Comediva

Last Time in The Grin Bin: Excerpt from "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" by Mindy Kaling

The Female Heroine of American Television (*Heroine not to be confused with Heroin)

Being a woman in today’s world can be difficult because we’re required to make life-transforming choices on a daily basis without the societal guidance that has been so generously available to men.  When I was a little girl, I had many questions that couldn’t be answered by reading encyclopedias or articles from Encarta.  Sugaring hair removal or hard wax?  Japanese straightening iron or Brazilian Blowout?  Are you sure it won’t get stuck up there? 

As much as I hate using Reese Witherspoon as any kind of role model, I have to ask the appropriate question: How Do You Know?  That’s when I turned to American television.  There are five female TV characters of my childhood that have helped me become the responsible, independent, and intelligent woman that I am today.

It was easy to be a bookworm growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, because it was the unparalleled heyday of the best collections of children’s and young adult book series.  Or at least it felt that way.  It was an era where these light, fun stories were a welcome escape from the required reading lists at school -- these were books we actually wanted to read.  Curling up with a flashlight way past bedtime, we’d devour these books and scrimp, save, and blackmail our parents into buying us more.  Ahh, those were the days.

Julie Bowen, who plays Claire Dunphy on Modern Family, seems hellbent on scaring us sh*tless about being a mom.

Julie plays Claire as a mother who often resents her role as the matriarch of the Dunphy household.  This makes her a total comediva because we’re so used to seeing moms traditionally portrayed as unequivocally adoring in their mommy roles.  Julie brings a complexity to the portrayal of motherhood that is both refreshing and... downright scary.

Pooed pants, awkward middle-school home videos, and good old-fashioned heartache were not only on display but cheerily celebrated at LA’s infamous  Upright Citizen Brigades Theatre this past Sunday, May 14, at “This Feels Terrible: The Love Show.”   The brainchild of UCB regulars Megan Ganz and Erin McGathy, the night was an intimate commiseration session between the performers and the audience on the many trials and tribulations of love and lust.  While you may have never shit your pants on the way back from a date or had a slightly deranged veteran kill an ant just for you, anyone who has ever had so much as an elementary school crush could easily relate to the klutzy Casanovas on stage.