The Self-Transformation Process in Yoga from a Gender Lens

Vient de paraître | Newly published :

Laeticia Stauffer, 2024. The Self-Transformation Process in Yoga from a Gender Lens. Working Paper n°19, ISSR, Université de Lausanne

Abstract

This article investigates the self-transformation process in yoga discourse and practice from a gendered perspective. Data was collected over three years in Western Switzerland and with a multi-sited ethnography using a combination of participant observation and a total of 52 interviews. Using Kundalini yoga and its representation of “feminine” and “masculine” as a case study, I explore how practitioners appropriate gendered rituals and identities. In this tradition, the transformation of self is based on concepts of inner strength, sensitivity, and divine femininity, causing dissonance within some practitioners’ identities. Additionally, specific arrangements emerge to negotiate spiritual space, gendered agency, and biography in the context of yoga teaching and teacher-student relationships. Finally, I investigate the interactions between practitioners’ yoga trajectories and their private and professional realms, observing differences in women’s and men’s experiences.

Laeticia Stauffer est doctorante UNIL, inscrite en SSP. Elle écrit une thèse de doctorat intitulée "Entre santé et spiritualité : Le yoga postural moderne dans les parcours de vie en contexte d’individualisation des risques de santé et de spiritualités contemporaines." sous la direction de la Prof. Irene Becci et occupe le poste d'assistante diplômée au sein de l'ISSR.

Laeticia Stauffer is UNIL PhD Student, matriculated at the SSP Faculty. She is writing a doctoral thesis entitled "Entre santé et spiritualité : Le yoga postural moderne dans les parcours de vie en contexte d’individualisation des risques de santé et de spiritualités contemporaines.", under the direction of Prof. Irene Becci. She is a Graduate Assistant at the ISSR.