Month: February 2016

SELL!

I am re-posting what I wrote a year and a day ago. Why? Because the issues are boiling up again. (The relentless repetition in CancerLand Culture deserves a post of its own some day, I’m beginning to view relentless repetition as a weapon.) In my view, and I think others share this view, medical establishments are misleading the public with their ads focusing on patients fighting cancer, and winning. Rather than leading a change in the discourse, a change focusing on science and facts, some large “name”, as well as some small-town no-name, facilities have chosen to perpetuate the dominant, persistent, same story-different day narrative of cancer as this opportunity for personal growth, so patients can rise to the challenge and beat cancer–along with a little help from staggeringly expensive treatments provided by the facility in question, naturally.

Some would say it’s just as bad when a fundraising organization does this, since they are often a resource for medical facts for the newly diagnosed. I don’t completely agree, but I still think the images they sell with the narrative are repugnant. But it certainly is not new, it keeps popping up, as I say in this old post. Lots of folks were upset with the Stage 4 martial arts patient in the Komen ad last year; I just thought it was BUSINESS as usual.

I don’t know what the answer is-yes there needs to be funding for research and so far the selling of positive, upbeat, winner patients (and boobies–don’t forget ta-tas and immaturity as a selling tool) has worked. To me there is no use in denying this, in fact, it needs to be recognized and discussed. I am simultaneously repulsed and grateful (see Burden of Gratitude). Cancer patients are commodities. Some others in the community likely think: “So what? As long as the money pours in to do research so maybe I can survive, who cares?” And maybe they have a point. But it comes at a cost (again, see Burden of Gratitude).

No I don’t have a better idea–that is not my field of expertise, so it is not very fair to expect a solution from me. I’m just complaining as usual. Wondering what you all think of all this. All I know is, there is something very unsettling, very creepy about it all. And certainly a whiff of dishonestly, of deception.

Anyway, am I a Cancer Patient or Blender? What are you?

A Strange Evolution

Sigh I am so tired of the endless Dumb Shit Said To Cancer Patients (DSSTCP) articles–yet here I am writing on the topic myself. Again.

My views and feelings on many topics in CancerLand have evolved slowly over the years since I began this blog. Most changes have been subtle I think, so subtle that maybe only I know the tiny differences. But I think my evolution on the topic of DSSTCP is noticeable.

When I first began interacting a bit on the interwebs with other breast cancer patients, I thought it was great that so many were writing “don’t say that, say this” types of books and pieces. I especially enjoyed the blog posts listing snappy comebacks some cancer patients thought up. You know, stuff like, if someone advised a patient to view cancer as a gift, patients would say “I want to return it/get a refund”, things of that ilk. I even went so far as to develop a list of DSSTCP with potential snappy comebacks, hoping to build a resource of those as a page on this blog. But I think I met some patients who were writing a book similar to that, so I abandoned it (like so many posts I start).

Lately, there seems to be a glut of what not to say, say this instead type of posts on my FB feed. Now, while some of the DSSTCP still greatly piss me off, I am at a point where I don’t really feel like reacting much if I hear any. I’m just not at the white hot angry stage I was when I first completed treatment. I’m no longer stuck in outrage mode. But for some dumb reason, I still clicked on some of these recent posts.

And I think I’ve had an epiphany of sorts. Continue reading “A Strange Evolution”

Not Full Circle Yet

Maybe there is a backlash to the backlash in cancer culture. I’ve mentioned it a few times in assorted posts on this blog, how those of us criticizing all things Pink and rah rah are finally being “heard”, at least in CancerLand, and I think there is a push back or defensiveness resulting from this. (See here)

I am not a breast cancer historian; if I were not so busy/lazy, I’d re-read the sections in Gayle Sulik’s “Pink Ribbon Blues” chronicling the rise of the Ribbon and the adoption of warrior, I’m-a-survivor-kicking-cancer-ass slogans, to understand when they began to permeate our culture. Was it the early 90s, maybe? I have no idea when the criticism of this culture began—I only became aware of it when I moved to CancerLand. One of the first things I managed to read was Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Welcome to Cancerland” essay as it appeared in “Harper’s Magazine”. Re-reading it today as I write this, I’m reminded the roots of the women’s health/breast cancer awareness campaigns had a gritty, less pretty start. There were demands about the environment, demands to be included in medical decision-making. Somehow and somewhere along the way it go co-opted. Yes, by Komen primarily, but other groups, and more importantly, millions of patients, went along with it. And then our society became all about fight/win/be positive when it came to illnesses and many other issues.

So when did the backlash begin? Well, Ehrenreich’s essay appeared in the November 2001 issue, so at least as early as 2001 breast cancer patients were uneasy with the “tyranny of positivity”. I’m sure there are earlier examples—but the fact that I don’t know about them, that I only learned about others expressing how I felt when I went looking for them, is kind of my point! The pink/rah rah/think positive to beat cancer was, during my time in treatment, and is still today, THE dominant cancer experience narrative. Continue reading “Not Full Circle Yet”

Cells Don’t Have Brains

Reblogging my own piece from a few months ago. Why? Here ya go:
I am getting very tired of the over-dramatization of cancer, of giving cancer human or monster attributes it cannot possibly possess. That is why I do NOT write “letters to my cancer”.
Those ACS ads that came out at the end of 2015 were awful; I tried to avoid them. Didn’t know about the one in which “cancer fears love” until my friend Luna wrote about it. On the whole this ad campaign is terrible, but this one really plucks my nerves for this “make cancer a person/monster” angle.
Look, some people clearly need to anthropomorphize cancer to cope–but organizations that provide scientific info should NOT do this. I don’t write letters to cancer because cancer can’t read. But I assume someone at ‪#‎AmericanCancerSociety‬ can read. So Dear Person In Charge of this Campaign, STOP IT!

anotheronewiththecancer

Or: Why I’ll never write one of those “dear cancer” letters

Cancer is not a person, or even a sentient being, or even a separate life form. It is not an invader. Cells divide, that is what they do, except with cancer, it’s an anomaly of cell division. My cancer is just of my own cells running amok.

I see lots of “dear cancer” letters, especially in October, and they always make me uncomfortable. I know, I know, it’s just a way of coping with cancer. For me, it is sort of in the same category as going into “warrior mode” then “kicking cancer’s ass”.

Except I’m that jerk who points out that cancer has no ass to kick, not being a person or animal or whatever. This is one of the reasons I hate the “kick cancer’s ass” slogan—I won’t go into the bigger reason for that right now…

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