#It's just. Deeply frustrating how governed by Tropes TM cancer narratives are

[talaricula]

So much of fiction and of people's reactions to it makes it so obvious that most people think of cancer only as a tragic backstory to add ~flavour~ to a character and not as something that happens to people, extremely sucks to go through and has extremely long-term repercussions for everyone involved. It's almost always either a character who had cancer themself but it doesn't impact them at all anymore or, more frequently, a character whose loved one had cancer and died or is in the process of dying, both of which are used to kick-start or influence their own story arc and then the person who had/has cancer only serves as Inspiration TM, a source of Trauma TM or a source of Conflict TM.

And that wouldn't be that much of a problem if it didn't Very Obviously impact the attitudes towards cancer patients/survivors and their loved ones of ppl who've never been directly confronted with it, and didn't mean said cancer patients/survivors and their loved ones needed to do So Much unlearning about these attitudes when it happens to them