The Mindy Project





The Mindy Project


“I always get asked, Where do you get your confidence? I think people are well meaning, but it’s pretty insulting. Because what it means to me is, ‘You, Mindy Kaling, have all the trappings of a very marginalized person. You’re not skinny, you’re not white, you’re a woman. Why on earth would you feel like you’re worth anything?” - Mindy Kaling
In honor of the season finale of The Mindy Project (TMP) I would like to look back at the show, its star, what it meant to me - and why I finally had to stop watching.

 I was a super fan of TMP before it ever even aired - as soon as I saw the promo for the show making the rounds, I was pumped. I could not be more excited for a television show about a dark-skinned Indian-American woman of size and color kicking ass as a doctor and having a dating life; this was pop culture fodder. I, like Mindy Kaling, love pop culture, rom coms and fashion (I know, I know, walking cliché). But more than that I was just so excited to see a woman of color AND size on the small screen: it made me feel seen. Being a woman of color, plus-size and the daughter of immigrants, I saw myself in Mindy. 

 I loved TMP's joke per minute ratio and its subversive send-up of sexism, racism and sizeism (see: Plus Size). Some might find the fat jokes crass but I loved them and I loved the woman shining while performing them. In Mindy's first book "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns," she is the older sister I've always wished I had. As she recounted in the book, no television producers, directors, casting agents, what have you, would ever cast a woman of her color and size as the star of a TV show. However, her dreams were to be more than “the nagging friend of the beautiful white protagonist...I’m neither going to have as much fun or as much money doing that.” So Mindy solved this problem by writing, producing and starring in her own TV show. It's the kind of story of triumph against insurmountable odds that I eat up, because I am up against those same odds.

The parts of Mindy's book that stick with me the most are when she describes her struggles with Hollywood and the world's sizeism. She was doing a photo shoot for a major magazine after becoming famous for her role on "The Office." None of the dresses fit her except for this dreary navy blue number that is typically reserved for plus-size women. When she tried on her favorite pink dress and it didn't fit, she went to the bathroom and cried in the stall. However, she made up her mind that this was her dress, forced the set designer to take it out for her, and took the photos (without the back of the dress because of the last minute alterations). This story is symbolic of her success in Hollywood as a leading lady and so relatable for anyone that has ever struggled to fit into clothes because they don't accommodate people beyond a certain size. 

 Another part of the book that stays with me is her discussion of why losing weight isn't a big priority for her. She says something along the lines of, she doesn't worry about her weight, because if she wanted to stay skinny, it would take all of her time and energy. She would have to spend all of her days thinking about what to eat, what she can eat, what she can't eat and her exercise regimen. This isn't worth it because Mindy has more to offer the world and more worth as a human being than the number on a scale and her ability to possess a thin body. Just living and enjoying her life as she is, is worth it. These are my sentiments around my weight exactly and it's a healthy viewpoint that I think many could benefit from. 

 And now, for the downfall: the part where Mindy breaks my heart. There are jokes in her show and even that first book that are problematic. I let it slide in the name of comedy and surely her positive attributes outweigh this? There were also the critiques that Mindy's leading men are always white: I recognized this but at the same time I am sympathetic, because I too have grown up an undesirable woman of color in a white community. I understand how women of color in this situation often adapt by dating white men. "Brown girl, these white men won't save you" - unknown. And then it happened: a show that is supposed to be progressive for women of color, size, and children of immigrants displayed anti-Blackness in a BIG way. The character Tamra was introduced and for some time this character was a walking, talking stereotype of Black women: she would sing all of her lines in the manner of a demeaning, racist caricature. How could someone who fought to create a multidimensional, well-rounded, realistic character for herself, a dark-skinned, curvy Indian-American woman, then proceed to create a flat, one-dimensional racist trope of a character for a Black woman? 

 I was stung but continued watching to see what would happen next. Tamra's character became better after that; however the last straw came for me while watching the final season. I was maybe three episodes in when there was a "joke" about a white male character using the N-word in a Karaoke song that doesn't have the N-word in it. When said character's white wife objects to this, Mindy defends him. I had to stop watching the show after this; anti-Black jokes and blasé attitudes about disliking/disrespecting Black people are never funny; in fact these attitudes help to create a country in which innocent Black people are murdered with impunity. I cannot and will not be privy to this. 

 With that, I am brought back to one of the biggest struggles of my life: anti-Blackness in non-Black people and communities. In a lot of ways, the end of my super fandom of Mindy Kaling due to her anti-Blackness in TMP resembles my loss of non-Black people of color that I have loved due to their anti-Blackness. The ultimate dilemma: what do we do when confronted with the pervasive anti-Blackness of non-Black people of color? How do we balance our desire to refrain from shaming them for this tendency while still holding them accountable? These are all questions that I grapple with in my day-to-day life. While I can't deign to love Mindy anymore, I will always remember her contributions on screen for women of color, size and immigrant communities. 




Hyphenated Ethiopian third culture kid. Twitter: @moonchereka

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