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Signed (student author) Signed (faculty advisorJ Signed (2d advisor, if applicable) Thesis titie -~-~--~0\V\~c fi xit ·-D~ia-~---~-"-\ _____________ _ Da1 e -- .2/ Lr__ f-_t_3_. -------------­ [Lil~-1~1~; Use·-----------r------n- 1 J Accepted By: ~---·---------·------------- THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL: A QUESTION OF AGENCY by BRYN DUNBAR Amy Holzapfel, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts April 21, 2013 To Kyle Pfahler Thank you for being my friend all these years, and for reading my little monster. i Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Introduction: Can the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Be Given Agency? 1 Chapter 1: Psychoanalysis and Elevating the Spectator 8 Defining the Manic Pixie Dream Girl 9 Feminist Psychoanalytic Film Theory 14 The Limits of Feminist Psychoanalytic Film Theory 18 Ways of Elevating the Spectator 22 Considering Cultural Context 27 Hook Up Culture and the Manic Pixie Dream Girl 32 How to Proceed 36 Chapter 2: A Manic Pixie Dream Girl with Unstoppable Force 39 Susan Vance as Manic Pixie Dream Girl 40 A Feminist Psychoanalytic Reading of Susan Vance 42 Disruption of the Voyeuristic Experience in Bringing Up Baby (1938) 50 Katharine Hepburn’s Image as an Actress 53 Susan Vance’s Gender 56 Cultural Context 61 Conclusion 64 Chapter 3: A Sexually Active Manic Pixie Dream Girl 66 Summer Finn as Manic Pixie Dream Girl 67 A Feminist Psychoanalytic Reading of Summer Finn 70 Disruption of the Voyeuristic Experience in (500) Days of Summer (2009) 74 ii Zooey Deschanel’s Image as an Actress 83 Summer Finn’s Gender 88 Cultural Context 93 Conclusion 95 Conclusion: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Agency 96 Bibliography 99 iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Amy Holzapfel, for helping me make this thesis project a reality. I appreciate that you gave me this opportunity to learn and grow. Thank you for putting up with my antics and for keeping me from going down too many rabbit holes. I would also like to thank my second and third readers, Professor Anna Fishzon and Professor Maria Elena Cepeda. I appreciate all that you did to make this project possible. I am incredibly grateful for how you encouraged me to explore new ways of thinking and for providing feedback along the way. Thank you to Emery Shriver for advising me about research. This thesis was my attempt to try to learn how to do the kind of work that I am interested in doing. I greatly appreciate the fact that the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department gave me this chance to explore my interests. Thank you to all of the professors who encouraged me throughout my time at Williams. Thank you to my focus group participants. I could not have done it without you. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, brother, and incredible friends who were always there to support me, listen to me vent, and bring me treats and a Manic Pixie Dream Octopus. iv Introduction: Can the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Be Given Agency? I stumbled across the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) quite by accident one day on the Internet. I thought the term was so strange and outlandish that I had to find out more. A quick Google search easily reveals the origins of the term. The phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl was first coined by film critic Nathan Rabin in the 2007 Onion A.V. Club article “The Bataan Death March of Whimsy Case File # 1: Elizabethtown.” In the article, Rabin describes the MPDG: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl 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. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or- nothing proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family. 1 The term has since been appropriated by much of the media and has even entered the language of popular film critics. 2 It is used to describe female characters whose 1 Nathan Rabin, “The Bataan Death March of Whimsy Case File # 1: Elizabethtown,” The Onion A.V.