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.47 BiswasnarayanShastri in his introduction to the Yogin%2ł Tantra says that secrecy in Tantra hasto do with repulsive practices that likely devolve into a drunken orgy, and theuse of sex and liquor.48 Similarly, S.C.Banerji writes of a popular Tantricattitude that resulted in Tantric practices of incredible indecency and a li-cense and lasciviousness that corrupted the society. 49 Given his generallysympathetic introduction to the text, it would be hard to argue that Shastri, anIndian scholar, evinces an especially orientalist disdain for the Yogin%2ł Tantra; andsimilarly with Banerji s work on Tantra.Rather, one might read this languageas a symptom of a lingering association, where the word choice of repulsive sex talk and gender rites 75and lascivious reflects the obverse and politically correct side of a repressedtitillation.50More recently, Wendy Doniger s review of David White s recent The Kiss ofthe Yogin%2ł elicited a critique from a segment of the Indian immigrant com-munity, accusing her of misreading sexuality into Tantra.51 Doniger s review isboth far more circumspect and subtle than her critics suggest; more exactwould be to conclude that it is not that her review reads sexuality into thesetexts, as that she is noting how sexuality has, in the past, been read into thesetexts.That is, she describes and documents an element already embedded inthe history of a Western understanding of Tantra.She delineates just this element of titillation as a component of the West-ern study and representation of Tantra, using phraseologies borrowed frompornography: soft-core and hard-core. 52 This language referencing well-known categories for levels of pornographic exposure accurately references theWestern historical reception of Tantra, even as it also implicitly links by exten-sion with the discourse it references: pornography. Talk and TitillationI present here mere snapshots, which at best only allude to a complex history ofTantra s representation for the West.My purpose in this chapter is not to fleshout this history, but merely to suggest the possibility of shifting our lens toincorporate other possibilities for how we might understand sex in Tantra.Soit is important to throw a spotlight onto this lingering connotative elementwhere Tantra is associated with titillation and the pornographic in order toclear a space for reexamining the ways that talk about sex can function, andhow it does function in our context with the BT.With this in mind, to highlightby comparison some of the problems associated with talking about sex inTantra, we may briefly address an example taken from talk about sex in theWest.In a discussion on how pornographic language operates, Rae Langtonsuggests that trying to talk about sex disinterestedly does not work, even whenthat talk is explicitly designed to expose and condemn the element of titillationin such talk.53 What happens instead, for Langton, is that the woman as objectof sexual titillation is silenced in the process.Her talk cannot be heard.That is,it is difficult to talk about sex without simultaneously enacting a sexualiza-tion of the woman in the process of talking.Judith Butler extends Langton sphilosophical arguments to examine the case of Anita Hill s sexualization inthe Thomas hearings.In the case of Hill, her speech, her testimony against 76 renowned goddess of desireThomas does not function properly as testimony, but rather her speech as awoman is sexualized; it is read pornographically, where every no she gives isread as a yes. 54 In this case, when Hill tried to speak to document, to tell what happened, her speech in effect was silenced, read as performative, asreenacting a sexualization of her as woman.Langton offers also a more striking example in the case of the autobiog-raphy of Linda Lovelace, whose real name was Linda Marchiano.Marchianopresented evidence for court describing her abuse in the making of the por-nographic film Deep Throat, detailing and protesting this abuse in her auto-biography.While her words were intended to document what happened,Langton notes the painful irony implicated in this book s sale within a mail-order catalog for adult only pornography.55 This use for Langton illustrateshow when it comes to sex, there is no way for women to speak or be heardwithout their words being read as a performative speech enacting the sexualitythey speak of, no matter what their intention is in speaking of it.I should make it clear here that while I appreciate the points that Langtonmakes, I do not entirely agree that the conclusion we should take away fromthese two examples is that speaking of sex necessarily silences women.Fol-lowing Judith Butler s assessment of the Hill case, I see talk about sex as morepolyvalent, as capable of constructing identity in a variety of ways.56 