English slags abroad
The phenomenon of English slags abroad is widely accepted/tolerated. There are programmes in the UK dedicated to this behaviour, documenting the crazy conquests of vulgar sex maniacs as they down too many vodka red bulls and sleep with any man they can get their hands on.
What I didn’t expect was to witness the same behaviour in Argentina. How naive I was.
I’d signed up for a sunset horse ride tour with a group of friends I’d met in Chile and travelled to Mendoza with. It sounded romantic and relaxing.
After a bumpy ride on the back of one of the tallest horses I’ve ever come across, during which time I had to master the skill of trotting down steep hills with the reigns in one hand and my digital SLR in the other, we returned to the ranch to enjoy a beautiful lightning storm and BBQ.
As we waited for the meat to cook, I overheard Tracey*, an overweight, loud-mouthed pommie, telling her friend she wanted to marry one of the ‘cowboy’ brothers who’d been our guides on the ride. She asked us how to say ‘Will you marry me?’ in Spanish, and I gave her the lingo.
Daniel in his beret…
Two minutes later, Daniel, the eligible ranch boy, wandered by and her friend piped up, ‘My friend has a question she wants to ask you!’
I cringed as Tracey racked her brains for the right phrase, before sheepishly proclaiming in English ‘I was going to ask you to marry me.’
Daniel took it pretty well. He shouted to his friend that he was engaged and I thought ‘Good on him for humouring her.’
The next couple of hours, we had the most amazing BBQ of tender beef sandwiches and drank from 5-litre bottles of local wine.
Then one of the local Argentinian guys announced that there was a newly engaged couple in the house. We all played along and clapped, then some moderately inebriated individuals started chanting that they should kiss.
My first shock came when Daniel launched in and gave Tracey a full-on snog.
Next, the local guy called the happy couple over and pretended to marry them in quite an elaborate ceremony, during which other locals threw rice out of the kitchen window to act as confetti.
Keeping with the pretence, the couple took to the floor for their first dance while another local guy played his guitar and sang local music. We all clapped along, and Daniel did some great line dancing moves, kicking his cowboy boots in the dust.
As the couple waved and disappeared round the corner, we all laughed at the idea that they might consummate their marriage, but the laughter died down, and the couple didn’t return for 30 minutes!
It seemed Tracey had got exactly what she wanted!
We sat in the moonlight chatting to our new friends until a little after midnight. People started to head for the minibus, but Tracey stayed to one side, thanking us for attending her wedding. She never did get on the bus. But minutes after we left, a horse rode by, bearing the couple bareback, with bottles tied to its tail.
Tracey had pulled.
The whole experience was pretty amusing to witness, but what made the whole thing better (or worse depending on how you look at it) is that we told this story to some friends in the park a couple of days later. This prompted my friend to remember a promiscuous girl she’d seen in her hostel in Salta just days earlier who’d hooked up with a guy within minutes of meeting him and gone on to have full-on sex in the corridor that separated the bar from the toilet block.
We sympathised with our friend for having to witness such crude behaviour, before it dawned on us that the description of the perpetrator was strikingly similar.
A quick showing of photos later confirmed that it was the same Tracey who’d been the star of both stories.
Way to go Tracey! You’ve made yourself quite a reputation among the backpacking community, and made me just that little bit more ashamed to be British.
* I have changed her name to protect her identity
Themocracy
I think whereever you travel you will always get girls behaving like this. I remember an Aussie girl when I went on a tour in Argentina and Brazil. For every long bus tour she bought herself a bottle of whiskey and proudly showcased it in the bus. She always ended up getting so lashed that she had sex with almost every guy on the tour. I know that because she proudly announced it. First I thought it was her age and she will grow out of it, but thinking back at it now I think some girls are just attention seekers and they are looking for approval they never got before through this way. Well this is me trying to be Dr Freud anyway. :-)
TammyOnTheMove recently posted..A nation is mourning – attending King Norodom Sihanouk’s funeral
Wow. That girl you travelled with sounds like a nightmare! I’m enjoying your psychological analysis :)
Wow…. I usually just shrug this stuff off as a side effect of alcohol. But yikes! Can we say self esteem issues?!
There’s no shame either in being British, if it’s one thing backpackers understand its that the actions of one (or few) don’t represent the many.
Hmmmm, who knows. Maybe a bit of both. I agree with your last comment though. You meet all types of people from every country. I still hate it when one of my own lets the side down though :)
Hi Ari,
I read your blog regularly and, for the most part, think that it’s a very well-written and interesting account of your extensive travels. However, reading this particular post has left me feeling disappointed, disheartened and quite angry. I’m not too sure if you’re familiar with the term ‘slut-shaming’* but that’s exactly the purpose this blog post has served. I find it pretty depressing that you’ve chosen to dedicate a whole blog post to this ‘Tracey’ character, simply because she’s acted in a manner which you’ve deemed as unacceptably promiscuous. Why is she any worse than the ‘cowboy’ who accepted her advances? If it was the other way around and Daniel had been the one pestering ‘Tracey’, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.
I really don’t mean for this to be a personal attack in any way as I understand that the degradation of women is an intrinsic feature in society at the moment. However, I hate to see someone as intelligent as yourself perpetuate and spread the highly poisonous idea that women should be shamed for being sexually liberal whilst men are rewarded for it! Ironically, I too hate it when ‘one of my own’ let’s the side down…. :(
*Put in the most simple terms, slut-shaming happens when a person “publicly or privately [insults] a woman because she expressed her sexuality in a way that does not conform with patriarchal expectations for women” (Kat, Slut-Shaming vs. Rape Jokes). It is enabled by the idea that a woman who carries the stigma of being a slut — ie. an “out-of-control, trampy female” — is “not worth knowing or caring about” (Tanenbaum, p. 240).
I’m sorry to have offended you and I appreciate your feedback. I do see where you’re coming from. I guess I was aiming for a light-hearted account of an amusing evening and shouldn’t have been so opinionated. I didn’t want to shame an individual, which is why I protected her identity, but in hindsight perhaps I shouldn’t have made out that how she’d behaved was wrong. I do appreciate that everyone is entitled to do whatever they like. Although having said that, such public displays of affection are a little inconsiderate when they make people feel uncomfortable. I realise public hookups happen a lot in hostels, and I’m no prude, but it’s still awkward for the people who have to witness it. I agree that women shouldn’t be chastised for being sexually liberal and it does seem that people are still more judgemental of women than men despite this being the 21st century. I didn’t mean to insinuate that she was more ‘in the wrong’ than him. I hope you continue to follow my blog and I will take your comments on board.