"Okay, I'm ready, where is she?" "And there she was." This video is brought to you
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for the very best films and original TV Dramas. Get 30 days completely free
with our link, and the promo code "The Take." How I Met Your Mother is a show about
a man looking for his soulmate. But while Ted Mosby finds
the woman of his dreams in the very first episode, Robin Scherbatsky doesn't share
his fantasy of life-changing romance. "What is this doing in my champagne?" Despite attracting the admirations
of a long line of men, "After you." "Oh, thank you" Robin has other things on her mind
besides finding the perfect guy. "Guys are like the subway. You miss one, another one comes
along in five minutes." Refreshingly, this character, who was the center of the show's
major love triangle, fit the archetype of
the quintessential career woman, who puts ambition before love,
doesn't want kids and is okay with being single. "I don't want kids,
I've never wanted kids, and never, in a million years,
will I ever want kids." Robin made choices like these
appear not only valid but even aspirational,
representing a powerful moment for a character type that rarely gets
positive treatments in pop culture. Yet in the show's home stretch,
How I Met Your Mother arguably let Robin down by turning her into
a stock love interest, there to deliver a happy ending
for its protagonist. "It is meant to be, and you know why? Cause I mean it to be," and not following through
on the person she really was. "It's a great look. But you're
looking at the wrong girl." Here's our Take on Robin, and why her
role as a professionally focused woman on an influential love-centered
sitcom mattered. "Welcome to Robin 101." You're watching The Take. Thanks for watching
and be sure to share and subscribe! The premise of How I Met Your Mother
is that Ted is the male version of the stereotypical rom-com heroine, looking for someone
to sweep him off his feet. "Nothing hotter than a guy planning
out his own imaginary wedding, huh? He's so in touch with his feelings
that he throws himself at Robin on their very first date. "I think I'm in love with you." "What?" "What?" "What?" Ted has a plan that's
more traditionally assumed to be the fixation of women. He wants to fall in love,
get married, have kids, and live out
the Norman Rockwell American dream. But Robin doesn't want that dream. "I don't know where I'm going to be in
five years, and I don't want to know. I want my life to be an adventure." The inverse of Ted,
Robin is driven by priorities our culture normally
associates with men ambition, intensity, selfishness,
and living for the moment without her future set in stone. "I don't plan out every second
of my life like you do." "I don't plan out-"
"Oh really! What is all of this?" When she meets Ted, what she
really wants isn't a boyfriend but a group of fun friends
to take the edge off. "I only moved here in April
and I'm always working and I just haven't met a lot
of good people so far." She's passionate about becoming
successful in TV news, "Because I care, Don! I care about the show, I care about my career!" and almost always chooses her work
over the possibility of romance "They want me to
anchor the news tonight." starting with the night of
her very first date with Ted. "We got a jumper! Some crazy guy
on the Manhattan Bridge. Come on, you're covering it." "Um, alright I'll be right there." Robin's whole personality
is also stereotypically male, from her taste in liquor "I love a Scotch that's old enough
to order its own Scotch." and pop culture, "Can quote obscure lines
from Ghostbusters? "Rey, when someone asks you if
you're a God, you say yes!" to her comfort with guns. "You have to clean your gun!" The conceit of the man
who acts like a woman, pining for the woman
who acts like a man, was central to the romantic tension
driving How I Met Your Mother. "You know Ted, not everyone
is as much of a woman as you." Co-creator Craig Thomas said, quote,
"We wanted to show a guy who is in love with this girl
and she just doesn't want that." "Look it would not be smart
if we got together. I mean, I'm looking to settle down,
she's looking for-" By flipping
the stereotypical gender attitudes toward romance in Ted and Robin,
the show got the opportunity to explore both male sensitivity
and vulnerability, and female independence
and self-determination. As the woman who acts like a man "I'll have a Johnnie Walker Blue,
neat and a Monte Cristeo number two." Robin is a prime example
of the "cool girl" trope. The Take made a previous video about. "A chick who's like super-hot,
but then like, loves Xbox, down for pizza." Just like one of the guys but
much prettier, she's a male fantasy. "Hey, you wanna go upstairs
