I found this work of Diaz's very entertaining as well as a bit perverted. This appears to be a straight forward guide on how to date pretty much a girl from any ethnic group. What I find so mind blowing is how sex driven this is, Ive seen other books that say dating advice in the sense of giving pointers like opening the door for her at the restaurant and such. This however is more focused on how likely things will get sexual depending on the girls race as well as to what degree you should try to woo her depending on her being local or not as well. I found it kind of odd that he would say that if she is local just a fast food joint would be enough whereas if she isn't a local you have to amp things up by going to a better restaurant.
I found the part about the nemesis interesting too that you don't do a thing and that the woman would react in one of a few ways depending on being local or not. I found what was said that if you lose a fight on a first date then its all over to be real cliche of male ego and appearing weak to a woman if beaten in battle. Last but not least toward the end when its said that either she would go all the way or be completely standoffish to be a bit stereotypical, not necessarily false but stereotypical nonetheless.
It kind of irked me to read the part where if you did get lucky lets say, that you should call your boys and talk about it as one of the things to possibly do after. I find that really distasteful, I mean that by itself to me, a guy doing that means he has little respect for the girl. That all she is a trophy to him and that getting her to put out was him winning it and talking about it his way to show off the cup. Frankly as amusing as the story is, the fact that the whole thing seems to achieve the goal of getting laid at least in my view I think this is the top goal, I think this is very sexist in the sense that guys only see women as a conquest and to be victorious is to claim a woman as his prize. To me that is what this story truly tells over just how to go on a date.
I found this story very interesting. When I started off reading this story, I automatically thought to myself, “This boy must be a player.” He obviously knows his way around these girls and at such a young age too, but then as I read on I realized that maybe he has to know how these girls operate. Maybe that’s now he was raised, the neighborhood he was born in maybe taught him that that was socially acceptable to want sex with these girls. It’s crazy to think that children at a young age are becoming exposed to things like sex and drugs, it shows how much the world has changed since the olden days.
ReplyDeleteTo the comment above me I do find that the mind set of this boy is atrocious but I don't think this has real hard correlation to the olden days. The real reason this boy is as fucked up as he is, is because of his financial status. The boy most likely lives in some kind of ghetto or poor side of town. By being of such status we can assume how uneducated he is along with his friends. There are generally poor people in every society and when your life is lived not knowing if you'll have food today or tomorrow or having enough money to pay the light bill the only "good" thing you could have that wouldn't necessarily need money for is sex. I mean we all like sex but unfortunately this is one of his goals due to where society has put him.
ReplyDeleteThis is somewhat sexist and maybe a little racist. The way he generalizes the behaviors of women from certain races is kind of a "know it all" mentality that not everyone can enjoy. I agree with Christopher's comment in saying that the writing included elements of stereotyping. Also, I have to agree with the way Chris said that calling up your dude friends and bragging about the sex you've recently had is distasteful. I cant stand it when I hear that coming from a guys mouth in public. I don't feel the need to describe every detail about every time I have an interaction with the opposite sex except for when I'm with my very closest friends and the subject comes up. Even then, It would have to be a private environment for me to let loose like that and tell of my most epic experiences. Some guys just need to compensate for their low self esteem by having sex with as many girls as they can and tell all their friends about each time it happens. So lame
ReplyDeleteAlthough this story was a bit racist by generalizing what each race of women, I thought it was a very interesting story. The author expressed his thoughts really well and shared his experiences openly to the audience. However I didn't like the fact that he was trying to hide his race. He told the girl that he loved him more than he ever loved himself; he hid his picture with the afro. I thought this was very sad. He sounded so open to what kind of girls that he'd date, but he feels uncomfortable or maybe even ashamed of himself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the story being extremely sexist and racist, but really is that such a bad thing in a sense that he's just taking advantage of the hand he's dealt and the people who let themselves be taken advantage of? He's getting what he wants and he's just being completely honest with how he's doing it. When trying to "pick up" someone you are going to generalize them if the stereotype fits. this boy has obviously experience many girls and many types. He's just showing us what he's learned first hand.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Julian when he says “The real reason this boy is as fucked up as he is, is because of his financial status.” There are clues to this at the beginning of the story this boy says to hide the government cheese… at first I didn’t understand but then I assumed it was cheese purchased with food stamps. Followed by “Put the basket of crapped-on toilet paper under the sink” and spray it with Lysol. Like why don’t they just throw it out to begin with or flush it? He has got to be in a bad situation or a ghetto scene. Also, the family members go out to visit their aunt, not out to see a movie.
ReplyDeleteEverything points to a certain kind of up-bringing and I think this is why the way he is.
The story is a little sexist and racist. Racist because him being Mexican and poor.(I'm upper class Mexican)I agree with this blog. Sexist because he seemed to not really care about the girl's feelings or anything else at all for that matter. This was how to date someone, not how to get laid or one night stands. He also brags to his friends about getting laid then rather talking about a good conversation between them instead. This is where I agree on the trophy part as well because it seems like he just won the Olympics for getting laid. A girl is not a trophy, they deserve more than that.
ReplyDelete