Manic Pixie Dream Everything

2022-10-22 · essays

Our look at love is very messed up. The very ambiguity of love is seen as a gateway to exploitation. This is apparent in the gender differences that define love.

This naturally leads to some level of asymmetry in romantic expectations; men have been generally taught to seek their romantic interest as somebody who will vitalize them and challenge them, unlocking their true potential, but nonetheless submitting to the man's power. They appear to provide almost mystical help to the man, reminiscent of the popular stock character of the manic pixie dream girl who acts as a quirky, attractive, and spontaneous woman who encourages the male protagonist through their resistant and yet yielding validation of the man's true essence. We can see this trope in deconstruction in 500 Days of Summer.

The average male's ideal is a woman who freely submits to his domination and does not accept his ideas without some discussion, but who yields to his reasoning, who intelligently resists but yields in the end.

This, of course, isn't limited to one gender or the other but is rather the norm as presented in media; the manic pixie dream boy is also a common trope.