The term “manic pixie dream girl” was originally coined in 2007 by film Critic Nathan Rabin in his critique of Kirsten Dunst’s character Claire Colburn. He wrote that the characters were often very one-dimensional, their only place is to progress the man's story further. It also furthers this negative trope that being “not like other girls” can somehow make these women better. That in all this trope is rooted in the topics of heteronormativity and misogyny. These women are normally portrayed as having these neurodivergent traits that don’t have much pull from the focus of the story with the mediocre man going through something.
So how do we actually see the “manic pixie dream girl”. She’s presented as a character with so much depth, her mind moves a million times a minute sourcing as entertainment for the male lead. This woman doesn’t distinctly exist, she doesn’t act a certain way that purely benefits the man. Some examples of this include Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim, Sam in Perks of Being a Wallflower, Penny in Almost Famous, etc. The women are depicted as these crazy interesting lovable people, for some reason completely infatuated with the male character. These coming of age stories need a sort of catalyst to create such a change in the person's life. They show them a new element of the world they've never seen before, a new thing to be infatuated with. They aren’t depicted as real people, often going through these large mental issues that don’t have any physical pull in the story rather than putting the man's life in perspective. This is displayed very clearly in Looking for Alaska through the character Alaska and the effect she has on the narrator Miles. He spends the entire novel being infatuated with her, everything she does makes him want her more, she is effortlessly cool. She deals with a lot of mental illnesses, largely fueled by her mothers death. Still, this doesn’t sway the main character, he needs her and constantly fantasizes about something deeper with her, despite having a romantic relationship with another girl who doesn’t hold any importance when compared to the beautiful, amazing Alaska. By the end of the book Miles is finally able to pursue Alaska romantically, conquering her, only for her to quickly leave and, as he finds out the next morning, crashes her car and dies. And that's it, all exploration of her character is done and she lives on through the eyes of this boy and further thinking about this perspective of what could’ve been.
In certain movies, cracks in the typical trope start to form, showing the presence of the male fantasy fading, in movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind through Clementine and 500 Days of Summer through Summer. In both films they are depicted as these exciting interesting girls, a person the main male character becomes absolutely infatuated with. At the end of 500 Days of Summer, the character of Summer breaks up with Tom, ending his enjoyment of the 500 days he shared with Summer. And it's almost as if it causes this facade to break, Summer isn’t this perfect depiction of what he wanted and the person he viewed to greatly impact his life.
The concept of “manic pixie dream girl” aligns directly with an objectification of women. We are supposed to fit into these distinct boxes. Even the concept of having more of an "eccentric" personality is viewed as being catered to the male gaze. This classic trope doesn’t exist in real life, only in forms of media, which we of course know is very male centered. But real women contain so much more depth; our personhood is multitudes greater than what is expected.
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