why you'll never subvert the manic pixie dream girl

I hate 500 Days of Summer by the way let's just start there why you're so on me or did your parents teach you secrets were just Tre this SE sparked by a conversation I had with my co-workers the other day at my stupid job and it reminded me of the fact that I used to have this like really really aggressive opinion about manic pixie Dream Girls to the point where back when I was getting that degree that I never should have gotten I wrote like an entire term paper on it but I graduated in 1892 so I couldn't find it look point is I find the manic pixie dream girl infuriating not even because of the Trope but because the minute that you mention the term manic pixie dream girl everybody comes out of the woodwork to tell you why their favorite manic pixie dream girl is not not in fact a manic pixie dream girl and I don't understand it I with my full chest my full heart and soul do not believe that it is possible to subvert the manic pixie dream girl Trope because if you do if you do it and you do it right the manic pixie dream girl ceases to be let me explain I feel like I know my audience well enough that I probably don't actually have to explain what a manic pixie dream girl is so I'm going to keep it short and keep it factual the term itself was coined by Nathan Ren a film critic for a magazine who used the term manic pixie dream girl to describe Kirsten Dunst here's the dunce character in Elizabeth Town dunce 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 medic pixie dream girl is a girl who has colored hair or maybe just bangs she plays a kooky instrument or maybe a normal one but like really really well and she doesn't tell anybody about it she probably has daddy issues or some other kind of trauma and she either tells you about it upfront brazenly and confidently unashamed in a sort of refreshing openness way or she keeps it hidden because she is so selfless that she never even bothers to talk about herself but it is because of this trauma that she she understands the world she understands the world in a way that we simply do not and this is not in itself a bad thing right like those are not bad traits for a character to have innately and it's not exclusive to you know the modern manic pixie dream girl the modern understanding of a romantic comedy comes from these screw ball comedies they're called this because of baseball apparently according to Wikipedia a screw ball is a ball that goes in the opposite direction or it's a very delicious ice cream treat that you can only get on the beach for some reason anyway it's a sports thing so we're off to a great start but they were called that because they're about opposites they are about a curveball being thrown at you know the characters opposite is funny that like is a way that jokes are made right like a cow in the jungle is funny because cows aren't supposed to be in jungles a woman taking control of the courtship process is funny because women aren't supposed to take control of the courtship process haaha agency it also was definitely code for like the sexual tension because the haze code was really intense the haze code was like a bunch of dumb rules that they put on TV for a while so you had to be like really sneaky about letting your audience know like who was gay and who was gay It Happened One Night is a film from 1934 and it follows Ellie who is an ARS she gets like lowkey blackmailed into giving this lowly unemployed reporter named Peter an exclusive story on you know the fact that she's like running away to go be with this man in New York City they end up on like a road trip she has to like shower in public showers it's some broad Strokes broad stroke they end up on this road trip together and they fall in love because of course they do now Ellie is like a spoiled rich ays girl so she's like shocked by the bus and like has to learn to like take showers in public showers and she like is finding joy and all of the terrible things that everybody else has to do and all the things that like boring unemployed Peter reporter man sees as common place she's you know stubborn and spoiled and excited and fascinated by the common folk bringing up baby is a 1938 film that stars Katherine heurn as a poooky free-spirited slightly obsessive yin to Carrie Grant's boring paleontologist yank and these movies they don't come across as as manic pixie Dream Girls but you can see the imprint the seeds are being planted not just in the sort of like Opposites Attract because you know Odd Couple pairings have been a thing forever I mean Shakespeare is much to do about nothing is basically an enemies to lovers Adventure but I think but what I think separates the screw ball comedies is this sort of emphasis on class Dynamics and is the context from which it comes which is the Great Depression a lot of people were suddenly broke as [ __ ] a lot of people were becoming really poor really quickly a lot more women were starting to work and enter the workforce and a lot of people and by people I mean men were discovering for the first time that women do not in fact all behave the same way who knew and you know what maybe it's fine maybe it's fine that they're a little kooky because we're all starving anyway it's a coping mechanism and this remains a really strong feature of the romantic comedy as time goes on right like this connection to both capitalism and feminism how Society is coping with those two things so like 1989 When Harry Met Sally Is about a man and a woman who also end up on like a reluctant Road Trip the whole premise of that film is just like can men and women really be friends the answer is apparently no cuz I think they get married in the end so working girl in 1988 is a film that also explores sort of women in the workplace particularly A