TV and Women and Mindy
When Bad Girls are not Good Enough
So, there is a wee bit of a fist fight going on. In one corner is Jess of “New Girl” fame and in the other corner is, crowd favorite, Mindy of “the Mindy Project”. They are both shows that star hip, young women. I dig and I have often watched them both, back to back, (or Hulu makes me do it. No, no. I have agency, I am the one clicking ‘next’!). I do not personally identify with either character but they are both smart, funny, deliciously entertaining and occasionally, transgressive. This is not a debate about which show is better instead, it is how these two characters are discussed by certain feminist hued media expressions. One honored and one maligned.
The general consensus, aside from a few defenders, seems to be that Jess is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl; childish, annoyingly quirky, uber girly, a male fantasy and as such, kryptonic for a certain kind of self possessed and intellectually minded Femme. Mindy, on the other hand, gets the feminist thumbs up. She’s sassy, confident, defiantly resistant to body shaming, a bad ass. She’s got mad cred. Or so say many a smart chick.
And I develop a quizzical wrinkle on my already wrinkled forehead.
Have you not noticed, oh winsome womanly wordsmiths, that Mindy is rarely shown actually — working? She is a doctor, specifically an OBG-YN, a character poised to explore many a largely untouched subject in prime time television — UTI’s anyone?. Wonderful. Yet, she gets down to doctoring like a CSI detective is shown talking to his kid, which means, almost never. She once delivered triplets after being at a party and oh yeah, there was that one time she was shown counseling a teenage girl. Hold on, the only purpose of that scene was to usher in handsome detective father of the patient. Once we meet handsome detective, the patient is never shown again. Which is a sincere shame because Kaling is ignoring a rich source for her comedic talents.
It is even more baffling then that her character is described as, “a woman too busy with work to date properly”. Um, okay. Except, as stated above, we rarely see her working. In fact, she once blew off a delivery because she was on a date. Mindy, for the most part, does not talk about her work; struggles, triumphs or otherwise. When she is shown at the office at all, she is usually hangin’ in the break room, discussing her love life with her male co-workers or bossing around her female staff.
Which brings me to mention another glaring issue, Bechdel-wise. Mindy has no female friends or seemingly, relatives, (yes, her character’s chosen profession is an ode to Kaling Chokalingam’s actual mother), but in the show, Mindy rarely talks to women at all. Those she does speak to are often one-note, rather trivialized characters. Tamra, the soul singing Black Woman character, being a serious eyebrow raising example.
Mindy is also shallow, childish, bitchy, selfish and rather cavalier about the consequences of her actions. I do not mean consequences of the sexual kind but rather her blatant irresponsibility about pretty much everything in her life, including her work. This, ultimately, does not bother me. I am not one who wishes that every female character on television to be a behemoth of Admirable Womanhood. The concept of the Role Model I find annoying at best and at its worst, potentially damaging. Variety is the spice of life and characters of the female kind, flawed and all, should be on our screens more and more. Not only does it not bother me but it is an essential grace of the show. Mindy functions as a sort of anti-femme hero which, for many, is precisely the reason why she has fans. Says Jake Flanagin in the Atlantic, “Mindy, who is neither definitively good nor bad, presents a new* kind of female sitcom lead, and viewers may not be sure what to make of a leading lady like Mindy. She’s exasperating—empirically so—but also human, lovelorn, and self-deprecating. We care about what happens to her”.
(*Not actually new, but more on that later.)
I am not making the argument that Mindy, the character, is insidiously regressive. Instead, I simply find it odd that she has been honored as a representation of feminist ideals. I find it even more odd that Jess, in contrast, is perceived as an affront to feminist ideals or, let’s be honest here, certain feminist preferences. She is Good. She is White. She is Pretty. A modern day Mary Tyler Moore. That alone, can earn the rancor of some of the Femme set.
(Just for the record New Girl is also a show that is the creation of a woman based on her experiences — Elizabeth Meriwether).
