Argentina’s Feminist Tango

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Argentina is on the brink of a female-led revolution, and in Buenos Aires women are fighting for an equal footing everywhere from the institutions of government to the Tango hall. Since 2015 political pressure around women’s rights has peaked, following a string of horrifying femicides. It spawned a social media movement #NiUnaMenos, and continent wide strikes and protests. This year the almost-unthinkable happened in the birthplace of the Pope, a bill to legalise abortion reached the upper house of parliament. But the abortion bill was defeated. Is the fight for gender equality in one of the most macho cultures in the world a case of two steps forward one step back? Katy Watson speaks to the activists who started this latest feminist wave, to women who have escaped violence, to a self-proclaimed reformed macho man, and explores how tango – the proud national dance of Argentina is being re-interpreted with equality in mind. The old Tango songs about a woman slighting a man and having bloody revenge exacted upon her are increasingly taboo, and female dancers have started their own feminist collective. Katy also speaks to one of the famous “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” about how she feels about the latest surge of public protest. (Photo: Graffiti showing a clenched fist rising above flowers. Credit: BBC)