working class woman in the workplace who more or less poses as her high class high-powered boss and falls for like a business partner person I haven't actually seen it but seems like that the Trope is that like she falls for someone who doesn't know who she is very 12th night pretty and pink I mean that's teenagers but like rich boy poor girl 1984's splash mermaid girl meets human boy that last one's not really that relevant but I just wanted to mention it I never get to talk about Splash class Dynamics right that's what we're talking about class Dynamics and gender Dynamics are neck and neck fighting for dominance in you know the war zone that is the americ American romantic comedy this is a little ridiculous but the root of the manic pixie dream girl Trope is both this desire for equality and this easing of the Public's anxieties when it comes to both money and women and it's probably got something to do with the fact that like Reagan was reaganing all over the place and you know brainwashing an entire generation into thinking that anybody can just become wealthy and it also probably has something to do with just the structure of the storytelling like the screw ball comedies were just a different type of movie that was being made like the romcoms sort of border on drama they border on like genuine they have like a central protagonist so it stops being so much of a two-person story and starts really being a story about one person who has to overcome their own prejudices regarding the opposite class in order to obtain love and happiness right like the poor girl needs to learn that rich men are not all bad sometimes they buy you pretty things basically it stops being a funny thing that happened on the Way to the Forum and starts being a story of self-growth and self-actualization but here's the thing the80s can't go on forever much to dead daddy Reagan's dismay the 80s can't go on forever and rich men rich men don't stay rich men forever that's the point point of capitalism it has to recede you have to have recessions eventually all of that that that gorgeous 1980s money disappears capitalism is not fun anymore by the time we get to the 9s and the early 2000s we are living in the [ __ ] bucket that Ronald Reagan and the.com bubble left us in the recession is around the corner and these these working boys are tired working boys we're up to ass and [ __ ] they're tired they're tired and they're bored they don't need to get you used to women in the workplace anymore they don't need to learn how to maintain their masculinity in the presence of fun and exciting women no they need to learn to live again here's the thing though like in the 1930s it was more common place I think for people to encounter young women who have never worked a day in their life have been very sheltered living in an entirely different world a little screwed up and fascinated by this new world that they don't know anything about I think that that might have been a little bit more common place because even if they weren't like super wealthy ayses all the time like it just it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility in the real world that a woman would be sort of taken care of by her father to a point and then be you know sort of handed off having not really experienced the trials and tribulations of high school football you know and furthermore in the 80s like it's more believable that you know if you're going to do the rich person poor person dynamic like yeah women make less money than men like if you you know took a census of all the wealthy people in the 1980s I'm sure that more of them were men than they were women so like that's fairly believable what I find unbelievable is a woman who is both poor underpaid underemployed Scrappy lower class Adventurer and also Beyond money borderline out of touch and fascinated by the behaviors of being poor you know because that's what we get in these like late '90s early 2000s romcoms is these these characters who are like a mix of the other two that we just talked about like arm manic pixie Dream Girls do not have jobs at the very least they do not have jobs that they need to be at Claire from Elizabeth Town is a flight attendant but we meet her on a literally empty flight they always have either no job or like some weird ass job that's like horse walking that they also do for free for whatever reason because they don't care about money for whatever fing reason and oh God okay let me I'm about to start talking about benic Pixie Dream Girls In specific so I have to request and by request I mean order you you specifically you are not allowed to comment until later I don't know when but not now okay hold off I know that you think that you might literally die if you do not explain to me in feverish detail how your favorite manic pixie dream girl is actually a deconstruction of the Trope and a subversion of the Trope and I I understand that how scared you are but I promise I promise you're going to be fine I promise nothing will happen to you if if you just bite your tongue until I'm done then you can go [ __ ] nuts in the comments okay so summer summer has a job Summer from 500 Days of Summer which um I [ __ ] hate 500 Days of Summer by the way let's just start there but we do we do see summer at Work summer does does in fact have a job uh just so happens to be the same job that our main protagonist spends a majority of his time at but it's a job nonetheless so I'll give it to you Claire from Elizabeth Town flight attendant for empty flight Penny Lane from Almost Famous is literally a professional groupy Sam from Garden State apparently has a job but not one that we see her at only in so far as she is a kooky little Quirk about how she has to wear a helmet at said job but she doesn't actually have to go point is modern