The Sexual Politics of Exuberant Intimacy

Abstract

As I have shown, dyke + queer BDSM provided a semi-contained space that enabled interview partners to explore boundaries, intimate difference and ways of becoming. I have discussed instances of dyke + queer BDSMers becoming-other in desiring moments of disability, vulnerability, becoming-child, alien, vampire, fag, object and, finally, gender trickster. The emotional and erotic dynamics of dyke + queer BDSM reject the ideal of harmonic sex and relationships, prioritizing experiences of social difference, intensity, non-innocence, disidentification, excess, polyfidelity, insanity and exuberance. In this chapter I will discuss the potentials of dyke + queer BDSM in terms of transformative, rather than just transgressive, micropolitics. I will also expand on my conceptualization of dyke + queer BDSM as a social space of excess, abundance and exuberance.