[Tango-L] Gender Imbalance/Advertising for men

[rockies@comcast.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Astrid" <astrid at ruby.plala.or.jp>
> yes, Roger is right, tehre are much simpler ways to pick up women than to 
> learn tango, if a man just wants to do that. It is the computer analysts and 
> so on who yearn for a human embrace after work, not the motorbike driving 
> machos who would probably meet girls in the pub down the road over a beer 
> instead. Been all researched in Germany.

Not sure why I waded into this thread. I wondered if it would create a firestorm, which is why a private reply seemed a better idea.

Well, in defense of motoryclists, a large percentage are also IT people. I happen to be both, and a dancer. Wouldn't it be better if we did not assume that stereotypes are the rule? Dont' we want to break the inaccurate stereotype that dancing is unmanly? Or is it just that our dance is elitist? There are at least  ten motorcyclist tangeuros here. and I'm sure there are many, many on the list, lots of whom don't bring their motorcycles to milongas (as I rarely do) so you would not even know they are riders.  The image of motorcyclists as beer swilling is actually a horrendously inaccurate stereotype too. You know what would be really nice? if we could all find a common ground as human beings rather than look for things to divide us. Tango itself will attract the best people for the dance, you're not going to get the lowest common denominator coming through the milonga door just because you advertise in a male dominated establishment. Even Harley riders nowadays are doctors, e
 nginee
rs, IT people, lawyers and dentists, by the way.  These are the kind of people who will respond to advertising for dancing, not the ones who are successful playing upon their bad boy image.

I would agree though that it would make sense to advertise to IT and engineering departments, but that isn't possible unless you know someone who works inside those establishments, I've already spread the gospel at my facility, as have probably all the men who work in such fields. Ask away in your community. It can't hurt, but dont' expect to pull in large numbers, since as mentioned, the word has probably already been spread.

Respectfully,

Randy


> 
> 
> > Astrid wrote:
> >>
> >> On the other hand, Randy, for those few men who show up, attracted to 
> >> ttango
> >> for all the wrong reasons, a few of the women might stop coming. Have you
> >> thought about that?
> >>
> Roger:
> > I must say I am in agreement with Astrid on this - I can't see anything
> > very positive in trawling the locker rooms, bars, dives, etc. (I may
> > have misquoted the suggested locales here - but that is the image it
> > conjured) for potential tangueros.
> >
> > I mentioned the suggestion to my wife, who said "They'd be better
> > advised to advertise in IT departments, and mathematics departments",
> > because in her experience those disciplines have yielded better than
> > average tangueros. 
> 
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