Marta Savigliano (2010) ‘Gambling Femininity’ (pp. 236-249)

In this text, Marta Savigliano describes “Wallflowering”, the act of waiting to dance,  and what power women hold in the situation in the context of Argentinian tango and milongueras.  Wallflowering is a noun Savigiliano turns into a verb (taken from Spanish) in order to make this role active rather than passive. She investigates whether the control is in the male gaze, in the male looking for someone to dance, or if women have the power and agency to decide with whom to dance.

Savigliano writes in the style of an ethnographer, taking us into the setting of a Milonga. In her writing, she sets up both the argument of the male gaze and the power of the femme fatal and leaves the audience to decide on which side of the argument they fall. She claims that in Tango women aren't as submissive as they appear. Although the men have the power of actively seeking a dance partner, women have control too. They actively decide whether to accept the dance or not. The choice ultimately lays with her, the “wallflower”.

Savigliano’s article says that women's submissive role to a man is an act, they are in fact, as she puts it "gambling with their femininity" , gambling with the voyeuristic tendencies of men. The women get dressed up and act as an object of desire out of choice, not because they are forced. There is the enjoyment of being a wallflower and its part of the bigger game of tango.