Critical Essay
In this submission, I will be focusing on teenage girls, who tend to be influenced by their favorite tv shows, that in fact, show the woman characters as if living their best lives, marrying a great man and having the most luxurious life ever, turn into problematic female character defined by a series of traumatic events , that people would actually romanticize.
So , A manic pixie dream girl is defined as a female character who exists in our imagination , teaching young males to explore life and it’s mysteries . To some , it was a kind of criticism of the young woman that have no goals in life , but teach man important lessons in life . And this criticism caused some serious issues, that have affected woman , and specially young girls. And it’s still exists today , not only on our screens , but in our subconscious . But the question is how has it affected these woman and to what extent?
Some girl’s today , label themselves as Manic pixie dream girls even though in reality , they’re not even close to resembling to a MPDG . But here , the woman is not the main problem , we should instead , look at the person who assigned her this role , which most of the times is a male . And having young woman as their main audience , this tends to cause some serious issues that can affect any girl’s mental health . Girls in tv shows are always full of energy , always busy taking care of their beauty , and not paying attention to following the social norms . They’re Represented as unique females , who sometimes have some neurodivergents . And men , tend to fetishize mental illnesses, and romanticize them , whether in real life or in the films . And it only makes woman’s mental illnesses ( ADHD , autism ….) worse . It’s not only by showing that woman are here to satisfy man’s pleasures , but also by following the idea that woman fix men’s problems and teach them lessons in life . In our society today , people would accuse any woman of being “ a manic pixie dream girl “ while these woman’s only objective was be accepted and fit in their society. And some TV shows took it a little too far with their scenes and stories to an extent where rape was shown and normalized. In The game of thrones for example, rape was used as a “plot device” to show the vulnerability of woman and some people romanticized it. Sophie turner’s rape scenes that were REPEATED is what is shocking here.
And even recent Netflix shows like “unbelievable” that were even nominated for many Emmys and golden globe awards came into contact with sexual assault, and rape related content that cause trauma even to the characters.
In our societies , young girls think that a perfect woman , is a woman who’s “white “ , “straight “ , “skinny “ , “sexy “ and many more , so young girls feel the need to actually look like their favorite characters , so they end up changing their styles and clothes to more revealing ones sometimes for example.And film producers find it unrealistic to change the trope to a more significant one , that makes girls feel accepted and comfortable with who they are and what they think and feel . As a result, these young woman will feel forced to identify themselves as someone they’re not and that doesn’t look like them.
As a conclusion , tv shows really show a very small and not very important part of any woman’s life , that can sometimes be fake and unrealistic . And young woman tend to believe what they see on their screens , and specially The manic pixie dream girl trope , which is really affecting young girls who think that their main role is to satisfy man’s needs , who end up romanticizing the woman’s mental illnesses, and who are changing their whole lifestyle and aesthetics to look more like the girls they identify themselves to .
