In search of beauty in Buenos Aires

By Daniel Schweimler BBC News, Buenos Aires

Argentines often claim to be the world's most beautiful people. The BBC's Daniel Schweimler tries to keep up with their regime, but wonders if they are simply vain.

The beautiful people are working away in Buenos Aires' gyms

I have just joined a gym in downtown Buenos Aires - five floors of sweaty, muscle-pumping, stomach-toning, buttock-tightening office workers at it from seven in the morning until 10 at night.

It is not easy to join the ranks of the beautiful people but a fair number of portenos - as the people of Buenos Aires call themselves - seem to have made it. And don't they know it!

There is a constant cluster of men in front of the full-length mirror in the changing room quite unashamedly admiring themselves before they return to work.

I choke through a cloud of deodorant as I slink out and I'm sure I detect a couple of disapproving glances at my rather worn jeans and less than perfectly ironed shirt.

A few years ago, the national football team's manager told his players to get their hair cut or be dropped from the squad

I noticed when I arrived in Argentina in the middle of the southern-hemisphere summer that people during their lunch breaks would occupy any available public space and twist themselves into the most contorted positions to sunbathe.

I soon realised they were trying to expose to the midday sun that difficult spot on the side of the neck or inside of the right thigh that did not conform to the uniform, all-over tan that had been assiduously developed over the preceding months.

A few years ago, the national football team's manager told his players to get their hair cut or be dropped from the squad.

He said their game was suffering as they spent too much time flicking their locks into place for the cameras. Most complied, but not all of them.

Beauty parade

At the weekend, Argentines go out very late. It is not unusual to leave the house at midnight or after.

On my first visit to the country I was told by my hosts that they would start preparing to leave at about eight.

Five minutes later, my teeth cleaned, a check to see that my socks matched and my shirt buttons were done up correctly, I was ready to hit the town.

Having spent so long getting ready, it is then important to be noticed

Three hours later, and fed up waiting, I was asleep. Two hours after that, the family was ready and woke me to leave.

Having spent so long getting ready, it is then important to be noticed and many revellers simply parade from one venue to another.

Feminists here have a hard time arguing that piropos - as the suggestive comments building site workers direct at passing women are called - are not something to be encouraged.

One study found that 68.9% of Argentines agreed that their men worry too much about how they look.

The same percentage agreed that Argentine women are the most beautiful in the world.

Historic obsession

The capital city is adorned with endless clothes shops, more lingerie stores than I have ever seen and more plastic surgeons than you could wave a scalpel at. Some even have offices in the swankier shopping malls.

Argentines are not short of stylish and beautiful role models

History goes some way to explaining Argentines' obsession with their looks.

Huge numbers of Italians emigrated to Argentina and they brought their famous fashion sense with them.

Throw in the Spanish influence and a little dash of the British polo-playing classes for good measure and you have a recipe for style.

Role models include the great 1920s tango singer Carlos Gardel, with his hat carefully set at a rakish angle and his immaculate three-piece suit.

The 1940s president Juan Peron also liked a well-pressed suit, but more of the military variety, being a great admirer of the then Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini.

And then there was Peron's young wife, Evita, who was style personified across Argentina and beyond.

Eating disorders

Argentines are under enormous pressure to look good, but the downside is that the number of people suffering from eating disorders is one of the highest in the world, especially among teenage girls.

Job-seekers who are deemed to be overweight claim they are discriminated against.

All this dieting, exercise and grooming comes to a climax each summer on the beaches of the Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este where the rich and beautiful Argentines go to display themselves.

I had to ask myself whether being surrounded by the beautiful people had infected me with narcissism

As one guidebook put it: "Woe betide the mere mortals, with their few extra kilos, who commit the social faux pas of heading to one of the top beaches hoping to relax with a book."

As I staggered off the treadmill after a half-an-hour workout at the gym looking red and bloated and a good 10 years older than I am, I had to ask myself whether being surrounded day and night by the beautiful people of Buenos Aires had infected me with an unhealthy dose of narcissism.

Should I keep working at it and hope to one day push my way proudly through the crowd to show off my expanding biceps in the changing room mirror?

But I have heard there is another side to Argentine life I should investigate, which centres around huge meat dinners, fine wines and the kind of cakes that leave you salivating outside the pastry shop window.

Now, where did I leave that gym card?

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Thursday, 4 May, 2006 at 1100 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.