Sociological Analysis Of Season 6 Episode 6: Baby Talk

For my second multimedia project I decided to rewatch some of my favorite seasons of How I met your mother. Besides a little research into the characters last semester I haven’t see the full series in a couple years and let me just say, I am surprised by the things I’ve missed/overlooked in the past. Though there are great examples throughout all of season 6, as well as every season, that show the minoritization and universalization of different intersecting identities, for this project I will be focusing on Season 6 Episode 6: Baby Talk. This episode shows a minoritization of both gender and sexuality, primarily focussing on gender roles. The plot centers around Marshall and Lily trying to think of a name for their future baby. They meet up with their friends Stuart and Claudia, a clearly dysfunctional couple, who have just had a baby of their own and are in the process of naming them. The focus then shifts back to Lily and Marshall, who are prompted to come up with more names for themselves. Lily primarily comes up with female names and Marshall, male names, this sparks a dispute over the desired gender of their child that last the entire episode. Marshall is terrified of having a girl, because of past experiences with a “hot” girl from high school and a stripper (flashbacks prompted by Lily’s suggested female …show more content…
The characters in the show are either in a monogamous heterosexual relationship or they are engaged in random hook ups with opposite sex. In the scene close to the middle of the episode, where Marshall and Ted are in the bar talking about babies, Marshall says “I don’t want a girl, I just want a boy”, Ted replies with “it’s not what it sounds like folks”, to the people in the bar, as if Marshall wanting a boy/man in any other way was terrible and/or appealing to the people who could have overheard