manic pixie dream girl is either not in the workforce or she doesn't care about the workforce she has a job that she conveniently never has to be at or a job that she like is very [ __ ] the man about because Modern Man pixie dream girl does not care about money she values other things she is happy to be poor because she has something more which is like a whole other product of capitalism right like this lie about how money doesn't matter and true happiness can be found in people and experience and you don't have to have a lot to be happy because like rich people need to be able to justify how much they are taking constantly and capitalism has made not having money and living in poverty so so miserable and horrible so like they convince themselves that being rich is actually kind of a problem because you don't value things and being poor is really where like the value in life is so that they feel like it's an even trade between you know not dying on the street and you know living in a penthouse but we don't have time for that point is manic pixie Dream Girls are poor but poor in a fun way and I think this is ridiculous I think this is unbelievable and I think it's why the manic pixie dream girl is so contentious and why people really all just get heated up about her because honestly like she's not that weird like a little bit of trauma a little bit of kooky Behavior like that's not that weird for like a real person to have because even though being poor [ __ ] sucks and is horrible that doesn't mean that it's impossible to be poor and happy I'm not saying that money is happiness I'm just saying that this idea that like it's the responsibility ility of the impoverished to find joy and find happiness despite their conditions in order to teach the rest of the world What happiness is is [ __ ] ridiculous and I think it causes it causes a lot of problems I think that it it is just possible and just believable enough that like people do do it in the real world but it's also like incredibly [ __ ] frustrating terrible for your mental health to not know where your next meal is coming from like to not know if you're going to be able to pay your rent and you're going to get evicted that's not fun the damage that Jonathan Larsson did no I'm just kidding rent rent rent rent rent pay your [ __ ] rent you have to pay your rent when these movies are being made in a world where capitalism is slowly closing its hands around all of our throats right Mr Finance boy money does not go as far as it once did single income households are no longer a real IC aspiration women don't just have the option to work if they want to and like be women in the workplace they are required to work they're required by the economic conditions to take on full-time careers while still being tasked with the majority of the home management and childbearing because men are pretending to be incompetent and the manic pixie Dream Girls outof touch socialite attitude towards her own economic stance is simply a ridiculous notion the point here is that the way that the manic pixie dream girl interacts with the world is so unbelievable that you kind of have to only take it at surface level right like you can't look too closely at it or it all falls apart so when you start thinking about it realistically that even the man protagonist whoever he is is probably not equipped to handle the reality of her which I guess is why he has to like grow into you know a better man or whatever he has to like go through self-actualization and like become a a real boy and the fact that she lacks an inner world and lacks you know depth and exploration is less an intentional shrinking of the character and more just a byproduct of the fact that if you did give her those things it would probably become very clear that she is probably not well and proba not as supremely happy as she appears to be which brings us to part two the subversion Olympics let the games begin my pals let the games begin because there are quite a few manic pixie Dream Girls that I did not mention in the last section not because they're not manic pixie Dream Girls but because they are in fact slightly more complex variations on the character due mostly to the hyper reality sort of fantasy setups of the films that they existed so Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim versus the world and Clementine from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind these are both really interesting movies because they sort of directly engage with fantasy and not like elves and magic fantasy but like character fantasy and reliability in a way that the others kind of don't setup for Scott Pilgrim versus the world is basically like a video game aesthetic hyper reality of it all where like ninja delivery girl isn't just like a funny moniker for what Ramona Flowers does it's like a literal like she's a literal ninja and she like dream hops in the the fictional reality of the movie but like also she's just an Amazon delivery girl you know this is pillow talk I'm not going to take the time to explain the plot and the concept of all of these movies if you haven't seen them these are minimal research Endeavors now Ramona Flowers is not particularly happy you don't have to look too closely at Rama flowers to see that she has hella baggage right her last relationships ended terribly because she has commitment issues which is why she has to help Scott fight through them in order to win her but at the same time she also has to help herself through her own problems so that he can win her and she works for Amazon which like okay I get that it was a different time I'm I get that it wasn't 2020 that she's working for Amazon but I can't imagine it was that different okay right she's still an Amazon delivery girl who criticizes Scott's shitty apartment