Her Feet ...His Passion!!!
I have never been able to take it seriously or much able to comprehend that there are people who have a sensual passion for inanimate objects. In my mind passionate sensuality has always been associated with and limited to people finding each other exciting.
Inanimate objects like: - items of clothing, mobile phones, TV sets, shoes, glasses, or kitchen tops I can never accept being expressed as "Sexy!"; they can be called stylish, chic, and described in many varied terms as surely there are an endless many other adjectives that are better suited for use with and for the inanimate objects.
The reason that we should avoid expressions of passionate sensuality with inanimate objects is that there is a line where if we go beyond then our passion for any such objects will be distinguished as having a "Fetish".
The word Fetish originally meant "charm", and it originates from the 15th century Portuguese word feitico. Its common use today is to express if someone is obsessively fixated on either an object or a body part, or both.
Assuming and hoping that we all believe that in Tango men and women find each other attractive for many reasons associated with our abilities to communicate, moving with elegance and precision, sensuality of expressions, creativity, sense of humour, and all else that may include also the way we are dressed up and presented bring me to my question: "How significant are shoes in influencing our Tango attractions and for wanting to dance with someone?"
Would any body here care to admit that he would not ask a lady to dance if she is wearing (in his opinion) the wrong shoes!? Similarly I am curious to see if there are some men who find this irresistible urge to go and ask someone to dance just because her shoes beckon and call upon him from the other side of the room!
The recent and frequently advertised website postings to tango-uk yahoo group on the subject of Ladies Shoes Sales are many but one in particular carries within its website pages stories entitled as tango Encounters that are in fact thinly disguised Shoe Fetish stories.
I am not of opinion that there is some sacredness about tango or feet - far from it! - in fact many of us have seen adverts for cars, holidays, ice cream brands, and many other products and services that use Tango as their sales vehicle to promote themselves and with all those "tango" is the means to get there.
What is rather strange with this new kind of promotion is that tango is not the vehicle any more but the destination to arrive at, together with someone else's Fetish, and it helps if you buy their kind of shoes from them!!!
Whilst I am on the subject I would love to know how these, evidently over-priced imported shoes, will treat the feet of those who purchase them in order to satisfy the Fetish-wishes of those whom they encounter.
To help us along, it may help if we note that "a fetish involves the transfer of power from an original source onto a substitute", and that "a fetishist is someone who operates outside the circle of what is characteristically considered normal".
But hey, "This is Tango!", so what is Normal nowadays in Tango without putting one's foot in it?!!
MilongaCat.
8 comments:
Hi Cat,
I think it's rather, "Her Feet...HER Passion1"
While the men watch the whole figure of the woman dancing, it's the women who look at the shoes.
And if beautiful shoes make a woman feel beautiful and sexy, then she will more likely dance that way. So it's a win-win situation.
BTW, here in Buenos Aires, I find my Comme Il Faut shoes to not only be the most gorgeous of tango shoes, but also the most comfortable, despite the super high heels. The very high heels help to put your weight correctly forward, another win-win.
Saludos!
tangocherie
I agree... moreover, I would say: 'Her shoes: her passion'...
I love my Tango shoes...so much that sometimes I wear them for other ocassions...and girls can't stop telling me 'those shoes are so sexy! where did you get them from?'... I respond with my pride: 'from Argentina my dear' hihihi :)
Dear Cherie,
I also agree that women are passionate about shoes, and you will have no arguments from me on that. Yes it is a win-win situation when people feel good about themselves by wearing shoes, dresses or perfumes etc that they like.
I would however like to think that we distinguish "feeling sexy" by wearing beautiful shoes from "having sexy feelings" about any shoes!!! :)
Saludos!
MilongaCat.
Dear Leticia,
"her feet...." may even get me into some serious trouble too :)
What matters most is that they (the shoes!) make you feel good, specially with comments that you tell us you are getting on them.
MilongaCat
Dear Milonga Cat,
Really nice blog!!!
To shoe or not to shoe... that's the question. I actually believe that truly good dancers won't even look at the shoes. They will look at your "tango aura" -- fancy for observing your body language, your dance, your likelihood to be a good dancer as well. And in this world of Comme Il Fauts... the shoes are likely to be of little help! (Funny enough, I posted on this same topic not long ago, obviously we are in the same wave in here! :))
That said... some of us can be truly obsessed with the shoe-shopping at the like (I admit to be one; check also misstangoinhereyes.blogspot.com for someone else!!!) :)
Tanguera
Dear Tanguera
I do look at other people's shoes in milongas. It can be amusing to guess and then find out if the shoes match the person dancing in them.
I think we should expand on your suggested idea of "tango aura".
Discussing "tango aura" could possibly risk and truly set the cat amongst the pigeons - I assure everyone that there was no pond intended by that expression!
MilongaCat.
Dear Milonga Cat,
Hmmmmmmmm Not clear to me what you say that discussing Tango Aura would be such a complicated (or risky) enterprise... will the cat eats us all??? :)
Tanguera
I have found that you can tell a lot about a follower by looking at her shoes, for example;
Non-dancers are easy to spot only by observing their footwear. This goes for leaders as well.
Some followers will stick with a pair of shoes that work for them regardless of condition or color until they completely fall apart (I've repaired several pairs for
several different women). These women make the best friends/lovers.
Some followers who care only what they look like will spend thousands on shoes that are good only for aesthetics (you will see them walking into a milonga with three or more shoe bags, and you will see them sitting down rubbing their feet long before it is over or limping toward the door at the end of the night, or both). These women are often very high maintenance.
If a women is a lesbian her shoes are many times a dead give away.
Women who wear practice slippers at a milonga often enjoy open embrace nuevo style dancing, not always (some times they just have sore feet because of the other bad shoes that they wore the night before or that day).
All that said, beautiful woman always look even better in beautiful shoes, of course beauty looks good in a gunny sack.
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