I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell would rather watch a movie featuring an alleged MPDG than the utter shite served up to us as the 21st century slant on “women’s pictures”, featuring duelling brides and shrill harridans who ruin men’s fun (generally also featuring Katherine Heigl); I don’t know any women like that in real life. And yet somehow a female character who is interested in music or dresses idiosyncratically or has seen a black-and-white movie is the unrealistic one?

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Thank you thank you thank you Clambistro for finally putting words to my frustration at the universal dismissal of “manic pixie dream girl” movies.

I tried, once, to justify my love of 500 Days of Summer, but now I think I went about it the wrong way.

“That term is a term that was invented by a blogger, and I think it’s more of a term that applies in critical use than it does in creative use. It’s a way of describing female characters that’s reductive and diminutive, and I think basically misogynist. […] I think that to lump together all individual, original quirky women under that rubric is to erase all difference. Like, I’ve read pieces that describe Annie Hall as a manic pixie dream girl. Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby. To me, those are fully fledged characters that are being played by really smart actresses. I just think it’s misogynist. I don’t want that term to survive. I want it to die.”

- Zoe Kazan

I can relate to “manic pixie dream girls”. They’re usually smart and funny and have varied interests. I don’t see many other women my age in movies whom I can actually relate to.

I would like these characters to continue.

(Source: dailylife.com.au)