Representations of Ageing and Infertility in the Twenty-First-Century British Press

• Published in: The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History pp. 509 - 535
• Main Author: Ylänne, Virpi
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK
• Subjects: Ageing; Agency; Critical discourse analysis; Media framing analysis; Postmenopausal
• ISBN: 1137520795; 9781137520791
• DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7_26

This chapter looks at representations of postmenopausal reproduction and infertility in the twenty-first-century UK press. The analysis uses Media Framing Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis and a social constructionist orientation to age(ing) and lifespan identity as theoretical frameworks. The focus is on female ageing and infertility as portrayed in a corpus of 30 British tabloid and broadsheet newspaper articles (2000–14). The articles feature famous recent cases of postmenopausal mothers: Sandra Lennon, Susan Tollefsen, Elizabeth Adeney, and Patricia Rashbrook. The microanalysis involves the identification of various framing devices, such as headlines, adjectives, and other descriptors associated with the characters, and centres on the concept of agency. It aims to uncover whether (and if so, how) the articles promote postmenopausal reproduction as an opportunity facilitated by modern medicine or, alternatively, as a threat to societal and lifespan structures. Discourses and framings of older mothers as marginalized ‘others’ are explored.