Viewing Cancer

The Rhetoric of Cancer documentary makes us see the language of cancer and that it is usually seen as a disease that is like a battle against things that are happening inside the body. Languages surrounding these disease is the hard part for the patients. They are often said to be "cancer victims" or "battling cancer" or that cancer is a battleground and it makes the cancer patients fear. Society has always lived knowing about cancer. The language of "battling cancer" would mean a struggle where it is something we could not defeat or an enemy. Another view that was presented was "living with cancer" to cope and positively love themselves again. It would not help if one hates his own body or feeling that you're at war with yourself. If people still use the term using the term fighting, it is quite hard to accept. Some people view it as a person that it has to go away.

I feel that in this documentary, society takes their part in the process of gaining knowledge. Society dictates what is to feel with new discoveries in the world. And, whatever we know, society will always have different views upon a certain discovery. The language used to describe some abstract discoveries are metaphors. This language puts an impact to how we view things and it can actually affect people. Hence, I learned that we have to work together in forming languages that would be for making metaphors that can help in the understanding of discoveries such as cancer. Moreover, sensitivity is a certain value that we need as a society.