The Mindy Project and Phenomenal Character Growth

Over the past week and a half I have managed to get through the first two seasons of the Mindy Project. This is my second time watching this show and the first time watching it in the form of binge-watching. I didn’t think it was possible to love this show more than I already did but I was mistaken, it is possible. Not only is the show hysterical, well-thought and full of easter eggs of hilarity, it is also a great representation of how actual women behave and grow. Within the first season the main character, Mindy, goes from ruining an ex’s wedding, to being cheated on, to deciding to move to Haiti. This radical growth in a character has not been seen in many other shows. And it still manages to feel like a realistic timeline for the character to grow. She doesn’t wake up one day and become a new woman, nor does she stay the same way for too long a period of time. She slowly learns through life’s mistakes that she wants to be more mature, that she is finally ready to settle down. She has her setbacks yes, but she still grows. And what’s more she manages to keep her personality within that growth.

Her personality is another reason this show is an amazingly accurate portrayal of women. She says what many people think. She is awkward in front of her crushes at times, and she is at times selfish in the way she behaves. However, she never apologizes for being herself and feeling the way she does. She is often lying on the floor crying or being dramatic about something in her life. I like this. This is so refreshing to find in a show. The female character is neither overly strong without a single fault and nor is she breaking down every minute of every day. She has bad moments in which she needs to complain but they eventually get better with the help of some friends.

Additionally, her love story with Danny Castellano is the final moment when the viewer realizes she has successfully matured. She handles this with a grace and care that she hadn’t been able to use in her other relationships with men. She maintains control in the relationship while still managing to show her feelings and fight for it. When her heart is broken by Danny she decides to swear off men which leads her to even greater control in her life. And when Danny does try to kiss her when she gets back in the game she knows exactly why and tells him he can’t keep doing that and that she gets to decide when he can kiss her. This is not only a great show of casual consent but it also shows her growth as a human. At the beginning of season one she would have jumped at the chance for a romantic kiss and a little extra drama in her life, but by the end of season two she realizes that she deserves better and that she is finally ready to be in a fully committed relationship and she shouldn’t settle for any less than that.

These are the reasons for my love of the Mindy Project. It is not only a feminist show in certain overt statements, but it is also feminist in its subtle but accurate portrayal of the main female character. Her growth, internal strength, and dynamic emotions are all trademarks of a well written character, let alone a well written female character. There is so much more I can say on the subject but to understand all the intricacies, you will just have to watch it yourself.

Are there any shows that are like The Mindy Project for you?

Far From the Madding Crowd: Feminist or Not?

It has been a while since I last wrote but as I have just returned to college I am suddenly feeling more motivated and passionate than over the summer when I was busy, lazy, hanging with my sister, and dealing with friend drama. Anyways I wrote this a while back in the summer when I saw Far From the Madding Crowd with my sister and mother. I had many thoughts and wrote them down on the car ride home, then proceeded to forget about it until today. So while I’m not sure this is pertinent or current any more I figure I might as well share my thoughts. So here they are:

Let me just say if there is one thing I hate more than sexist movies, it’s movies that purport to be feminist when really they suport a sexist agenda. Far From the Madding Crowd not only did just this, but also felt like a bad romance movie stretched out for three hours (it’s only two).

Granted the movie lost my optimistic good favor when the sheep started jumping off cliffs, but it was brought back in part by the character of Ms. Evergreen. I quite liked that statement that “she would quite like to be a part of a wedding though wouldn’t want a husband to go along with it” (paraphrased). It’s a statement that rang true for me personally.

I began to like her character and began to think “fuck yeah, you go girl” and my high hopes for the movie were sparked. I plotted how I would read the book. I was excited to see this girl make it on her own, turning down the hundreds of marriage proposals that came her way. From there however, the movie seemed to get worse and worse. It somehow managed to be far too fast and excruciatingly slow. First, the main character was turning down this stranger’s marriage proposal, then suddenly she was making out in the woods, then boom, she was married and regretting the choice. The overly done drama and strange scenes began to feel comical to me. But in the back of my mind I knew they weren’t the root of my distaste for the movie. I usually love movies like this. I am a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice and this movie was practically a remake of that book. So I knew it wasn’t that which bothered me. It wasn’t until the very end that I realized what really bothered me: she had agency in her work life but none in her love life. And I don’t mean she had no agency in the way that women “of the time” had none. I mean she was shown as a wild woman only to never ask for what she wanted in her relationships with men. She was never able to clearly state her feelings. She was always unsure or didn’t say anything, even in the end when she chased after her love on a horse, she couldn’t say what she thought and had to wait for him to make the first move.

I find this frustrating as it teaches that the “wild” girls still have no agency and that girls will eventually be tamed. The fact that she got married even after she swore against it also backs up all the people who discredit many womens’ opinions about marriage or children by saying: “you’re just young, you’ll meet the right person and you’ll change you’re mind.” Thus the movie felt counter-feminist to me or at the very least did not make any progression in the portrayal of female characters in media. If you have seen the movie let me know what you thought, did you think it wasn’t feminist or are you in complete disagreement with me?

Agent Cody Banks and its Objectification of Women

The other night my best friend and I decided to throwback to our childhood by watching a classic Disney Channel movie. We decided to watch Agent Cody Banks, a classic teen spy movie from the early 2000s. All I remembered of this movie was that it had Frankie Muniz and Hilary Duff and consisted of a teenage boy doing cool “spy” tricks and

Feminists in Popular Culture

In discussing feminists in popular culture we often see three main women brought up: Beyoncé, Emma Watson, and Tina Fey. What is interesting about these three women is that each woman has successfully declared their feminism and have experienced relatively low backlash from the media and have maintained strong, sometimes even more profitable careers. I wondered how they manage this

Guardians of the Galaxy: A Feminist’s Perspective

A couple of nights ago I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy with a couple of my girlfriends and I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was quite well done. However, while I enjoyed it I didn’t think it was that big of a step towards better roles for women in the Marvel films.

I know that many people think that the guardians movie is a step forward since it shows a woman as a head of state but