Rogueish

For some, you have to become insistent to be the recipient of a social action, you might have to announce your presence, wave your arm, saying: “Here I am!” For others, it is enough just to turn up because you have already been given a place at the table before you take up your place. Willfulness describes the uneven consequences of this differentiation. In response to this description of a queer experience, someone suggested it reduced queerness to self-assertion, the “I am” as what or who is “here.” But who is heard as assertive? Which acts of will are deemed self-willed? We can learn to become cautious about how self-will can be used to dismiss the claims of others. You do not need to become self-willed if your will is already accomplished by the general will.