‘Snatched Away’: Ageing Bias in Vulva Positive Social Media and Stock Photography Images of the Vulva

Abstract

Although images of cis and trans women’s sexual anatomy are often taken up as acts of feminist pride, symbolizing women’s empowerment, images of older women’s genitals remain much less visible. In this study, I used visual content analysis to determine the representation of ageing bias in a vulva positive social media site and in a stock photography website. The study results confirm a lack of representation in popular visual culture, so that the discursive production of older women’s sexual anatomy remains centered on medical and social notions of menopausal deficiency. Notions of atrophy, decay, and ignored anatomy create challenges in the attainment of satisfactory images for self-identification, physical knowledge, and sexual health for women at midlife and beyond. I make recommendations about how older women’s sexual anatomy might become part of visual culture, with the potential to be developed as a site of feminist activism.