Draft #2 - How I Met Your Mother

Have you ever seen the show How I Met Your Mother? It is one of the funniest shows on the planet. It is about five friends as they struggle with the ups and downs of adult life. They deal with work problems, relationship problems, friend problems, and anything else you can possibly think of. They live in New York and go to the same bar pretty much every night. One of the characters’ name is Barney Stinson. Barney is played by Neil Patrick Harris and he is the typical Neil Patrick Harris role. He is a womanizer who can’t have enough sex and always gets the girl. In my opinion, he is the most sexist character in all of television. But, the funny thing is that none of the other main characters ever say anything to him about it, or tell him off for it. They all just assume its Barney being Barney and they go along with it.

Every single girl that Barney picks up in the bar, or on the street, or at work, or wherever else he meets them, is portrayed as a dumb girl who would fall for any pick up line in the book. They are never smart enough to see that this is just some random guys who wants nothing more than to have sex. Or if they are able to see that, they are just as sex hungry as he is and don’t care at all. Not only is that how Barney sees them, but that is how all viewers see them as well, pulling the “male gaze” into effect. During the show, we are put into Barney’s shoes and we look as the situation from his point of view. This means that we are all Barney, creeping on his next victim, and because of that, it makes us think like Barney. We see her as a game that needs to be played and a challenge that has to be conquered, making us just sexist as he is. The “male gaze” is powerful and the fact that most of pop culture is shown through the male gaze makes it seem like it is okay in real life situations.

In one episode, Barney even gives another character a tour of his apartment. He highlights all of the things about his apartment that make women want to leave once he is done with them. He talks about how he only had one towel in the bathroom, one pillow on the bed, no food in the fridge, no coffee, and a huge collection of porn that is prominently displayed on his wall like a collection of books. Barney is very forward about all of these little things that make women leave him after he hooks up with them. It is unbelievable how Barney doesn’t even try to hide the fact that he wants nothing to do with them after they hook up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqsyLmgcU0E

In this first clip, Barney sits down with Ted at the bar. He is complaining about how it is getting colder outside, so girls are starting to wear sweaters instead of short skirts, tank tops, and sun dresses. He goes into a list of some riddles that he wants Ted to answer. Even though Ted is trying to do other things, all Barney can think about is the girls and their sun dresses. But, the kicker is that after Ted starts talking about a girl sitting at the bar Barney calls dibs on her because he thinks she hot, even though Ted was there first. This clip shows how Barney’s mind is always on girls, and seeing them and wanting them, no matter who is around or what is going on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7ZVEvxSR7g&NR=1

This clip is a perfect example of Barney and all he has to offer. All of these tricks clearly demonstrate his lack of chivalry and lack of any sort of gentlemanliness. It is easy to see how the producers of How I Met Your Mother purposefully characterized the random girls as stupid and very naïve. In the narration, Barney even mentions at one point that you have to “select your target, preferably a girl with a real nice phone”. It doesn’t matter who the girl is as long as she has what he needs to trick her, such as a nice phone. Through this playbook, you can see Barney for the sexist, single-minded man he truly is.

Throughout the episodes, Barney is openly sexist and even has “The Bro Code”, which is his Declaration of Independence that he always follows and makes his friends follow as well. It is the most demining book on the face of the planet, even if it isn’t real. At points, Barney’s sexism and outright lack of sensitivity for the entire female species is funny. But, other times, the writers of How I Met Your Mother take it way too far and need to stop.