I'm sorry you're telling me this girl just has no concept of the economy or finding a job and why one might be unemployed like we know we know why Scott is unemployed cuz he hasn't grown as a character yet but she doesn't [ __ ] know that she doesn't know what's going on in his life she just met this man I'm not saying that everybody who works a blue caller job and is not the one person has to be 100% empathetic to the plights of unemployment like far from it it's there are definitely people who are struggling themselves who also judge people for struggling for sure it's just really convenient that she's one of them and it's super convenient because that is like exactly the kind of lesson that Scott needs to learn so like the stars are really aligning on that one and that's the problem like it's not the fact that character is poor and also wants other people to get jobs right like that's the point is not that nobody who works for Amazon can criticize the state of an unemployed friend's apartment the point is that person who does that has a Bonkers [ __ ] relationship with money in the economy and that's an insane take to have you might have it in the real world I believe you but like that's [ __ ] Bonkers and these characters all have such [ __ ] Bonkers relationships with the economy that all just so happen to be like exactly the kind of thing that our main character needs to like learn and grow and have a better relationship with money and the economy himself Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is sort of told out of order non- chronologically where like the two characters had like a traumatic tumultuous relationship and we see their memories because they're like having their memories erased of each other and or she did she already did and now he is and we're like we're experiencing their relationship through his literal memories okay that's all you need to know and it's a really good movie it's a really good movie but that doesn't [ __ ] matter that doesn't matter to me at all right now because right now I'm thinking about the fact that you are screaming at the top of your lungs that Clementine Works in a Bookshop she works in a Bookshop she works in a Bookshop and she's miserable she works in a Bookshop and she's miserable she says so right there that men see her as a concept she says so right there in the Bookshop in the same scene two birds with one stone two birds with one Stone boom manic pixie dream girl subverted only like is it is it really is it really because here's the thing these two films they try and for the most part they do in fact succeed in acknowledging these characters having less than perfect mental health which is a realistic comorbidity of the kind of behavior that the manic pixie dream girl exudes they also do a decent job of acknowledging that said mental health has some literal real world consequences that are less than fun and yet like those things feel more like relationship hurdles or in the case of Scott Pilgrim like literal literal challenges that both of them have to overcome rather than complex realities for the characters to unpack the elves what is the definition of subversive seeking or intended to subvert an established system or institution that does not help undermine the power and authority of an established system or institution and that's kind of my problem with these like subversive takes on the manic pixie dream girl is that they don't ever really undermine or subvert the Trope like right like they don't even they barely even pick it apart they just kind of tell you that it's there and to change the camera batter but it's almost like these subversive takes just swap out the fact that he needs this girl to grow as a person for the fact that he needs this fantasy that he knows is a fantasy in order to grow into this kind of person right like he needs the fantasy version of her in order to grow into the kind of man who can handle the reality of her which is like it's more focused on her I guess also none of the men that we meet at the start of these movies are by their own admission sort of capable enough to be a loving and strong and supportive partner in a you know complicated relationship with someone who you know needs sort of help and support right I mean no relationship is easy but like that is that is what is explicitly being told to us is that they need to grow and be better people and they're telling us that right the movies are telling us that by employing these kind of fantasy hyperreal elements girly you see it and you're like oh that is that is a man who is afraid of women like almost like sometimes explicitly sometimes the whole joke is that like the man can't talk to girls right like he is you know terrified of of women and it's like funny and geeky or whatever and that's what I find so absolutely batshit about this Trope is contrary to what the story would like to tell the manic pixie dream girl is often very easy to get the manic pixie Dream Girls they don't have anxieties they come right out in the open and they ask for insane things they steal your chicken they demand you take them on road trips they offer you like mix tapes and things and tell you how to grieve your dying father right like they are very very confident they never need reassurance they never need communication they disappear and come back and flit in and out they don't need to hear from you ever if main man wants her he has to keep up with her because she's going to keep going without him she doesn't need anything look Clementine can tell us all she wants that most men see her as a concept that doesn't change the fact that she's telling us this quite literally inside the head of our male protagonist you can shove it down my [ __ ] throat that Scott Pilgrim is creating a dream version of Ramona