Postmenopausal motherhood: IVF visuality as spectacle

In this debate piece, we examine representations of postmenopausal motherhood in print media and online content of private clinics in India to show how the visual vocabulary of assisted reproductive technology (ART) reifies patriarchal logics of motherhood through a dance of science and spectacle. In particular, we draw on Franklin’s (2013a) notion of ‘embryo watching’ and Thompson’s (2005) ‘ontological choreography’ to argue how biomedical imaging technologies curate embodied encounters of ART and local-moral worlds where gerontological reproductive futures can be imaged and imagined. Crucially, we illuminate the ambivalent biopolitics of this (media) framing, where older women’s bodies are simultaneously expressed through the promissory language of fertility and an erasure of sexuality. Ultimately, keeping in mind the current decade (2021–2030) as one focused on determinants of healthy ageing, this article sheds light on the policy blind spot of a persistent neglect of the sexual and reproductive health of older women in India.