I would like to explore, within the subject at hand, the parameters in which subjectivity can be said to relate to affective experience. To ask, in effect, what affective experiences, encounters and relations can mean for resistance to power—”Becoming-vulnerable” (1991)
This essay, a self-described “manifesto for drag queens,” was written under very difficult circumstances in 1991. It is part of a longer manuscript that numbers approximately 100 pages in length. It was, to my knowledge, the first time anyone had written about affect in Deleuze’s sense. Many people consider it my best writing. This excerpt was published online at SFSU in 1998 and was later posted at my various websites. Recently, a friend brought up some artistic figures surrounding this work and I decided I should repost it here in Adobe PDF format. The work is consistent with all of my other work. And, perhaps, surrounds it all. This is my most personal work.