In this episode of How I Met Your Mother the episode is titled Mermaid Man and begins with Barney visiting Marshall in his office where Barney sees Marshall’s secretary who is not the prettiest girl but Barney calls her eye candy. Marshall questions Barney’s judgement and Barney begins a story about the mermaid theory. He begins by telling a tale about how sailors’ need for women grew over the seas and they would look at manatees and think they were mermaids. This same thing happens to women who men spend time with alone for large amounts of time. A woman who you once found unattractive will become very attractive after a certain amount of time has passed. This same thing eventually happened to Marshall and he became a believer of Barney’s advice. This becomes a problem when Robin wants to start hanging out with Marshall alone as Robin is a prominent friend in the group and he does not see Robin as anything other than a manatee. This is in the relationship of male gaze theory because the focus of the episode is the way men look at women and how they are eventually sexualized towards all men after a certain amount of time putting false gender roles out in society.
Shared by: jake
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