What is a ‘Manic Pixie Dream Boy’? Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner’s relationship renews interest in trope.

By now we’re likely all familiar with the longstanding Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope — the kind of girl who, in addition to not being like other girls, is quirky, thinks outside the box and exists solely to help a sad-boy male protagonist recognize his true potential. Needless to say, she’s got a big job, and she’s been saddled with it for as far back as we can remember.

In recent years, however, the male counterpart to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a term created by A.V. Club writer Nathan Rabin in 2007, has made waves in popular culture: the Manic Pixie Dream Boy. Coined by the Cut journalist Anna Breslaw in 2015, the Manic Pixie Dream Boy serves a function similar to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, in that he’s “the self-mythologizing ‘free-spirited’ dude who’s determined to make your life magical, whether you want it or not.”

Breslaw adds: “[H]e is determined to show women — no matter how much more successful, wealthy, beautiful, happy and confident they are than him — that they aren’t living life to the fullest.”

Notable examples in media of the Manic Pixie Dream Boy include Augustus Waters of The Fault in Our Stars, Peter Kavinsky of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise and Jack Dawson of Titanic.

This term, while commonly used in reference to film and television characters, has found its way off the screen and into the real world, as more people attribute it to famous men in the spotlight.

Case in point? Timothée Chalamet, who by some is seen as a living, breathing Manic Pixie Dream Boy. In fact, the authenticity of his relationship with billionaire makeup mogul Kylie Jenner, who he reportedly started dating earlier this year, has been dissected on social media. Many Chalamet fans believe that the Oscar-nominated actor can “do better” than Jenner.

Certain TikTok creators, however, are challenging this sentiment. In their arguments, they assert that Chalamet, contrary to the desires of many doting fangirls, is not their Manic Pixie Dream Boy.

“You can come for me but u know im right!!!!!!!” Mel Jayne (@itsmeljayne) wrote alongside a video she posted discussing the Chalamet-Jenner relationship on Sept. 5.

“There is this prevailing narrative about Timothée Chalamet, that he’s this Manic Pixie Dream Boy, an intellectual, an artiste. And that he is ‘above her’ in some kind of way,” she says of Chalamet dating Kylie Jenner. “And well done to Greta Gerwig, Hollywood and his PR team for convincing us of this, but the reality is, I think he’s just some guy. … At the end of the day he’s a young, hot nepo baby dating another young, hot nepo baby.”

Chalamet fans have taken to Jayne’s comments to weigh in on her perspective. Some admit to operating in a “delusional fantasy world” that the 27-year-old actor will one day date them.

“You read me for filth but i’m still in my delusional fantasy world,” @stacealien declared.

“Like I think it’s the name,” @cheeryfanta wrote, to which Jayne replied, “Fr ppl wouldn’t be acting up like this if his name was Chet Tuberville.”

“He’s just some guy while she’s a billionaire. I think she’s way out of his league,” @futureceo92 argued.

It’s also important to recognize the role that parasocial relationships play in this context. At times, this “one-sided psychological attachment” to a celebrity can “create a pseudo-intimacy that blurs the lines between character and actor,” according to Columbus, Ohio, sex therapist Domonique Rice.

“It is imperative to draw a distinction between an actor and the characters they portray. Actors immerse themselves in varied roles, often far removed from their own beliefs, personality traits, and behaviors,” Rice told In The Know by Yahoo via email. “Hence, equating them with their characters results in a skewed perception and potentially unjust judgment of their real persona.”

To label a celebrity a “Manic Pixie Dream” boy or girl, explained Rice, strips them of their agency.

“Labeling an individual, celebrity or not, as a ‘manic pixie’ or any other stereotype, is reductive and overlooks the complexity and multifaceted nature of their personality and existence,” she continued. “Stereotyping can confine a person’s perceived characteristics and limit our understanding of their full persona. It denies them the breadth of their humanity and reduces them to a mere caricature, which is not only inaccurate but can also perpetuate harmful narratives.”

TikTok user @thedatingconnoisseurxo stitched her own video with Jayne’s, also noting that Chalamet is just one of many male celebrities who have taken on the Manic Pixie Dream Boy trope, as far as their fans are concerned.

“They are aloof, mysterious [and] out of the ordinary creatives who typically appear to look like tortured souls. And they’re just irresistible,” she says in a video from Sept. 10. “They really push the boundaries of what it looks like in society to be masculine. They’re not your regular 6’6″, six pack, alpha male types.”

@thedatingconnoisseurxo added of Jenner’s interest in Chalamet, “I totally understand her thinking. I totally get her psychology. … She likes a Manic Pixie Dream Boy. Good for her.”

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