We always get excited when pairs of our favorite ladies hang out, like when Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock went trick-or-treating together and when Meryl Streep and Hillary Clinton took that amazing selfie.
So it was basically a dream come true when Lena Dunham interviewed Mindy Kaling for Rookie: Yearbook Two.
Kaling opened up about her role models, her legacy and what makes her laugh as well as more hard-hitting topics like her experiences with sexism. In particular, she expressed frustration at the kinds of questions interviewers commonly ask her:
More than half the questions I am asked are about the politics of the way I look. What it feels like to be not skinny/dark-skinned/a minority/not conventionally pretty/female/etc. It's not very interesting to me, but I know it's interesting to people reading an interview. Sometimes I get jealous of white male showrunners when 90 percent of their questions are about characters, story structure, creative inspiration, or, hell, even the business of getting a show on the air. Because as a result the interview of me reads like I'm interested only in talking about my outward appearance and the politics of being a minority and how I fit into Hollywood, blah blah blah.
Dunham also asked Kaling what inspires her about other women, first giving her own answer to the question: "I love seeing women stand up for things they believe in, teach their daughters how to do the same, prepare meals out of whatever they have in their fridges, wear helmets when they ride their bikes, call BS when they see it, and accept that feminism comes in a lotta different forms."
Kaling's response was essentially perfect:
I love women who are bosses and who don't constantly worry about what their employees think of them. I love women who don't ask, "Is that OK?" after everything they say. I love when women are courageous in the face of unthinkable circumstances, like my mother when she was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Or like Gabrielle Giffords writing editorials for the New York Times about the cowardice of Congress regarding gun laws and using phrases like "mark my words" like she is Clint Eastwood. How many women say stuff like that? I love mothers who teach their children that listening is often better than talking. I love obedient daughters who absorb everything — being perceptive can be more important than being expressive. I love women who love sex and realize that sexual experience doesn't have to be the source of their art. I love women who love sex and can write about it in thoughtful, creative ways that don't exploit them, as many other people will use sex to exploit them. I love women who know how to wear menswear.
To read the full interview, head over to Rolling Stone.
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