Jess however, is shown working. That she works as a grade school teacher has been derided for being a “typically feminine” line of work. It is. But she is also shown as being very good at her job and possessing of a personality that is perfectly suited to her profession. Of course, Jess would be a school teacher. She is the kind of person who has baby farm animals on her checks and stockpiles glitter — at home.
Conversely, I find it a bit jarring and slightly false that Mindy is a doctor. It feels more like the kind of decision made in a romantic comedy’s writer’s room where they go, “let’s make her ( stock lonely heart looking for love) a lawyer or a fashion designer or a magazine editor, then she can run around in great shoes”. These character’s ways of being rarely reflect traits realistically associated with these careers though they do always, have great shoes.
Jess also has female friends. Friends who talk about their work, friends who are gay females who talk about their work. Her best friend, by the way, is also an Indian woman. Though not the main character she is an integral part of the show. She has her own arc, her own dramas and does not exist merely as the sassy sidekick. Jess has also had a female boss, a female adversary and she has a mother, played by the historically quirky Jaime Lee Curtis. And just for those who may find Jess’s goody-two shoedness a little too much, she has a rowdy, wild, bad girl sister played by none other than Linda Cardellini. Yes, Jess is lacking in Gravitas. She is doe eyed and impossibly cute. I do not hold that against her. Especially as she is also, pretty damn fierce. Not Buffy fierce but still, she regularly and outrageously goes above and beyond the call of duty with a, “to hell with those who think I am weird, I will protect my friends and right wrongs at all costs” attitude. However clumsy or taffeta strewn her actions may be, they are, on occasion, inspiring.
Inspiring however, the character of Mindy is not. But she shouldn’t have to be. Mindy Kaling herself, as show creator and comedienne, is inspiring and admirable.
Mindy Lahari could create a character that becomes a serial killer or gets married to a priest or diets obsessively or runs off to Haiti. By all means. But what matters is what Mindy Kaling, as the creator, does with it.
What is bugging me, making me a little askance and has me genuinely perplexed is the disparity in perception between these two characters. Why do I, as a feminist woman, seem to be at such odds with many of my fellow feministas? There is a growing rift but I am not the only one on my side of the river. Other female writers have criticized the show. Amanda Hess in Slate wrote, “The Mindy Project is a potentially subversive take on modern love, shoehorned into the outdated trappings of a run-of-the-mill wacky workplace comedy. It is bad.” In contrast, Hess references an article on Medium by Rachel Sklar who, “raving about the show, called it “subversive and sexy” for its depiction of a single woman who “unapologetically hooks up with a parade of adorable guys” with none of the sexual shaming or cloying melodrama that accompanies most depictions of single ladies on television.”
Sklar wrote, “It is amazing that it’s big deal for a leading female character on a network sitcom to look great and know it. But when that female character is brown, curvaceous, and far from cookie-cutter, it becomes subversive to see her portrayed as the center of a glittering, mainstream rom-com — just because we never, ever see that…she’s just busy being a hot, busy doctor with a bangin’ sex life.”
From a racial/ body type standpoint, Mindy certainly deserves some recognition. However, it is a little bit far reaching — this depiction of Mindy as a free-wheeling modern gal taking sex and man-candy by storm — she is looking for love or at least, a boyfriend. Also false, is that she blatantly defies body-shaming. Mindy shames her body on numerous occasions and allows others to also shame her. One episode details her methods for slyly managing to never let the man she is having sex with actually see her naked. There is also the time when she discusses her need to justify having condoms in her bedroom by saying that she got them at a bachelorette party, not in the moment but just as conversation with male co-worker/ possible love interest. As an HIV awareness activist, starting in high school a-la 1989, this disturbed me. I do not see Mindy as sexually bold, nor do I see her as transgressive.
So actually subversive — seeking or intending to subvert an established system or institution — hmmmm? Only slightly. But why do so many think it is? I fear that the Character Mindy has been confused with the Real Mindy creating a kind of fun house mirror where credit where credit is due has become distorted. Perhaps.
Just in case the source of this disparity stems from a little cultural amnesia, I want to explore some history. Because, most of what the show is given credit for is in fact, not new. Or at least, not wholly new.
Let’s take a little stroll down Television’s memory lane, shall we?