In otherwords I do not mean to suggest that talk about sex is bad, or good, rather I wantto point out how a particular use of speech affords the construction of identities(in ways that can be both positive and/or negative for those affected).In any case, in terms of reception, Langton s example demonstrates howspeech about sex intended to merely document it becomes itself viewed asenacting, performing through the titillation what it only seeks to describe.The apparently simple documentation inadvertently repeats a feeling of abuseattached to the idea of the sexual as pornographic and recirculates it.And,while I do not think this necessarily must be so, viewing the idea of talk aboutsex in Langton s terms may help us to understand aggrieved Indian immigrantresponses to the documentation of a historic association of Tantra with sexu-ality.Here this community sees a documentation of a sexualized history ofTantra as a sexualization of its own identity.Even when White forcefully andeloquently argues against contemporary popular representations of Tantricsex as an abusive commercial packaging of what were originally complexpractices involving a system for understanding the relation between the body,especially its fluids, and the powers entailed in enlightenment,57 the misheardeffect of talk of sex is lost in the din by both supporters and detractors of the New Age commercial appropriation of Tantric sex. In other words, if we sex talk and gender rites 77think of the pornographic as talk of sex designed with the fundamental goalof titillation, then it would be very hard to read White s work as moving in thisdirection.Rather, he suggests that sex acquires a different function: a techni-cal means for acquiring supernatural powers.While the texts I deal with heresuggest a different use of sex than White s sources, in both cases the empha-sis is away from sex merely functioning as titillation.And in this context, thework of scholars like Jeffrey Kripal also comes to mind.58With this in mind, even if Linda Marchiano s story told to expose the evilsof the porn industry is then nevertheless itself sold as pornography, it doesnot seem appropriate to respond to this violence of perversion and appropri-ation of her words by either a silencing of her words, since they may be appro-priated, or by the apparently impossible legislation against reading her wordsas pornography [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl odbijak.htw.pl
.47 BiswasnarayanShastri in his introduction to the Yogin%2ł Tantra says that secrecy in Tantra hasto do with repulsive practices that likely devolve into a drunken orgy, and theuse of sex and liquor.48 Similarly, S.C.Banerji writes of a popular Tantricattitude that resulted in Tantric practices of incredible indecency and a li-cense and lasciviousness that corrupted the society. 49 Given his generallysympathetic introduction to the text, it would be hard to argue that Shastri, anIndian scholar, evinces an especially orientalist disdain for the Yogin%2ł Tantra; andsimilarly with Banerji s work on Tantra.Rather, one might read this languageas a symptom of a lingering association, where the word choice of repulsive sex talk and gender rites 75and lascivious reflects the obverse and politically correct side of a repressedtitillation.50More recently, Wendy Doniger s review of David White s recent The Kiss ofthe Yogin%2ł elicited a critique from a segment of the Indian immigrant com-munity, accusing her of misreading sexuality into Tantra.51 Doniger s review isboth far more circumspect and subtle than her critics suggest; more exactwould be to conclude that it is not that her review reads sexuality into thesetexts, as that she is noting how sexuality has, in the past, been read into thesetexts.That is, she describes and documents an element already embedded inthe history of a Western understanding of Tantra.She delineates just this element of titillation as a component of the West-ern study and representation of Tantra, using phraseologies borrowed frompornography: soft-core and hard-core. 52 This language referencing well-known categories for levels of pornographic exposure accurately references theWestern historical reception of Tantra, even as it also implicitly links by exten-sion with the discourse it references: pornography. Talk and TitillationI present here mere snapshots, which at best only allude to a complex history ofTantra s representation for the West.My purpose in this chapter is not to fleshout this history, but merely to suggest the possibility of shifting our lens toincorporate other possibilities for how we might understand sex in Tantra.Soit is important to throw a spotlight onto this lingering connotative elementwhere Tantra is associated with titillation and the pornographic in order toclear a space for reexamining the ways that talk about