In case you missed it, last week’s episode of “The Mindy Project” was all about butt sex. Mindy’s onscreen boyfriend Danny (Chris Messina) wanted to try anal the very first time, attempting the act and claiming “I slipped.” The rest of the episode was focused on Mindy trying to determine whether his “slip” was intentional, and how to cope with it. While speaking about her show at The New Yorker Festival, Mindy was asked a question about consent by one self proclaimed “hard-core” fan: “Were you at all surprised at the negative reactions that you simply got from a number of your biggest supporters, and just what was your response to that?”
I would say this: I believe I disagree with you. And I think that Danny is a wonderful character, a wish-fulfillment character, and that he loves Mindy, and they have a relationship that is very understanding with each other, and he tried something while he was attempting to see what he could get away with. However i don’t think that in that relationship that Mindy’s reaction to it had been ‘I feel violated’; it was ‘Hey man, run that by me!’ I think that, we must, in knowing what their relationship is and knowing that the actual way it was portrayed, it wasn’t something that made her feel unsafe or degraded – you can love someone and become inside a relationship with them when you are both consenting adults, and individuals can try things and you may be like – ‘I busted yourself on that.’
It wasn’t a problem of sexual unsafety. I realize people felt that way, and I disagree – In a larger sense, we’ve this card – this red card – of stirring fear in men about some things. I had been sad about that since i thought, ‘Is that a situation where we want to use that card for that?’ It bummed me out a bit. There wasn’t any sexual peril inside; it wasn’t a situation where she felt unsafe or was objectified. She just was startled – I had been sad about this.
What did you consider the episode, the response and Mindy’s explanation? [Vulture]