[Tango-L] The call to tango, and "gender polarization"

[David Hodgson]

Hello everybody:
I had to meditate a little on the email that was sent out by Brian. There
were a few things in this that raised my eyebrow a little.

I have never really been involved much with the “Popular culture” and as
some people who know me on the list, this “political correctness” is not
really a part of my personal lexicon. I am also not forestalling flames
here.

It is not often I comment about something. With this email I do take
exception with the assessment of the past 40 years with the exception of
human AIDS/HIV. The expressions in the world of free-love hippies, Feminism,
Gay culture, (etc) is and always has been around for thousands of years (if
not all of the human experience in one way or another). In many societies
each of these expressions has been recognized as a part of their culture and
way of life. In some, they are embraced and an integral part of the
community. In others, shunned and ostracized.

For the free-love hippy I could look back to the wandering Troubadour (of
the 10th and 12th centuries), a gipsy, Goldmund in the book Narcissus and
Goldmund, in more recent times the Ner-do-well, or a guy from the lost
generation. An artist, musician, writer that was part of the
Dadaist/Surrealist movement. The Bohemians, Beat’s, and back to the Hippies.
This list is huge, and each on the list has its own twist on the theme. For
modern times, think the dead heads really brought this image to a beautiful
expression and currently have to add the burners who participate in burning
man that happens once a year.

Even in our own tango. The images of the good guy and hard worker in the
neighborhood who came from some where else. The guy who only dances Tango
and has to seduce a living from women or by some other means. Or the guy who
keeps the graves clean and lives off the tips from the families of the
deceased (if he makes enough he can go dance). It can get kind of confusing
if your looking for a specific example. Look at all the debate that has
taken place in the time this list has been in existence. I wonder what the
images and myths will end up being when all is said and done.

Concerning the Feminists. Look at the Oracle of Delphi, the priestesses in
the temple of Isis, to mention only two in the ancient world. In the middle
ages who do you think was arranging many of the deals of commerce. In more
modern times, you could look to Indira Gandhi, Madeline Albright, Margret
Thatcher, or even Eva Perone. If you do not think women have not had power
or influence over the political, social or economic aspect of people’s
lives, and that this is a new thing I would have to disagree with you. What
is new in my opinion, and is important. Is how women are, can, and going to
expressed this power, in a balanced way, within the current time we are
living in (which has always been the question for each of us). I for one am
happy to see the progress that has taken place (esp. given the history of
women in the past several centuries). I do not see it stopping any time soon
and know much work still needs to be done. More than likely in a couple of
centuries from now, the same questions will exist. But will be asked in a
different way and have a different spin on an old theme.

The gay culture, with in Tango for example, as long as there has been social
tango dance, there have been places where gay men and women danced with one
another. Has much of the society I live in more or less pushed the gay
culture away, yes it has, but this has gone the other way as well. It is
only a few years ago that what has always been present all along is now
coming to the surface of this so called popular culture. Again I am very
happy to see the progress and acceptance that has been made. I also know
there is much to be accomplished.

With the Nostalgia. Well, will that ever go away, I doubt it. I don’t
believe this fully has to do with “Ooo, the clearer lines of men being men
and women being women”. That is a nice surface suggestion and does not
really go to the meat and bones of what is happing at least with in Tango.
With Nostalgia there are two way to look at this. One way is in the
romantic: The fantasy of the way things were, that it was an easier and
simpler time, the magic of the dance back then. This is really great stuff
for reflection, fantasy and mind candy. It often, does not seem to go much
deeper.

The other way: Is what was working and what was not, at that time in the
past useful. The core aspects of what a person was doing and how they lived.
This is the stuff that carries weight, because this is the legacy that was
handed to us that works. This is the experience from the Tango dancers of
the past that has the thread of what works in this dance of Tango. This
thread is what we bring into our own lives, into our own dance and what we
share with our partners. It is the same thread that will be passed on.

When Archetypes were mentioned in the email (which the Shamans and others of
like kind have always used). It is mentioned about an archetype being
something you are. This is way off track. If someone approaches an archetype
in this way, then they remain in fantasy land, enjoying the sweetness of
mind candy, and never really getting to the heart of the matter.

