Troubling Gender

Pablo Vila is Professor of Sociology at Temple University. His speciality is the study of processes of social and cultural identification. He researches those processes at two locales, the U.S.-Mexico border and Argentine popular music. He is the author of seven books, including Border Identifications: Narratives of Religion, Gender, and Class on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Pablo Seman is a researcher at CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas) in Argentina and El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico. He specializes in mass culture, popular music, and the interpenetration of popular literature and religious tradition. His most recent books are Bajo Continuo: Exploraciones descentradas sobre cultura popular y masiva and (with Daniel Miguez) Entre santos cumbias y piquetes. Eloisa Martin is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. She is the editor ofCurrent Sociology and has published extensively on popular culture and popular religion in a number of international journals. Maria Julia Carozzi is tenured Professor of Anthropology in the Institute of Higher Social Studies at the National University of San Martin (Instituto de Altos Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de San Martin) and tenured researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research in Argentina (CONICET [Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas]). She is the coeditor (with Cesar Ceriani Cernadas) of Ciencias sociales y religion en America Latina: Perspectivas en debate.

"After the Mexicanization of Colombian cumbia, now the Argentines are dancing to cumbia and making it their own! Troubling Gender combines a dynamic discursive and social analysis of the explicit sexual content of the lyrics of cumbia villera with a rich, ethnographic discussion of how the young men and women dancers (dis)identify with the lyrics while enjoying the danceable rhythms. The authors' examination of the gender and sexual dynamics that this music triggers among its fans reminds us that the gender wars in Latin America are not over, despite the increasing presence of sex in media and the public space." -Frances Aparicio, author of Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures "Troubling Genderis a groundbreaking book on the relationship between gender struggle in the context of changing opportunities for men and women and the representation of violence in the cumbia villera genre. This focus enables Vila and Seman to track quite expertly the transformation of social conflicts relating to work, urban life, and gender relations into the cultural field. The authors offer not only a rich sociological reflection on the negotiation of female autonomy in the context of popular music but also an interesting analysis of the lyrics of the genre. Troubling Gender also pays attention to the context within which the songs are played and emitted, something usually left aside in the sociology and anthropology of music." -George Yudice, author of The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era "Troubling Gender offers a nuanced interpretation of the envelope-pushing sexuality associated with cumbia villera, demonstrating how its young musicians and fans are imagining and performing their identities within an unstable socioeconomic context. This is an important book with a great deal to contribute to the literature on both gender relations and Latin American popular music and dance cultures, as well as to discussions of the impact of media and economic inequalities on young people's lives." -Deborah Pacini Hernandez, author of Oye Como Va! Hybridity and Identity in Latino Popular Music (Temple)

• Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The History. Trajectory and Consolidation of the Cumbia in the Field of Argentine Music * Eloisa Martin (Translated by Pablo Vila) 2. The Lyrics 3. What Boys Have to Say 4. What Girls Have to Say Conclusion Postscript: Moving away from Name-Calling * Maria Julia Carozzi Notes References Index