Who controls the streets?: Piropos in Buenos Aires : women's experiences and interpretations

This research study analyzes the use of piropos as a dominant part of Buenos Aires street culture. Piropos are locally defined as advances made by male strangers toward women in the public sphere, and they typically include: following, staring, unsolicited sexual/romantic comments and physical contact. Although these amorous or sexually expressive advances have been historically viewed as harmless, the local development of anti-piropo campaigns in Buenos Aires indicates that this flirtatious public act is more damaging than previously recognized. The current debate in Buenos Aires concerning the use of piropos in public has rendered this social practice worthy of investigation. Throughout this study, I examine women’s experiences with and interpretations of piropos by utilizing participant observation, surveys, focus groups, and semi-structured individual interviews. I explore women’s diverse emotional and verbal responses to these interactions, and I analyze how the use of piropos has impacted some women’s sense of wellbeing and security in the public realm. In order to demonstrate the effect of piropos on women’s daily lives in the public sphere, I examine the ways in which women alter their behavior in order to avoid piropos. Furthermore, this investigation examines how piropos are often interpreted by female recipients as a public display of gender-based power differences. Thus, I argue that piropos are consistently used to reflect and sustain machismo, and they consequently restrict women’s equal access to public spaces in Buenos Aires. The quantitative and qualitative data presented throughout this thesis unveil the weighty ramifications of a social practice that has often been overlooked.