Symmetry reaches the square

[imomus]

Marc Quinn's 15 foot high bronze statue of a naked and pregnant Alison Lapper, a victim of thalidomide, has won the competition to fill the vacant plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. Quinn has pointed out that there are very few statues in London of disabled people -- but there is one right next to the Lapper site: Nelson on his column, with only one arm and only one eye.



Having lost the use of an eye myself in a struggle with acanthamoeba keratitis, I can identify somewhat with Nelson. But I can also identify with Lapper. My mother was of the generation encouraged by doctors to take thalidomide to alleviate morning sickness during pregnancy. She refused the drug. If she hadn't, I could easily have been born deformed.

Next to Nelson on his huge symbolic phallus, the pregnant Lapper will balance and feminize the symbolism of Trafalgar Square. Before victory restored it, bloody battle with Napoleon marred the body of Britain's most famous able-bodied seaman. Lapper's body, disabled by drugs, has been restored by able-bodied semen. She now has a healthy child.

Comments

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

My mother too was offered a special anti-morning sickness drug - if she'd accepted it, who knows what I'd be typing with? She did accept one bit of advice from her doctor - smoke during pregnancy, so that the neonate will be smaller and easier to deliver!

What a marvelous statue (both of them really).