Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Oct 2019

Always Already Geopolitical: Trans Health Care and Global Tactical Technical Communication

Avery C. Edenfield Utah State University ; Jared S. Colton ; Steve Holmes Texas Tech University

Abstract

Transgender persons face many barriers preventing them from accessing and receiving health care. Gender-transition care can be difficult because such care is frequently contingent upon geopolitics, such as location-based health-care policies that exclude transgender community attitudes and values. This article uses rhetorical cluster analysis to explore the combining two conceptual lenses—tactical technical communication and participatory localization—to study the do-it-yourself geopolitical medical literacies of transgender people in one Reddit forum. We found being trans online means to be tactical and geopolitical, encountering and negotiating geopolitical awareness of health-care options, exposing a privilege invisible to cisgender users.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2019-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0047281619871211
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism technical communication literacy studies gender and writing
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. Green (2026)
    Trans and Queer Visibility in an Era of Hyper Surveillance: A User Experience S…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Littlefield (2025)
    From Tactical Technical Communication to Infrastructural Writing: The Role of U…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  3. Sparby (2025)
    A Memetic Pandemic: COVID-19 Memes As Tactical Risk Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Shelton et al. (2023)
    Historicizing Power and Legitimacy After the Social Justice Turn: Resisting Nar…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Moeggenberg et al. (2022)
    Trans Oppression Through Technical Rhetorics: A Queer Phenomenological Analysis…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 7 →
  1. Bishop et al. (2022)
    Tactical Risk Communication: Observations from Teaching and Learning about Cris…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Alexander et al. (2021)
    Health and Wellness as Resistance: Tactical Folk Medicine
    Technical Communication Quarterly

