Gender Stereotypes in HIMYM

The TV show How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that started airing on September 19, 2005. The show follows the protagonist, Ted Mosby, and his group of four other friends living in New York City. How I Met Your Mother shows many stories of the twenty-somethings as Ted tells them to his children in the year 2030. In this American TV show, many stereotypes about gender are supported, which is why it is a false story.

How I Met Your Mother supports many gender stereotypes, one of them being that the male characters have more successful and higher-paid jobs. Ted is an architect, Marshall is a lawyer, and Barney is a business man. In contrast, Lily is a kindergarten teacher and Robin is a struggling news anchor. The stereotype that men must be the breadwinner is supported when Marshall decides to take a higher-paid job from a company he despises, just because he wants to be able to support Lily and their family. Another gender stereotype that is shown is how men manipulate women to get them into bed. Barney uses many tricks from his ‘playbook’ to get women to sleep with him. The women he manipulates are portrayed as dumb, which also supports the stereotype that women don’t think at all when they’re attracted to a man. The show supports other gender stereotypes including Lily having a shopping addiction and Barney sleeping with over 200 women (and being praised for it).

The TV show How I Met Your Mother is just one of many works of culture that supports gender stereotypes. Stereotypes in works of culture are common and can never be completely avoided, however, the less often they appear, the more true the story becomes. The appearance of gender stereotypes in How I Met Your Mother contributes to it being an untrue story.