Women making meanings

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An early episode of the American situation comedy, How I Met Your Mother (Thomas & Bays, 2005), focused on sex work and mistaken identity. In this episode, Barney tricked Ted into believing that Mary was a sex worker. Mary, however, was unaware of this and thought that she was on a date with Ted. As the night, and storyline, progressed, Mary became acquainted with Ted's friends-some of whom were told that Mary was a sex worker, and some who were not. Ted's friend, Lily, had been interested in Ted's love life for some time and tried to get to know Mary while out at dinner. During the evening, Lily and Mary shared laughter and lipstick in a bathroom girl-bonding scene. However, back at the table with her friends-with Mary and Ted making their way to a hotel room upstairs-Lily discovered that Mary was a 'sex worker'. At this discovery, Lily scrubbed at her lips in an attempt to remove the lipstick that she had borrowed from Mary and expressed her disgust at having done so. Canned laughter followed. The audience, however, is not told why this is funny, rather, it is taken for granted that they understand what is funny about sex workers' bodies, including that they are dirty and potentially diseased.