and watch Sports Centre?" She's basically a collection of
male tastes and behaviors in a hot female body "Surprisingly good." "Right? I told you so." and men obsess over her at least
in part because she expresses not wanting the commitment that
the more stereotypical woman demands. "I mean, the most I can handle
right now is something casual" Looking closer, though,
Robin's tomboyish behavior has more complicated roots
stemming from her childhood. Robin's father wanted her to be a boy "He wanted a son and the fact that
I was a girl didn't change his plan." "What do you mean?" "My full legal name is
Robin Charles Scherbatsky, Jr." So she is the way she is
because her father raised her to embrace stereotypically
male activities like shooting, smoking, drinking and hockey,
until he could no longer keep denying the fact
that she was a girl. "Teammates don't kiss! Oh, my God. I have no son." Though the show usually
plays Robin's boyishness for laughs or as
an attractive quirk, her acting like a boy while growing up
was her way of trying to please and be accepted by the
first man in her life. And as an adult, she's still
haunted by her father's rejection "Robin's deep-seated need
for attention can be traced back to her father's
emotional distance." So this suggests that, on some level,
Robin's "cool girl" persona down to her beliefs that
she isn't like other girls and doesn't want a relationship is rooted in the desire
to be desirable to men. "My father was a cigar fanatic, it was
the only way to get his attention. "Father issues. Hot." Robin actively avoids the appearance
of being like other women "What is it with you and women?" "Ugh, they're so annoying. I'm glad
that you're my only female friend. Girls are always whining and
crying over every little thing." and is deeply upset when her jealousy
for Ted makes her not recognize herself. "Look at me. I'm acting crazy
and jealous and paranoid." "This is how people act
in relationships." "And that's why I avoid relationships." And whenever Robin has feelings
that aren't convenient, like for Ted or Barney,
she represses them, always playing the "cool girl"
instead of expressing her real emotions "I have to go to Germany
and surprise her." "Totally what I was thinking. Get out of my head, man!" Moreover, being a commitment-phobe
also doesn't automatically mean she doesn't want a commitment
but rather that she's scared of it. "She thought about how
opening yourself up to another person usually means opening yourself up
to going a little crazy. She thought about how much easier
it was just to be alone." How I Met Your Mother suggests that Robin's really trying to avoid
the possibility of getting hurt. "The second you get close to a guy,
you want to bail." And these fears are justified when,
in her relationship with Don, she uncharacteristically turns
down a career opportunity in order to put romance first, only to be burned when Don
chooses that very job over her. "Can you imagine what its like
to have the phone ring and it's your dream job
on the other end?" "Yes, I can. Good luck in Chicago Don" Robin's character development
eventually shows her becoming a person who does want real love. But actually the man who helps her
discover this most naturally, and in spite of herself is not
the uber-romantic Ted, who's long been obsessed with her, but
the equally commitment-phobic Barney, the member of the gang most like Robin,
whom she eventually marries. "We both think
the marriage-commitment thing's a drag, we both want something casual and fun,
and we clearly get along really well." Even though they get divorced
in the finale, for most of its run How I Met Your Mother makes a
compelling argument that Barney is a much better match
for Robin than Ted. Not only do both of them share a love
of cigars, booze, and laser tag "You just saved my life, didn't you? "Thank me later. Let's keep moving. These little bastards are everywhere." but both of them are also adamant about their lack of a desire
to ever have children. "Ok yes, kids are not my favorite
thing in the world but I like them" "Well, you don't want to have them" "I like sports cars but it doesn't mean I want
to push a ferrari through my vagina" Robin's lack of interest in kids, her
desire to put other priorities first, was an important, positive alternative
to most female role models on screen. Despite her not having this end goal, Robin and her happiness were
still valued by this romantic comedy. "Mom, I'm not marrying some
future possibility of starting a family. I'm marrying a girl. Who means more to me than kids." Like her relationship hang-ups, Robin's feelings about motherhood
are also complex. She's painted as having a phobia ".scared...of...babies"
"What." and when the choice is
taken away from her, because she discovers she's unable
