Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Last updated
Katharine Hepburn's role as Susan Vance in the 1938 screwball comedy film Bringing Up Baby has been described as an early example of the character. Bringing up baby publicity photo.jpg
Katharine Hepburn's role as Susan Vance in the 1938 screwball comedy film Bringing Up Baby has been described as an early example of the character.

A Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is a stock character type in fiction, usually depicted as a young woman with eccentric personality quirks who serves as the romantic interest for a male protagonist. The term was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin after observing Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown (2005). Rabin criticized the type as one-dimensional, existing only to provide emotional support to the protagonist, or to teach him important life lessons, while receiving nothing in return. The term has since entered the general vernacular.

Contents

Origin

Film critic Nathan Rabin coined the term in 2007 in his review of the 2005 film Elizabethtown for The A.V. Club . In discussing Kirsten Dunst's character, he said "Dunst embodies a character type I like to call The Manic Pixie Dream Girl", a character who "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." [1]

A year later, The A.V. Club ran a piece listing 16 characters they deemed MPDGs, including Katharine Hepburn's character in Bringing Up Baby ; Goldie Hawn's character, Jill, in Butterflies Are Free ; and Winona Ryder's character in Autumn in New York . [2] Thereafter, the new term spread throughout other media, including National Public Radio and Jezebel . [3]

Response

Zooey Deschanel rejected the Manic Pixie Dream Girl label in 2022. Zooey Deschanel 2012.jpg
Zooey Deschanel rejected the Manic Pixie Dream Girl label in 2022.

In an interview in New York about her 2012 film Ruby Sparks , actress and screenwriter Zoe Kazan expressed skepticism over the use of the term, noting that its use could be reductive, diminutive, and misogynistic. She disagreed that Hepburn's character in Bringing Up Baby is a MPDG: "I think that to lump together all individual, original quirky women under that rubric is to erase all difference." [4]

In a December 2012 video, AllMovie critic Cammila Collar embraced the term, noting that its pejorative use is mainly directed at writers who do not give these female characters more to do. [5]

In December 2012, Slate 's Aisha Harris posited that "critiques of the MPDG may have become more common than the archetype itself," suggesting that filmmakers had been forced to become "self-aware about such characters" and that the trope had largely disappeared from film. [6]

In July 2013, Kat Stoeffel, for New York, argued that the term has its uses, but that it has sometimes been deployed in ways that are sexist. For example, she noted that "it was levied, criminally, at Diane Keaton in Annie Hall and Zooey Deschanel, the actual person. How could a real person's defining trait be a lack of interior life?" [7]

Similar sentiments were elucidated by Monika Bartyzel for The Week in April 2013, who wrote "this once-useful piece of critical shorthand has devolved into laziness and sexism". Bartyzel argues that "'Manic Pixie Dream Girl' was useful when it commented on the superficiality of female characterizations in male-dominated journeys, but it has since devolved into a pejorative way to deride unique women in fiction and reality".[ citation needed ]

In July 2014, writing for Salon , Rabin stated that the term "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" had frequently been deployed in ways that are sexist and had become as much of a cliché as the trope itself. Rabin acknowledged that the phrase has its uses in specific, limited contexts, but overwhelming popularity had limited its effectiveness. Rabin concluded by saying that the term should be "put to rest." [8]

In 2022, actress Zooey Deschanel rejected the label's application to her, saying "I don’t feel it’s accurate. I’m not a girl. I’m a woman. It doesn’t hurt my feelings, but it’s a way of making a woman one-dimensional and I’m not one-dimensional." [9] According to Variety, the label had followed her throughout her career since her appearance in 500 Days of Summer. [10]

Male variation

A male version of this trope, the Manic Pixie Dream Boy or Manic Pixie Dream Guy, was found in Augustus Waters from the film version of The Fault in Our Stars (2014); he was given this title in a 2014 Vulture article, in which Matt Patches stated, "he's a bad boy, he's a sweetheart, he's a dumb jock, he's a nerd, he's a philosopher, he's a poet, he's a victim, he's a survivor, he's everything everyone wants in their lives, and he's a fallacious notion of what we can actually have in our lives." [11]

The Manic Pixie Dream Boy trope has also been pointed out in sitcoms such as Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock . The female protagonists of these shows marry men (Adam Scott's Ben Wyatt and James Marsden's Criss Chros, respectively), who, according to a 2012 Grantland article, "patiently [tamp] down her stubbornness and temper while appreciating her quirks, helping her to become her best possible self." [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsten Dunst</span> American actress (born 1982)

Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the anthology film New York Stories (1989). Dunst gained recognition for her role as child vampire Claudia in the horror film Interview with the Vampire (1994), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also had roles in her youth in Little Women (1994) and Jumanji (1995).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabethtown, Kentucky</span> City in Kentucky, United States

Elizabethtown is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Hardin County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,531 at the 2010 census, and was estimated at 31,394 by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2020, making it the 11th-largest city in the state. It is included in the Elizabethtown–Fort Knox, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Louisville/Jefferson County–Elizabethtown–Madison, Kentucky-Indiana Combined Statistical Area. The Elizabethtown Metropolitan area had a 2019 estimated population of 153,057, making it the 5th-largest metropolitan area in the state.

<i>Garden State</i> (film) 2004 American film by Zach Braff

Garden State is a 2004 American romantic comedy-drama film, written and directed by Zach Braff, and starring Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm. The film centers on Andrew Largeman (Braff), a 26-year-old actor/waiter who returns to his hometown in New Jersey after his mother dies. Braff based the film on his real life experiences. It was filmed in April and May 2003 and released on July 28, 2004. New Jersey was the main setting and primary shooting location.

<i>The Crow: Salvation</i> 2000 supernatural superhero film directed by Bharat Nalluri

The Crow: Salvation is a 2000 American superhero film directed by Bharat Nalluri. Starring Eric Mabius as Alex Corvis and the third installment of The Crow film series, based on the comic book character of the same name by James O'Barr. After its distributor cancelled the intended wide theatrical release due to The Crow: City of Angels' negative critical reception, The Crow: Salvation was released direct-to-video after a limited theatrical run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zooey Deschanel</span> American actress and musician (born 1980)

Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress and musician. She made her film debut in Mumford (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous (2000). Deschanel is known for her deadpan roles in comedy films such as The Good Girl (2002), The New Guy (2002), Elf (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), Yes Man (2008), The Happening (2008), 500 Days of Summer (2009) and Our Idiot Brother (2011). She has also ventured into dramatic film territory with Manic (2001), All the Real Girls (2003), Winter Passing (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007) and The Driftless Area (2015). From 2011 to 2018, she starred as Jess Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.

<i>All the Real Girls</i> 2003 film by David Gordon Green

All the Real Girls is a 2003 American romantic drama film written and directed by David Gordon Green, and starring Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Shea Whigham and Patricia Clarkson. It is about the romance between a young, small-town womanizer and his best friend's sexually inexperienced younger sister. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2003. It was well-received by critics and was nominated for several film festival awards, with Green winning a Special Jury Prize at Sundance.

<i>Elizabethtown</i> (film) 2005 film by Cameron Crowe

Elizabethtown is a 2005 American romantic tragicomedy film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Its story follows a young shoe designer, Drew Baylor, who is fired from his job after costing his company an industry record of nearly one billion dollars. On the verge of suicide, Drew receives a call from his sister telling him that their father has died while visiting their former hometown of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Deciding to postpone his suicide and bring their father's body back to Oregon, he then becomes involved in an unexpected romance with Claire Colburn, whom he meets near the start of his journey. Elizabethtown stars Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Alec Baldwin, and Susan Sarandon.

<i>The Happening</i> (2008 film) Film by M. Night Shyamalan

The Happening is a 2008 science fiction thriller film written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, and Betty Buckley and revolves around an inexplicable natural disaster causing mass suicides.

<i>500 Days of Summer</i> 2009 film directed by Marc Webb

(500) Days of Summer is a 2009 American romantic comedy film directed by Marc Webb, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and produced by Mark Waters. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel and employs a nonlinear narrative structure, with the story based upon its male protagonist and his memories of a failed relationship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Rabin</span> American film and music critic (born 1976)

Nathan Rabin is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for The A.V. Club, a position he held until he left the Onion organization in 2013. In 2013, Rabin became a staff writer for The Dissolve, a film website operated by Pitchfork Media. Two of his featured columns at The Dissolve were "Forgotbusters" and "Streaming University".

<i>New Girl</i> American television sitcom

New Girl is an American television sitcom created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for Fox that aired from September 20, 2011, to May 15, 2018. The series revolves around a quirky teacher, Jessica Day, after she moves into a Los Angeles loft with three men, Nick Miller, Schmidt, and Coach. Former roommate Winston Bishop and Jess's best friend Cece Parekh later join the characters. The show combines comedy and drama elements as the characters, who are in their late 20s and early 30s, deal with relationship issues and career choices. New Girl is a joint production between Elizabeth Meriwether Pictures and 20th Century Fox Television and is syndicated by 20th Television.

