Examing irony in "How to Date..."

Junot Diaz's "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl or Halfie" begins with an anecdote addressed to his audience that is humorously ironic, sympathetic and illustrative of the emasculating view of women expressed in the story. The image of the "tia" in Union City who "likes to squeeze your nuts. (He's gotten big, she'll say.)" (145) is funny enough. The aunt conflates emotional, social, intellectual and biological maturity with the size of the young man's testicles. We get it. We laugh, and we sympathize with the young man when he lies about being sick to get out of the visit. But isn't this image also disturbing? And, does it not pose older women as castrating aggressors to be avoided? By beginning the story this way we are immediately apprised of the use of irony as a tool to navigate the challenge of sexual (and romantic) fulfillment in the confusing web of intersections that are adolescent insecurity, poverty, and racial difference.

Irony is also used to undercut Yunior’s failure to have sexual contact with a woman: at the end of the story he becomes more adamant about returning the “government cheese” to the refrigerator mourning or analyzing his failed sexual exploit. Furthermore, irony is used simultaneously to reveal Yunior’s insecurities about his immigrant background and shut down any discussion thereof when he warns his readers to bring up the fact that their (his) mother recognizes the smell of tear gas because it was used when the United States invaded “your island” (146). Finally, the entire notion that an audience of sexually deprived readers are absorbing this how-to manual is somewhat ironic considering Yunior does fail in the end, and his examples are consistently specific to his own situation…which may help to create solidarity with his readers, though it may just as easily turn of prospective readers.

In "Sheep and Goats Together," Professor King writes: Notwithstanding characters and stories that contradict or complicate stereotypes, Diaz's tongue-in-cheek story and Laferriere's satire readers to laugh at and not with the characters, generally reinforcing stereotypes...Examining these texts and interrogating the possible responses creates discursive and critical spaces where different readings can speak to each other, exploring the status and effect of racial and sexual stereotypes while working towards the deconstruction of these powerful myths and the real effects they can have on people" (243). I like Professor King's statement here in light of the notion that different readings of this complicated text interact in order to marry (pun intended) the potentially contradicting elements (ie, humor vs. misogyny) into a richer understanding of Yunior's psyche as he narrates this story. King calls Diaz’s story “tongue-in-cheek,” and it is exactly this deliberate use of irony that I find so fascinatingly disruptive when trying to decide exactly what Yunior’s intentions are. Does he really intend to “date” (which, as he uses it, seems to encompass the purely romantic and purely sexual and everything in between) with a “browngirl, blackgirl, whitegirl or halfie”? Or his he trying to deal with his anxiety about failing to successfully date any of these women by controlling the information we, as his readers, are given about said failure? What do you make of the mix of humorous irony, racial stereotype, and insecurity at play in this story? Does the humor, if you indeed find yourself laughing, make the stereotype more palatable? Do the stereotypes and moments of insecurity, especially those stemming from Yunior’s anxiety over his financial status, make the humor obsolete? Or, does the humor, as a method of sharing controversial information in a potentially hostile environment, allow us to gain greater sympathy for a character who might otherwise seem unsympathetic?

I think the irony, especially if we consider that Yunior does not really expect this to be read by other males of a similar socioeconomic status to be reading this with baited breath, is a successful, though familiar technique, for parsing anxiety amidst adolescent sexual desire.