2007-11-10 - 1:34 p.m.
Last night Nya and I went to the Chicago Cultural Center to see some films in the series �The Myth of Autonomy: Vulnerable Bodies in Public Life�. Yes, it was for a class and, yes, these entries are a response for that class. But I�m also writing it for me, because the films prompted a lot of thoughts and a lot of what I use this blog for is having the chance to think things through by writing them down. The films we saw were Alison�s Baby and Citizen Sam. I�ll just talk about the first film and examine Citizen Sam next.
Alison�s Baby is probably the only film about a single woman with a severe disability (she was born with no arms and stumps for legs � she stands about 3�11�) having a baby. Alison Lapper is a British artist (check out her work here) who is depicted in a controversial statue in Trafalgar Square. No doubt the film raises all sorts of serious issues about gender and childcare and such, but what it really made me personally want to do was have a baby of my own.
This has been on my mind for some time now and last year I made some preparations for it. But I�d talked it over with Nya (who�d obviously have no small bit of say in the matter) and we both had some concerns about the practical aspects of childcare. I don�t have much strength or dexterity in my right hand/arm and, while my left one is still powerful, it doesn�t really have any fine motor coordination. How can I change a diaper? Or sleep, which is more important for health reasons to me than it is to many people. What happens if I have to keep getting up in the middle of the night to feed the baby?
Of course I know people with disabilities have children all the time. My old teacher from Brown, Sarah, uses a wheelchair and she has a beautiful baby girl (in fact, she was pregnant when I was in her class) with her husband. My teacher from the very class I saw the films for has a child with her husband, a fellow UIC professor who also uses a wheelchair (who Nya and I met at the Vietnam Veterans Art Museum long before I started grad school and may in fact have been my earliest inspiration to look at the program at UIC).
But I think I took this from the movie: If Alison Lapper can do it with no arms, I can do it. Although the film showed that she�s learned to handle her impairment quite well (for example she�s amazingly proficient at manipulating things with her mouth, using it to turn keys and do all the required activities for cooking � handle knives, chop, move pans onto a hot stove, etc.), her disability seems a lot more serious than my own. I mean, I have arms and even full-size legs (not that they do me much good in my wheelchair, now that I think about it).
�Someday� for having kids may be sooner than later. Isaac Quinn and Sadie Anthony? We�ll see.
� 2007 Geoff Gladstone
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