White Squares to Black Boxes: Grindr, Queerness, Rhetorical Silence

Abstract

This essay draws our attention to the rhetorics of everyday queer people by routing queer notions of embodiment through queer and feminist work on rhetorical silence. I argue that the queer body engages speech and silence simultaneously, troubling any binary division between the two rhetorical forms. I call for, instead, a continuum model of rhetorical silence that ties together verbal silence with other forms of rhetorical action such as material silence, visual silence, and embodied silence. To show how the continuum model functions, I offer an analysis of Grindr profiles. The social networking app—marketed primarily toward gay and bisexual men—serves as an example for how rhetorical silence is adapted and deployed by queer people. Exploring these profiles allows us to consider the rhetorical action of people who may not live openly queer, those whose claim to queerness is limited to a pixelated square inch of pectoral flesh.

Notes

1 I am so grateful to my generous RR reviewers, Londie Martin and another anonymous reviewer, for their insight and support throughout my revision process.

2 I use “queer” here and throughout the paper as a reference to a wide array of non-normative genders, sexualities, and practices, including not only gay and bisexual men—the groups targeted by Grindr—but all people who deviate from heteronormative/cisnormative standards.

3 Notable exceptions include work by Jean Bessette, Pamela VanHaitsma, and Davin Allen Grindstaff.

4 Admittedly, there are other forms of passing that I do not address in this essay that warrant further consideration, especially racial passing and identity theft. See, Nakamura and Woodland.

5 I do not mean to hypothesize on the intention(s) of users who upload body pics; rather, I am pointing out the ways that queer signification operates on a visual register. I am also not demeaning or discrediting the value of users who choose to remain discreet. It would be a gross oversight to minimize the dangers many queer people would face were they to live openly queer.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. Logan Smilges

J. Logan Smilges is a Ph.D. candidate in English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University. They study rhetoric and composition, queer theory, and disability studies.