It going to be legen....dary!

The show How I Met Your Mother reflects gender diversity but does not really reflect race diversity. In the show, there are two main women and three main men. They reflect a wide range of attitudes: Ted is a hopeless romantic searching for a soulmate; Marshall is the loveable goofy guy who knows how to treat women; Barney is a jokester and a womanizer who sleeps with any woman he can; Lily is a slightly feminist woman who has some traditional roles; and Robin, who is a bit of a tomboy and has a hard time with emotions. All five of the main characters are white and straight. However, there is some diversity in the show, as Barney’s brother who is in a few episodes is black and gay. The characters treat him no different because he is black and gay, however, which puts forth a good attitude about it. It is important to have different races in shows because it helps to normalize it. When the group in HIMYM treats the gay, black brother the same as everyone else, it encourages everyone to treat gays and blacks the same way.

There are definitely racial and gender stereotypes in the show. Barney, for example, epitomizes the jerky womanizer character. There is also a Mexican woman who works in the cafeteria of Marshall and Barney’s work who is stereotypical. She cannot speak English and just serves food. This perpetuates that Mexicans should work in the kitchen. They also have an Indian cab driver, Ranjeet, who although he is their friend and their go-to cab/limo driver, serves as a stereotype. It is stereotyped that Indians drive cabs.