What a nice post, reminiscent of the some of the articulate and expressive posts of Tango-L's own "golden age"! A model post, really, in how even your disagreements with what others write are respectfully presented without losing any of their force. Please write more! :-) And feel free to copy your "Why I don't need saving" post onto the list as well; it would be interesting to see the range of opinions and reasons.
The main reason I find for women or men not getting to dance as much as they would like is the simplest of them all: demand and supply (aka gender balance in a milonga setting). And just like in the non-tango world, demand and supply forces can be modulated to some extent in the same way that it is in the commercial world: E.g., - having a better quality product (however you define it) - marketing the better qualities that your mixed-quality product has - excellent marketing of a poor-quality product etc. etc. (though the metaphor breaks down with "volume discounts" which doesn't really transfer over to Tango :-)). Referring to the article you mentioned where the French guy was proposing symmetry in men and women being "allowed" to ask the other to dance: in terms of my own preference, I have no interest in being asked *directly* to dance by a woman (with the usual exceptions of those who know me well enough to do so, and I have no problem with the occasional "ladies' choice" tanda that some milongas have). But women have all sorts of ways of asking without having to ask directly, so they are hardly disempowered. Vive la différence! as far as I'm concerned--androgynous tango holds little interest for me. Shahrukh _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
