Redeeming The Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Television dramas often kick off with a bang, and to hold their audience must keep that momentum going. Comedies, though, have an adjustment period. They’re allowed, and are even expected, to start off a little awkward. After the first few episodes, the cast starts to gel, the characters become more rooted to their setting, and the jokes have a bigger payoff. By mid-season, while dramas are often struggling to maintain the expectations of the pilot, a good comedy is hitting its groove.

So with that in mind, I kept tuning in to New Girl. At first, I wasn’t sure the whole Jess as ‘manic pixie dream girl’ thing, a term first given to Kirsten Dunst’s character in Elizabethtown, wasn’t kind of, well… grating. Because, unfortunately for the boys out there, manic pixie dream girl is a concept and not a reality. It’s an ideal of a woman that cannot really exist. It’s become a type of character that is used in rom-coms and dramadies to show that the male lead is actually in love with an idea and not a person. Eventually the guy realizes he doesn’t really know this person, not as she really is, and he gives up his obsession, opening himself up to the brainy, slightly intense, best friend/ neighbor/dog walker that has been in his life all along.

With New Girl being a straight up comedy, Zooey Deschanel not only had the challenge of making the manic pixie dream girl concept into something tangible, but she also had to do it in a genre in which it is inherently difficult to portray a complex character. Comedies often require their characters to play the fool; slapstick and crossed wires abound. What, in its beginning, came across as three male roommates having to deal with the manic pixie dream girl ideal in the flesh and discovering that the concept is much better than the reality, grew into a depiction of a young woman comfortable with who she is no matter how she is perceived. In a time where every woman seems to have the same caramel highlights, the same shade of fake tan and the same overly PC opinions, Jess went quickly from grating to refreshing as Deschanel brought her to life.

Somehow New Girl and Deschanel did the impossible; they redeemed the manic pixie dream girl.

Jess has her quirks and she’s perky, well, to a fault sometimes, but she admits that she’s not flawless, and she does so without apologizing for it. She treats life as if it is how she wants it to be, and when it proves over and over that it’s not, she fights back all the harder, never giving up. She doesn’t hide her goofy side, she doesn’t conform to what others, namely her roommates, want her to be, and she doesn’t hide who she is for anyone. Jess is happy with who she is and that’s just the way she is going to be, funny accents, goofy walks and all.

In fact, not only will Jess not cave to the pressure to conform, she’s bringing out the originality in those around her. As the quirks of her roommates emerge, they learn to accept themselves just as much as they are learning to accept (and love) Jess. It seems that this manic pixie dream girl has fairy dust that helps you to be who you are with no regrets.

Helping Hand

There are many great things about The Help, both the book and the movie: the topics explored, the emotions provoked, and the rich plot that seamlessly takes you to 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi. With all that oomph behind it, Kathryn Stockett could have just let the plot take its course, horrifying the reader with the travesties of America’s past; but she went beyond that , showing not only the human element but the female one as well.

While there are many things to take away from The Help’s story, for me what really stood out was the relationships between women, and how we can just as easily raise one another up as push one another other down. It seems that “The Mean Girl” is a phenomenon that women will never escape from. In The Help no one gets more mean than Hilly Holbrook, played to grotesque perfection by the otherwise seemingly lovely Bryce Dallas Howard. Hilly’s evil isn’t just for the maids of Jackson, it’s for anyone that doesn’t put her on her self-made pedestal. It’s the fear of her wrath and not admiration that  allows Hilly to be the Queen Bee of Jackson at the story’s beginning.

Even the gawky smart girl Skeeter, played by the always charming Emma Stone,  falls under her rule. Given Skeeter’s unruly hair, gangly stature and overall awkwardness, it’s surprising that Hilly would even consider a friendship with Skeeter. But Hilly has the wannabes of the town flocking around her without so much as Hilly having to crock her finger, and Skeeter is a challenge. She is a prize for Hilly, because Skeeter is a thinker, not a natural follower. In other words, if Hilly can keep Skeeter in her fold and even make Skeeter into something more like Hilly herself, then Hilly’s pedestal will rise that much higher over everyone else, Skeeter included.

