Betsy Putch is leaving Shulman & Associates, and I couldn't be more excited. A representative for The Mindy Project told The Wrap that Zoe Jarman, the actor who plays Betsy, would be absent from the show in the third season. Although they've hinted at some "guest appearances," it seems that Betsy's exit will be permanent.
I'll be the first to say that I'm not going to miss Betsy. Not one bit.
While Betsy sometimes provided the occasional one-liner, her character never developed beyond a stereotype. She was (and is) the fawning secretary, obsessed with Danny, and constantly over-working herself to please him. She's cutesy, she's proper, and she never advances at work. And more than a few times, she perfectly embodies the Desperate Single Woman stereotype on a show that is supposed to challenge our assumptions about single women.
We are encouraged to laugh at Betsy's too-proper antics, while she spouts desperate lines like "But if you guys had such a deep connection, why didn't you stay in touch?" She's obsessed with romance and people-pleasing, and even though we're encouraged to laugh at her stereotypical womanhood, rather than join in it, she doesn't do anything to help the positive portrayals of women on the show.
The Mindy Project has focused on creating strong, independent female characters more and more at the end of its second season, and I would love to see this continue in Season 3. As Mindy learns that she doesn't need a man to kill her spiders, and Peter learns that he likes successful, intelligent women, hopefully the show will not only move beyond Betsy Putch, but female stereotypes altogether.
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