Tits & Ass
Argentinian girls are hot.
I don't think so, mind. At least, I don't think they are any hotter than your average Latina (although Venezuela and Brazil do seem to produce a well above average number of well above average looking people), but there is a cultural perception in this country that Argentinian girls are somehow a more marketable hotness.
My job sent me to my first trade show last week, accompanied by my lovely co-worker, Jose Luis, who would serve as my Spanish when the going got tough (and tough the going did get indeed sometimes).
We quickly devised a system: I did very well with the slightly smarmy 40 to 60 year old men, who would touch my elbows and invite themselves back to Canada with me, and the handsome young Jose Luis could charm the young women. We both failed at the older women, and the younger men were unpredictable.
There were a lot of booths at this trade show - well into the hundreds, with great whirring machines demonstrating industrial labelling and food dehydrating and Coke bottle filling - so we started to pick our booths based on which had the creepy old men for me and the hot young girls for Jose Luis.
Which is about when I noticed that there were a LOT of hot young girls.
Wearing very little.
But a lot of make-up and glitter.
Who would never actually talk to you when you approached, but would hand you a brochure and signal someone older and less attractive from the back.
Are they...? Did they...? At a processing and packaging trade show?
No! Seriously?
Wow.
I mean, cars I can see. And alcohol. And even travel - bikinis and beaches are a logical combination.
But that machine seals tin cans! How are bikinis and tin cans related?
I couldn't wait to tell Pavel that evening but he was hardly surprised. "It's very Latino", he said, telling me about a recent education-based trade show he worked where the hired girls were out in full force and barely any clothing.
"Denis!", I wrote excitedly to my brilliant friend, "Can you believe it?" He could, in fact, and let me in on Canada's hidden shame: the girls were common in Canada as well until a few years back, before women took to the labour force in sufficient numbers to (a) void the purpose of these girls at the trade shows, and (b) kick up enough of a fuss to eliminate them altogether.
How did I not know this? And how does this surprise me? The objectification of women and commercialization of sex is not a new concept nor one limited to Latin America.
Yet here the commodification of a woman's body as something entirely separate from her person is... normal, common, daily. Not only do trade show companies hire women to dance in lycra tube tops as a means of promoting the latest personal security gadget, billboards feature sprawled models in bikinis with their heads and/or any other identifying feature cropped out of the picture altogether. Yogurt is sold pressed between disembodied breasts. Jewelry is touted draped on detached perky asses. Luchadores (the masked wrestlers) are led in by an ever-changing roster of pneumatic bathing suited babes without names, who line up and smile and bounce as the camera focus on their artificially enhanced chests.
It irks me, of course, and some would say that I'm maybe a little bit jealous of not being quite as taut as these girls (it's probably true), but the odd offensiveness of it does go one step further...
Very VERY rarely are these girls Mexican.
In the billboards, the television commercials, the television shows, the trade shows, the lucha girl line-ups: they're almost never Mexican. "A typical Mexican girl!" is Pavel's favourite derisive snigger while watching television.
They are, almost always, Argentinian.
Is it because Argentinians tend to be a little fairer? Is it because they are the "Parisians of Latin America", and celebrated and reviled at once accordingly? What is it that makes them the desired ethnicity? Because, seriously, they're really not any more attractive than Mexican women.
And woe to the Peruvian hottie or the Brasilian bombshell or the Canadian pin-up (ahem) who wants to break into Mexican modeling world. You might find some work, if you're pretty enough, but you're more likely to find yourself in a very dodgy situations instead.
And the Russian and Eastern European goddesses? Why, there's a strip club just up the street from my house with your name on it. Leave your passport at the door.
But those skinny little Argentinian gals, they're in high demand, and so they flood into Mexico, the land of golden opportunity for residents of a country who never hope to be able to afford a place of their own, and they don the tight t-shirts required to earn between two and five thousand pesos per day as hired tits and ass.
Yes, you read that right. And to put it in perspective, remember that I currently earn eight thousand per MONTH, working 55+ hours a week.
(On a remotely related sidenote, I received a mis-sent text message a month ago saying, "Allison, I invite you to my home in Puerto Vallarta. I can promise you $1000 US a day." I wrote back, "Not Allison." He wrote back, "Are you a masseuse?" I wrote back, "No, but for $1000 US a day, I should be...")
Perhaps I am jealous that I'm not as taut as they are. Feminist peevishness aside, how nice would it be to wiggle and bounce, suffer a bit of anachronistic ogling, and earn my month's rent in a day and a half?
Except, crap, I'm Canadian.
Damn it.
I don't think so, mind. At least, I don't think they are any hotter than your average Latina (although Venezuela and Brazil do seem to produce a well above average number of well above average looking people), but there is a cultural perception in this country that Argentinian girls are somehow a more marketable hotness.
My job sent me to my first trade show last week, accompanied by my lovely co-worker, Jose Luis, who would serve as my Spanish when the going got tough (and tough the going did get indeed sometimes).
We quickly devised a system: I did very well with the slightly smarmy 40 to 60 year old men, who would touch my elbows and invite themselves back to Canada with me, and the handsome young Jose Luis could charm the young women. We both failed at the older women, and the younger men were unpredictable.
There were a lot of booths at this trade show - well into the hundreds, with great whirring machines demonstrating industrial labelling and food dehydrating and Coke bottle filling - so we started to pick our booths based on which had the creepy old men for me and the hot young girls for Jose Luis.
Which is about when I noticed that there were a LOT of hot young girls.
Wearing very little.
But a lot of make-up and glitter.
Who would never actually talk to you when you approached, but would hand you a brochure and signal someone older and less attractive from the back.
Are they...? Did they...? At a processing and packaging trade show?
No! Seriously?
Wow.