sex can function, andhow it does function in our context with the BT.With this in mind, to highlightby comparison some of the problems associated with talking about sex inTantra, we may briefly address an example taken from talk about sex in theWest.In a discussion on how pornographic language operates, Rae Langtonsuggests that trying to talk about sex disinterestedly does not work, even whenthat talk is explicitly designed to expose and condemn the element of titillationin such talk.53 What happens instead, for Langton, is that the woman as objectof sexual titillation is silenced in the process.Her talk cannot be heard.That is,it is difficult to talk about sex without simultaneously enacting a sexualiza-tion of the woman in the process of talking.Judith Butler extends Langton sphilosophical arguments to examine the case of Anita Hill s sexualization inthe Thomas hearings.In the case of Hill, her speech, her testimony against 76 renowned goddess of desireThomas does not function properly as testimony, but rather her speech as awoman is sexualized; it is read pornographically, where every no she gives isread as a yes. 54 In this case, when Hill tried to speak to document, to tell what happened, her speech in effect was silenced, read as performative, asreenacting a sexualization of her as woman.Langton offers also a more striking example in the case of the autobiog-raphy of Linda Lovelace, whose real name was Linda Marchiano.Marchianopresented evidence for court describing her abuse in the making of the por-nographic film Deep Throat, detailing and protesting this abuse in her auto-biography.While her words were intended to document what happened,Langton notes the painful irony implicated in this book s sale within a mail-order catalog for adult only pornography.55 This use for Langton illustrateshow when it comes to sex, there is no way for women to speak or be heardwithout their words being read as a performative speech enacting the sexualitythey speak of, no matter what their intention is in speaking of it.I should make it clear here that while I appreciate the points that Langtonmakes, I do not entirely agree that the conclusion we should take away fromthese two examples is that speaking of sex necessarily silences women.Fol-lowing Judith Butler s assessment of the Hill case, I see talk about sex as morepolyvalent, as capable of constructing identity in a variety of ways.56 In otherwords I do not mean to suggest that talk about sex is bad, or good, rather I wantto point out how a particular use of speech affords the construction of identities(in ways that can be both positive and/or negative for those affected).In any case, in terms of reception, Langton s example demonstrates howspeech about sex intended to merely document it becomes itself viewed asenacting, performing through the titillation what it only seeks to describe.The apparently simple documentation inadvertently repeats a feeling of abuseattached to the idea of the sexual as pornographic and recirculates it.And,while I do not think this necessarily must be so, viewing the idea of talk aboutsex in Langton s terms may help us to understand aggrieved Indian immigrantresponses to the documentation of a historic association of Tantra with sexu-ality.Here this community sees a documentation of a sexualized history ofTantra as a sexualization of its own identity.Even when White forcefully andeloquently argues against contemporary popular representations of Tantricsex as an abusive commercial packaging of what were originally complexpractices involving a system for understanding the relation between the body,especially its fluids, and the powers entailed in enlightenment,57 the misheardeffect of talk of sex is lost in the din by both supporters and detractors of the New Age commercial appropriation of Tantric sex. In other words, if we sex talk and gender rites 77think of the pornographic as talk of sex designed with the fundamental goalof titillation, then it would be very hard to read White s work as moving in thisdirection.Rather, he suggests that sex acquires a different function: a techni-cal means for acquiring supernatural powers.While the texts I deal with heresuggest a different use of sex than White s sources, in both cases the empha-sis is away from sex merely functioning as titillation.And in this context, thework of scholars like Jeffrey Kripal also comes to mind.58With this in mind, even if Linda Marchiano s story told to expose the evilsof the porn industry is then nevertheless itself sold as pornography, it doesnot seem appropriate to respond to this violence of perversion and appropri-ation of her words by either a silencing of her words, since they may be appro-priated, or by the apparently impossible legislation against reading her wordsas pornography [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]