Beulah (1950 to 1952) — The show starred a number of notable black actresses including Ethel Waters, Hattie McDaniel and Lillian Randolph. Adapted from the radio, it was the first to star and center around the experiences of a black woman.
Yes, Beulah was a maid and though all of the actresses who portrayed her were decidedly not leggy and model faced, they conformed to audience’s Mammy fetish for the comforting black woman. Despite this, all those actresses seriously — rock.
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Julia (1968 to 1971) — Julia, played by Diahanne Carroll, explored the life and loves of a widowed single mother working as a nurse. It was lauded for featuring a black female lead character that was not a servant. It was also criticized for not addressing the civil rights upheavals going on at the time. However, similar to Kaling’s public statements that she should not have to be political with her show, Ebony magazine defended the series saying, “As a slice of Black America, Julia does not explode on the TV screen with the impact of a ghetto riot. It is not that kind of show. Since the networks have had a rash of shows dealing with the nation’s racial problems, the light-hearted Julia provides welcome relief, if, indeed, relief is even acceptable in these troubled times.” True, oh so true.
Maude (1972 to 1978) — Played by Bea Arthur, Maude was an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living with her fourth husband. Maude embraced the tenets of feminism, was an affirmed Democrat, strongly supported legal abortion, and advocated for civil rights and racial and gender equality. (Though I watched that show, thank you, Wikipedia.
Maude was not a pretty kind of thin, she was angular and rangy and very tall. And so was her personality. She wasn’t necessarily an anti-hero, however she embodied many of the typical criticisms thrown at feminists. Not a sweet character at all, she was brash, loud and aggressive. Maude was also groundbreaking for featuring story lines that were highly controversial and gave voice to many of the issues that people at the time were experiencing but not openly talking about. Maude, the character, took valium, saw a psychiatrist, dealt with her husband’s drinking problem, protested against harsh sentencing for marijuana possession and in 1972, a year before the Row vs Wade decision, she had an abortion.
Maude’s housekeeper Florida Evans, played by Esther Rolle, who often challenged Maude’s well-meaning but ultimately offensive responses to her blackness proved so popular that Rolle was given her own sitcom — Good Times.
That show was groundbreaking. It not only showed a working class black family but it was the first to do so. Sadly, though Rolle wanted the show to deal with serious issues, it quickly devolved into slapstick comedy due to Network pressure.
Get Christie Love! (1974) — A made-for-television film that was then turned into a television series. It starred Theresa Graves as an undercover police detective. Her role was inspired by Pam Greer as Foxy Brown. (Pam Greer — Swoon).
Nell Carter — Few, these days, speak about Nell Carter, Actress, singer and performer who had two television shows created specifically for her.
In Gimme a Break (1981 to 1987), she played the housekeeper and surrogate mother to a white family. As a black woman and a heavy set one at that, she could be said to have represented a resurrection of the earlier Beulah. The show was hugely popular however, and was nominated for a number of awards. Interestingly, in the last season of the show, Nell moved to Greenwich Village and began working as an assistant editor for a publishing company.
In 1990, she starred in You Take the Kids, a network response to the success of Roseanne, which featured Carter as a bold, somewhat crass, no-nonsense mother and wife.
The Golden Girls (1985 to 1992) — Speaking of non-normative body types pursuing love and lust, remember the Golden Girls. Truly subversive, it was groundbreaking for depicting older women who were single, living together and sexually active. Older women are still a woefully underrepresented demographic on American television. Hats off to Britain, they rock the old folks. We have a long way to go.
Designing Women (1986 to 1993) —Definitely different body types. Hello, Delta Burke and women working and pursuing the sexy life or their own path. The show also, “featured discussions of controversial topics such as homophobia, racism, dating clergy, AIDS, hostile societal attitudes towards the overweight, and domestic abuse. The episode “Killing All the Right People” directly addressed the prejudice associated with the AIDS crisis.” (Again, thanks Wikipedia.)
