I’ve found myself belatedly obsessed with the
stock character that is the so-called ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’. For those who don’t know; the term MPDG is usually taken to refer to a whimsical, beautiful, free-spirited sprite
of a woman... who is generally used as a plot device that forces the
bland/uptight male protagonist to accept the oddities and intertwined joys that
life has to offer. Think Jennifer Aniston in Along Came Polly, Natalie Portman in Garden State, Kate Hudson in Almost
Famous or Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Scott
Pilgrim v. The World.
I think that when it first became a ‘thing’, the MPDG
started popping up everywhere because the fantasy was a widely shared one – a
stunningly attractive girl who is unlike anyone you’ve ever met, marches to her
own beat, and has a thing for wallflowers and wet blankets. But it got to the
stage where all the real ‘pixies’ out there got a little sick of seeing their
film counterparts lumped firmly into the same category. In that way all female individuality becomes the
same, and turns us into this one character. Women everywhere have started to
grit their teeth in frustration every time a female film lead reveals that her
quirky, chaotic existence is balanced out with a love of ‘obscure’ music and a
penchant for colourful clothing. Because we know that this makes it so easy for her to henceforth be
dismissed as an insubstantial manic pixie dream girl. And we don’t want our
on-screen reps to play out the same story over and over again. Therein lies the
problem with the Manic Pixie, and I’m pleased to say that as a society, we’re definitely
starting to notice this.
How can I tell?
Well, in answer to that, allow me to name my favourite
contemporary female characters who’ve succeeded at turning the MPDG trope on
its head.
Summer – (500) Days of Summer
The Zooey Deschanel that we, the public, know is what most
people would consider a MPDG. She’s ‘adorkable’; all blue eyes and shiny hair,
constantly filled with infectious joy, she’s in an indie pop band, and she’s
undeniably unique... But this is just the side of her that she shares with her
fans. I adore and admire Ms. Deschanel, but I don’t know her. I do know that she’s a living, breathing,
self-sustaining person, and not just a fantastical being escaped from the
collective fantasies of men. This is something we're reminded of by the eponymous character of (500) Days of Summer.
Summer is Tom’s dream girl. She’s pretty, she’s funny and she’s
(yup, you guessed it) quirky.
There’s only one problem; she doesn’t believe in love or committed
relationships. Before getting any closer to Tom, she warns him as much, and
confides in him that she’s worried she may hurt him. But Tom’s judgement is so clouded
by grand romantic notions and lust that he doesn’t heed her warning. Inevitably, Summer ends their
relationship when she realises that Tom is falling in love with her.
Many fans of the movie have called Summer’s actions cruel,
claiming that she led Tom on, and broke his heart. In my mind, this is an
unjust reduction of the plot. Summer reiterated again and again that she didn’t
want a boyfriend, and when Tom asked her to promise that she wouldn’t wake up
one day and feel differently about him, she replied; “I can’t give you that. No
one can.”
Towards the end of the movie, Summer falls in love with
another man and gets engaged. Yes, she said she didn’t believe in commitment,
and yes, she broke our hero’s heart; but Summer didn’t exist solely to make the
protagonist happy. She grew, and changed her mind, and ultimately proved that
she wasn’t the ‘dream girl’ that he took her for – she was just a woman.
Bubble Burst:
“Just
because she likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn’t mean she’s your soul
mate.” - Rachel
Ruby – Ruby Sparks
Zoe Kazaan stars with her boyfriend Paul Dano in her
self-penned film, Ruby Sparks. At
first glance, the trailers for the film show us clips of a story we already
know. A sensitive bespectacled writer falls for his dream girl, they kiss and
frolic in arcades, and dance maniacally at raves, and he runs around telling
his friends that “its love, its magic!”
That’s the kind of shallow rom-com that Ruby Sparks seems to be on the surface, but I was delighted to find
that this film goes so much deeper
than that. Ruby is literally Calvin’s
dream girl – he plucks her from one of his dreams and turns her into the
central character of his latest book, and somewhere along the way, he falls so
deeply in love with her that he actually wills her into reality.
At first, they are blissfully happy. Ruby is unaware that
she is fictional as she can interact with other ‘real’ people and, y’know, she
lives and breathes outside of Calvin’s company. She’s not a pixie, she’s a
woman. But the problem is, to Calvin, she’s still his dream girl, and therefore his
creation. When Ruby starts to behave like a normal human being, with
desires and aspirations that don’t involve their relationship, Calvin grows
anxious. He realises that, by making changes to his manuscript, he can make
changes to Ruby’s ‘character’. He makes her more co-dependent, and when that
grows tiresome, he makes her constantly joyful. When that grows irritating, he writes that “Ruby was just Ruby”, hoping
to return her to the dream girl he initially fell for. But Ruby has evolved
beyond the two-dimensional girl in the pages, and ultimately tries to leave
Calvin, which results in one of the darkest and most disturbing climaxes I’ve
ever seen in a romantic comedy.
In an interview with Patti Greco of Vulture, Kazaan herself contested the MPDG stereotype, saying; “It’s a way of describing female
characters that’s reductive and diminutive, and I think basically misogynist... And
I think that’s part of what the movie is about, how dangerous it is to reduce a
person down to an idea of a person.” Out of the mouth of the
screenwriter, Ruby represents a big “F*** You!” to the MPDG trope, and a
reminder that no woman can be anybody else’s dream if she wants to chase her
own.
Bubble Burst:
“Quirky,
messy women whose problems only make them endearing are not real.”
- Harry
Britta – Community
Possibly my favourite on this list, Britta Perry probably wouldn’t
be the first person you’d think of when you think MPDG. In fact, she’s probably
at the opposite end of the spectrum from Zooey Deschanel, but hear me out! The
entire premise of the Community pilot
is that the show’s star, Jeff Winger, will do anything to get with his latest
dream girl. She’s gorgeous, fiery and aloof, she’s passionately anti-conformist,
and here comes the quirk; she’s a former foot model. She dresses up as a T-Rex for
Halloween, and dabbled in anarchy, and she dropped out of high school in the
hopes of impressing Radiohead. When we first meet Britta, she’s “almost thirty
and flat broke”; her life is a mess, but it’s an endearing mess.
But throughout the season, Britta’s character rounds out and
develops, and we learn more and more about her. She goes from the perfect, yet unattainable,
pretty peer that Jeff first meets, to a real woman with very real flaws. And
not the cutesy, endearing flaws usually attributed to MPDGs – Britta has some real issues. Her attempts to relate to others
are often clumsy and misguided, she’s hypocritical despite her attempt to be
progressive, and she expects too much of her peers, but not enough of herself.
Britta’s definitely individual and quirky (she uses a
walkman and calls it ‘retro’), but she’s also totally independent, and righteous,
and lovably clumsy. She carries her own storylines, and doesn’t feel the need
to accept Jeff just because he chases after her relentlessly. She may be his dream girl, but she’s undeniably
her own woman, flaws and all.
Bubble Burst:
“Jeff doesn't
need a girl who doesn't wear underwear because Oprah told her it would spice
things up. He needs a girl who doesn't wear underwear because she hasn't done
laundry in 3 weeks!” - Britta
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