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 _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
