[Tango-L] Dancing Gender in Milongas of Buenos Aires

[Joe Grohens]

Dear Adriana,

Thank you for sharing your research paper on tango with us.

I find that you touch on many very interesting topics, gendered  
behavior being just one of them. Your observations about tango nuevo,  
electronic music, and gay milongas - all of which receive frequent  
comment in the tango internet - are seen in a revealing light when  
given a theoretical context such as your analysis of the performance  
of gender roles. Sometimes I feel that we talk about these subversive  
phenomena in tango in a mostly reactive way. Usually the question is  
whether subversion of codes should be accepted or not. Your study  
looks at some of the cultural pressures to conform in the milonga, and  
also looks at the resistance or interventions of these pressures, and  
it tries to provide an explanation of what is at work socially in  
these dynamics. I like it very much.

You cite Rodolfo Dinzel several times to define the normative  
dominance of the man and the submission of the woman. It comes across  
as if Dinzel agrees with these gender categories, and in a sense  
prescribes that that is how tango should be done. Yet, in his  
writings, Dinzel criticizes these gender roles, even though he admits  
that many contemporary dancers hold to these views.

When Dinzel describes the tango as a male monologue, he clearly takes  
the side that the tango was originally a dialogue, and that it is  
ideally a dialogue. The womanly role of passive obedience in tango is,  
in my reading of Dinzel, a sort of degradation of the tango. I think  
you could better give Dinzel his due by providing more context for his  
remarks.

Best wishes for your future dance and writing projects.

Joe Grohens