TMS Discussion: The Polarization of MPDGs and Mary-Sues
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
It’s July 2009, and I’m in between my sophomore and junior years of college. One of my most anticipated new movies that summer, Marc Webb’s fittingly titled (500) Days of Summer, is released to great reviews and wide reception. I can still picture the packed screening at a local indie theater I went to opening weekend. The film was to many, a modern take on Woody Allen’s classic romantic comedy Annie Hall (1977), and certified leads Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel as household names. (500) Days was not only a hit in the late ‘00s/early ‘10s indie scene craze; but also the peak of a popular, yet polarizing film trope: the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. At the time, I was vaguely aware of the term before it was placed directly on Zooey following (500) Days and the breakthrough of her pop duo She & Him with singer-songwriter M. Ward. The label was coined by movie reviewer Nathan Rabin while analyzing Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown (2005) in a 2007 AV Club article series called ‘My Year of Flops.’ In the piece, he claims Kirsten Dunst’s character, Claire Colburn, “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.” Three years earlier, legendary film critic Roger Ebert referred to Natalie Portman’s role of Sam in Zach Braff’s Garden State (2004) as “a girl who is completely available, absolutely desirable and really likes you…We learn almost nothing about her, except that she's great to look at and has those positive attributes.”
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
For a while, MPDG was just a pretentious, online buzzword between critics and screenwriters. The trope existed, as retrospectively noted with Kate Winslet’s presence as Clementine in Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) [also starring Kirsten], yet wasn’t focused on enough to warrant a cultural dialogue. But after (500) Days, you could not escape the phrase in independent film, specifically indie dramedies; and poor Zooey’s whole, real-life existence was pigeonholed into the label as an additional result. Suddenly every twee, spunky, carefree, cute, unique female character on screen was getting labeled MPDG from 2009 to roughly 2014. The original definition is pretty lazy and regressive, and honestly not anything new in fiction. In 2013, Jimmy Maher of the popular blog The Digital Antiquarian accused author Ray Bradbury of proto-coining the characteristic through Clarisse in Bradbury’s classic 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451. Holly Golightly from Truman Capote’s 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Audrey Hepburn’s portrayal of Holly in Blake Edwards’ 1961 film adaptation are being labeled MPDG in 2010. Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s retro dramedy Almost Famous (2000)? MPDG. Ramona Flowers in Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)? MPDG. Kate Hepburn’s Susan Vance in Howard Hawks’ screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938)? MPDG. Even my beloved Annie Hall [Diane Keaton] is slapped with the label, much to my chagrin. It got so bad, Nathan Rabin went as far as renounce the term in a 2014 piece for Salon Magazine, apologizing for creating an expression that became so misused and cliché.
(United Artists)
Being a MPDG does barely anything for young women in storytelling, but the term’s backlash was pretty ridiculous too. It went from a critique on how male filmmakers were using their lead’s love interests as eye candy props, to just calling female characters you don’t like a MPDG, similar to a ‘Mary Sue.’ For those unfamiliar, a Mary-Sue is a term originated in the fanfiction community all the way back in a 1973 issue of the Star Trek fanzine Menagerie. It accuses an OFC [original female character] of not having any flaws and going into an existing fictional universe just to fix the characters’ problems. Usually Mary-Sues are an excuse for the writer to make their main character a self-insert. How naysayers and and hypocrites abuse the MS label regularly with female movie/TV characters is a whole other conversation. [But if you want my own example of one of the few screen characters who deserve the term, let me point directly at Joanne Dru’s role in Howard Hawks’ otherwise great western Red River (1948).]
(Indian Paintbrush / Focus Features)
Back to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl phenomenon. In retrospect, the hate and criticism actually make me cringe a bit, mostly because the negativity was coming from a lot of feminists and creative women. Calling out the screenwriters is fair game and appropriate, except most of the complaints were directed at the female characters and actresses playing them instead. I tried not to join the mob of haters at the time, especially since I enjoy movies like (500) Days of Summer and Eternal Sunshine. I think the closest I got was complaining about writer-director Lorene Scafaria taking advantage of the character type in her script for Peter Sollett’s Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008) and her own Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012). The latter featuring Keira Knightley, of all people, playing a definite MPDG. Fortunately, Scafaria redeemed herself with her female ensemble comedy Hustlers (2019). Looking back, the MPDG discourse was a good example of both sexism from men and self-internalized misogyny from women. At the end of the day, who cares if 20something women actually like ‘twee crap’ and looking cute? Zooey stated in a recent interview with The Guardian this past July that she’s tired of the label and being connected to it. Though, one might wonder if the singer-actress was originally somewhat okay with the association, as the first season of her hit Fox sitcom, “New Girl” (2011-18), was arguably making fun of the trope with Zooey’s protagonist Jessica Day. Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton did something similar with their self-aware indie romcom Ruby Sparks (2012) also lampooning the trope through Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano.
(Mad Chance / Netflix)
So now in 2022, where do we stand with half-assed personifications of the Mary-Sue and MPDG varieties? Both terms are now essentially obsolete in legitimate storytelling and have become relics of the past, unsurprisingly. I think the most recent instance I can remember someone using MPDG unironically, was a random online comment referring to Renate Reinsve’s Julie in Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World (2021). Which just goes to show how much the term has lost meaning since Julie is both complicated and the lead. The makers of the famous movies that popularized the MPDG film fad are now clearly uncomfortable with the credit, and some are even trying to distance themselves as supporters of MPDGs.
Is there another trope or character type that has come along since then? If there is, I have a feeling it’s whatever was going on with Dakota Johnson’s Anne Elliot in Carrie Cracknell’s latest screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. She’s a klutz! She’s a lush! She speaks before thinking! She’s oblivious to her surroundings! She cries herself to sleep over her mistakes! Isn’t that so relatable?? We’ve gone from unrealistic female characters to now superficial pandering. If this “Fleabag” like trend actually catches on and gets its own moniker, then I’m out. Because in the words of Danny Glover’s Roger Murtaugh in Richard Donner’s Lethal Weapon (1987), “I’m getting too old for this sh*t.”