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For Deleuze, the goal of power is to control, to name, and to know everything. When a theory attempts to assign value or constraints to an object through the use of its label, the real product is not a better understanding of the object itself, but a false construction of human experience. According to Deleuze, the realm of subjective human experience is too boundless to allow paradigms to dominate our understanding. This means that our everyday experience of power is misrepresented if we subscribe to a narrow, yet perhaps widely-accepted, framework.

To respond, Deleuze describes a type of power he terms “counter-power�, where action can challenge the authority of norms deemed ideal for humans. In relation to gender, perhaps an example of counter-power would be to question the usefulness of sex-correction surgery for babies after birth. If the child is healthy, yet presents both male and female genitalia, how can we justifiably “correct� it simply because it’s abnormal? Perhaps it is statistically abnormal, but the power that our society grants to norms forces the child to grow up as a product of power’s grip—which would be a denial of real human experience.

The grip that power holds over our normative experience is omnipresent in our interactions. As gendered humans, power fuels our desire to contain the essence of something within a name. Interestingly, the fact that some people have begun to attempt counter-power through the construction of terms such as “butch girl� or “femm-y guy� shows that we’re finding ways to add nomenclature to what used to be considered abnormal—and although that movement is an example of counter-power, we’re countering the norm with another heavy dose of names, of power. Perhaps as a culture we must struggle with the transition before achieving the kind of freedom that Deleuze describes.