# Postfeminist Healthism: Understanding the Gendering of Healthism Using Menstrual Tracking Apps as an Example

## TL;DR

This paper explores how 'postfeminist healthism' shapes health behaviors, using menstrual tracking apps to show how health expectations are gendered.

## Contribution

The paper introduces and advances the concept of postfeminist healthism as a framework for understanding gendered health practices.

## Key findings

- Postfeminist healthism acts as a subjectifying force that influences health behaviors, even when harmful.
- Menstrual tracking apps exemplify how postfeminist sensibilities align with healthism.
- The framework highlights the gendered nature of health expectations and self-monitoring.

## Abstract

‘Postfeminist healthism’ offers an essential framework for understanding how healthism is gendered. In this article, we describe and advance the concept of postfeminist sensibility and its synergistic alignments with healthism. We then consider how postfeminist healthism operates as a subjectifying force for the millions of girls, women, and other feminine‐identified people globally—even when it harms their mental or physical health. We use menstrual tracking apps (MTAs) as an indicative example to both demonstrate how a postfeminist healthism acts at the intersections of bodies, subjectivity, and health, and to show the value of a postfeminist healthism in understanding MTAs. Overall, we show the importance of understanding the distinct ways in which healthism is gendered through postfeminism.