Yes, Yes in Yellow: Memes and What They Tell Us About (Queer) Use of Data Visualization

Data visualizations are used by an increasing number of people for a wide variety of purposes. Yet, existing literature on data visualizations is dominated by only a narrow set of uses (typically: analysis and communication). In this paper, I advocate for expanding the study of visualizations beyond these (normative) uses. Drawing on queer and feminist theory, I argue that Sara Ahmed's conception of "queer use" is applicable to the visualization context. Then, as a case study, I demonstrate how framing visualization memes as queerly used visualizations can offer new opportunities to study the rhythm in which visualizations are read. I conclude with an invitation to examine queer use of visualizations further by summarizing three other queer uses of visualization that may be fruitful to explore.