"I am a champion of women. I am also a champion of my friend and do not believe they are mutually exclusive," Kaling said.

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Mindy Kaling is defending comedian Aziz Ansari on Instagram after posting that she'd attended his show in Los Angeles on Friday. "Funniest shit ever," she posted, along with a photo of her ticket. Ansari recently began performing again after mostly retreating from the public eye last year after being accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who said she felt pressured into having sex with him while on a date. Kaling's Instagram post was met with a flood of comments, with many fans criticizing her for attending Ansari's performance and giving it such a public show of support. "Damn, this is disappointing," one commenter said. "I could get if you decided to go and privately support your friend but to then publicly endorse/rehab him kinda sucks."



Instagram / Mindy Kaling

Kaling replied that she thinks "it would be more cowardly to be his friend and not come to his defense when people disparage him in public." "Obviously I don’t love responding to Instagram comments late on a Friday night but I’m a feminist and standing up for women is very important to me," she said. "I’m not rehabbing him [because] I think he did a fine job doing it himself."

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Another commenter said she was unfollowing Kaling because, they wrote, "as a survivor, this is disheartening," and added, "I believed you to be a champion of women." "I am sorry to hear that. I am a champion of women," Kaling responded. "I am also a champion of my friend and do not believe they are mutually exclusive." Kaling also responded to someone who wrote, "You can't separate the art from the artist. You believe the woman or you don't." "I definitely don't separate the art from the artist," she replied. "His experience has shaped his art and he talked about [it] eloquently."

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