Pilot (<i>New Girl</i>) 1st episode of the 1st season of New Girl

"Pilot" is the first episode of the first season of New Girl. The episode was written by Elizabeth Meriwether, and directed by Jake Kasdan. The episode first aired on Fox in the United States on September 20, 2011 to positive reviews.

"Moonshine River" is the first episode of the twenty-fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. The episode was directed by Bob Anderson and written by Tim Long. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 30, 2012.

"Maybe This Time" is a song written by John Kander and Fred Ebb for actress Kaye Ballard. It was later included in the 1972 film Cabaret, where it is sung by the character Sally Bowles, played by Liza Minnelli. It had already been recorded and released twice, in similar arrangements, on Minnelli's debut studio album Liza! Liza! (1964), and subsequently New Feelin' (1970), but it turned into a traditional pop standard after its 1972 inclusion in Cabaret.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Day (New Girl)</span> Fictional character

Jessica Christopher "Jess" Day is a fictional title character in the FOX sitcom New Girl, where she becomes the sole female roommate in an apartment loft in Los Angeles. She is portrayed by Zooey Deschanel.

"Prince" is the fourteenth episode of the third season of the American sitcom New Girl, and the sixty-third overall. It was written by David Feeney and Rob Rosell, and directed by Fred Goss. It was broadcast on February 2, 2014, on the Fox network in the United States. In the episode, best friends Jess Day and Cece Parikh are invited to a party held at Prince's house. When Jess's boyfriend Nick Miller tells her he loves her, she gives him an unexpected response, which results in Nick and his roommates crashing Prince's party, so Nick can talk to Jess. At the party, Prince gives Jess advice that helps her tell Nick she loves him too.

<i>My Year of Flops</i>

My Year of Flops is a 2010 book by film critic Nathan Rabin based on his columns on the website The A.V. Club.

"Looking for Liz/Lilly Changes" is the ninth episode of the third season of the American comedy-drama television series Louie. It is the 35th overall episode of the series and was written and directed by Louis C.K., who also serves as the lead actor. It was released on FX on August 23, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delaney Rowe</span> American social media personality, actress, and comedian

Delaney Rowe is an American social media personality, actress, and comedian. She is known for her cringe comedy videos on TikTok in which she parodies character tropes in media, such as the "absolutely insufferable female lead of an indie movie".

References

  1. ↑ Rabin, Nathan (January 25, 2007). "My Year Of Flops, Case File 1: Elizabethtown: The Bataan Death March of Whimsy". The A.V. Club . Retrieved January 5, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Wild things: 16 films featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls". The A.V. Club. August 4, 2008.
  3. ↑ Ulaby, Neda (October 9, 2008). "Manic Pixie Dream Girls: A Cinematic Scourge?". NPR .
  4. ↑ Greco, Patti (July 23, 2012). "Zoe Kazan on Writing Ruby Sparks and Why You Should Never Call Her a 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl'". Vulture . Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  5. ↑ Collar, Cammila (December 14, 2012). Semantic Breakdown: The Manic Pixie Dream Bitch. YouTube . Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  6. ↑ Harris, Aisha (December 5, 2012). "Is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Dead?". Slate . Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  7. ↑ Stoeffel, Kat (29 July 2013). "The 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl' Has Died". The Cut. New York Media LLC. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  8. ↑ Rabin, Nathan (July 15, 2014). "I'm sorry for coining the phrase "Manic Pixie Dream Girl": In 2007, I invented the term in a review. Then I watched in queasy disbelief as it seemed to take over pop culture". Salon . Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  9. ↑ Simpson, Dave (2022-07-21). "Zooey Deschanel: 'Manic pixie dream girl? I'm not a girl. I'm a woman'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-05-03.
  10. ↑ Sharf, Zack (2022-07-27). "Zooey Deschanel Shuts Down Critics Who Call Her a 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl': 'I'm Not a Girl' or 'One-Dimensional'". Variety. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
  11. ↑ Patches, Matt (9 June 2014). "He's Perfect, He's Awful: The Case Against The Fault in Our Stars' Gus Waters". Vulture. New York Magazine. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
  12. ↑ Lambert, Molly (3 December 2012). "1D Internet Fantasies: Liz Lemon, One Direction, and the Rise of the Manic Pixie Dream Guy". Grantland. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.