Here is my question:
Which movies about cancer have you seen someone actually lose their hair? Were they male or female? Which movie?
Fault In Our Stars and Stepmom.
And in neither of these movies do the characters lose their hair.
In Fault In Our Stars we saw Hazel as a child with no hair. Assuming that was during her chemotherapy and then her participation in a clinical trial saved her life. So I'm guessing chemo was no longer necessary at that point.
That makes sense.
And one thing I have noticed: when there's kids with cancer they are always bald. So bald cancer kids are okay but bald cancer adults are not?
But Gus? No chemotherapy for him at all? I find that surprising but I'm no doctor. I get the guy lit up like a Christmas tree during his PET scan but they wouldn't even try a little chemotherapy? Radiation? Why in the hell does this guy get to keep his hair?
LOOK AT THAT PROMO PICTURE! Their full locks of hair piss off my soon to be empty hair follicles. LOSE YOUR GOD DAMN HAIR LIKE THE REST OF US.
I just find it odd that in a movie that is so famously about people with cancer......... all the main characters have their hair.
Even the side characters keep their hair! There is not one baldy in that entire movie with a speaking part!
I really do not feel like that is a reality. Even all the kids in their cancer support group had their hair!
Since now I'm in the cancer club I am now around people quite often that I have cancer as well. Whether this is at chemotherapy, my doctor's visits, classes I've attended.... and so on.
One major thing? No one has any damn hair.
That is the reality.
So why don't popular movies always show that as a reality? Because hair is such a conventional part of beauty? Because we can't have a gorgeous main character be depicted in any way that makes him or her unattractive?
Are we really that shallow?
It appears the movie industry is.
Which is really not surprising. But as someone that is looking down the barrel of hair loss at any moment... it would be nice to see this HUGE part of cancer treatment be included in popular culture.
Cancer is a big cash card for movies and television. They use that to cash in on a disease that kills millions and destroys lives. But survivor stories are great stories- there's no denying that. They touch us. They make us feel such degrees of empathy and admiration for people that battle daily against this disease. It does make for a great story.
So why not include the very real and personal conflicts about hair loss? That is such an important part of this journey.
In Stepmom we have Susan Sarandon diagnosed with cancer which then easily becomes one of the main focal points of the movie. This is a movie I probably won't be able to watch (used to be one of my all time favorites) for awhile since my diagnosis. I just have a feeling it will reduce me to a giant lake of tears. Grab a boat.
But seriously, again this is another famous movie that has a main character with cancer.
AND SHE KEEPS HER DAMN HAIR.
We all know Hollywood doesn't find bald attractive. Unless you're Vin Diesel.
Bald is not attractive if it's a sick bald.
Especially for ladies. We saw in 50/50 the main character played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt shave his head. So yay for accurate representation?
Now being the academic I am we have to think critically about that.
Do you think the gender has anything to do with this? Sorry to get all professor on you but geez, OF COURSE IT DOES. Gender always matters.
So the fact that he shaved his head but Susan Sarandon didn't? One of the most famous and attractive women in Hollywood isn't going to play a bald lady. Just no way.
It could be as something as simple as a director's decision. It really could be.
Or it is something more. Something more complicated about the way popular culture views cancer. Cancer is a badge of heroism in popular culture. But yet these characters are always presented as attractive, healthy, and overall good looking.
Let me tell you something. Cancer doesn't make you glow like you're pregnant. It doesn't give you some type of special C word pretty look. Maybe you glow if you had enough radiation- I really don't know.
But cancer fucks up your appearance. I just went to a class that told me all about how cancer will fuck my looks up.
You lose your hair. You possibly lose your eyebrows and your eyelashes. You gain weight.You lose weight. Your nails could fall off. They could become discolored. Your skin becomes super dry. You get bags under your eyes.
The list goes on and on and on.
It's enough to make anyone, even someone with a nice level of self confidence like myself, freak out a little bit.
So why the hell is this not represented accurately in popular culture?
I want to see a cancer movie get popular that has a main character with no hair. No eyebrows. That looks like hell in a hand basket on their bad days.
I want to see the reality. Not this prettied up version of cancer that sells tickets at the box office.
Cancer is not pretty.
It really isn't. Sure, our strength is beautiful. Our determination is sexy.
Fighters are hot. In all the ways.
We are some sexy cancer bitches.
But seriously. Physically, things are going to get tough. And again, as someone just counting the days down to baldness... I would like to see that baldness reflected accurately in movies about cancer.
Show me the bald people.
Show me reality.
EDIT TO ADD:
My brain can't stop whirling on this!!!
So some people have pointed out television to me. And that's a whole other blog post.
But for examples we have Lynette from Desperate Housewives, Celia from Weeds, and Samantha from Sex in the City showing some baldness during their cancer treatment.
YAY for representing cancer accurately.
But wait..... these ladies all eventually returned to a traditional standard of beauty. Their hair came back and on they went being gorgeous on television.
Oh shit.
That's not really the same now is it?
My theory: television has more flexibility as far as beauty standards go because at some point the character can/will regain their traditional image of beauty that fits in with mainstream pop culture and patriarchy.
And that means: at some point the cancer will go away and they will be pretty again!
It's not an all encompassing thing like being bald in a movie is. It's a short time deal.
But hey, it's something.
My Sisters Keeper is one.
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