Zooey Deschanel Shuts Down Critics Who Call Her a ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’: ‘I’m Not a Girl’ or ‘One-Dimensional’
Zooey Deschanel rejects being labeled a manic pixie dream girl. The term, now a dated female stereotype in film and TV, became a staple in the mid-to-late 2000s
to describe quirky female characters whose main purpose was to save their male counterpart or teach him about the meaning of love and life.
Deschanel became the face of manic pixie dream girls thanks to her role opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt in “500 Days of Summer,” and it’s a trope she never seemed to be able to escape during her career.
Deschanel’s trademark quirkiness always made her critics label her as such.
Along with Deschanel in “500 Days of Summer,” popular examples of the trope included Natalie Portman in “Garden State” and Kirsten Dunst in “Elizabethtown.”
“I don’t feel it’s accurate,” Deschanel said when a fan asked her about her manic pixie dream girl label. “I’m not a girl. I’m a woman. It doesn’t hurt my feelings, but it’s a way of making a woman one-dimensional."