In a society ruled by men, demeaning the women around her is the only way that Hilly can obtain any kind of power. But that kind of power, as Hilly learns by the end of the story, can be fleeting.

The only way to take down one power-hungry mean girl is to form an even more powerful collective of smart girls. Stockett’s smart girls are some of the most captivating characters in literature and in film, portrayed perfectly by the Oscar-nominated powerhouses Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain. With Skeeter providing the means, Aibileen, Minny and Celia, along with the other maids of Jackson, slowly unravel Hilly’s hold over the town. And it can be said, slowly unravel Hilly’s hold over herself.

The power of a mean girl is intense but it can not withstand the strength generated by a group of good women. The Help shows that while one woman can be powerful, nothing can beat the force of a sisterhood. As women, we just need a helping hand from one another to rise above all of the mean girls of this world.

No Apologies

It seems beyond obvious that if I’m going to discuss strong female characters in books, I should start with the currently most popular female fictional character; Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson’s impressive creation from The Millennium Trilogy.

 

At first glance, this evocative character, first introduced to us in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, comes across as intensely complex. Even with three books devoted to her, it seems that Larsson only scratched the surface of this character. She’s physically slight, but solid thanks to her boxing training. She dresses to be both noticed and to warn people to stay away. Her hidden past is a tragedy that has marked her deeper than any one of her demonstrative tattoos ever could. And her intense anger is buried under a protective layer of impassiveness that keeps her disconnected from the rest of society.

But for all of her double-sided attributes she has one truly covetable trait. The one that has made her so loved amongst readers. Her intellect. Not since Sherlock Holmes has there been a character so clever.

The real genius of Larsson’s work though, is that despite what Salander thinks of as her androgynous physique, she is not sexless. If anything Salander owns her femininity with a confidence that neither promotes or impedes her agenda.

And her agenda, whether it’s investigating a life as if peeling layers of an onion away, tracking down a killer or putting an end to her father, is first and foremost, like any of the best literary detectives. The goal is the important thing, all else is secondary, even when you’re being buried alive. That level of intense determination is often left for a male character. That’s where Larsson really pleased his readers, and future moviegoers. Not only did he give this often perceived male characteristic to his heroine, but he made no mention of it being exceptional.

Salander is simply a clever, tough woman in search of justice. There are no apologies or explanations given for the attributes that make up Lisbeth Salander, because none are needed.  She is simply who she is, like all women.

Shamelessly Heartfelt

I was a huge fan of the original British television show Shameless, so I was really excited when I heard that Showtime was doing an American take on it. Shameless tells the story of a tragically, and hysterically, dysfunctional family and the friends that weave in and out of their lives; providing equal parts mayhem and support.

For the first few seasons of the British series the show revolved around the relationship between the characters Steve and Fiona. When I first heard of an American version being made, I wondered how it could ever compare to the original. After all, Steve and Fiona were played by James McAvoy and his future real-life wife, Anne-Marie Duff. The two just had to look at one another to make the story move forward. I don’t know of any other onscreen, or offscreen couple, that could wield that level of intensity.

And maybe Showtime realized this, because while the story line of Steve and Fiona’s relationship is a driving force of the show’s narrative, unlike the British version, it is not the heart of the show. The heart of the show lays firmly with Fiona herself.

Played by the stunning, even without makeup, Emmy Rossum, the American Fiona is a force to be reckoned with on her own, with or without Steve. Even in the worst of times (brothers in jail, boyfriend on the run, father kidnapped to another country) she shows a strength that is unwavering. And yet, Fiona’s still just a young woman trying to make it in the world with no money, little education and a moral code so high that she herself often can’t live up to it. But she tries.

