The Manic Pixie Dream Boy, or MPDB for short, probably wears a lot of black. Skinny jeans. Beanies. Vans. Maybe combat boots. If he’s a white collar MPDB he probably will dress like a young heartthrob English teacher, and work for a startup, or a nonprofit. Definitely not finance or banking because “he isn’t a corporate sellout” pulling a grunge tee over his head that was in all likelihood, produced by child labor in Vietnam.
He will most definitely be in a band that plays a genre of music that you’ve never heard of and aren’t quite convinced is real like "mathcore" or "noise rock".
David Foster Wallace is his favorite author, and you can bet your last mimosa at bottomless brunch that he has a quote from "Infinite Jest" tattooed somewhere on his body. He will drunkenly admit to you one night that he never even finished the book.
Your first date will be at a coffeeshop, and he will drink his coffee black, (wincing because the pour over he has at home is so much better) as he adamantly declares that he is a feminist. A few weeks later, he will tell say “I like you because you’re not like other girls.”
He will critique the local music scene, and ask you your opinion of bands that you’ve never heard of and he will stifle a smug smile when you say, “Oh, I’m not familiar with them. What genre is that?” You, the musical plebeian, are about to be educated.
He will care about gentrification and be a white guy living in Brooklyn or Jamaica Plain or Chinatown.
He will be into art and you will try not to be too embarrassed when he asks you if you like that artist “ironically.”
His hips do not move like that. He’s from Ohio, goddamnit.
He is an amalgamation of alternative culture that has been deemed “cool” by the powers that be, he is quirky, a hip indie foil to your normcore character. And he will try and make your life ever so magical and poignant.
You better hope you’re not a black woman, because he will try to talk about your hair and probably use the words “fierce” or “sassy” to describe you. He will have strong opinions about “Lemonade,” but not good ones. Actually, it’s probably best if you aren’t a WOC either, god help you if you’re Indian or Chinese because you’re in for a lecture on Eastern philosophy and spirituality and how Buddhism like, “totally changed my life.”
This is the manic pixie dream boy, rising from the flames of the dead hipster subculture, he has taken their music and clothing and added the intellectual elitism of his liberal arts degree, coupled with the blissful ignorance of his white maleness.
And you probably just swiped right on him.