to have biological children, her response isn't what
she, or we, expected. "I guess, its just nice knowing
that you could someday do it if you changed your mind." Ultimately, there's honesty in the fact that she's conflicted
about big life questions, that her behaviors are
shaped by her environment and that she has to confront doubts
about the decisions she's made. "I'm always putting my career
ahead of my relationships and to be honest there's a lot of
lonely nights in that job description." In the end, though, the show let down the complexity
it had built up for Robin, as it barrelled toward its
rom-com fairy tale ending. Often, the story of the
single career woman is captured in the question:
Can women have it all? "You really do want it all." "I can do it, I can have it all!" The traditional example of the
Working Woman onscreen is trained to avoid
emotional attachment "Starting now, you are
a hard, heartless career gal. Go to work, be awesome at it, and don't waste time on
foolish flights of fancy." focusing on her professional success and putting relationships second,
or not worrying about them at all. "There's no simple answer to
why a person isn't married. "How many different reasons
can there be?" "65." Modelled on the tenets of Second Wave
Feminism from the 60s to the 80s, inspirational pop culture about
the Career Women like Mary Tyler Moore put forward a version of female life
that prized workplace equality and access to the same
opportunities as men. Women in this time period
were encouraged to act just like men, to have any chance of succeeding. "The conversation of a raise
is not inappropriate, at this moment, but do not be timid. You presented like a man,
now act like one." Later examples,
from Working Girl in the late 80s, to Sex and the City
starting in the late 90s, reflected the conversations
of their time periods as well, by working the questions of femininity
and romance back into the picture. "I have a head for business
and a bod for sin." In Sex and the City,
four female characters have prioritized work well into
their thirties and set out to be "Women who have sex like men." But as they remain unattached, these working women
also question their decisions "Single and Fabulous, question mark? There was no question mark implied. I would never have agreed
to be in an article, Single and Fabulous Question Mark" and spend a great deal of time fixating
on their interactions with men "How does it happen that
four such smart women have nothing to talk about
but boyfriends?" Career women characters since then have continued to juggle
finding fulfillment in their work "You're married to your job." [Gasps] "Oh my god" with deciding how much of
a traditional domestic life they want, while being presented with
an ever-shifting set of role models "I grew up wanting to be you." "I grew up wanting to be
Samantha Stevens on Bewitched." And we can see the influence of the career woman's history
shaping Robin as well. "But I don't actually cry in front of
people, or cry at all for that matter" She's incredibly driven
with an enviable work ethic, even when she's toiling in obscurity
on a little-watched show. "If I can't even get my best friends
to watch, who's gonna watch?" She repeatedly watches her
romances suffer due to work, and finds that men are not as okay
with her all-consuming ambition as they profess to be. "This is so not great!" "I'm sorry that I have to
work while I'm here. It's called
being on assignment" Her commitment to what she wanted
in spite of all of that made Robin an important entry in the pantheon of Career Women
characters throughout the years. She's the most professionally
accomplished among her gang. "Robin got famous. In the next few days,
she would meet the mayor, go on Letterman and even have
a deli sandwich named after her." and that's not even counting
the whole other career she has behind her "I was a teenage pop star in Canada." What happens to these women, as they get older and it's time
for the TV show to end? Generally speaking, they wind up settling down,
no matter how much they've protested. "I love you. I love you, Steve." As University College Dublin Professor
of Film Studies and Screen Culture Diane Negra put it,
Sex and the City "came to closure in a strikingly ideologically
conservative fashion with the safe settlement
of its four ensemble members into commitment and motherhood." "And in the end, Carrie Bradshaw
married John James Preston in a labelless dress." "I do." 30 Rock finds a more
practical, modern solution by marrying Liz Lemon to a man
willing to do most of the domestic work around the house. "I hate work and evidently you miss it." "I know, I'm a terrible mother." "Oh my god, if you were a dude
you would not even be thinking that." Peggy Olson on Mad Men finds her
