Disability Blog Carnival #18 at Retired Waif

The latest Disability Blog Carnival is up at Retired Waif and it looks fantastic, particularly since our intrepid host put it together while very pregnant and having some labor pains. (!) The theme, developed from looking at the submissions, is The Disabled! We’re just like YOU!!!!

Retired Waif explains:

.... This edition of the Disability Blog Carnival is designed to explain to the untutored able-bodied type that there’s nothing abnormal about us… we’re just like them! Please do accept my tongue-in-cheek parody and sweeping generalization in the spirit it’s meant, and don’t allow my irreverence to detract from some of the awesome, wonderful writing to be found in… Disability Blog Carnival #18

The above icon for the carnival is a photo of the sculpture of a nude and pregnant Alison Lapper that resides in Trafalgar Square in London. Alison Lapper is a British artist who was born without arms and with foreshortened legs, and her personal website is here. The sculpture is by artist Marc Quinn. On the sculpture, Quinn says this:

The sculpture is a portrait of Alison Lapper when she was 8½ months pregnant. It is to be carved out of one block of white marble and would stand 4.7 metres high.

At first glance it would seem that there are few if any public sculptures of people with disabilities. However, a closer look reveals that Trafalgar Square is one of the few public spaces where one exists: Nelson on top of his column has lost an arm. I think that Alison's portrait reactivates this dormant aspect of Trafalgar Square. Most public sculpture, especially in the Trafalgar Square and Whitehall areas, is triumphant male statuary. Nelson's Column is the epitome of a phallic male monument and I felt that the square needed some femininity, linking with Boudicca near the Houses of Parliament. Alison's statue could represent a new model of female heroism.

In the past, heroes such as Nelson conquered the outside world. Now it seems to me they conquer their own circumstances and the prejudices of others, and I believe that Alison's portrait will symbolise this.

I'm not physically disabled myself but from working with disabled sitters I realised how hidden different bodies are in public life and media. Her pregnancy also makes this a monument to the possibilities of the future.

The photo on the icon is in color with a puffy-clouded blue sky behind the sculpture where it sits on a pedestal. The words "disability blog carnival" are overwritten in red text at the bottom.

Carnival #19 will be hosted by Zephyr at Arthritic Young Thing on July 26, 2007, and the theme is "Sexuality and Disability." The submission form is here. Deadline for submissions is Monday, July 23.

By the way, although Zephyr herself is Canadian, July 26 is the 17th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I double dare anyone to put together a submission that fits Zephyr's theme and explicitly celebrates such an auspicious occasion. See you there.