Patriarchy and Gender Stereotypes on How I Met Your Mother - Essay Example

Sexism, Patriarchy and Gender Stereotypes on How I Met Your Mother Sexism, Patriarchy and Gender Stereotypes on How I Met Your Mother Sexism Sexism can be examined as prejudiced or discriminatory behavior based on sex. Sexism is especially manifested when individuals exhibit discriminating prejudicial attitude against persons because of their sex orientation. Sexism has been expressed widely by different characters in the show how I met your mother. The characters who exhibit sexism widely in the show are Barney Stinson, the Eriksen family, Lily, and Marshall. Barney’s manipulation and objectification of women for the sexual purpose and egocentric satisfaction express his perception of women. His behavior is not always challenged by the other characters in the narration, in fact, they actively participate with Barney in his endeavors occasionally betting whether he will succeed in bedding a woman or not. The notion of whether this kind of sexism is tolerable or acceptable is not even questionable in the show. Barney brands women to be products that are usable and have expiration dates (imdb.com 2009). The women Barney interacts with are also portrayed as naïve, painting the encounters as somewhat horrific too – it is almost obvious that all women will fall for his manipulative tricks and charms. Barney character is portrayed is ‘theory expert of women’, he claims a lot of assumptions concerning women. Women in the show do not project distinct personalities save for the main characters, and they are naïve enough not to realize when someone is deliberately manipulating them (BAYS & THOMAS 2005). The main female characters in the show actively partake in Barney’s objectification of other female characters. This is because of the basing of their roles to be bias on the male side. They are more identifiable with the other male companions than other female characters. The Ericksen family is portrayed as sexist, they hold a strong belief in the superiority of the male gender over the female (imdb.com 2009). This concept is exhibited by Marshall Father’s pride in his sons. He is proud of the Erickson lineage for furthering the male population. When Marshall and Lily try to conceive a baby, he advocates for them to try and have a male child and not a female one (BAYS & THOMAS 2005). He advises Marshall on different ways to conceive a male child. An example is advising Marshall to place a pillow on Lily’s back and avoidance of eating a lemon. A firm conviction that he regards the male sex to be superior to the female sex. Lily also expresses sexism in the play. In lily’s bid to have a baby, she practices some techniques (obtained from the internet) that she believes will help her conceive a female child. These manifestations show that sexism is not only practiced by male characters in the show (imdb.com 2009). The whole thematic set of the narration is focused on prejudicial sexism, with one sex portraying out rightly how the other sex is inferior. Patriarchy Patriarchy refers to a social system where males’ gender is viewed to hold and wield the primary power. Males prevail in roles allocation and wield more power than the female sex. Social privilege, property control, Moral authority and decision-making is vested in the male figure (WALBY 1990). The type of set up is characterized by female oppression and female disadvantageousness. Patriarchy is widely evident in the narration. The set ups which demonstrate Patriarchy in the narration include the relationship between Robbin and Ted, and the Ericksen family set up. Over the narration, Ted and Robin basically have been everything to each other. The two people are portrayed to be in love but cannot maintain a relationship. They date briefly and break up quickly that they are able to be friends after the relationship (imdb.com 2009). They are broken up and act less than amicable concerning the relationship with each pointing out the other as the faulty person. They date other people but still yearn to be together. Patriarchy is evident as amongst the reasons that led to their break up. Robin is portrayed in the narration as a confident and independent woman through the series plot, with an occasional concession in her principles. Robin states several times that she is not interested in getting married and having kids. She is even unenthusiastic at first to the idea of dating Ted, as Ted’s goals in life are to marry eventually and settle down with kids in the picture (BAYS & THOMAS 2005). This difference in opinion somehow forms part of the underlying reasons that leads to their breakup. The patriarchal elements in the concept that leads to the break up is rooted in Robin’s strong will and principles. Robin does not play subject to the societal concept of male domination over the female in a relationship. She is unwilling to concede on some principles