Wildcroft/Religion & the Sense of Self, 5.Constructing Natural Men and Women: Gendered Identities Within Contemporary Tantra in Europe

In Chapter 5,​ Constructing Natural Men and Women: Gendered Identities Within​ Contemporary Tantra in Europe, Tova Ollson considers discourses of selfhood in​ contemporary practices inspired by pre-modern South Asian​ philosophy. Perhaps more than​ any other form of modern yoga, the communities of contemporary Tantra are in the habit of​ relating contemporary interpersonal concerns to modern re-interpretations of ancient texts.​ However, while the touchstones of contemporary Tantra might be pre-modern and​ philosophical, as the author writes “one’s primary sense of self often coincides with one’sembodied experience of masculinity or femininity”. The chapter includes an important​ summary of 20​ th and 21st​-century theories of​ gender, performativity and identity, before​ describing practices and worldviews that divinize interpersonal relationships. One practitioner​ claims that the higher testosterone levels of male bodies make them calmer and thus naturally​ more inclined to the ‘witness consciousness’ cultivated in meditation. The religious self her​e​ is an inherently gendered one, and even if conceptions of gender can vary, they are never fully​ escaped. A blend of South Asian philosophy and cultural Christianity results in “a stubborn​ association between women and materiality that recurs throughout history, affirming women​ as primarily bodies.” This is a meticulous case study of orientalism in action.