In the book "Paper Towns," there's a quote that reads, "What a treacherous thing it is to believe a person is more than a person." Way too often people are seen only as a concept.
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) trope was coined in 2007. It basically stands for the "girl not like other girls" who will be the savior of some boy's life. She is seen as quirky and damaged, which is how the boy "finds himself." More often than not, the boy seeking his MPDG develops a concept of who this girl is and how she improves his life. That being said, I'm not your Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
If you see me as witty, quirky, different, special or any other of those terms, then you are not seeing me complexly. I do not exist solely to help you "find yourself." I do not exist to serve as your idea of who you think I am. Most importantly, I do not exist to have you "fix" me. The MPDG idea borders on romanticizing mental illness. My anxiety doesn't make me cute, nor does my depression make me interesting. Your concept of who I am is not only dehumanizing, but also degrading.
The idea of being your MPDG is sickening and offensive. If you only live by noticing my good days, but can't handle me on my bad days, then you don't deserve me. I refuse to be a romanticized version of myself for you. If you can't handle me when I'm having an anxiety attack or having depressive thoughts, then you can't have me when I'm happy. In order to love someone, you must accept their flaws. You cannot just love the concept of the person. While this has been a personal experience, many other people—both genders included—also go through this. Basically, my point is that you should think about the complexity of a person fully before you develop a concept of them in your mind.
I encourage you, dear reader, to read this and take away the idea of idolizing those you engage with romantically. Let's destroy the idea of the MPDG and start imagining people as people. Let's imagine each other complexly. We are not placed on earth to save one another. We can live mutually and still see each other's flaws. These flaws are not meant to be fixed, save you or serve as a cute personality trait. These flaws are here to express what we've been through and how we came out stronger. My flaws are not yours to romanticize and I am not your Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I am me, and that's all I need.