to maintain a relationship because of her strong will. Later on Robin breaks up with another character Kevin after Kevin proposed to her and realized that she is not willing to have children in life. The portrayal of Robin as a strong willed person who defies the societal set up of patriarchy makes her unable to have functional relationships with men who have dissimilar opinions from her. The Ericksen family hold the opinion of men wielding more power than women. The Ericksen family decisions are made by Mashall’s father, who is the head of the family. The father instills the patriarchal ideologies on his son Marshall that he is supposed head the family and take control of things, implying that Marshall should be the sole decision maker in the family (imdb.com 2009). Gender stereotypes Gender stereotypes refer to simplistic generalizations of gender attributes and roles of people or groups. Gender stereotyping is also widely evident in the narration. Marshall Eriksen character perpetuates and challenges gender stereotypes (BASOW 1992). Despite him possessing a husky appearance (average expectation he is supposed to be brave and strong) he is not ashamed of expressing his emotions, which helps build up the plot of the narration. His masculine male role appears as he is portrayed as the breadwinner of their family (RUDMAN and GLICK 2001). Barney Stinson offers a lot of comic content to the narration while on his relentless quests for bedding women. Barney Stinson fits into contemporary corporate image culture, probably in a similar manner of the corporate workforce, because of the glamourized figures of beauty portrayed in the media. Barney Stinson is obsessed with suits and always looks polished, and he feels scanty when not wearing formal attire. One of Barney Stinson’s “manly” qualities is the idea that he is driven by wealth and pride, thus always seeking relevance and power in the workplace (BAYS & THOMAS 2005). Barney Stinson’s hyper-sexuality is a source of a thrill for the audience. His sex issues are likely to shoot from lack of a father figure in his life. From the desire to conquer New York with his perceived sexual powers. Numerous episodes of the narration point out the fact that Barney Stinson has laid with more than 200 women in his life. From the man maker in season two to Robin in season four. With Barney Stinson’s character profile in question, it is notable that his sexual explorations are perceivable as comic and acceptable according to the contemporary age, on the other hand a woman who admits to sleeping with more than 200 people would be viewed as a prostitute even in the show (STEREOTYPING 1988). It is assumable that the character of an adult who does not have desires for marriage and children can only be delegated to a male. As with many Hollywood scripts, women are portrayed as to be vulnerable and fall in love with hopes of fairy tale endings. Robin Scherbatsky, contrarily is controversial to the ordinary perception. She expresses explicitly that she is not interested in being a mother, a trait that is unnatural is considerable as unnatural for women. Robin Scherbatsky is career-driven, constantly in debating finding love against her career. Generally, these perceptions appears to take a masculine stand approach to family and commitment. Robin Scherbatsky’s role in the narration seems to defy the societal stereotype of women being weak and vulnerable (imdb.com 2009). Bibliography BASOW, S. A. (1992). Gender: Stereotypes and roles . Thomson Brooks/Cole Publishing Co. BAYS, C., & THOMAS, C. (2005). How i met your mother. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Episode Narration.(2009) (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460649/episodes PHARR, S. (2007). Homophobia as a weapon of sexism. Race, class, and gender in the United States, 168-77. PREJUDICE, R. (1962). Racial prejudice, interpersonal attraction, and assumed dissimilarity of attitudes. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 65(4), 246-253. PRENTICE, D. A., & CARRANZA, E. (2002). What women and men should be, shouldn’t be, are allowed to be, and don’t have to be: The contents of prescriptive gender stereotypes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26(4), 269-281. RADWAY, J. A. (1991). Reading the romance: Women, patriarchy, and popular literature. Univ of North Carolina Press. RUDMAN, L. A., & GLICK, P. (2001). Prescriptive gender stereotypes and backlash toward agentic women. Journal of social issues, 57(4), 743-762. STEREOTYPING, P. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. The handbook of social psychology, 2, 357. THORNICROFT, G., ROSE, D., KASSAM, A., & SARTORIUS, N. (2007). Stigma: ignorance, prejudice or discrimination?. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 190(3), 192-193. WALBY, S. (1990). Theorizing patriarchy (pp. 136-137). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Read More