Every episode she tries: to be a good person, to care for her family, to provide more for her family, to protect her family. She’s not perfect, nowhere near. And after watching her for one and half seasons, it’s easy to believe that Fiona wouldn’t really want to be perfect, that would be far too boring. But she’ll always try to be better so she can give the ones she loves more than she could before.

Nothing, not even her will, is more powerful than Fiona’s love. It’s this love that motivates her, that pushes her to the limit each day, that makes her more than willing to be the sacrificial lamb for her family, without being a victim. And it’s that love that makes her a hero to her brothers and her sister.

Fiona has strength, courage and more passion than most female characters are given the chance to convey, but it’s her love that makes Shameless the gripping show that it is and, dare I say, even better than the British version.

Sword-Carrying Beauty In A Debutante Dress

I think that there is a reason why young girls are drawn toward fairy tales. It’s not the castles, the magical creatures, or the overabundance of pink. It’s that women are almost always the main characters: Cinderella, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty. These characters are so pivotal to the plot that the story itself is named after them.

The problem though, is that while the protagonist may be strong of heart, she’s weak of body. Constantly needing rescuing from  evil, never able to free herself from the tower. (I mean, why didn’t Rapunzel just cut off her hair and use it as a rope?) While she may be the star of the show, she’s certainly not the hero. In the stories we were brought up with as children, heroism is reserved for the dashing young man with the sword. His strength and courage win the fight, save the girl and bring on the happily ever after.  In fact, the only women with any kind of power are the apple-carrying old crones whose vendetta is provoked by a mirror telling them they aren’t the hottest one around or, in the when-you-think-about-it-it’s-kind-of-weird case of Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent, weren’t invited to the party.

But fairy tales are getting a much-needed re-write on ABC’s Once Upon A Time.

I will confess, I had my doubts about the show to start with. But then we saw how Snow White met her Prince, and instead of singing in a forest surrounded by woodland creatures she was brandishing a sword and robbing her future (so rich he won’t miss it) love. In simple terms, the delicate flower that has always been the picture of Snow White got some thorns. And she’s not the only one. Episode after episode, the ladies of make-believe get to choose their own path, save themselves and the ones they love, and (we hope) get the guy.

This isn’t to say that the men on the show don’t play a pivotal and often heartbreaking role. They do. Every Rumpelstiltskin storyline is a work of genius, and Jiminy Cricket’s back story was quietly profound, kind of like the character himself. But at the heart of every episode is a princess that kicks butt, an evil queen whose greed is so deep she could never be provoked by anything so shallow as her predecessors, and… a sheriff, who, as the storybook in the show promises us, is the hero of this story.

Perhaps even better than the concept of a sword-carrying beauty in a debutante dress is the idea that these women are not as perfect as they were once portrayed to be. They steal, they lie, they have unplanned babies and unplanned affairs. But that doesn’t make them any less heroic, it just makes them a little less make-believe and a lot more real.

The Objective: Real Girls

There’s nothing I hate more than a weak female character. A character that behaves no better, and even sometimes worse, than an animal. One whose only objective is materialistic, with a thought process no deeper than a puddle. I know these type of women exist, but they are nothing to revolve a story around and certainly nothing to promote.

Yet everywhere you look that type of woman has permeated through our culture, to such a ridiculous degree that one is left to believe that a strong, smart, capable female is not only the exception but a bizarre anomaly. In life, of course, this is not the case. If it were, all of society would shut down. In fact, civilization probably wouldn’t have gotten any further than discovering fire.

Maybe it’s lazy writing, maybe it’s an attempt to put others down as a way to bolster themselves up, maybe their mommy didn’t love them enough, maybe… oh honestly, I don’t care why, I just want it to stop.

Now I could call out all the pathetic depictions out there but I don’t think fighting negative with negative will get anyone anywhere in life. So instead I’m going to celebrate the positive.

So that’s what this site is about; celebrating the real girls in literature and film. Women with intelligence, humor and strength. Three dimensional beings with a heart and mind that stand side by side with their male counterparts, not meekly following behind.

I hope you’ll join me in the celebration.