There is really no way to build into this topic. Here are 10 times TV shows sent the wrong message.

1. Kidnap your friends if you dislike the way that they define their relationship (HIMYM).

In the episode Definitions, when it seems that Barney and Robin’s relationship is complicated, Lilly locks them in a room and forces them to define their relationship.

If Barney and Robin don’t want to put a label on their relationship, that is no body’s business. Lilly is so pathologically obsessed with power and control and has such a bloated sense of entitlement that she feels it is her moral duty to extort an answer out of Barney and Robin. If I where in Barney and Robin’s shoes, I would have cut Lilly out of my life and never spoken to her again. She is guilty of extortion. The writers literally portrayed extortion as a good thing.

2. It is your moral duty to have kids/you should give others unsolicited advice (The Big Bang Theory).

In season 12 episode 3 “The procreation Calculation” Penny announces that she does NOT ever want to reproduce. Bernadette blames and shames Penny. Bernadette justifies this to herself with the logic that Penny was being stupid.

The decision to never have an kids is a personal choice. There exist many people who grow old never have kids and still live a happy life. Sure, you may regret not having kids, but having kids also carries with it the harsh possibility of regret. It is better for 100 people to regret not having kids than even one person regret having kids.

3. Self-defence should meet out detention (Suite Life of Zack and Cody).

In season 3 episode 10, the first day of high school, Zack gets flirtatious with a girl named Amber, unaware that she has a boyfriend. The boyfriend shows up and Zack apologises. The guy, who happens to be named Vince, assaults Zack, even though there is no need to do so. Nia, seeing this, employs completely justified physical force to defend Zack’s honour. Vince gets in trouble, but so do Zack and Nia. Later on, when Cody tells Vince kudos, Vince interprets that as Cody making fun of him. When Cody clarifies, Vince still finds a way to get his panties in a wad. Cody gets in as much trouble for jumping on Vince’s back and Vince does for starting the fight.

The writers make it seem like the conflict between Zack and Vince was some kind of two sides to every story situation where Nia defending and Zack high fiving Nia was as bad as Vince’s starting the conflict. Vince was clearly the aggressor and Zack was clearly the victim. Here is what is odd. It is not as though Zack is without blame. Zack relentlessly pursued Amber who did not reciprocate his romantic interests. He touched her when she did not want to be touched. That was a clear invasion of personal space. However, that is not what Zack got in trouble for. Zack got in trouble for his involvement with the fight. Wait a minute, Zack was on the receiving end of Vince’s assault. What did Zack do to Vince? Oh that is right, he high fived Nia. That is tantamount to assaulting Vince? Cody also did absolutely nothing wrong. He jumped on Vince back, while he was starting a fight.

4. You must meet a relationship quota (Sabrina the Teenage Witch).

Harvey’s father tells him that he has to date some more girls, so he and Sabrina decide that their relationship will be polyamorous. Neither Harvey nor Sabrina want that, they want to be exclusive. Hilda and Zelda agree with Mr. Kimkle, believing that Sabrina has a moral duty to sew her oates.

If you ask me, I believe that it is okay to be exclusive. In fact, your decision to be exclusive really should be no body’s business. If your teenage child wants to be monogamous, you should be proud of them. Hilda, Zelda and Mr. Kinkle were worried that Sabrina and Harvey would regret not sewing their oates. I suppose that is possible, but it is also possible that you may regret dating too many people. I think that it is up to you (not your parents) to decide which is worse.

5. Wiping your mouth off is a bigger deal than forcing a kiss on an unwilling person (Full House).

In season 6 episode 13 “The Dating Game” Stephanie goes on a date with a boy named Josh. I believe that Stephanie is approximately 11 years old in this episode. I can’t remember her exact age. This was a double date with DJ and Steve.

Stephanie mistakenly believes that it is a date, it is not. Josh and Stephanie are on the same little league baseball team. Danny happens to coach that team. This is just one of many reasons why Danny likes Josh. This whole dinner plan was originally for the entire team to go out to dinner together. Because DJ and Steve happened to be at that same restaurant, Stephanie insisted on sitting at the same table as DJ and Steve, so that the inexperienced Stephanie could learn how to be romantic by copying all of the romantic things that DJ does. The problem is that even though Stephanie acts the same way that DJ did and treats Josh the same way that DJ treats Steve, Steve and Josh have two totally different reactions to this, as Steve wants to be on a date with DJ and he is, while Josh did not want to be on a date with Stephanie and it is confusing to both the characters and the audience whether he is or not.

When the date is over, DJ, Steve, Stephanie and Josh all return to the Tanner house. It is from here that Steve is supposed to give Josh a ride home. While DJ and Steve are making out, Josh and Stephanie are sitting there awkwardly, as Josh impatiently awaits a ride home from Steve. Stephanie kisses Josh. Josh did not expect that or consent to it. Josh wipes his mouth off and asks why Stephanie did that.

DJ and Stephanie enter the house where DJ talks to Stephanie. Stephanie realizes that she only went on a “date” with Josh, because she felt like she had to. DJ assures her that she should not feel the need to go on a date and gives advice on how to handle dating and romantic pursuits.

Meanwhile, in the backyard, Steve and Josh are alone, just the two of them. Josh asks Steve if he understands women. Steve replies “Enough not to wipe my mouth off when they kiss me.”

