Relentless Denial

Queer tango, a movement started in 2002 by a group of women at a lesbian feminist cultural centre, is one of the most controversial initiatives to appear in contemporary dance experiences in Buenos Aires. Same-sex tango dancing was forbidden at the beginning of the 1900s as part of a broader process of monitoring popular culture and moral conduct; the ultimate aim was to make modern tango a symbol of national identity and thus heterosexual. Over the past decade, however, homoeroticism has become an alternative practice among crowds with heterosexual expectations. At the same time, the media have shown women dancing together to attract a heterosexual male audience, while openly gay men acquired a greater presence in the dance. From a perspective of gender subordination, this article focuses on increasing homoerotic performances in tango, the heterosexual norms which have again downsized women’s role, and the gay–straight male umbrella opened by and for tango.