Communication Design Quarterly Jun 2025

Aberrance as Expansion: Zines, Acceptability Ethics, and Radical Communication in Technical & Professional Communication

Derek G. Ross

Abstract

Mike Diana was the first artist in the United States convicted for artistic obscenity. His crime, for which he was convicted in 1994, was creating and distributing a zine titled Boiled Angel. Diana's work and subsequent conviction opens potential avenues of exploration into radical rhetorics, ethics, and perceptions of aberrance. This paper considers how endeavors labelled as aberrant or radical ask us to expand ethical boundaries, even leading us to question what we might consider "technical," "professional," or "valuable." This reconsideration of appropriateness and acceptability through extremism, which leads us through the often-fuzzy distinction between "morals" and "ethics," has the potential to open or amplify opportunities for underrepresented or marginalized authors, groups, and genres by forcing us to question why we draw the lines we draw with what we deem as socially, professionally, or morally acceptable.

Journal
Communication Design Quarterly
Published
2025-06-01
DOI
10.1145/3718970.3718972
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Topics
professional writing multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (3)

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    Queering consent
    Communication Design Quarterly
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    “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom”: Jihadist Tactical Technical Communica…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Ward (2010)
    The Ethic of Exigence
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Also cites 10 works outside this index ↓
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