Archetypes have always been and always will be a bridge, doorway or
experience that leads to somewhere. This somewhere is in relation to each
person. Can it be part of the expression of how someone is working in the
world, of course. But not of who someone is, this would be too easy of a
label to use.

I really have issue with this idea of “Gender Polarization”, or even
“Healthy Polarization”. By approaching things in this way, both male and
female have been emasculated into some kind of “uni-gender” which is
frightening. Approaching the idea in this way (at least with in Tango) not
only has the core elements and energy of the Lead and the Follow been
stripped away, but as well, what keeps this a living dance, will become a
guessing game and not something one can step into, discover and learn what
this dance is, with clarity and intention.
This is even true for a naïve public.

So thank you Brian for brining the topics up.
Thank you everyone for your time as well.
Now that my eyebrow is back where it belongs. Off to practice and dance.
Take care
David Hodgson

-----Original Message-----
From: tango-l-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:tango-l-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Brian Dunn
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 4:50 PM
To: TANGO-L at mit.edu
Subject: [Tango-L] The call to tango, and "gender polarization"

Dear list, 

Kace wrote a great message in another thread about what several things that
attracted him to tango, and I wanted to respond in part:
>>>
...I'm going to state my own definitions
of what attracted me to Tango in the first place were:
(Numbers 1 through 4 omitted from current commentary)
5. Nostalgia -- tango is a mirror to an earlier, more romantic era.  In 
the "good old days" gender roles were clearly defined...Tango lets us break
out of our political correctness and return temporarily to a more macho and
sensual age when men and women know how to treat each other with respect.
<<<

Concerns like these are, for my partner Deb and me, at the center of our own
call to tango.  In my view, Kace, you are correct in seeing a misplaced
“political correctness” as one of the inhibiting restrictions on our free
expression of our innate masculine and feminine natures (and just to
forestall flames, can we all agree that each of us has some elements of both
masculine and feminine archetypes in our core identities, expressed in
different ways to different degrees, regardless of whether we are
physiologically male or female?  If not, those who disagree may want to hit
delete now...). Certainly, hearkening back to an era that was more
gender-polarized along these lines than our current culture is one way to
permit the re-emergence of a healthy distinction in the expression of these
paired archetypes.

>From my perspective, however, I view tango’s focus on what I would call
“gender polarization” to be, not a nostalgic call to the past (which we may
agree had its own problems between the genders), but rather a harbinger of a
new and more richly textured relationship between men and women.  The last
forty years in the United States and other Western-European-culture
countries has of course seen lots of gender upheaval (free-love hippies,
feminism, gay culture, AIDS, etc.).  In many ways these impacts are not yet
fully assimilated by the popular culture in these countries. 

While I understand the easy framing of the male-female spark in tango as
nostalgia in the face of these upheavals, I feel in our own call to tango
(and many others concur in this) a forward-looking cultural developmental
drive to a new progressive synthesis of “healthy polarization” between the
genders, on the one hand, with (among other things) the social and political
empowerment of women, on the other.  This social and political empowerment
is a new and permanent part of the cultural landscape in the aforementioned
countries, and is largely the fruit of the upheavals mentioned before.  

With such a new synthesis, in our teaching, in our performing and organizing
for the naïve public that is drawn to the new dance TV shows, and in our
social tango encounters within our growing tango communities, we all can
gracefully and powerfully exemplify the masculine and feminine archetypes in
their strongly polarized tango expressions.  Yet the new synthesis would
provide this tango sweetness within a context that can actively cherish the
forward social progress of the last forty years, and in turn be nourished by
it.  Within this new polarization, tango can be a fantastic forum for
romance and flirtation to respectfully and energetically combine in a
celebratory festival of rejoicing in simply being leaders and followers,
pairing off temporarily in public, but nevertheless giving our best to each
other in every magical tango moment.  In this emerging culture, the
decisive, reliable macho masculine and the sensually alluring surrendering
feminine are both encouraged to find their full expression in tango, in all
of us, for the increased happiness of all.

We're actively seeking to network with others who respond to the call to
tango in ways that resonate with this vision. Please make contact off-list
in order to keep in touch.

Kace made some other great comments in this thread, and I hope to respond to
them soon.

All the best,
Brian Dunn 
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, Colorado USA
303-938-0716
www.danceoftheheart.com
“Building a better world, one tango at a time”




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