Since Garden State came out
in 2004, the film trope of the "manic pixie dream girl" (MPDG) has
been discussed over and over again. The most widely used description of
the MPDG is from film critic Nathan Rabin: "that bubbly, shallow cinematic
creature that 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." While the men in films featuring
MPDGs are sensitive new age guys who show fragility and emotions, the sole
purpose of MPDGs is to lift the male characters out of an existential void with
their quirky effervescence. You can see a montage of clips
containing MPDGs here.
The new film Ruby
Sparks seeks to subvert the MPDG stereotype. Written and acted by Zoe Kazan, who projects
the same wide-eyed saccharinity as perpetual MPDG Zooey Deschanel, the film
portrays a depressed writer who creates his dream girl character, only to find
her actualized in real life. They
commence on a dream relationship, which sours when the girl begins thinking
independently, and acting contrarily to the way he desires. The film frankly discusses the harm idealized
notions about a person can bring to relationships, calling to mind numerous
studies we’ve discussed over the term.
First, the manic pixie dream girl stereotype smacks of
Galician’s 12 myths and stereotypes of sex, love, and romance found in the
Bader (2007) article, most notably myths #7 and #10, which state that the love
of a woman can change a man and that the right mate “completes you”,
respectively. The Segrin and Nabi (2002)
article about unrealistic expectations about marriage also lends depth to understanding
the problem with MPDGs. Though I can’t
think of an instance where the main guy actually marries his dream girl, they
do generally commence on these dream relationships with the sense that this
girl is “the one”, that their dream girl completely understands them, and their
love lives together will be perfect.
Interestingly, the types of men in this type of film usually
run against the norms of hegemonic masculinity and fall into the “sensitive new
age guy” category. They frequently show fragility and emotion, and as their
reliance on MPDGs for happiness would suggest, exhibit submissive traits. Additionally, there are certainly extant
media portrayals of what I would consider “manic pixie dream boys”, notably
Jack Dawson in Titanic (1998).
