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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3561 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 23, 2022

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Manic Pixie Dream Girls.

Film critic Nathan Rabin, who coined the term after observing Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown (2005), said that the MPDG "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"

Perfectly measures the most toxically feminine themes in every role Zoe Deschanel (sp?) ever played. Accomodating, but fun, but pretty, but not arrogant, but interesting, but not independent, but not needy, but not frigid, but not nymphomaniac, but not religious, but not materialistic.

ETA: Real life example Springora's Consent. A book I am torn about in general, in particular because she is 14, but that's the essence of toxic femininity. Seeing oneself as a side character, as the muse rather than the artist, as the object rather than the subject. That's the essence of everything bad we tell women to be.

MPDG is an female archetype men like and women don't like that much, not one women like and men don't like that much. To complete the quadrant, a man women like and men don't like that much would be one of these scary, dangerous, but brooding and haunted men with a tormented soul that need a woman in their life who can tame them and heal them. A Byronic hero.

I disagree. Your great MPDGs aren't in male-focused media, where they would appear in male focused media they only show up by reference to or in imitation of more famous female-focused works. Elizabethtown is a romcom starring Orlando Bloom, while New Girl had a viewership that was better than 60% female. You're not seeing MPDG archetypes show up as Bond girls or the fresh love interest in F&F 14.5. Women like MPDG media, men don't really care for it. On the other hand, real life gigachad types (John Cena, Ah-nold, Stallone, the Rock) never appear as RomCom protagonists in female focused movies, they appear in male focused movies where women are attracted to the things men like about gigachad (muscles, aggression, etc.).

Women dislike the MPDG archetype and complain about it because it is what they imagine they need to be to attract a man*. In the same way that the gigachad archetype/meme comes directly from RedPill/PUA/Incel discourse about how that is what they think women want. Both archetypes are taking the resentments that losers think apply to winners and expanding them endlessly past the point of logic. They're the gender/romantic equivalents of the old gag about Trump being a hobo's idea of a rich man or of scrooge McDuck.

Where the reality is that what most attracts partners is a mixed approach of quality/attainability. The Girl Next Door archetype for women. The classic romcom professions for men: Architect, small business owner (especially family business), farmer, widower with kids, reporter etc.

*In any women's discussion of mating, "attract a man" can be read to include the qualifiers "a man who is sufficiently tall/attractive/rich/committed/whatever." Similarly, but to a lesser degree for men.

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