How I Met Your Mother Character Analysis

This excerpt comes from the episode, “Definition,” from the television show, How I Met Your Mother. In this episode, the characters Barney and Robin have just kissed, however, they do not want to be in the traditional romantic relationship their best friend, Lily, wants them to be in. While the male characters in this scene, Barney and Marshall, uphold the linguistic norms for male conversation, Lily and Robin, the female characters in the conversation, represent two far sides of the female gender spectrum. While each character’s gender performance in this scene differs, they all use phonology, semantics, and syntax to enforce gender dichotomy and norms in society.
Marshall has only two lines in this scene, and his lack of words is a performance …show more content…
By saying phrases such as “we’re not really feeling it right now,” Robin adopts a traditional male view on relationships. Robin also adopts a masculine style syntax by keeping her sentences short and simple. The average length of her sentences is nine words and she only speaks about three times in the entire exchange. Robin’s phonology is similar to Barney’s in the sense that she does not change her pitch or volume throughout the entire exchange. This is calm demeanor Robin portrays is, again, the dramatization of a norm in male speech presentation because it resembles the phonology of Barney and Marshall, for the most …show more content…
Lily’s first line is a high-pitched and loud “Whoo!” This is a very stereotypical feminine sound to make. The concept of the “Whoo girl,” coincidentally another idea from How I Met Your Mother, came to be through this social norm. Lily’s second line involves her gasping for air because she is talking excessively as her pitch progressively increases due to her excitement. Speaking animatedly and with a lot of emotion is another norm of female speech presentation. This norm is also displayed when Barney and Robin tell Lily that they are not planning to have a traditional relationship, because Lily’s pitch lowers and she starts crying. Unlike men, women are known for being emotional, and Lily’s range of emotions in one short conversation upholds this. The semantics of Lily’s lines also indicate her femininity. Hearing Lily’s dialogue, it is obvious that she believes in the traditional relationships both Barney and Robin don’t want. Lily goes from talking about dating to talking about marriage, kids, and future “couples activities,” clearly overreacting to a simple kiss. The idea that women overreact to everything is also a gender norm, making the semantics of Lily’s dialog feminine. Lily’s use of long and complex sentences definitely contrasts Marshall, Barney, and Robin’s use of shorter ones, suggesting that they may be a feminine version of