On March 31, Mindy Kaling walked in as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live, rocking a turquoise sequined tank top and citrus lemon pants. As always, she was confident, casual, cool and completely hysterical. She also brought with her a picture of her rocking a crop top on the red carpet, which apparently had gotten a lot of buzz.
Being a comfortable size 10, Kaling began to talk about how she is the “recipient of a lot of backhanded compliments.” Realistically, a backhanded compliment is simply an insult—but most of these backhanded complimenters didn’t have the same malicious tone traditionally used for such antics. Most of them were, in fact, die hard Kaling fans.
Kaling explained that she finds it frustrating when people say. “It’s so nice that Mindy Kaling doesn’t feel she needs to subscribe to the ideals of beauty that other people do” or how “refreshing” her comfort with her body is. But, being Mindy Kaling, she then sarcastically referred to herself a “sea monster” and made it hysterical, proving that she doesn’t really care all that much about weight standards.
Kaling rejects claims that she is a “pioneer because she’s glued to her sofa.” She actually likes to “run and work out” because “it takes a lot of effort to look like a normal/chubby woman.” Honestly, you go Mindy Kaling. Not everyone’s body is the same. Not everyone looks the same when they are in shape. Kaling has famously sported a hot, healthy body and even hotter, healthier attitude about body image for years—but that doesn’t mean that she’s prescribing herself as a poster girl for curvy gals. She simply specified that she isn’t trying to prescribe to a certain image.
But just because Kaling does not want to or feel the need to be skinny doesn’t mean that she is rejecting her image as a body acceptance heroine. She just doesn’t believe herself to be “so courageous” because she likes herself for who she is. After saying this Kaling cried out “aren’t surgeons courageous?” Yes, of course they are!
Kaling has reminded us that while body image is a big deal in society today—especially with issues like anorexia and bulimia running rampant—being an average sized adult woman is not what makes someone worthy of recognition or envy. Being comfortable with your body doesn’t make you a pioneer. It makes you human, and a beautiful one at that.
Mindy Kaling isn’t her body, or her weight. She is a hilarious, intelligent, talented and beautiful woman who happens to be more than a size 4, and an actress. Is that really so crazy?