appreciate it if you ask them if they are PMS-ing.

The logical reasoning behind this reaction is one, things other than periods irritate women and two, it’s really no one’s business.

Despite the negative reaction it gets each time, this “invention” keeps popping up. But the cause of controversy never seems to stick: If a woman chooses to disclose that it is her time of the month, it is at her discretion. It truly affects no one else, no matter the kind of roadblock a man might think it provides to his sex life.

The reason for this recurring trend focuses in on the sad truth that with or without an app, most men will try and track menstruation.

Fredrick, and other apps like it, endorses an invasion of privacy. However, it is important to note that these apps also perpetuate heteronormativity and a very limited perception of body politics.

It is often forgotten that menstruation does not singularly affect cisgender women. When it comes to that time of the month, many trans* and gender-nonconforming individuals are forced to face their dysphoria, as menstruation may bring up feelings of undesired femininity.

While a hysterectomy can be performed to remove the uterus and therefore stop any bleeding, it is incredibly hard on the patient’s body and many insurances refuse to cover one for “gender related reasons.” Not to mention that not all trans* or gender-nonconforming persons are uncomfortable with having a uterus, as opposing surgery hardly negates their gender identity.

Becoming part of the menstruation conversation is as much a private matter for trans* folk as is their decision to disclose the details of their transition or choice otherwise. This cis-centric and heteronormative approach can even be traced back to the fact that menstruation has historically always been an issue, starting with the word hysteria stemming from the Greek word for uterus.

“In the past, married men would have been interested in tracking their wives’ periods, but that’s because into the twentieth century, people didn’t know when women were fertile,” said Carol Faulkner, a professor of history in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

When it came to unmarried women, even back in the nineteenth century, men were removed from the conversation as women handled their menstrual cycle themselves. As contraception later gained popularity, and legality, the discussion that involved menstruation turned into a tool for men to use women’s bodies against them.

“The fact that there is this vital need for men to know to protect themselves against the wrath of womanhood is kind of amusing,” said Faulkner. “Those were arguments against women getting the right to vote or hold political office or serve on jury. ‘Oh, they’ll be too emotional.’ ‘What if the president gets her period?’ Those arguments were wielded against women gaining political power.”

And here we are in 2016, still facing the tampon tax and apps that encourage men to further the stigma.

Chocolate won’t get you out of this one, bud.

Brontë Schmit is a sophomore magazine journalism major and marketing, english and textual studies and LGBT Studies minor. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at bkschmit@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @brontekincaid.

Published on January 28, 2016 at 2:11 am