Murphy Brown (1988 to 1998) — Skinny, white and a once model yet, by the time the show aired, Candice Bergen as Murphy was a middle-aged woman of a certain awkward angularity. A character who was harsh and defiantly, not feminine. Absolutely shown working, Murphy also had many real-life female journalists, news-anchors and power houses on the show. And then there was that great kerflufal when that clown, Dan Qayle declared her, “a threat to modern society” for daring to choose to be a single mother.
Living Single — Awesome
Sex and the City (1998 to 2004) — This show gets so much flak. OMG, it gets so much flak. And was also, oddly dismissed by Sklar, (above), for being less sexually subversive than the Mindy Project because, according to her, moral issues with promiscuity were implied as opposed to Mindy who just, you know, bangs a lot. Again, another quizzical wrinkle.
Mindy does not casually have lot’s of sex with men whom she then, discards. For me, her sex life exploration does not come anywhere near the honesty and brazenness of Sex and the City. Hellloooo Samantha and anal talk in the back of a taxi! But to be fair to Sklar, a lot of feminist writers love to hate this show. And I cry, “fie on you!”. I will defend the show to the end of my days. I have watched the entire series — three times and I do not own a single Blahnik nor do I drink cosmopolitans.
A female anti-hero character is not new and in fact, it was Carrie who has been given that distinction by Emily Nussbaum in the New Yorker. I will leave it, for now, to Nussbaum to discuss the show in depth, (read it). However, for the purposes of this little bit of exploration, it is interesting to note how relentless is the backlash since the series ended.
Just for the record, by backlash, I mean BACKLASH as in the relentless efforts by anti-feminist media channels to skew the debate about woman fighting for equality. Do you equate Bra-burning with feminism? You are not alone, it has become synonymous with the whole idea. But the truth is, bras were only kind of burned, as part of a small protest by only a handful of women, at a beauty pageant. Once. True fact.
So back to backlash. A prime example of this is on……wait for it……Wikipedia. Wikipedia in the entry for Sex and the City uses a quote from Nussbaum’s article to how the show was criticized — by women. “Looking back on the show a decade after it went off the air, that while the character began as a “happy, curious explorer, out companionably smoking with modelizers,” from the second season on she “spun out, becoming anxious, obsessive, and, despite her charm, wildly self-centered.” Nussbaum did indeed, write those words but she was not criticizing the show. In fact, her article is a staunch and gorgeous defense of the series. She actually wrote that it was, “high-feminine instead of fetishistically masculine, glittery rather than gritty, and daring in its conception of character, “Sex and the City” was a brilliant and, in certain ways, radical show. It also originated the unacknowledged first female anti-hero on television: ladies and gentlemen, Carrie Bradshaw.” Curious then that she would be so mis-quoted, on a site that is not, necessarily, supposed to have an opinion.
That debate will continue but now I would like to honor the fact that Girls was the first television show after that to follow through on the promise of a boldly honest depiction of women’s sexual experiences and confusions. Both shows unfortunately, have Failed massively in their handling of race. I am not going to justify or excuse that. I would love a show that has four main female characters who are women of color and not of television ordained body type who revel in their sexuality. All you enterprising youngin’s, I support you. Go make it. I will be a fan.
Wait, what was that you just said? Watch Orange is the New Black!!!! I have, I love. That show will change the world. It, at least, has changed me.
My main reason for why that particular show has changed me has to do with my long held belief that prisons are shit. That they are gross examples of the inequality of our society and that the whole concept of the Prison Industrial Complex needs to seriously change or be put out of business. I have sung at them — Oh Lord — and no one should ever be put in solitary. I
Special shout out to Drop Dead Diva, Different World, Insecure, Ugly Betty. Okay, here ends the history lesson and so, on to the future.
Once again, it is not that I hate the Mindy Project nor do I think New Girl is particularly boundary pushing. Instead, I want to challenge what I see as a glaring discrepancy between that which is lauded and that which is dismissed. With so much that has been attempted and with the understanding that we are experiencing just the barest beginnings of what is possible, I think we all need to be a little more discerning about what constitutes subversive change. I also think we need to be a little more allowing of delight, in whatever form it takes. But most importantly, Goddamn, I want us to demand more. So so so so so so so, so, so, so, so much more.
