Milonguitas: Tango, Gender and Consumption in Buenos Aires (1920-1940)

Abstract

This paper examines gender representations conveyed in tango, showing that its lyrics targeted consumption desire as one of the main causes for the reprehensible behavior of milonguitas (cabaret women). While the literature has emphasized the criticism that tango lyrics made of the changing sexual mores and the social ascendancy phenomenon that characterized Buenos Aires of the 1920’s and 1930’s, the paper sheds light on the less explored fantasies of easy wealth that milonguitas embodied. Tango lyrics depicted them as women who aspired to a prosperous life and used their sexuality to fulfill their materialistic ambitions. Examining gender representations conveyed in tango lyrics, as well as the few voices left by some actual tango women, this paper aims to understand better the role of consumption when defining womanhood, thus contributing to a growing historiography interested in analyzing the gendered dimension of consumption from a socio-cultural perspective.