Button Rhetorics

Abstract

Buttons are strange historical objects. After they are retired from their honored place on a backpack or jean jacket (or perhaps rescued out of the junk drawer), scores of buttons have found their way to queer archives where they are proudly claimed as valued queer heritage artifacts. Buttons rarely have attributed creators and usually lack specific dates (aside from, say, political campaign buttons). Buttons are designed to be worn or posted, to be mobile through space and often transient in time. We rarely know who wore them or for how long, why they mattered, or what effects they may have had. In other words, we are often left talking about how fun they are, but they remain obstinately vague historical objects despite our efforts to pin them down (sorry, I couldn't resist).The “TS'S AGAINST RACISM” button pictured above—attributed to Mirha Soleil-Ross and Xanthra MacKay's genderpress—is now part of an extensive Soleil-Ross collection held at the ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ+ Archives. It has been photographed and made available on the ArQuives’ website and is additionally linked to the Digital Transgender Archive (“TS's against Racism” button n.d.). Like the original button that these digital surrogates seek to represent, the photograph of this button has been reproduced and circulated. The date the button was created is noted as the 1990s, an imprecision cultivated by the very nature of buttons.This simple, round button appears to be small, though it is admittedly difficult to tell from the digital reproduction, and, unfortunately, I have never held it in my hands. It includes only three words: “TS'S AGAINST RACISM,” with the word racism repeated twice. It is described online as being “purple,” though it certainly seems pink in the photo. In either case, we can agree that it's a queer hue.The main text is in a shadowy font that becomes legible as the letters appear to pop off the button, casting black shadows in their relief. Behind the main text, the word racism is repeated in the largest font that will fit on the button, italicized, as if it is perpetually active and running across the background. Racism is written in white, a nod to the specter of whiteness that enables the presence of racism and renders it legible.In three short words, this button manages to cohere a group identity with a plural noun (TS'S) against a shared concern (racism). While the in-group term TS is abbreviated, racism is spelled out fully and repeated twice, ensuring that there is no ambiguity. The button identifies the wearer as TS and invokes an unseen community of other TS people with a shared antiracist position. This button functions as a form of rhetorical activism that brings together a marginalized identity group (TS'S) to take a stand against an ideology that harms others and, certainly, TBIPOC people.Though it would be hard to fit transsexual on a small button, it is likely that graphic design was not the only motive for using the TS abbreviation here. As was common in trans community discourse in the last few decades of the twentieth century, many buttons in this collection used TS as a shorthand for transsexual, TV for transvestite, and TG for transgender (Button Collection n.d.). This shorthand had many benefits, including creating group identity through shared language, quickly distinguishing among various trans identities, and, perhaps most importantly, keeping cis folks unaware of trans community building happening in their midst without any spoken words.Buttons may be transient objects with little monetary value, but their contributions to queer community building and activism secure their place in the archival record.