I recently caught The Goodbye Girl a few weeks ago when it happened to be playing on TCM. I found myself struck by Richard Dreyfus's character in particular, because he was a perfect example of a male version of the much talked about trope, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (hereafter MPDG). Now, this struck me as very interesting, as most discussions about the MPDG trope focus in on accusations of misogyny; a bored male writer coming up with a dream girl to help him escape the monotony of his life while rarely giving the MPDG character any goals of her own ie., she exists only to make the male character's life more interesting.
Yeah... bullshit. Why? Because although it is less written about, there are many examples of characters that fit the MPDG archetype and yet are male. Often, they exist for the same reasons that female MPDGs do - to spice up the boring life of a female character (for example, as in the aforementioned film The Goodbye Girl). However, the character does not always exist solely as a love "object," as is often asserted - Sydney Fife, Jason Segel's character from I Love You Man represents a platonic version, as does Sam Rockwell's character "The Kid" in Box of Moonlight. These kinds of examples strike down the accusations of misogyny on the part of authors of MPDG characters. The archetype is neither rooted in the "male gaze" nor even in the "female gaze" - it's rooted in lazy writing.
At best, the MPDG is a (very over-discussed) subtype of the age-old "plucky agent of change" character - and, at worst, a tool used to attempt to criticize works in service of political agendas (usually feminism). The Male counterparts of this trope are far from rare, and are far from being a new phenomenon. Writers have been relying on the plucky agent of change trope for many years, and male characters are no exception. Bad writing? Perhaps. Lazy writing? Definitely. Misogyny? Hell no.
Other male examples:
Andy Dwyer and Chris Traeger in Parks and Recreation (2009-)
Mr. Jones in Mr. Jones (1993)
Tyler Durden in Fight Club (1999)
The Kid in Box of Moonlight (1996)
Sam in Benny & Joon (1993)
Sydney Fife in I Love You Man (2009)
Aman in Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003)
Neil in Watching the Detectives (2007)
Elliot Garfield in The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Dr Pomatter in Waitress (2007)
Jack in Titanic (1997)
Rhodes in Bridesmaids (2011)
Dr. Tunde and Dr. Akimbo in Phat Girlz (2006)
Kevin Franklin in Houseguest (1995)
Jesse in Pitch Perfect (2012)
Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
