The use of sensory elements in women’s health discourse on menstruation: biases and gender-sensitive aspects

Enfoque

This work is ultimately intended to promote the digitalisation, treatment, and online publication of open, multilingual terminology resources with a specific focus on gender approaches in digital society.

The study is encompassed in DIGITENDER, (DIGITENDER, TED2021-130040B-C21), a research initiative dedicated to the investigation of the language used in women’s health discourse to develop comprehensive and accessible gender-sensitive terminology resources that can be used across digital platforms. The primary objective is to create a centralised repository of gender-sensitive terminology that can be exploited by individuals and organisations to promote inclusive and equitable language use. By critically examining the language used to describe women’s health issues, the project also aims to raise awareness of gendered language’s impact on social perceptions, stereotypes, and women’s experiences. Through this research, we hope to promote more inclusive and accurate language that reflects diverse feminine identities. The project involves analysing existing terminology resources, developing a digital infrastructure for storing and publishing data, and implementing a community-driven approach to ensure ongoing improvement of the resources. Ultimately, the project aims to contribute to the creation of a more inclusive and gender-sensitive digital society.

As a preliminary step integrated with the aforesaid project, this presentation explores the use of sensory elements such as colour, sound, smell, taste, and touch in digitalised texts on menstruation using Sketch Engine, a corpus-based analysis tool. The corpus used in this analysis was compiled from a scientific publication available in specialised sources to explore potential biases and gender-sensitive aspects in the language used in such content. The study is focused on the ways in which the senses are treated in prototypical women’s health discourse and how they contribute to cultural perceptions towards menstruation. After listing recurring and relevant concordances and collocates, we identify the sensory words or expressions associated with menstruation and examine their frequency, interpretation, and distribution within the corpus. By analysing the linguistic patterns and figurative discourse surrounding the sensory experience of menstruation, we gain insight into cultural attitudes towards menstruation and how they are shaped by language. Findings suggest that there are biases in the use of sensory elements in women’s health discourse, particularly as far as menstruation is concerned. Conclusively, the study highlights the importance of adopting gender-sensitive language practices in digital texts related to women’s health.