Why The “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” Character Can Be Harmful Representation for Teen Girls
I was around 11 years old; all I wanted in the world was to be a movie character. But not just any movie character, but the main character. I wanted to be the girl whose life was exciting, full of love and friendship, and all that Hollywood movie magic. Imagining my life like a teen movie was an escape from the bullying and anxiety at that point in my life, but it also led to me falling head over heels for film. I became infatuated with characters, stories, and tropes. The way that cinema tells stories you can see and hear is unlike anything I had ever experienced. As I have grown older, watched more movies, read more screenplays, and attempted to write my own (sometimes terrible) movie scripts, I have become hyper-aware of the types of characters I enjoy seeing on screen and the ones that I don’t. I have also become hyper-aware that I don’t identify with the main character of most movies. As I am coming into my own as a young woman interested in making movies, I have found an issue in a character type found in many of the movies I adore, which is equally heartbreaking and fascinating—the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
In 2005, Nathan Rabin coined the term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” in his review of the movie Elizabethtown to describe the cute, friendly flight attendant that Kirsten Dunst played. Since Rabin’s review, the MPDG has been identified as a stock character type in movies. You may be thinking, what is the MPDG? The MPDG is a type of female character portrayed as an eccentric, quirky, and fantastical woman who saves the male main character from himself. She usually helps him discover his true potential without ever making any proper character development of her own. Rabin claimed that the MPDG “exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries.” Suppose you haven’t seen Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown. In that case, some well-known MPDGs include Holly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Annie from Annie Hall, Penny Lane from Almost Famous, Summer from 500 Days of Summer, Marla from Fight Club, and Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind.
There is nothing inherently wrong with these characters or these movies, and when I was researching, I realized how much I love these movies and have felt represented by these off-beat characters. I have never felt like the main character. I have never been in the “cool crowd,” my interests are a bit obscure, I mess up and say the wrong thing, and I am imperfect. Main character tropes for young women often feel predictable, and their lives always fall into place exactly how they should, but that’s not real life. Real life is messy. And I can be messy in my attempts to try and figure out who I am in the world. Seeing young women on screen who are emotional, honest, flawed, and quirky resonates deeply with me, but knowing their primary purpose in the movie is just to help a man with his self-growth is unsettling. I don’t want my existence to revolve around helping men with their emotional fulfillment. My self-identification with the MPDG is halted; I don’t know if this is a helpful representation of a teenage girl.
My main critique of this character type is that she often undergoes no journey of self-discovery, unlike the male that she is close with. Being young is scary and exciting because the future is full of possibilities. I want to see these young women that I identify with undergo their own hero’s journey–representation matters, especially for young people looking for characters on screen to relate to and feel less alone. I want to see a female main character who is embraced and loved for her quirks, messiness, and utter humanity. Often in MPDG movies, the male is flawed, and his MPDG is there to welcome all his quirks; we need more films to do the opposite and explore every possibility in between. Hollywood is not real life, but by consuming misogynistic tropes like the MPDG, Hollywood is planting those seeds in our reality.
It’s time for a change in how women are represented in movies. It’s time for Hollywood to stop writing female characters just for the sole purpose of helping a man. Women are not just supporting characters in film; they are beautiful, intelligent, fascinating members of society and deserve to be shown in their whole story, not just one piece.
Original content created for Zhive Media
