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Promiscuity and Tango

Flor de Mina

Lisandro Gomez

Date:    Wed, 7 Jan 1998 09:22:50 -0800
From:    Flor de Mina <flordemina@ROCKETMAIL.COM>
Subject: Promiscuity and Tango

In her most recent book, PROMISCUITIES, Naomi Wolf advances the thesis
that rather than be adventurers themselves, women attempt to have
sexual relationships with male adventurers.  She argues that through
sexual relations with adventurers, women attempt to participate in the
adventures vicariously, and in doing so turn themselves into sex
objects.

Because Argentine Tango can be seen as an important courtship ritual
in its historical social context (and here is one of the many reasons
that attempting to sterilize Argentine Tango with a syllabus misses
the point of dancing), I think Argentine Tango can be used to examine
Naomi Wolf's arguments.

The practical problem for any woman who is not an adventurer herself,
but who is attemping to have sexual relations with an adventurer is
verification that he is indeed an adventurer.  Hiring a private eye is
an option, but could lead to considerable delay and lost opportunity.
The physical skills the men demonstrate on the dance floor might be
viewed as proxy for the skills necessary to be an adventurer.  A
clumsy oaf would unable to survive adventures, so at least the
physically inept would be weeded out.  (This also explains to some
extent, the cultural practices of the men developing their dance
skills away from the women.)

If the objective is sexual relations with an actual adventurer, rather
than some who is capable of adventure, that leaves the woman with the
problem of ascertaining whether the man is actually an adventurer or
simply capable of adventure.  Given the stories that have been told
about the fights that ensued when a young male visited another barrio
to steal steps or dance with the women, perhaps the men who were
strangers in the neighborhood milonga or those returned with steps
from other neighborhoods could be viewed as adventurers, at least to
some degree.  But these are pale adventures and the danger in these
stories have been greatly exaggerated (most likely by the older men,
who are eulogizing their own pasts).

In short, the courtship ritual embodied in Argentine Tango is
incapable of distinguishing between actual adventurers and potential
adventurers.  What is it then that drives a woman to mate with the
potential adventurer?  The ability to carry out adventure is an
indication of genetic fitness.  Much research supports the view that
humans, both male and female, are driven to who have sexual relations
that perpetuate the survival of their own genetic material.  The
probability of survival is enhanced by the fitness of one's sexual
partner.  On the dance floor, both men and women demonstrate the
physical skills and intelligence that might be linked with survival of
the offspring.

Taking the perspective that Argentine Tango was (is?) an important
courtship ritual and that sexual relations have the purpose of
perpetuating one's genetic material, it seems to me that the argument
that women seek sexual relations with adventurers to participate in
those adventures vicariously really falls short of the mark.  With
that argument dismsissed, I do not see how women can be viewed as sex
objects any more than men.

Abrazos,
FdM

Date:    Thu, 8 Jan 1998 02:10:44 -0600
From:    Lisandro Gomez <lisandro.gomez@SYMPATICO.CA>
Subject: Re: Promiscuity and Tango

Lisandro Gomez wrote:

 Flor de Mina wrote:

 ........

> Taking the perspective that Argentine Tango was (is?) an important
> courtship ritual and that sexual relations have the purpose of
> perpetuating one's genetic material, it seems to me that the argument
> that women seek sexual relations with adventurers to participate in 
> those adventures vicariously really falls short of the mark.  With
> that argument dismsissed, I do not see how women can be viewed as sex
> objects any more than men.


 Flor de Mina,
         usted ni se lo adivina,
         de la manga saco una contraflor
         y un truco para que le cure el dolor

 Flor de Mina, usted ni lo adivina, de la manga saco una contraflor y un
 truco para que le cure el dolor

  Grande Flor de Nami, voy a leer el libro de Naomi(si lo encuentro) y
encontrar la anlog=EDa que mencionaste, y ser=EDa interesante de combinarlo
con el concepto masculino de análisis que presenta Sábato en su
 publición TANGO, discusión y notas:(if anybody can get its English
 version, please let me know how)

 "art is an act of retreat or rebellion. We create what we don't
 have; some how what ever is the object of our anxieties and our hope; 
 and this
 allow us to evade from the every day rough life routine.  This is the
 similitude between art an dreams. Only one race of passionate and
 sensual people like the Greeks could have invented the platonic
 philosophy that advises to distrust the body and its passions.
 what the lonely man of Buenos Aires was worried about was, the
 nostalgia of  the communion and love, the yearning  of the woman, and
 not the presence of  a libidinous instrument:

 (from a tango lyric: "In my life I had many, many chicks but never a
 woman")

 The body of the Other is a simple object, and the only material contact
 does not allow they to break the confines of their loneliness the pure
 sex (with prostitutes) is  sad twice as much, since it not only left
 the man in his initial solitude, but it aggravates and shadowed the
 situation with the frustration of its attempt.
 this is one of the mechanism that explain the sadness of the tango,
 that is frequently banded to hopelessness, rancor, threatening, and
 sarcasm.  There is in the tango an erotic resentment and a tortoise
 manifestation of the new Argentinean's inferiority sentiment , bearing
 in mind that sex is one of the primary form of power.
 The porteño feels obligated to be Macho power of two 
 or three in order to never be judged just a macho power of one. 
 This is a characteristic
 behavior of the insecure man, the individual will carefully scrutinize
 his  own comportment on front of others, he feels being judged and even
ridiculed by his peers...   "

 an attempt of translation of a  fragment from "TANGO discussion and
 note" by Ernesto Sábato
  if something does not make sense, it is not Sábato to blame 

 Espero que la traduccion tenga sentido creo que de alguna manera toca
cosas análogas con los tangueros de hoy, no solamente porteños

 Un beso chau,