The message of the episode is that Stephanie does not need Josh’s permission to kiss him, but Josh needs permission to wipe off his own mouth. Unpopular opinion, if you have been kissed and you did not want to be, it is okay to wipe off your mouth. In fact, wiping off your mouth is the most appropriate reaction to your mouth being touched by something by which you did not want to be touched.

6. You surrender your right to be in your own room as soon as someone else experiences hurt feelings (Young Sheldon).

In the finale of season 4, when Missy is upset, she does not want Sheldon in the room that they share. The dad tells Sheldon to stay out of the room.

That room is as much Sheldon’s as it is Missy’s, Sheldon should be allowed in their, even when Missy is upset about something. If this were reversed and Sheldon were upset and did not want Missy in their room, do you think that the dad would feel sympathy for Sheldon? I don’t think so. I think that the dad would call Sheldon a wimp and tell him to suck it up.

7. Humiliate your cheating boyfriend on the internet (iCarly).

There were three notable instances on iCarly where the main trio violated other people’s right to privacy.

In season 1 episode 15 “iHateSam’sBoyfriend” we first meet Jonah, he is a colleague and study buddy of Freddie’s. He starts dating Sam. Jonah pokes his nose where it does not belong, offers up his opinion when no one asks for it and disrespects other people’s property. This is shown when he shows up to iCarly rehearsal, offers advice despite his previous promise that Carly and Freddie wouldn’t even be aware of his presence and touches Spencer’s props for his movie. As if that weren’t bad enough, he tried to kiss Carly. The gang gives him a wedgie on their web cast.

If you ask me, I think that this was completely over the top. Giving Jonah a wedgie was literal assault. While revenge is sometimes justified, revenge should fit the initial harmful act. Assaulting someone, because they kissed your best friend is not justified retaliation.

Season 2 episode 12 iRockedTheVote, started with the trio doing a webshow. They mentioned that this show called America Sings (parody of American Idol) was down to its last two competitors, Wade Collins and David Archeletta. The gang asked people to vote for Archuletta to win. Archeletta won. Considering the huge uptick in votes for Archuletta after the webshow, it is pretty much understood that Archuletta owes his victory to the iCarly trio. Collins goes on record stating that, had he won the money, he would have paid for an operation for his sick mother. The main trio decides to help Collins produce a music video. To their surprise, Collins is a jerk. He calls people hobknockers and is all around rude and disrespectful to everyone. After Carly, Sam and Freddie produce Collins’ music video, it turns out that Collins’ was lying about having a sick mother who needs an operation. The trio does a web show where they reveal Collins’ where abouts to everyone.

In the season 4 three part special iPartyWithVictorious, Carly dates a boy named Steven Carson. Steven’s parents are divorced, his mother lives in Seattle, while his father lives in California. He is home schooled. Steven dated Carly Shay and Tori Vega at the same time. When Robbie posts a picture of Tori and Steven together on the internet without their consent, Sam sees the picture, suspects that Steven is having an affair and concocts a plan to go to California and figure out that Steven is really cheating. Evidently, Steven has not been faithful. When Carly and Tori meet and Carly tells Tori about how Steven cheated, the gang does a webcast, where Steven is exposed as a womaniser.

All three of those examples serve as clear violation of the right to privacy as protected by article 12 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=mnet&hsimp=yhs-001&type=type9099612-spa-3503-84593&param1=3503&param2=84593&p=UN+universal+declaration+of+human+rights+right+to+privacy ). I understand that Jonah, Wade Collins and Steven Carson were all being jerks, but protecting the right of people you or I dislike is the entire point of having rights.

8. The entire main cast sends Mr Moseby up in a chair with balloons (Suite Life on Deck).

In the penultimate episode, The main cast waits for Mr. Moseby to fall asleep before tying balloons to his chair and making him float up. Moseby could have died.

When Moseby cancels the prom, he is portrayed as the jerk for cancelling prom. If you ask me, I think that that was an appropriate punishment.

9. Destiny is a real thing (Sabrina the Teenage Witch).

Hilda and Zelda advise Sabrina not to use her magic to help mortals, recounting a story about a mortal whose acne was cured by her witch friend, only to discover that the friend was destined to discover the cure for acne.

A few things.

One.

If helping mortals may prevent the mortals from being able to do something productive, doesn’t the possibility exist that not helping them could have a similar effect?

Two.

If you know that that mortal was destined to discover the cure for acne, that means that a psychic knew that. If this psychic force exists in the other realm, some witch should be able to tell another witch not to help that particular mortal, because of what that mortal is destined to do.

Three.

In the pilot episode, we learn that time reversal is granted in some cases, so couldn’t you grant time reversal when a witch helps a mortal who shouldn’t have been helped?

Four.

There is no proof that destiny is even a real thing, but even if some higher power decided that it is your destiny to become a teacher, who is to say that there is any objective reason why you should choose the destiny preordained by God?

10. It is important for only one child to keep their powers (Wizards of Waverly Place).

There is a wizard competition where only one child gets to keep their powers. When Stevie ran away from the wizard world following her lose, she was portrayed as the villain.

This would be like if all children were subject to eye tests and only one child got to keep their sight, the others were blinded.