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Sexile's Counterpathological Pedagogies at the Intersections of Trans*, Exile, and HIV-Prevention Experience

2019; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 31; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ff.2019.0020

2151-7371

Jeannine Murray-Román,

Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

How can the layering of trans* and exile narratives make HIV-prevention discourses legible to queer communities of color? Published in 2004, Sexile explores this question by telling the story of performance artist and trans* activist Adela Vazquez as part of the Institute for Gay Men's Health initiative on HIV prevention. The coauthors of Sexile—Vazquez, Jaime Cortez, writer and illustrator, and Pato Hebert, editor—develop what Ayala, Cortez, and Hebert term "counterpathological" pedagogies for safer sex instruction and condom use advocacy. The graphic novel mobilizes the potential for incongruities across verbal and visual elements of the graphic novel to create those counterpathological pedagogies. This article argues that through Vazquez's theorization of how she centers pleasure in her exilic and trans* experiences, Sexile depicts the interlocking nature of the temporality of exile as a constantly present experience, the narrative description of her trans* corporeal materialities, and the accessible affects of safer sex HIV-prevention discourses.