The Sex Lives Of Us, Too
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Wolfenden Report, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 is running a series of programmes exploring sexuality in Modern Britain entitled The Sex Lives of Us. I could bore your socks off about the Woldfenden Report, but as it has nothing to disability, I should summarise that this was a government report which recommended that what consenting adults got up to behind closed doors should not be the domain of criminal, pathing the way for the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in the UK (I happen to have blogged about this ).
In any case, the relevant bit to Ouch! is that Radio 4's leading Arts programme, Front Row is running a poll for the most significant landmark work of art on the subject of sexuality in the last fifty years. And there, in the shortlist of ten, stands (or rather, sits) none other than Alison Lapper Pregnant, the statue by which occupied the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square throughout last year. This work is listed along with the likes of the movie Don't Look Now! and the song Je t'aime... mon non plus (ooh la la!).
The shortlist is inevitably going to be controversial, but it is both pleasing and interesting to see the statue on the list. It's not that it is an erotic work, but the mere image of a naked pregnant disabled woman challenges so many preconceptions about disability and sexuality; the idea that we can't have sex and have babies, the idea that our imperfect bodies should be hidden in case we frighten the pigeons. It is great to have these messages considered significant alongside other works which explored sexuality and our attitudes towards it.
You can vote for your favourite work from the shortlist here.
While we're here, are there any other works of art (in the most general sense) which you consider to have been landmarks in the changing attitudes towards the sexuality of disabled people? Or is our portion of the sexual revolution still in the making? Perhaps The Rocky Horror Picture Show for being the first film in which a male wheelchair user was depicted wearing high-heels, suspenders and stockings. Or maybe not.
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