Flowers that does not change the fact that Scott Pilgrim is creating a dream version of remot of flowers like at the end of the today the manic pixie dream girl is not a character problem it's a perspective problem it's not a problem that the characters themselves are experiencing it is a problem that we as audiences are experiencing it is exclusively sort of external to the plot and people get really bogged down by like the realism of it they say like manic pixie dream girl is a misogynistic trait like people aren't willing to look far enough and take women seriously because people like this exist right like there are people who have weird relationships with the economy and who dye their hair every other day and are bold and fearless and kooky and you know hide their anxieties with extreme brazenness and love to take people on adventures like there are people like that for sure and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind does actually engage with the fact that like in the real world entering into a relationship based on the the fantasy if someone doesn't actually end well but even that film ends with them trying again like and we still only know as much about Clementine as Joel is willing to understand so we still only experience her as a manic pixie dream girl it's like you know when they tell you if you're lying to like include a little bit of Truth so that it's more believable the manic pixie Dream Girl Is A Lie the Storyteller is lying to you and like any good lie you need to include like a little tiny bit of the truth in order to make it believable but not everybody is going to believe it and that is why I think that the manic pixie dream girl is so [ __ ] infuriating and so like reaction inducing right like it's so reactive it's so all right we need to finish so look if acknowledging the fact that like manic pixie dream girl relationships are not all sunshine and rainbows does not actually subvert the Trope because they still end up sort of winning the prize at the end of the day anyway then what does that mean for all of the stories in which that doesn't happen part three how you don't get the girl let me just start let me start off this section by saying that I I love John Green okay I really do and I agree with John Green on so many things so many things I most of the things out of the man's mouth I'm like yeah got you and I love Looking for Alaska I love Looking for Alaska Looking for Alaska is one of my favorite young adult novels I was 365 years old when I read it but still it's a wonderful book and the world is better because it exists it is also absolutely a manic pixie dream girl like I'm sorry like I'm sorry I'm sorry John I know you watch all of my videos Central Central characteristic of the manic pixie dream girl is that she does not have an inner world she does not have a life outside of the main character and then there is no faster way to cut out a character's inner life and perspective outside of the main character than killing her off halfway through the book like there's no there is no better way to write a manic pixie dream girl than to have not only her life but even her death be absolutely Central to the growth of our main character she doesn't even have to be alive to fulfill her Mantic pixie dream girl duties that is that is a feat whenever people talk about Looking for Alaska and and defend it as not a manic pixie dream girl Trope I am baffled that is Olympic level manic pixie dream girl that is Champion ship that is the AAS tour of manic pixie Dream Girls Okay and like Paper Towns as well like just because she tells him at the end that she wasn't even thinking about him doesn't mean that he hasn't spent 300 whatever Pages thinking about her if anything it makes it even worse cuz it confirms that he absolutely does not [ __ ] know her not even a little bit 500 Days of Summer like just because M girli tells you at the end that she is a real person with a life and not an idea does not mean that we didn't just spend an entire book and movie engaging with a fantasy version of this woman if anything it's disappointing like it's frustrating that we have been after this goal she is the prize that our main character is after like can you imagine can you imagine for a moment imagine for a moment a world where like Peta just [ __ ] kills catniss like at the end like imag Imagine That World Imagine That world for me like that's [ __ ] nuts like when the whole plot when your whole plot is guy tries to get girl and then guy does not get girl like that's frustrating and disappointing storytelling wise the problem with the manic pixie dream girl is that she is not explored as a character only her impacts are explored as the character and she does not have to fall in love with him for that to still be the case I are argue with you now I argue with you right now that the manic pixie dream girl says no variation of this Trope reinforces rather than undermines the problem with the manic pixie dream girl because that is the lesson that he needed to learn right the lesson that he needed to learn was think you're in love with the idea of me or the uh like I think you're more in love with the Alaska in your head than the Alaska that we knew I think is one of the lines I'm not saying that that's not a story wortht telling you know maybe if people weren't so hellbent on telling me that summer is not a manic pixie dream girl I wouldn't care this much but alas here we are I care a lot and this is not a lesson that men ever really learn in the real world this is a fictitious lesson that gets learned because I will tell you I will tell you right now being a broke mentally unstable bisexual Sagittarius with ADHD is not all it's cracked up to be and does lend itself to being manic pixie dream girl it does lend itself to being a