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.
***
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.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Performing Gender - Tango in the milongas of BsAs
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3 comments:
Hey tangologuers,
Interesting post. When I was in BsAs two years ago, the machismo was particularly striking as compared to that in the States. One of the predominant differences was that I felt in BsAs the Argentines danced to prove a point (not always a polite point ...) whereas in the US, the vast majority dance to have fun.
Don't get me wrong, there are certainly those in BsAs (tourists and locals alike) that dance with a true and genuine passion for connection and artistic expression, but I felt much more of a haughty and showy overtone in Argentina.
Curious to hear how your most recent experiences compare!
Cheers, and thanks for sharing,
-h
Thank you for posting this. We just returned from 3 weeks in Buenos Aires. We also visited in 2006, but were so green and didn't dance in the milongas with other partners so didn't pick up any of the nuances.
This time we went to traditional milongas frequented by mainly Argentines. We observed the men oogling and the women preening to attract the men. I felt like I was in the middle of an anthropological study.
We did a one week intensive workshop in tango nuevo style with one-on-one teaching assistants. All the fellows I danced with (all Argentine) were between 18-30 and all I felt from them was the love of the dance.
There seems to be a huge generation gap and it'll be interesting to see how tango evolves.
Cathy
I think one needs to understand the culture here is machista. Not just the tango, but the culture in general, so outside tango you are going to experience machista but in different ways.
The influx of foreigners has changed the codigos. In the more traditional milongas they still exist. You find in the tourist milongas they are less and less and in many do not exist at all.
It is always interesting to me that English speakers in general seem to think that their visits to a city of 12 million people are going to influence the culture.
I think you need to understand that for the most part, most Porteños do not like tango. There are maybe 5,000 people who dance it here in Buenos Aires. The tango is very insignificant to most Porteños. In many ways, we are just like any other tango community, it is just that we are here.
Besos
Deby
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