References (92) · 36 in this index

  1. Agboka (2013)
    Participatory Localization: A Social Justice Approach to Navigating Unenfranchi…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. American Academy of Physician Assistants. (2000). Ethical conduct for the physician ass…
  3. American Academy of Physician Assistants. (2005). Comprehensive health care reform. Ame…
  4. American Medical Association. (2008). Resolution H-185.950: Removing financial barriers…
  5. American Psychiatric Association. (2012). Position statement on access to care for tran…
Show all 92 →
  1. American Psychological Association. (2008). Policy on transgender, gender identity and …
  2. American Public Health Association. (1999). The need for acknowledging transgender[ed] …
  3. 10.1016/j.jana.2009.07.004
     ↗
  4. Bellwoar (2012)
    Everyday Matters: Reception and Use as Productive Design of Health-Related Texts
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Boiarsky (1995)
    The relationship between cultural and rhetorical conventions: Engaging in inter…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. Bosley (1993)
    Cross‐cultural collaboration: Whose culture is it, anyway?
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  7. Bosley D. S. (2001)
    Global contexts: Case studies in international technical communication
  8. Bowdon (2004)
    Technical Communication and the Role of the Public Intellectual: A Community HI…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  9. 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300796
     ↗
  10. 10.1080/10462939809366216
     ↗
  11. 10.1007/1-4020-4653-7
     ↗
  12. Clark (2004)
    Is Professional Writing Relevant? A Model for Action Research
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  13. Colton et al. (2017)
    From NoobGuides to #OpKKK: Ethics of Anonymous’ Tactical Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  14. Colton et al. (2018)
    A Social Justice Theory of Active Equality for Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  15. Cox (2019)
    Working Closets: Mapping Queer Professional Discourses and Why Professional Com…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  16. de Certeau M. (1984). The practice of everyday life (S. Rendall, Trans.). Berkeley, CA: University of Califor…
  17. Derkatch C. (2005)
    University of Toronto Medical Journal
  18. 10.1081/CRP-120021081
     ↗
  19. Edenfield A. C.
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  20. Faber B. D. (2002)
    Community action and organizational change: Image, narrative, and identity
  21. Foss S. K. (2018)
    Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice
  22. Freeman K. S. (2004)
    Technical Communication
  23. Gallagher (2015)
    The Rhetorical Template
    Computers and Composition
  24. 10.1525/srsp.2007.4.4.7
     ↗
  25. Glass J. (2017, August). Finnish government opts to keep law that requires trans people to be sterilised. …
  26. GOBY (1999)
    All Business Students Need to know the Same Things!: The Non-Culture-Specific N…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  27. Grabill (2000)
    Shaping local HIV/AIDS services policy through activist research: The problem o…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  28. Haas (2012)
    Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: A Case Study of Decolonial Technical Communicat…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  29. 10.1075/z.123
     ↗
  30. Health Care Action Center. (n.d.). National center for transgender equality …
  31. Herndl (2004)
    Introduction to the Special Issue: The Legacy of Critique and the Promise of Practice
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  32. Hoft N. L. (1995)
    International technical communication: How to export information about high technology
  33. Holladay (2017)
    Classified Conversations: Psychiatry and Tactical Technical Communication in On…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  34. Hunsinger R. P. (2011)
    Culture, communication and cyberspace: Rethinking technical communication for internation…
  35. Jones (2016)
    The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach i…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  36. Jones et al. (2016)
    Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Commun…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  37. 10.7330/9781607327585.c010
     ↗
  38. 10.2307/378062
     ↗
  39. 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30432.x
     ↗
  40. Kimball (2006)
    Cars, Culture, and Tactical Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  41. Lambda Legal. (n.d.). Accessing coverage for transition-related health care …
  42. Leydens J. A. (2012). What does professional communication research have to do with social justice? Intersect…
     ↗
  43. 10.2105/AJPH.91.6.869
     ↗
  44. Longo (1998)
    An approach for applying cultural study theory to technical writing research
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  45. Major et al. (2007)
    Crossing National and Corporate Cultures: Stages in Localizing a Pre-Production…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  46. Mascara and Hope. (2013). Tumblr . Retrieved from http://mascaraa…
  47. MAYLATH (1997)
    Writing Globally: Teaching the Technical Writing Student to Prepare Documents f…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  48. McCool M. (2006)
    Technical Communication
  49. 10.2307/375964
     ↗
  50. Miller C. R. (1989). What’s practical about technical writing? In B. E. Fearing & W. K. Sparrow (Eds.) …
  51. mislabeledhuman. (2018, May 30). Reddit . Retrieved from https://…
  52. Moore (2013)
    Exposing Hidden Relations: Storytelling, Pedagogy, and the Study of Policy
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  53. 10.1258/0956462981921981
     ↗
  54. National Association of Social Workers. (2008). Transgender and gender identity issues …
  55. National Center for Transgender Equality. (n.d). The discrimination administration: Trump’s record of action …
  56. National Commission on Correctional Health Care. (2009). Position statement: Transgende…
  57. O’Hara M. E. (2015, August 6). ‘Trans Broken Arm Syndrome’ and the way our healthcare system fails trans peop…
  58. Ouellette M. (2014)
    Computer games and technical communication: Critical methods and applications at the inte…
  59. Payton N. (2015, July 9). The dangers of trans broken arm syndrome. Pink News …
  60. Praderio C. (2018, May 2). LGBTQ patients reveal their exhausting, infuriating, and surprisingly common strug…
  61. Rude (2009)
    Mapping the Research Questions in Technical Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  62. Sager J. C. (1993)
    Language engineering and translation: Consequences of automation
  63. Scott (2008)
    The Practice of Usability: Teaching User Engagement Through Service-Learning
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  64. Scott et al. (2006)
    Guest Editors' Introduction: Making the Cultural Turn
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  65. Segal J. Z. (2005)
    Health and the rhetoric of medicine
  66. 10.1075/btl.18
     ↗
  67. Amant (2017)
    The cultural context of care in international communication design: a heuristic…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  68. Starke-Meyerring D. (2008)
    Communication Faculty Book Gallery
  69. Sun H. (2004). Expanding the scope of localization: A cultural usability perspective on…
     ↗
  70. Sun (2006)
    The Triumph of Users: Achieving Cultural Usability Goals With User Localization
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  71. Sun (2009)
    Toward a Rhetoric of Locale: Localizing Mobile Messaging Technology into Everyd…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  72. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (2016). Transgender youth in j…
  73. The American Academy of Family Physicians. (2012). Resolution No. 1004: Transgender car…
  74. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2011). Committee opinion No. …
     ↗
  75. Thayer A. (2004)
    Technical Communication
  76. Thrush (1993)
    Bridging the gaps: Technical communication in an international and multicultura…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  77. Tippens (1993)
    Interculturalizing the Technical or Business Communications Course
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  78. Turfler S. (2015)
    Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JAWLD
  79. Walton R. (2018)
    Technical Communication
  80. Walton et al. (2013)
    Navigating increasingly cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, and cross-organizat…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  81. Walton et al. (2015)
    Values and Validity: Navigating Messiness in a Community-Based Research Project…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  82. Warren (2002)
    Cultural Influences on Technical Manuals
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  83. Weiss (1995)
    Translation in a borderless world
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  84. Wong J. (2012)
    Law & Inequality
  85. World Professional Association for Transgender Health. (2008). Clarification on medical…
  86. Youngblood et al. (2013)
    Lessons in Service Learning: Developing the Service Learning Opportunities in T…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  87. Yu (2012)
    Intercultural Competence in Technical Communication: A Working Definition and R…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
CrossRef global citation count: 18 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Pedagogy Oct 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter
  2. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  3. Pedagogy Apr 2024
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism feminist rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy creative writing teacher development collaborative writing assessment technical communication professional writing grammar and mechanics literacy studies gender and writing literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  4. Rhetoric Review Jul 2023
    Misconception Fatigue: Towards an Embodied Rhetoric for Infertility Advocacy ↗
    Maria Novotny
    rhetorical criticism argument technical communication literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies community literacy body and rhetoric editorial matter
  5. Pedagogy Apr 2022
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy creative writing writing across the curriculum teacher development collaborative writing assessment writing program administration technical communication professional writing digital rhetoric literacy studies gender and writing disability studies literary studies book reviews editorial matter