challenge that men find enticing you do in fact find yourself having to say things like I am not a concept having to explain to men that they like the idea of you and not who you are and that that is not fun for for you that part is real that that part is true but I will tell you something right now but of all the times of all the times that I've had to look men in the eye and say like I am not an idea or like I am not a concept or like this is what you signed up for never not once has the lesson that said man comes away with been wow I should really not fall in love with fantasy versions of people no no the lesson that these men learn is that women are shitty and they don't like them it breeds incels we are breeding incels for the one person that's going to comment about it obviously not Allen obviously you you specifically I'm sure have in fact learned that you can't fall in love with the idea of people I believe you okay not talking to you talking to everybody else like this is just not a realistic story from any angle whatsoever no matter which way you twist it no matter which way you bend it bop it pull it Yank It Cris cross it whatever you do with the manic pixie dream girl is going to be a fantasy it's going to be false it's going to be unreal it's going to be a dream what do they say never meet your Heroes right like never meet your Heroes unless they're Quinta Brunson I met Quinta Brunson one time and oh my God she was the nicest [ __ ] person in the entire world and she was so cool about it all right so can we cross guy doesn't get the girl off our list of ways to subvert the manic pixie dream girl Trope because yeah sure summer said say that she's real so does Siri I'm sure that would be a great transition to talking about the movie her but I've never seen the movie her so welcome to Pillow Talk where I just talk [ __ ] for an hour so part four what if it's gay well before we talk about what if it's gay what if it's what if it's a boy genderbent gender swapped manic pixie dream girl does it work no I think that the manic pixie dream boy doesn't work because of the emotional labor just like we as a society are you know used to seeing people in certain economic situations we are used to seeing the world the way that it is around us we are used to seeing women put in the majority of the emotional labor in male female heteronormative relationships right we are used to seeing women who have to tame the bad boys or women who have to clean up their own act in order to meet the standards of some you know Finance boy whose Daddy's a lawyer right like we're used to to seeing women doing the child rearing women doing a lot of the homework it's clearly not as prevalent as it was in like 1950 obviously but you know that's like heteronormative right that's the normative part right like we these are the Dynamics that we are used to seeing in the real world and we are well and truly used to seeing them on screen and when you try and look for like manic pixie dream boys you don't you run into okay let me give you an example let me give you an example instead Cinderella okay what is the prince's name you don't [ __ ] know what does the Prince like to do for fun you don't [ __ ] know what does how does the prince speak do we remember if he talks in that movie no what does he do he dances he falls in love he saves her right that's it contrary to BuzzFeed in 2011 Cinderella Works her [ __ ] ass off to get herself saved Cinderella Cinderella spends that whole story book movie Whatever putting in the [ __ ] work right like she is working hard she is working hard emotionally physically she is getting herself where she needs to be so that he can swoop in and do the easy part that's the that's that's emotional labor right she's doing the self-growth prince prince doesn't learn anything Prince does not have anything to do with her self-growth just her tax bracket in ethics there's this concept of like ethics of care and ethics of Justice right and it was found in a lot of studies that women tended to lean towards an a care-based ethic whereas men leaned often towards a Justice B based ethic because that is what patriarchy instills in us I'm not saying that that's true or not true I don't [ __ ] know but women do tend to be more empathetic we are used to seeing women on TV and in real life be emotionally invested in their Partners we are used to seeing women do the chasing right we're used to seeing women take care of men so if you wanted to reverse the roles completely you would have to write a main female character who is zero interest in the inner world and the inner workings in the life of the the male manic pixie dream boy right you would have to really try to write a woman that acted like the men in these stories and it would be quite jarring I imagine because we don't give women a lot of Grace when it comes to their emotional availability and their emotional sort of investment in their Partners call them frigid [ __ ] way faster than we call men unfeeling careless robots you know and it would be kind of mean like it would be kind of shitty that's a lesson that women are expected to have already learned women are expected to have a natural incl ation towards the care of others right a natural sort of empathetic and emotional disposition whereas it makes sense that the male character has to learn and grow and you know discover how to be emotionally sensitive or aware or whatever we don't have manic pixie dream boys because we have Prince charmings and that's fine like even Aaron Samuels and Mean Girls like what the he's you know no thoughts head empty no inner world like we don't really know what his Vibe is he is just the R and the lesson that the girls have to learn is in relation to each other you could almost say that Edward Cullen is a manic pixie