From discussing LGBT characters and the way they are presented in the media in class, I thought that looking at the character Barney Stinson in the television series How I Met Your Mother could be a good parallel. Barney Stinson is like the man’s man. He gets the ladies at almost any cost and is clearly a womanizer. Here is a video clip of Barney going through a book he has compiled of how he has picked up women.
The actor who plays Barney Stinson is Neil Patrick Harris. In real life Harris is a homosexual male. This is similar to the character Niles on Frasier played by David Hyde Pierce, was a heterosexual man, but in real life was homosexual. I had seen the show before and understand the basic idea of each character. However, when I went onto IMDB and read the character biography of Barney Stinson, I found some interesting details that dealt with his character’s masculinity in the show and his real masculinity outside of the series.
In the show, he was not always a stereotypical male chasing after countless women. Before he was heartbroken by an old girlfriend, he was labeled as a “hippie” and wanted to join the Peace Corps. This would display the various forms of masculinity but of course the dominant masculinity that many think of prevailed. Barney Stinson’s biography also stated that in the show he has “an African American homosexual” brother. I am not sure if this is to in some way connect Harris’ true sexuality with his character’s fictional one or not or if it is an attempt to be “gay winking”. The show does not seem to portray homosexuals in a negative light that I have seen yet (if anyone has, let me know). Yet Barney Stinson is one of the most popular main characters that upholds the stereotypical views of masculinity, rather than challenging them.
No comments:
Post a Comment