The biopolitics of transnational commercial gestational surrogacy in Mimi (2021)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study examines the Bollywood movie, Mimi, to unravel the systemic and structural exploitation of surrogates in the transnational commercial gestational surrogacy (TCGS) markets in India. The movie unpacks TCGS as a site of neoliberal eugenics and state-led biopolitics where the privileged white intended bioconsumers commission bodies of less-privileged women of the Global South. The complex hierarchical power relationship between the wealthy intended parents and the surrogates is explored through a framework of biopolitics to indicate the monetisation of surrogate life within the capitalist governmentality that treats bodies as commodities.