Queer Silence: On Disability and Rhetorical Absence

by J. Logan Smilges

Championing the liberatory potential of silence to address the fraught disability politics of queerness In queer culture, silence has been equated with voicelessness, complicity, and even death. Queer Silence insists, however, that silence can be a generative and empowering mode of survival. Triangulating insights from queer studies, disability studies, and rhetorical studies, J. Logan Smilges explores what silence can mean for people whose bodyminds signify more powerfully than their words. Queer Silence begins by historicizing silence’s negative reputation, beginning with the ways homophile activists rejected medical models pathologizing homosexuality as a disability, resulting in the silencing of disability itself. This silencing was redoubled by HIV/AIDS activism’s demand for “out, loud, and proud” rhetorical activities that saw silence as capitulation. Reading a range of cultural artifacts whose relative silence has failed to attract queer attachment, from anonymous profiles on Grindr to ex-gays to belated gender transitions to disability performance art, Smilges argues for silence’s critical role in serving the needs of queers who are never named as such. Queer Silence urges queer activists and queer studies scholars to reconcile with their own ableism by acknowledging the liberatory potential of silence, a mode of engagement that disattached queers use every day for resistance, sociality, and survival. Cover alt Background detail of a painting on canvas shows a partial view of the upper body and face of a figure, bearded and naked; title in painted script.

Genres: Disability, Nonfiction, Queer, Theory, LGBT, Social Justice, Disability Studies

296 pages, Paperback

Published October 25, 2022

Reviews

[Madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

super dense, especially as someone who hasn’t read much academic queer theory, but very interesting to work through. i definitely didn’t comprehend all of it, though what i think i did really resonated with how i had already thought about many of the dynamics explored in this work. will maybe revisit in the future after i do a bit more foundational reading in this niche!

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one made my brain /work/ but it was very worth it

[Casey Vasilis · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting look at the relationship between disability and queerness and how often being queer has been seen as a disability and still is by some people. super interesting stuff.