I mean, cars I can see. And alcohol. And even travel - bikinis and beaches are a logical combination.
But that machine seals tin cans! How are bikinis and tin cans related?
I couldn't wait to tell Pavel that evening but he was hardly surprised. "It's very Latino", he said, telling me about a recent education-based trade show he worked where the hired girls were out in full force and barely any clothing.
"Denis!", I wrote excitedly to my brilliant friend, "Can you believe it?" He could, in fact, and let me in on Canada's hidden shame: the girls were common in Canada as well until a few years back, before women took to the labour force in sufficient numbers to (a) void the purpose of these girls at the trade shows, and (b) kick up enough of a fuss to eliminate them altogether.
How did I not know this? And how does this surprise me? The objectification of women and commercialization of sex is not a new concept nor one limited to Latin America.
Yet here the commodification of a woman's body as something entirely separate from her person is... normal, common, daily. Not only do trade show companies hire women to dance in lycra tube tops as a means of promoting the latest personal security gadget, billboards feature sprawled models in bikinis with their heads and/or any other identifying feature cropped out of the picture altogether. Yogurt is sold pressed between disembodied breasts. Jewelry is touted draped on detached perky asses. Luchadores (the masked wrestlers) are led in by an ever-changing roster of pneumatic bathing suited babes without names, who line up and smile and bounce as the camera focus on their artificially enhanced chests.
It irks me, of course, and some would say that I'm maybe a little bit jealous of not being quite as taut as these girls (it's probably true), but the odd offensiveness of it does go one step further...
Very VERY rarely are these girls Mexican.
In the billboards, the television commercials, the television shows, the trade shows, the lucha girl line-ups: they're almost never Mexican. "A typical Mexican girl!" is Pavel's favourite derisive snigger while watching television.
They are, almost always, Argentinian.
Is it because Argentinians tend to be a little fairer? Is it because they are the "Parisians of Latin America", and celebrated and reviled at once accordingly? What is it that makes them the desired ethnicity? Because, seriously, they're really not any more attractive than Mexican women.
And woe to the Peruvian hottie or the Brasilian bombshell or the Canadian pin-up (ahem) who wants to break into Mexican modeling world. You might find some work, if you're pretty enough, but you're more likely to find yourself in a very dodgy situations instead.
And the Russian and Eastern European goddesses? Why, there's a strip club just up the street from my house with your name on it. Leave your passport at the door.
But those skinny little Argentinian gals, they're in high demand, and so they flood into Mexico, the land of golden opportunity for residents of a country who never hope to be able to afford a place of their own, and they don the tight t-shirts required to earn between two and five thousand pesos per day as hired tits and ass.
Yes, you read that right. And to put it in perspective, remember that I currently earn eight thousand per MONTH, working 55+ hours a week.
(On a remotely related sidenote, I received a mis-sent text message a month ago saying, "Allison, I invite you to my home in Puerto Vallarta. I can promise you $1000 US a day." I wrote back, "Not Allison." He wrote back, "Are you a masseuse?" I wrote back, "No, but for $1000 US a day, I should be...")
Perhaps I am jealous that I'm not as taut as they are. Feminist peevishness aside, how nice would it be to wiggle and bounce, suffer a bit of anachronistic ogling, and earn my month's rent in a day and a half?
Except, crap, I'm Canadian.
Damn it.
Comments
You wanted to know why that woman on the bus ages ago swore at you? Because you've got what she wants, and you can get men in Mexico that she can't.
The fact that they're generally male chauvinistic pigs, who are ultra-jealous, ultra-possessive, and consider women property doesn't bode well for their chances of landing a "western" woman. Maybe they'll have better luck with Argentinians.
Which brings us back to why those Argentinian bimbos are able to command such high rates. Because they're tight, they're taut, and they don't look Mexican enough to remind the average Mexican male that looks at them of a real Mexican woman.
What a load of hypocrisy and bollocks. Incidentally, Mexico has the largest expat population of Argentinians in the world. Mostly in Mexico City. Lucky you.
Yes, I get a bit bitter about this particular subject. Why aren't real Mexican women good enough for real Mexican men?
lots of love,
hyde
Hyde - You are also welcome, my friend. Glad to see you again!
The two issues that surprised me about Mexico when I first came here were:
1) Class division: Mexico is divided into the rich and the poor. The light brown and the dark brown. It is that simple. In Mexico, height and skin colour are very accurate indicators of earning potential and status. And it doesn't help that there seems to be a cultural campaign to marginalise the majority of people who are not tall or light. You want to do your part? Date a short dark native Mexican man, and see the reaction you get when you go somewhere a little posh.
2) Inequality between the sexes: This is probably explained by money and purchasing power, but unlike the rest of the civilised world which has made an effort to stamp our sexual discrimination, in Mexico it is active! For example, if you look in the classifieds you will see jobs: "Female secretary, between 20 and 25, presentable." WHAT THE FUCK!? Where is the bloody qualification? The age? The sex? The appearance? Of course, it's even more frustrating because you'll never see this ad: "Middle-aged executive. White, educated, and willing to make a bundle." Those jobs rarely leave the Casinos, Domino nights, strip clubs.
I'm sure you've seen those women (they're always women) dressed in the white jeans, and white t-shirts, selling cellular phones for Telcel? Keep your eye out, and I'll pay your next phone bill if you find one that actually looks Mexican. What's worse, when you're paying your bill, look at the people behind the counter in the Telcel store, and notice how the hiring policies are geared (even in these low-level jobs) towards the more successful stereotype.
Subcomandante Marcos I think embodies this division, but in a good way. It would be difficult to justify fighting for Indigenous rights when you're a whitish, tall Mexican, but he does it anyway. Try to imagine this happening anywhere else? Pretend if Malcolm X was white, or Nelson Mandela?
(Another subject I get bitter about :)