Job Discussion Forums

mr gary · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Bangkok

Having browsed these forums for some time I have a good handle on the basics of life in BsAs, yet I still have an important unanswered issue.
January will be my first time in Latin America and my main worry is - am I macho enough?
Browsing the thread about the new guy who can't stop getting squirted with mustard, I read that The Mullet and The Tail are stylish hair options for Argentine men. That's way too macho for me. Forgive me if my ideas are old fashioned, but are the locals all fairly louche guys with dense chest hair and sacks of Latin charm who scoop up the lion's share of the ladies?
Here in Thailand the locals are under the false impression that all teachers are fantastically wealthy, hence lack of macho-ness, or indeed lack of attractiveness/personality/waist measurement smaller than your age... is no barrier to true love. Even the weird guy in the corner of the teacher's room gets some.
Just how mucho macho should I get? Should I rock a 'tache?

What about the Tango - is that macho?

Advice please.

carlos-england · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:46 am Post subject:

Listen mate, if you come from a European country
or the states they are going to think you are some
tea drinking woofta anyway, if you don't like football, are vegetarian
or a number of other things I can't think of now. Then their respect
for you slides down the scale.

A good show of machismo if you can handle it is the 'piropo'
which is meant to compliment a lady on her beauty but is usually
a whistle followed by 'que tetas/culo' or something more vulgar.
If you are a well cultured and respectable gentleman who respects
ladies like my good self then it is hard to do.

Or when they offer you mate, just man up and take a sip.
Don't go 'eeeurgh no thanks' because they will just laugh at
you behind your back.

It isn't as bad as Peru or Mexico but the machismo culture is
prevelant in Argentina thats for sure.

The tango? I think it is macho. I wish I knew how to
dance the tango...

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

mr gary · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Bangkok

Wow, the 'piropo' sounds like something from the Dark Ages. Obviously not something that a sophisticated British Gent would ever attempt.
Here in Bangkok there are 2 main places to go if you want to meet nice girls. The first is in the bars, the second is everywhere else. Basically, just leave the apartment.
But surely there are girls in Latin America who are tired of the machismo and appreciate a more refined approach? Perhaps girls who like sitting in cafes, wearing glasses, reading high-brow literature? Girls who are thrilled by discourse on the correct usage of the present perfect continuous tense?

Unrelatedly, how's the dental care in BsAs? My teeth are a disgrace.

carlos-england · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 12:56 pm Post subject:

You'll be fine Mr Gary, but it helps if you know
Spanish of course. People may beg to differ but
if you want success with girls in Argentina you will
need to know the basic rudiments of Spanish.

So if you are new to Spanish you'll be having a
lot of lonely nights in your apartment but as soon
as the yo hablo espanol picks up (and it tends to accelerate pretty quickly)
I reckon you will get your share.

I don't know about dental care... I reckon if you can't get
your teeth done in Bangkok then you won't be making any great
savings in Buenos Aires...

PS: Guy... I tend to move in the nice intelligent circles
which cover every class and race... I have nothing to
do with stuck up, thick, halfwits whatever their social standing
maybe. As a keen observer of Argentine society I pick up
on things that may be of help to newcomers.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

REDLEY · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 3:55 pm Post subject:

Don�t be concerned about being macho or not...just chill out and act the way you like/are...I think you wont have any problems here.

Ladies like sensitive foreigners males too, I heard females friends complain that locals try to undress them even before knowing their name. So the high brow literature reading strategy might work excellent.

Have fun!.

mr gary · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Bangkok

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll shave the 'tache and forget about the chest wig.

Do any of you ESL ladies have any comments on the culture?

YanquiQuilme�o · Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 122 Location: Quilmes, Argentina

I don't think you need to worry about being macho here in Argentina. Be yourself.

sheena maclean · Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:21 pm Post subject:

YanquiQuilme�o???
Hmmmm.... who could you be I wonder??? Is this your new moniker Johnny?? Laughing

Ackerley81 · Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Posts: 49

Let's see..What are my thoughts about the macho-ness of the guys here? I think it's more amusing than anything. Definitely not sexy. The mullet, the open shirt/chest hair combination, the mod sunglasses, the ever absurd piropos...It's not doing it for me. I think it's when they're not trying that they actually catch my eye. For example, a group of shirtless Latinos playing futbol in the park. WOOOO.

Sarah

amy1982 · Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 192 Location: Buenos Aires

lol and ditto on sarah's response.

as far as the piropo, i think it's also worth mentioning that very few guys actually get girls with a piropo alone. it's so common that it's more like a social game. the guys are supposed to do it (more to show off than anything else) and the girls are supposed to completely ignore it or roll their eyes and act all annoyed.

it's similar to the US social ritual of a female passing a construction site and getting all sorts of catcalls. we fluster at it, but if it didn't happen, we'd wonder why they didn't do it...

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

I second that the girls will like you for what you are not. They will be happy that you are not macho. You don't even need to act sophisticated. Of course I think the success with girls depends where you are at. I think in BA, from what I heard that you will not have girls running after you like other places. Most people there look European so you will just look similar as opposed to Peru or some areas of Brazil.

boomonde · Joined: 16 Jan 2006 Posts: 14

Okay, call me jaded but to be honest, as a woman, I am looking forward to meeting macho men! Having been in Japan too long, men who can lift more weights then me at the gym are always appreciated. And at the risk of seeming catty, my opinion is that some of the cheesiest men I have met have been the gaijen men in Asia, not the latinos in Spain: some of the English Teachers in Asia cant get a girlfriend in thier own country and then the women fall all over them in Japan and it goes to thier heads! Perhaps this is the basis for your worries..... Wink

(Although to be honest, the more attractive ones dont seem to be that bad, maybe they are used to the attention)

What I would like to hear from is the ladies: how is it in Buenos Aires for women? Are the men more sexist then should be expected? Are there a lot of cuties or what? I personally am jazzed to find out and not worried at all about the offense, lord knows it cant be worse there then it is in Japan.

And I agree with Carlos who said Tango is macho!
[The tango? I think it is macho. I wish I knew how to
dance the tango...]

carlos-england · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:55 pm Post subject:

The Tango is very macho. Argentine men are macho, even
the ones who have long hair and that 5 day stubble look.

One thing is most people are quite thin. I felt like the incredible
hulk out there. If the blokes are good looking are not is depending
on taste as they come in certain styles that haven't been seen in
Europe since the late 1980s early 1990s. But macho they certainly
are...