romantic happiness inside the workplace, ending up with her co-worker and so does Bojack Horseman's Princess Carolyn,
who marries her former assistant, Judah "While you're signing things, I have
a stack of holiday cards for the staff. I took the liberty of writing
little personal messages to everyone on your behalf." "Thank you." "Mm-hmm." Some of these working women
also navigate motherhood, but in the most
realistic-feeling examples this is not always something
that comes as naturally to them. "Work makes sense to me,
and I'm good at it. I don't feel that way
about my baby." and their most defining relationships
may still be at work. "I love you too, Jack." Like so much of pop culture, How I Met Your Mother pays lip service
to the idea that women can and should be fulfilled without needing
a traditional partner and family. "Besides, there are other ways to
have kids. Adoption, surrogacy." "No, Kevin. Its not just that
I can't have kids, I don't want kids" only to undercut that idea
with its resolution. By the end of How I Met Your Mother, Robin has achieved the level of
professional success she always wanted "I am not everywhere! Okay, I'm some places." but winds up traveling
to such a degree that it damages her
relationship with Barney, eventually leading them to divorce. "Is this just not working anymore?" This is the same problem Robin's had
in all of her relationships, so this break-up seems
to confirm the message that Robin's career is incompatible
with a forever romance. While the divorce is a disappointing
resolution for fans of the couple, having How I Met Your Mother
leave Robin as a content, single woman would have made a lot of sense. But that's not what happens. Robin no longer fits into the group now
that she's not dating Ted or Barney. "The gang is my ex-husband hitting
on slutty cops right in front of me. And its the guy I probably
should have ended up with, with the beautiful
mother of his child" In the shows' final moments,
Robin's rescued from her lonely existence and
winds up with Ted, proving that, no matter
how much Robin insists she wants to be and
is comfortable being alone "Ted, you know how
I feel about marriage." this can't be considered
a happy ending. "The point of this story is that—" "Is that you totally, totally, totally
have the hots for Aunt Robin." Robin's resolution with Ted
feels both inevitable and forced, which it was the conclusion scene
with Ted's future children was shot eight years before
the show actually ended, long before the story followed
Robin's career taking off and developed her
chemistry with Barney. The best parts of How I Met Your Mother
give Robin a complexity outside of her relationships
with both Ted and Barney but as the show goes on, those parts of her identity
become harder and harder to find. Even though Robin has
never wanted children, and even though she's made
her priorities clear, "This way there's no one
to hold me back in life. No one to keep me from traveling
where I want to travel. No one getting in
the way of my career." she still feels a little
too sad and melancholy when that door is
actually closed to her. "Of course, it's one thing
not to want something, it's another to be told
you can't have it." When Barney is finally so happy to
become a dad at the end of the show "You are the love of my life" the implicit message is that Robin wasn't able to give him
what he really wanted. And she's ultimately pushed
into Ted's existing family, even though there's
no reason to believe her work ethic won't present
exactly the same problems it did for her and Barney, which will only be compounded
by adding Ted's kids into that picture. And so How I Met Your Mother
like so many other TV shows that started out differently
than they ended up winds up arguing that the only way
women can truly be fulfilled is through a
romantic relationship one that often serves
her male counterpart's story more than it makes sense with
her own character development. "And when you love someone
you just don't stop. Ever. Even when people roll their eyes
or call you crazy! Even then. Especially then!" A more fun, consistent,
and interesting version of Robin could have stuck to her guns and
found genuine professional happiness without needing Ted. Because if you're paying attention,
this is who she's really been all along an independent woman
who's doing just fine without being rescued by a fairytale. "I guess I just liked
the idea of putting all my Robin Scherbatsky knowledge
to good use, you know?" This video is brought to you
by Sundance Now, whether you're looking for true crime,
period pieces, or binge-worthy romances, Sundance Now has it all. One show you can check out
on Sundance Now is the chilling docuseries
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