A feminist new materialism analysis of pelvic floor digital health messages

Abstract

ABSTRACT This interdisciplinary study examines digital communication strategies used by advocacy groups/social media influencers about a stigmatized women’s health issue. Pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) affect one in three women, but many women lack knowledge about and do not discuss PFDs. Women report feelings of isolation, shame, embarrassment, and dirtiness. To combat this, advocacy organizations recently implemented campaigns to educate women of varying ages about PFDs. Theories of shame resilience, digital communication advocacy and health activism, and feminist new materialisms framed this study. This thematic analysis questioned how women’s bodies are represented and transformed in digital environments, and in doing so, messages from three PFD advocacy organizations and PFD influencers on TikTok were examined. Findings illustrate that pelvic messages of shame resilience encourage “talking about it,” embrace stigmatized language, emphasize the need to reform inadequate policies, and incite gendered commitments to shame resilience, and distinguish commonality from abnormality. Additionally, in exploring new understandings of matter and embodiment, findings show that digital health messages encourage women to partake in digital self-administration of care, normalize vaginal rhetoric, and avoid having their social media content shadowbanned.