The manic pixie dream girl “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,” according to the film critic, Nathan Rabin, who coined the term after watching the movie Elizabethtown. The overwhelming presence of such characters in the world of film and television have made the MPDG a type that men in idealize and fantasize about in real life as well.
And where there’s a group of cisgender men chasing after something, there are cisgender women who are being forced to fit into their mold. Are you one of them? Here are some telltale signs that you may be viewed as someone’s manic pixie dream girl.
Related: I’m Tired of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl
They see you as perfect.
This may seem like a plus side to any relationship, but they just don’t see your complexity! If you’re not capable of mistakes, then you’re not human. And you want someone to see you as a human.
They find you eccentric or quirky.
When is only being identified as “quirky” ever really a good thing? You can be quirky, but if someone likes you for only that reason, they may be looking for a manic pixie dream girl.
They try to take care of you.
Manic pixie dream girls are static characters and can be portrayed as being a bit of a mess (you know, in a quirky way), so the male protagonist is always trying to do what’s best for them even when they’re independent beings.
They are looking for you to fix them.
This trope is defined as a character that helps their man without pursuing their own happiness. They only exist to teach the male protagonist important life lessons.
They’re weirdly admiring of your feminine/childish qualities.
Manic pixie dream girls are often described or portrayed as extremely and unabashedly girlish. They also maintain childlike qualities that help make them quirky or spontaneous, but also make it impossible for the men to mature as well.
You’re settling for the “sweet & sensitive” trope that may not be your fit.
MPDGs are women who see life for the excitement it is, and their sole function is to give sensitive men who have never fit in a new outlook on the world. There are other people in the world who share the same world-views and will accept you as you are.
People tell you that you are one.
And they don’t mean it as a compliment. If you do fit the personality traits of an MPDG, then be one! Reclaim your sense of self! And know that it’s not your job to fix men and no one has the right to use the term as a sexist critique of who you are as a person. Even Rabin himself regrets creating the term as it’s a sexist term that is now thrown around much too often when it comes to both the screen and reality.
So if your man is glorifying you for all the wrong reasons (or fits any of these descriptions), then run, girl, run!