A sharp, rather troubling essay by New York Times contributor Carina Chocano is running today about women, age and the media; it recalls, of course, all of the obvious anecdotes about the supposed “expiration dates” of models and actresses (“A friend knows an actress whose burglar alarm code – 2828 – serves as a reminder to her of the age she must never surpass”) and mentions an episode of The Mindy Project in which Mindy Kaling (33, playing 31)’s blind date with Ed Helms (playing 38, and “who cares,” asks Chocano) is interrupted by a phone call. She snaps at the caller, “Do you know how difficult it is for a chubby 31-year-old woman to go on a legit date with a guy who majored in economics at Duke?”
“The point is,” writes Chocano, “that we’re meant to identify with Mindy’s desperation and buy into it, to perform whatever mental contortions are necessary to look upon her with pity, and despise her just a little for reaching 31 with nothing to show for it, except, of course, a medical degree.” She adds that it’s these touches, “constantly reinforcing the idea that a 33-year-old woman like Kaling is somehow “older” than a man who is seven years older than she,” leads to “cognitive dissonance on a mass scale.”
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