As one of my previous posts mentioned, I am a feminist. While I have always identified as one, recently a lot of people, (all of them men) have incorrectly assumed that I am not one, because "you just don't act like they do". It is both degrading and offensive, but ultimately just disheartening that people still have incorrect notions about what feminism is, and equate it with very negative connotations. A majority of the problem stems from the way it is socially constructed, as well as the way it is presented in mainstream media. As a result of this, and other recent events, I am going to devote the rest of this post to talking about television shows that do not comply with the pro-feminist model, and why it is so problematic for the human psyche. Hopefully, it will clarify some things, and make it apparent that if we do not shift our focus away from media like this, the problems will only worsen.
While there are more severe examples of misogyny in television, I am going to mainly focus on The Mindy Project, because the problems that stem from the show, are what inspired me to write this post in the first place. Hopefully, this analysis will help clarify my own feelings, as I attempt to understand why Mindy Kaling has made creative decisions that I deem questionable.
If it was not already apparent, I watch too much television. On top of the shows that I watch year round, I always get the strange urge to add a new comedy to my spring line up. In 2012, it was Suburgatory. In 2013, it was New Girl. Last year, I decided that it was going to be The Mindy Project. While it seems like a good idea at the time, the shows always end up disappointing me, and The Mindy Project is no exception. I only recently watched season one, and I still do not entirely know what to make of it, so for the sake of argument, I am only going to focus on seasons two and three. I will not deny that the initial appeal of the show was that the two leads, Mindy and Danny, appeared to have great romantic chemistry. While I eventually took a liking to the other characters too, for most of season two, my focus was primarily on the leads. My interest in Mindy and Danny's romantic involvement blinded me to a lot of the fundamental problems with both their relationship, and the show as a whole. This is not to say that I did not see a lot of the apparent problems, just that I conveniently ignored them to focus on the aspects of the show that I did like. It was not until I took a five month break from the show, that I was able to look at it more objectively. The main problem is that the show is overtly sexist, and the shows creator, Mindy Kaling, allows it to happen. I should preface this by saying that I like Mindy Kaling. I used to be a big fan of The Office, and I loved the writing and acting that she did for the show. She is clearly a very intelligent and talented person, which makes it harder to understand what she is trying to do with The Mindy Project. My initial thought, was that Mindy Lahri is supposed to be a romantic comedy obsessed, "boy crazy", but intelligent New York woman, who attempts to balance work, friends, and romantic relationships, all while developing into a fully realized person. However, after watching two and a half seasons of the show, I now believe that Mindy serves as a vehicle to parody the conventions of the stereotypical romantic comedy, but without the personal growth. (Future posts will delve into this theory, but for now, this is all I have to say).
