In order to teach my Hispanic Civilization students about Latin American machismo (male chauvinism), I decided to start by talking about the tango. This beautiful dance offers a perfect and a very visual embodiment of the chauvinistic values that unfortunately inspire so much of Latin American culture. In this dance, the woman is, for the most part, completely passive. The man decides where and how he wants to lead her. She has to guess his intentions and follow his lead. Sometimes, of course, the man might decide to stop and then the woman is allowed to swing her leg around for a while. Then, the male leading continues. I tried to learn this dance but soon discovered but the total passivity required from a woman goes completely against my nature.
The nature of tango lyrics that often is also very offensive to women has been noticed by some authors of tango. Here is an example of an author who denounces the chauvinism of tango lyrics:
"Mujer argentina, pedazo de historia, Argentinian woman, a piece of history,
que ofreces tu vida, ternura y amor. who offers her life, tenderness, and love.
El pobre poeta, en pos de la gloria, A poor poet, in search of glory,
olvida que es hijo de madre en dolor. Forgets that a mother has given him life in pain.
Con letras de tango te insulta y ofende He insults and offends you with tango lyrics
al fango te arrastra y ciego en su acción, He drags you through the mad and in his blindness
por unas monedas cual Judas te vende he sells you for a couple of coins like a Judas
mientras canta el pueblo lo que nunca sintió." while the country sings what it never actually felt.
The lyrics of tango drag a woman through the mud, while in the dance itself, the male lead drags his female partner across the dance floor in a symbolic gesture that highlights her passivity, submissiveness, and lack of agency.
Courtesy of my reader Vanessa, here are some actual instructions how to dance the tango:
"Argentine Tango Lesson 4: Walk
Start walking. Gentleman, take a couple of steps forward starting with your left foot. Lady, do the opposite: two steps back beginning with your right foot. Let him guide you. Stop. Repeat."
"Argentine Tango Lesson 11: It’s All about Communication
Tango has always been associated with desire, (mis)communication, sexual innuendos and possession."
"Argentine Tango Lesson 12: She Belongs to Me
Some characteristics remain faithful to its male-chauvinist origins when the pimp claimed he owned a harlot. For instance, the man leads, the woman follows him… always. He starts to move, she moves along; wherever he takes her, she goes, as if she belonged to him."
22 comments:
I have often suspected that my inability to get into these sorts of "structured" dances, like tango, has something to do with a genetic predisposition to not do as I'm told!
That said, I enjoy listening to tango music, and it's certainly not the only type of music that has such lyrics. And there are lots of female tango singers I enjoy listening to, too! (I'd mention Amelita Baltar, but then she was Piazzolla's wife, and things might come full-circle!)
You wrote EXACTLY what I have felt for a while but couldn't put into words. I always felt there was something profoundly wrong with the tango. My boyfriend took me once to a milonga and I HATED how it made me feel. First, you are ogled like a total object by a bunch of dirty old men. Then they drag you all over the place and you have to obey their every move. There is hardly ANY initiative a woman can take. To top it all off, my b/f behaved like a completely different person after that. I had NEVER seen him so condescending towards me. He told me it's just something I couldn't understand (maybe because of my little female brain.) We had a huge fight. I'll never go again!!
"As a typical exponent of a male chauvinist society, the tango—
created, manipulated and dominated by males—had (has) on its
side, in its center, a zone that can be called as marginal, something
like ‘‘a tolerance house’’ (brothel, quilombo or queco to say it in old
tango), occupied by women who sung it, danced it, composed it and
played (and still sing, dance, compose, and play it) with humbleness,
very close to men, depending on their approval (they hire
them) while keeping certain independent attitudes when receiving
the public applause . . ."
(Dos Santos, Las Cantantes, 2225)
And from actual tango lessons:
"Argentine Tango Lesson 4: Walk
Start walking. Gentleman, take a couple of steps forward starting with your left foot. Lady, do the opposite: two steps back beginning with your right foot. Let him guide you. Stop. Repeat."
Argentine Tango Lesson 11: It’s All about Communication
In its beginnings, tango was vulgar. These sensuality-loaded contacts were completely unknown in ballroom dancing. Until then, people only touched hands except when dancing a waltz. Since then, tango has always been associated with desire, (mis)communication, sexual innuendos and possession.
Argentine Tango Lesson 12: She Belongs to Me
Of course, times have changed and Argentine tango evolved. No longer considered a vulgar dance, it’s being increasingly adopted amongst today’s middle and upper strata; but some characteristics remain faithful to its male-chauvinist origins when the pimp claimed he owned a harlot. For instance, the man leads, the woman follows him… always. He starts to move, she moves along; wherever he takes her, she goes, as if she belonged to him.
http://www.batangotours.com/argentine_tango_lesson1.html
Even the description sounds disgusting to my feminist ears. Brrrrr!
I just saw this post on the feminist blog roll and I just had to comment. It is very scary how chauvinism makes it's way into pretty much everything. You hear great music and see a cool dance and it doesn't let you notice how it promotes chauvinistic values in insidious ways.
That's why it's crucial that we have this kind of analysis. Great post, I loved it.
Thank you, everybody, for great comments!
Vanessa, I have included your quotes into the main body of the post because they illustrate exactly what I am saying. Thank you so much!
You're wrong. Woman can lead if she wants to, there's no rule against that.
You are welcome, Clarissa!
Woman can lead if she wants to, there's no rule against that.
Had to be a guy who said that! Have you actually seen this much on real milongas? Or like ever??? It's all good and nice in principle but the reality is different.
Exactly.
Point is you could do it if you really wanted. Maybe you just never tried so as to have something to bitch about now.
Yeah, with whom? The only people there are a bunch of diehard chauvinists like you.
And you are right, us feminists are all hateful bitches. And damn proud of it.
You people are hopeless. You just need to hate on something and it doesnt matter to you what that something is.
If you take some trouble to actually read the post you will see that it says some very specific things. There is NOTHING random there.
You are not a woman so you have NO IDEA how it feels to be treated the way women are on milongas.
Yeah?? And so why do so many women go there, if I may ask? It's not like it's just us guys.
You don't even know what it is you're trying to say.
Maybe youre sore because you went and nobody asked you and you just stood in the corner the entire time, am I right or what?
Where did my comment go???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
I am very sorry, guys. The site has been acting up today for some reason. I don't think I can recover your comment. Maybe you could repeat it?
Forget it. I'm leaving this stupid blog anyway.
Un regalito para tus alumnos:
La encontró en su bulín, y en otros brazos...
Sin embargo, canchero y sin cabrearse
le dijo al gavilán:”puede rajarse,
el hombre no es culpable en estos casos.
Y al encontrarse a solas con la mina,
pidió las zapatillas, y ya listo
le dijo cual si nada hubiera visto:
“cebame un par de mates, Catalina.”
La mina, jaboneada , le hizo caso,
y el varón, besuqueándole la frente,
con gran tranquilidad, amablemente,
le fajó treintaycuatro puñaladas
Muchisimas gracias por haber vuelto a escribir este comentario, che!
For non-Spanish speakers: the guy finds his woman with another man. he lets the other man go because "men are never to blame." Then, he calmly and amiably stabs the woman 34 times.
Cute, isn't it?
You know lumfardo?? Impressive...
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