Performing Gender - Tango in the milongas of BsAs

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2006. I arrive on a Monday morning. Monday night finds me in Parakultural. Scene one - I enter the hall full of tables with white linen and familiar music, astonished by the near theatricality in people's gestures. Scene two - I am sat at a table with an American girl, I order a beer that turns out to be huge. After that, a tap in my shoulder, my first invitation for a dance. And then another and then another. From the corner of my eye I think I see Rosita Quiroga, transparent, elegantly marking the beat with her heal.
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Three years later, I remember the dizzy excitement of dancing and the cultural shock by the machismo of the culture I experienced in the milongas. I came from a tango culture where dancing with a man didn't necessarily have a sexual connotation. Back to the Mecca of tango I found a gender performativity that reduced the tango dance into three minutes of courting, a mere chance for the macho personality to be reinforced. The etiquette had nothing to do with all that. I liked being asked by cabeceo gestures and being returned to me seat. It was the ridiculous behaviour and remarks of those who danced with me that made it obvious that in BsAs there is a strong echo of a sexism in the tango culture. It was obvious that the fact that I was not Argentinian and not accompanied by a man, made the "symptoms" of machismo much stronger.

Apparently I am not the only one who felt that way. Adriana Pegorer published a virtual presentation entitled 'Performing Gender: Tango in the Milongas of Buenos Aires' where there is a first attempt to point out the sexist character of tango behaviour.
You can view it here and here

I don't know what would be my experience if I stayed in Buenos Aires for longer. If people got to know me maybe they would start treating me like a person, instead of like the object to verify their manliness.

I must say that my experience in classes, such as classes in Tango Brujo and la mariposita, were very different, as there were young people from all over the world who showed an honest interest to learn along with other students. There I found a genuinely enthusiastic and youthful attitude where gender seemed to play no role.

Is the influence of tango tourism changing the machismo of Argentinian culture, as my first experience suggests? I need to go back and see.