Minoritizing vs. Universalizing: How I Met Your Mother
Today, comedies like How I Met Your Mother are types of representations that portray minoritizing and universalizing discourses. As Mayne explains in her article, representations often present women in the traditional “oppressive standards of feminine behavior and to image possibilities not typically available to women” (Mayne, 163) Mayne also explains how we must analyze the time period in which the representation is presented. By doing so, we understand the “assumptions of gender are represented in similar ways in very different forms” (Mayne, 162). In other words, looking at all the various comedies on television they all still present the same themes of gender, race, and sexuality although they are presented in different types of family structures or comical situations.
How I Met Your Mother centers around the main character, Ted in the year 2030 recounting to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting their mother, which explains the title and allows for a narration in the past tense. In the “Desperation Day” episode, the writer presents universalizing and minoritizing in relation to sexuality and gender.
In the opening scenes of this episode, Barney declares February 13th as a new holiday, called “Desperation Day.” This made up holiday of Barney’s points to an open interpretation of universalizing a day, that supposedly people do consider their last day to score a date for Valentines Day. Barney even says “every woman wants a date on Valentines Day. That needingness climaxes on February 13th…”
The characters’ discussion of Valentines Day also confirms the minoritizing of the holiday and the occasion with relationships on that day. There are the ideas that everyone; more specifically women have to have dates on Valentines Day to affirm societies opinions. Women have to dates on Valentines Day because it shows that they are on their way to possibly achieving the husband (also affirming heterosexuality) that everyone woman needs. Those women who are single on Valentines Day must be desperate for a man or they are ugly, troll-like women who no man would want for a date- according to Barney. The conservation also addresses the idea that all women care about Valentines Day and their relationship status on that day.
However, as Robin’s character suggests, some women want to protest Valentines Day. Robin has decided with two other co-workers to protest Valentines Day by having a girls’ night out and wearing the color purple. Valentines Day is all about wearing red and pink, so by wearing purple they are protesting the holiday. The one co-worker also mentions that the color purple stands for pride. In a universalizing view, Robin and her co-workers’ protest represents a changing view of Valentines Day. By protesting the holiday, they want to be strong, independent women who do not need men to validate their femininity or heterosexuality. Valentines Day is not just a day for lovers, but a day to celebrate friendship. It creates an open interpretation to celebrating any kind of love, friendship, etc. that a person may want to recognize on Valentines Day and not purely celebrating a heterosexual, head over heels type of love.
There is also the topic of Ted’s upcoming Valentines date night with his girlfriend (Zoey), which involves “baking cookies.” The rest of the characters suggest that “baking cookies” refers to a booty call from Zoey. They continue to suggest that man and woman have different ways or methods of reaching out for a booty call. They suggest men tend to call a girl at some odd hour in the morning, asking “whatcha ya doing?” While a female, has to make a respectable excuse to make a guy come over and have sex with them. This discussion is highly minoritzing sexuality. There is a general idea among people that men and women have different ways of approaching the each other for sex. Women have to be sneakier about the ways they ask for sex; they cannot just ask openly for sex. In the history of our society, women are thought to have moral superiority, purity, and a passionless demure. I think by picking to “bake cookies,” the writers of the show are pointing to the fact that women only want to spend their free time doing womanly things. Baking is looked at as woman’s role typically and therefore suggests Zoey is just like any other woman wanting to stay at home and perform traditional woman roles.
However, when Ted arrives at Zoey’s that night with an overnight bag because he was expecting to stay the night, she gets scared that it is too much towards committing to a serious relationship an has him leave. Later in the show, Ted realizes how freaked out he is about getting into a serious relationship. He then flies out to Minnesota, where Marshall, another character is at the present time. Ted’s flight there symbolizes his fear of commitment by running away from the problem. This is a universalizing discourse because the situation proposes that men can be scare of relationships and run away from their problems like women. Traditionally, women are seen as the ones who run away from problems and do not realize their true fear of commitment until the very last moment. At the same time, there is also a minoritizing discourse in the situation. Men are often seen as the type to never fully commitment to relationships and are scared of marriage. And women are often the ones too ready to commit and suggest the possibility of marriage before men. Nevertheless, I feel Ted’s situation is more of a universalizing discourse because throughout the show Ted has truly been looking for “the one” and a hopeless romantic at heart. I think this situation is one of the few times that viewers see Ted’s character afraid of jumping to the next level. I also feel his scared nature comes out of the pressures of relationships surrounding Valentines Day.
Work Cited
Bays, Carter and Craig Thomas. “Desperation Day.” How I Met Your Mother. CBS. 14 February 2011.
Brown, Adriane. Refiguring Gender on the Small Screen. 2011.
Mayne, Judith. “Women, Representation, and Culture.” In Reading Women’s Lives.
