A queer Twitter user targeted Fitbit’s “female health” tracker for alienating transgender and intersex users in a Saturday tweet, saying, “I’m not female and I menstruate.”
Twitter user “Lilo the Autistic Queer” criticized the popular health tracker company Fitbit for using the category “female health” instead of a category that Lilo the Autistic Queer considers queer inclusive for women who do not have periods.
“Hey @FitbitSupport,” the user tweeted Saturday. “I love the ‘Female Health’ tracker in your app. However, I’m not female & I menstruate. Many trans & intersex people are in this position and feel alienated from menstrual health access. Could you please change the name to the neutral term ‘Menstrual Health’?”
“It’s a tiny change they could make that will make a huge difference to a lot of people,” Lilo the Autistic Queer added. “I don’t want to have to misgender myself and my body in order to access menstrual health tools.” (RELATED: Biological Male Serving As Trans Female Virginia Delegate Gets Equal Rights Amendment Tattooed On Arm)
Lilo was referring to people ‘assigned female at birth’ when discussing people who can also have periods, Lilo explained to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“I was referring to people who were assigned female at birth,” Lilo told the DCNF. “Trans men and nonbinary people who have a uterus and menstruate, but do not identify as female as it is a word strongly associated with womanhood.”
“‘Born female’ is not really the best way to phrase it because that implies that someone is biologically ‘female’ but of a different gender,” Lilo added, explaining that ‘assigned female at birth’ better describes what gender a person was assigned at birth based on physical biology.
“Female is a gendered word strongly associated with womanhood, so using it to talk about a trans person who is not a woman can be misgendering and dysphoria inducing,” Lilo explained.
Lilo declined to comment on whether trans women, biological men who have transitioned to women, can have periods.
The user also tweeted a picture of what the Fitbit health tracker looks like, showing the category “Female health.”
Here is what the tool looks like, with the one issue circled.
It lets me track my period, tells me when my next period is likely to happen, let’s me track symptoms (including on non-period days), keeps track of trends, and tracks fertility. pic.twitter.com/5379ZVmCXl
— Lilo the Autistic Queer (@A_Silent_Child) February 8, 2020
Lilo the Autistic Queer encouraged other users to both retweet the criticism of Fitbit and tweet their own thoughts about
“something you want people to understand about your experiences with menstruation” using the hashtag #MyHealthMyFight.
WATCH:
Fitbit did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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