dream boy for like the first three quarters of the Twilight book cuz like we know jack [ __ ] about him uh he seems to instantly be in love with her right no barrier to entry very emotionally accessible in a sense but then as soon as we meet we have to learn so much much about his [ __ ] opinions we have to start listening to this man brood for chapters chapters of brooding Stephanie Meyer wrote an entire book about his brooding there is a nightmare chapter in Breaking Dawn where he just talks about himself we know so much about Edward Cullen's inner world that we don't need to know about he could have just stood there and been sparkly but no because Stephanie Meyer was interested in his inner world and Bella was interested in his inner World point is you have to go looking for manic pixie dream boys so what about the gate can the gays do it can the gays can we subvert the manic pixie Dream Girl by making her a lesbian um absolutely the [ __ ] not no no are you kidding me I'm sorry uh no manic pixie dream girl stories do not happen when they're women loving women and it just doesn't really work if you try to do the manic pixie dream girl with gay is like blue is the warmest color is sort of Towing the line to like manic pixie dream girl territory with you know blue hair artist and like Normy girl having like a dramatic and passionate relationship right like it kind of has all the makings but the story is centrally about Adele who is you know Normie girl sorry kind of discovering her sexuality right through meeting this blue-haired woman named Emma so the fact that they're both women is like Central to the story and the exploration of her sexuality necess Ates an exploration of the other characters inner world and life and perspective because that's the thing that's new like that's what we're learning and even then like in the end Adele is like pining after Emma who has settled down she's like I loved what we had but we don't have it anymore get over it like Emma also like still benefits from the kind of like self-growth and like you know artistic inspiration that Adele and hers relationship provided to her right like she's still painting about her she's still receiving you know from the main character as much as she's giving in terms of like growth and impact on each other there is just something I think about queer relationships that automatically disqualifies the manic pixie dream girl Trope because like I I am not I'm not a lesbian I date anyone who's nice to me but from my understanding lesbian culture seems to be about you hauling right like you would have to maybe tell like blue is the warmest color in Reverse like you would maybe have to have the manic pixie dream girl role be filled by a straight woman but that still feels like a different story right like I don't know I just think that like there's something about queerness that sort of inherently implies like some level of self-discovery and self-work having already been done it implies that this character is already capable to a degree of looking Inward and trying new things and you know choosing to pursue a queer relationship there is like a sense of confidence and choice in that because it is outside of the the norm it is not heteronormative right like and even if it's not like if you do have a character that wants to like keep it a secret then you just end up with that like Kristen Stewart Christmas movie which like I love my girl but like what was that like what's her face to not scream manic pixie dream girl to me you're not pinning all of your fantasy ideals on her she she's not helping Kristen Stewart's character learn and grow at all in that movie in fact like Kristen Stewart's character is arguably the more interesting one and it's not the other way around either if you want to do it I guess if you want to do it if you want to do manic pixie dream girl with Gaye you would have to do it in a vacuum like the external realities of the world you would have to do it in a situation where like outside Concepts and pressures and like you know realities of queerness as we know it today don't exist which brings me to the movie duck butter duck butter is an amazing movie Very x-rated though for the record but it's a film about two women one of whom is very anxious and shy and another who is sort of you know bold and kooky and the two of them decide to spend 24 hours together just like boning and learning about each other and learning to live and experiencing intimacy but even then like we see the same amount if not more of the inner world and you know family life of the manic pixie dream girl than we do like our main protagonist there's also the like time limit the 24-hour time limit I think prevents the movie from falling too far into the manic pixie dream girl trap because we are constantly reminded that like they're on the clock like there is a limit to this this is a voluntary experiment they know that they are you know pressing paw on the real world they're actively trying to learn as much about each other as possible in as little time as possible right and as a result even though the one character does exhibit like all of the traits of the manic pixie dream girl she also exibits like so many other traits she has so much else going on which brings me to my no further questions your honor moment okay because you know what happens you know what happens when you successfully subvert the manic pixie dream girl do you know what you get if you do it right you get gry's Anatomy part five did you know he didn't [ __ ] pick her all right so here's the thing the opposite of a a manic pixie dream girl is not a manic pixie dream girl who knows that she's a manic pixie dream girl it is not a manic pixie dream girl that just doesn't like you it's not a manic pixie dream girl who is actually