How I Met Your Mother: S3E7 "Dowistrepla"

How I Met Your Mother is a funny sitcom about how the main character, Ted Mosby, meets his wife, Lily Aldrin. Each episode starts off with narration by future Ted, who is telling a story to his children. Every episode depicts a funny, crazy, happy, or sad time in the couple's relationship, whether it be something that happens to them or one of their friends. There are five main characters in HIMYM: Ted, Lily, and their friends Robin, Marshall, and Barney.

The episode I watched was about Ted and Lily buying a new apartment. They are looking to rent an apartment, but Ted finds their "dream apartment" located in the up and coming neighborhood Dowistrepla, which can only be bought, not rented. At this point, a major problem arises as we find out that Lily is a raging shopaholic, maxing out 15 credit cards and having a debt as high as "Mount Rushmore". Instead of telling Ted of her problem, she sort of tells him that they can't afford it, but then Ted believes it is due to his student loans. They then decide to go look at, and possibly buy, the apartment. Eventually, Ted discovers Lily's secret when they are applying for a loan, and they get into a huge argument. Lily proposes that they "get a divorce on paper," that way the interest rate will go down significantly on the loan. Ted quickly dismisses this idea, and the two end up buying the apartment even under terrible conditions.

I noticed some gender differences when watching this episode. While both characters have debt, Ted's is due to school related purposes, Lily's is due to her addiction to shopping, which may be a nudge toward the stereotype that women like to shop. Another gender issue I noticed was with Barney. Barney is a womanizer, and that fact was not hidden in this episode, where Barney takes a woman back to Ted and Lily's "dream apartment" in order to impress the girl so she would sleep with him. When morning comes, he simply gathers his clothes and walks out the door. I believe this to be a nudge toward the stereotype that all men want is sex.

Other than that, there are a few times when both the male and female characters do something they wish they hadn't, which is shown by the narrator saying "that is what ____ should have done, but this is what they really did".

I think that How I Met Your Mother does a really good job in balancing the gender differences between the characters. While some gender themes are subtle, others seem to pop right out, but in the few episodes I have seen, there is no real bias towards one gender or the other.