“THIS is my body.” In My Own Words: Alison Lapper (BBC1, Monday of last week) presented — no doubt inadvertently — crucial Christian resonances. She was born without arms and with severely shortened legs, and yet, holding pencil or brush in her mouth, insisted on becoming a self-supporting artist.
Her special hospital fitted her with successive prosthetics, which she eventually rejected — all, she thought, were attempts to make her appear “normal”, as close to everyone else as possible. So, at university, she deliberately celebrated her body, making and showing, to great acclaim, many photographs of herself naked, challenging perceptions about what is acceptable and what is beautiful.
Marc Quinn’s statue of her, naked and pregnant, on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth from 2005 to 2007, made her nationally famous. But she carries a burden far heavier than physical difference: her mother rejected her at birth, making it clear that she regarded her an unlovable freak. Lapper determined that her son, Parys, born “perfect” and “beautiful”, would, in contrast, know only her unconditional love.
The film documented her overwhelming grief: after years of mental problems and drug-taking, he died, aged 19, from an overdose. Perhaps she was asking too much, she torments herself, and the stress and pressure of having a mother so publicly different from everyone else’s was more than a sensitive child could bear. What incarnate truth, I wonder, is in Lapper’s case made flesh? We proclaim a Father who loves us exactly as we are, unconditionally, absolutely. This moving documentary is a powerful challenge about whether, secretly, we set boundaries to this inspiring doctrine.
Must not the subjects of America’s New Female Right (BBC3, 2 September) consider, deep down, the body politic of the United States to be something vulnerable to contamination and destruction, requiring their shrillest and most vigilant protection? Layla Wright’s film ignited fascinated horror and despair: how can women embrace such profound misogyny, anti-feminism, and hatred of others, thinking that all illegal immigrants are criminals and terrorists, tools of an international conspiracy to infiltrate and destroy their beloved nation?
Worst of all, they hold their guiding principles to be biblical: any contrary view must emanate from the devil. Social media are central to the movement: these articulate fanatics are influencing huge numbers of vulnerable young women, persuading them that true happiness lies only in being a “tradwife”, totally subservient to a strong, conservative husband.
Grand Designs: 25 years and counting (Channel 4, Wednesday of last week) offered very different passions: the self builders’ physical realisation of their personal and individual dreams. Kevin McCloud is increasingly centre stage, but his enthusiasm unlocks for us the UK’s infinite, touching eccentricity.