like also kind of shitty it's not a manic pixie dream girl who is not a girl because a manic pixie dream girl it is a perspective problem and the inverse of a manic pixie dream girl is just a well-rounded character to undermine the manic pixie dream girl structure is is just to tell a story about a full and complicated woman like derck Shephard absolutely thinks that Meredith gry is a manic pixie dream girl from his perspective right like she is young and bold and a little damaged and can save him from his marriage to the woman who he should be with right like the the perfect for him fit the other Doctor Who's got her [ __ ] together who's his age right like he Meredith gry will adore him because she does she absolutely [ __ ] adores him she will help him right like she will teach him about himself and how to see the world for what it it really is and and blah blah blah blah blah and he's not wrong right like he's not wrong he all of those things all of those things are true all of those things do happen they you know Derrick's mom says in like season five or something that like she you see things black and white she doesn't you need a spoonful of that like I know this show really well but we you don't we don't get those vibes from her because we are watching the show from her perspective this is her story so we see her like genuinely struggle through life in her early 20s right like we see all of those manic pixie behaviors for what they really are which is like generated trauma responses you know what I mean like we see the cost of that I can handle anything Cavalier attitude right we see the fact that she does like manic pixie Dream Girls do care she cares so much so much Manic pixie Dream Girls do care and do have needs and we see also that they do not always get picked I don't actually think that the term pick me comes from this speech but Meredith gray does quite literally stand in front of Derrick Shepard and say pick me choose me love me and this clip makes the SS online every couple of years and I so think that some people are under the impression this is where the term pick me comes from I have no idea where the term pikme comes from I have no evidence full conjecture at this point full tinfoil hat we're just I'm just making [ __ ] up at this point I do not believe anyone who has watched that show saw that as like a pick me girl move right Ellen Pompeo has like talked about how she really didn't want to do it and she really didn't like that speech and she was like I I'm going to stand here and ask a man to pick me like no [ __ ] way she didn't want to do it she didn't think that it was a good thing to put on television but you know shaa ryes was like trust me trust me do it it's it's important and it is such a beautiful scene it's so heartbreaking and it was so important for the character because that moment like she is I'm going on a tangent about the Pik me thing but she is in tear we know who Meredith gray is we know because we know her inner world we know how difficult that is for her to do we know how hard she is fighting to access that level of vulnerability to stand there and say I think that I deserve you I am putting this in your hands I'm willing to tell you what it is that I want she's like handing him her [ __ ] heart and it's such a a big moment of like self-growth for her and it's one of the best moments in the whole show and he doesn't [ __ ] pick her cuz it's Shonda Rhymes it's Shonda Shonda Shonda ryes better hope that I don't ever end up in the same subway car as her because Shonda ryes is not riding the subway in Philadelphia but we would have some [ __ ] words to wrap it up if you want to subvert the manic pixie dream girl just like write a real woman not that hard when you undermine the manic pixie dream girl you just you get like Legally Blonde right like you get lwoods you get Wednesday Adams you get proof which is a deep cut but it's pillow talk so we're going with it as soon as you subvert or invert or undermine the manic pixie dream girl with any level of success she ceases to be right the manic pixie dream girl does not exist in subversion she does not exist outside of her role as the manic pixie dream girl if you want to make commentary on the manic pixie dream girl if you want to analyze it if you want to explore it if you want to unpack it you have to use it you can't tear down a fantasy without building it and um and that is it that's it that's I've been filming for way longer than I wanted to be let's do a comment shout out we'll do a two-parter because technically speaking the last video that I posted was the visual version of my EP but I know not all of you watched that um and you don't have to so while technically speaking the comment shout out from the last video is um a Bop compilation a Bop Elation by Will Parker 1404 the comment shout out from the K last video that you guys probably watched which is the kylex Y video is Alice Wonder 259 can the Gods Not Dead bit please not keep coming back sets off my figh or flight every time thank you for the great vids to which I respond what God's Not Dead bit I have an EP called Gamora it's on Spotify and apple music and anywhere you want to listen to it it's very sad and average I have a patreon and um I have a cat who's cute as [ __ ] good night oh no I forgot to say thank you for coming my pillow to godamn [ __ ] playground [Music] call [Music] compromise thisx bull Going's I drew my lines on the ground oh your the one who had to go out of B

Channel: biz

Views: 56,059

Keywords: manic pixie dream girls, 500 days of summer, Scott pilgram, John green, manic pixie dream girl, tropes, feminist ethics, female characters, analysis, breakdown, trope talk, philosophy, biz, biz barclay

Id: 3Hjym_0x-hk

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2024