The “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” is a common film trope that was coined by critic Nathan Rabin in his critique of “Elizabethtown” and Kirsten Dunst’s performance as Claire Colburn. In his review titled “The Bataan Death March of Whimsy Case File #1: Elizabethtown,” Rabin describes the requirements he’s created for this specific trope.

Rabin states, “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. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or-nothing-proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family.”

From then, the trope of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl has been categorized as a damsel in distress with a unique look and a mysterious outlook on life. They are reserved and are there to show the male protagonist a new perspective on life.

From Ramona Flowers in “Scott Pilgrim v. The World,” to a more recent example of Daisy Jones in “Daisy Jones & The Six,” there have been countless female characters that have been assigned this trope, but don’t fit within the characteristics. Two characters in specific go against the trope but are still grouped in Clementine Kruczynski in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and Summer Finn in “(500) Days of Summer.”

In “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Clementine is a mysterious girl with bright blue hair. She’s brash and impulsive. At a baseline, she would fit the criteria to be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl and is often seen as the prime example of this trope. In the movie, Joel discovers that his ex-girlfriend Clementine has undergone a futuristic procedure to erase all memories of him. He undergoes the same treatment but he realizes that he doesn’t want to lose her and tries to escape the procedure.

The story is told through Joel’s perspective and his memory of her after their breakup changes the way he perceives her. He’s mean and excited to get rid of her, as he now sees her as the villain to blame for their relationship falling apart. But he realizes that there were good times and doesn’t want those gone too.

Eternal Sunshine was released before Rabin coined the term, but many see Clementine as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. But others, myself included, see her character as a deconstruction of the trope.

During one of Joel’s memories, Clementine tells him, “Too many guys think I’m a concept, or I complete them, or I’m gonna make them alive. But I’m just a f***ed-up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours.” This specific quote shines through because it’s like the audience gets to see the real Clementine.

Another character wrongly characterized as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl is Summer Finn from “(500) Days of Summer.”

The movie is about Summer and Tom’s relationship, even though Summer doesn’t want to be with Tom. She is clear that she didn’t want to be with him but he tried and tried anyway.

Summer does fall into the trope because of something Rabin did mention: audiences either want to marry her or kill her. The response audiences have for this movie are pretty split, some see Tom as the villain while others see Summer as the villain.

Zooey Deschanel, the actress that plays Summer, has spoken out about the audience reaction and how negative it had turned against her. Because of her portrayal of Summer, many have stated that she is the poster child of the trope. In response, she told Variety, “I’m not a girl. I’m a woman. It doesn’t hurt my feelings, but it’s a way of making a woman one-dimensional and I’m not one-dimensional.”

Someone else who has spoken out against the trope is Zoe Kazan. Kazan’s movie “Ruby Sparks” is about a man who writes his “Dream Girl” and she comes to life. He dictates her every move, giving her no autonomy. It is a straight argument against the trope. You are not supposed to root for the main character who creates this one dimensional girl who is supposed to do everything for him.

Since then, Rabin has detested his original definition. In 2014 through Salon Magazine, Rabin condemned the use of the phrase and has seen how a one off article he wrote turned into a misogynistic trope to tear female characters down. Rabin wrote, “I feel deeply weird, if not downright ashamed, at having created a cliché that has been trotted out again and again in an infinite Internet feedback loop.”

At this point, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl has morphed into something totally different from what Rabin created in 2007. In the end of the article, Rabin states, “Seven years after I typed that fateful phrase, I’d like to join Kazan and Green in calling for the death of the “Patriarchal Lie” of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. I would welcome its erasure from public discourse. I’d applaud an end to articles about its countless different permutations. Let’s all try to write better, more nuanced and multidimensional female characters: women with rich inner lives and complicated emotions and total autonomy, who might strum ukuleles or dance in the rain even when there are no men around to marvel at their free-spiritedness. But in the meantime, Manic Pixies, it’s time to put you to rest.”

These characters do not fall in line with the trope and it’s time that Hollywood starts to create multidimensional characters. Like Rabin says, let’s put this trope to rest.

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