Queering Tactical Technical Communication: DIY HRT

ABSTRACT

Given the barriers for transgender people to access affordable gender-transition care, online environments have witnessed a rise in user-generated instruction sets providing direction on the self-administration of hormone therapy. These ethical forms of tactical technical communication demonstrate the need to consider a new materialist approach to queer theory, which refuses to align queer agency with stable identities. Drawing directly from these user-generated instructions, this article articulates a theoretical framework for queer, tactical technical communication.

KEYWORDS:

• Health/medical communication
• cultural studies
• digital technologies
• critical theory
• gender research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Avery C. Edenfield

Avery C. Edenfield is an assistant professor of technical communication and rhetoric at Utah State University. His research topics include how marginalized communities use technical documents to advocate for themselves.

Steve Holmes

Steve Holmes is an assistant professor of English (digital rhetoric) at George Mason University and codirector of Mason’s Gaming Education and Research Lab (GEAR). He has published research on a variety of topics related to digital rhetoric, including politics, videogames, and software code.

Jared S. Colton

Jared S. Colton is an assistant professor of technical communication and rhetoric at Utah State University. He has published research on topics such as ethics, social justice in technical communication, pedagogy, disability, and technology and rhetoric.