Zooey Deschanel Shuts Down Critics Who Call Her a ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’: ‘I’m Not a Girl’ or ‘One-Dimensional’
Zack Sharf 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.