I saw my friend again today. We talked more about the White Tigress practice and she seemed to have had some time to think about it. She asked me a lot of questions, like would I need to have sex with the teacher? If I went somewhere for teaching, would there be a quota on the number of men I’d have to have sex with, like a hundred a year? Do women have to have sex with men they don’t want to?
Her questions made me feel quite offended, like she was implying the practice was akin to sexual slavery or the sexual exploitation of women (which is a topic that I have dedicated my academic, personal and professional life to eradicating).
I felt like she was imposing a Western, Victorian and patriarchal understanding of sexuality onto a practice that developed in a completely different socio-historical era. This was understandable, as the only framework we have had for understanding sexuality is that of a Western/Victorian/patriarchal society. However, imposing our current understanding of sexuality onto the practices of the White Tigress made the who practice seem perverse and exploitative. The limitations of a Western/Victorian/patriarchal understanding of sexuality was that ‘good sex’ was only able to exist in loving relationships and that sexuality used outside this context was somehow perverse or exploitative. The notion of sacred sexuality or sexuality used in the pursuit of spirituality is incomprehensible within our current understanding of sexuality.
She also reminded me of our shared feminist awakening, reading about women and sexuality, loving sexuality, non-heterosexual sexuality, the sexuality of equals, which leads to loving, women-centred sex. She questioned how my new found interest in the practices of the White Tigress could be reconciled with my feminist understanding of sexuality. I also found this a bit offensive as, firstly, I didn’t need to be reminded of a feminist analysis of sexuality as it is the basis of my PhD thesis and constitutes much of my existence, and secondly, as I saw the practices of the White Tigress as not anti-feminist.
In a previous post I have already discussed the issue of feminism and the White Tigress. I feel like under a capitalist and patriarch society, sexuality has been perverted and disembodied, especially through practices such as pornography, prostitution and stripping. I feel the practices of the White Tigress as a way of re-conceptualising women’s sexuality, a way of being able to see women’s sexuality ‘anew’ in a way that is beyond the limitations of the Western/Victorian/patriarchal conceptualisation of sexuality which is heaped in judgement and guilt. The example of seeing a White Tigress who seeks the sexual essence and energy of a thousand men as a ‘whore’ is exactly the Victorian understanding of sex that the White Tigress transcends. In addition, to use sexuality as a way to experience spirituality and to achieve youthfulness, vitality and longevity also transcends our limited current understandings of sexuality.
But it is frustrating, although understandable, that our current conditioning to view sexuality in a particular ways is so strong that the practices of the White Tigress can only be seen as perverted. I think I was also frustrated because I am yet to fully understand the practice and I was able to articulate my position very well.
I have decided to not talk to any other friends about the practice, as I think I will find it too frustrating and will encounter these misunderstandings of the practices over and over. It is sad that I feel like I shouldn’t communicate my new found path to others because of how crudely misunderstood the practice will be.
