Manic Pixie Dream Girls, what?

Behold, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, described by Onion writer Nathan Rabin as "bubbly, shallow cinematic creatures that exist solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." These female characters often have little to no back-story, personal motivations or desires, or a life outside of the context and scenes of the movie's plot . Instead they magically appear as a benevolent force of chaos and change that is centered around a mopey, uptight and often confused young man to give them sage advice and direction. Think of the recent examples of Natalie Portman in Garden State, Rachel Bilson in The Last Kiss, Charlize Theron in Sweet November, and especially Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown. These women exist in twisted versions of chick flicks, full of giggles and male fantasies. Instead of solely promoting the heteronormative ideal of happiness tied to a successful romantic relationship with an attractive man, they "don't live lives or have careers, they exist to help the protagonist without inner conflicts." (According to Rabin). This character trope takes it one step further and promotes a male fantasy of how women should act.

So at first I started to be offended by this NPR article about a trope of female film characters because of the trope itself. But then I had the misfortune of listening to the broadcasted interview and watching an accompanying video report by two NPR reporter, Neda Ulaby and Bob Mondello. Neda wraps up her interview with Nathan Rabin neatly by concluding that despite their unrealistic and shallow nature, these characters are simply, "amusing muses," a vapid and uncritical response to the potential effects and damages the permeation of these female characters, which are described as present in multiple movies of every decade and go back as far as Katherine Hepburn's character in Bringing Up Baby in 1938, could have on young women taking social and behavioral cues from these extremely popular movies. Later in the video clip she and Bob are in together (also included in this link) she demurely agrees with Bob's one-dimensional critique of these women as "enjoyable, but not real people," as she and Bob list their FAVORITE MPDGs based on how fun they are! I was shocked at how reserved Neda's critique was.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95507953

HOWEVER this article does link to the Onion's A.V. club list of the top 16 MPDGs, which is slightly more satisfying. They take the time to enumerate the scope of this archetypal character across many decades, and make snarky analytical comments about how each characters falls flat of redeemable action or characterization. The Onion also fails to mention what effects these actresses' choices and the (predominantly male) writers' lines and back-story given to them will have. When young girls and women are not encouraged or don't take the time to assess the presentation of these characters, all that is left is the false importance of being giggly, avoiding being "heavy" or a downer, and selflessly giving to the point of being consumed by the desire to make (attractive and lonely) men feel good and have more fun.

http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/wild_things_16_films_featuring