Lo sexual es invisible a los ojos: exhibición erótica y ocultamiento de los vínculos sexuales en las milongas céntricas de Buenos Aires

Abstract

The article describes erotic and sexual practices characterizing milongas –social events where tango, milongas and valses are danced– that take place in downtown Buenos Aires. In these spaces the generalized exhibition of physical contact and visibly erotic movements coexist with the development of dyadic associations involving co-genital relationships with selected partners that are carefully concealed from public visibility and transcend the dancing space. As these bonds may develop simultaneously or successively with different partners, milongas constitute contexts where monogamy is defied. Utmost secrecy seems to prevent the jealousy that the Anglophone literature presents as an obstacle for the development of consensual non-monogamy reducing the tensions and conflicts that such feelings may evoke. The article suggests that the emphasis on openness and honesty found in this literature to characterize non-monogamous relationships may be due to its focus on social movements striving for the institutionalization of non-monogamous ways of organizing intimacy. It also raises the question as to whether non-goal oriented eroticism that researchers use to describe dancing spaces results from their use of methodological strategies that privilege interviews and observable practices.