The Bear’s Claire is an archetypal ‘manic pixie dream girl’, but we shouldn’t hate her for it

The Bear is incredibly smart and well written, and it has a pool of well-rounded female characters like Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney, Liza Colón-Zayas’s Tina and Jamie Lee Curtis’ Donna. So it begs the question, why? When it comes to The Bear, I believe that we are seeing Claire through Carmy’s eyes – not as she actually is. The MPDG exists in popular culture, but she also exists in the minds of men; whilst we know that the MPDG is reductive, and that no woman can fulfil this trope in real life, some men have not yet grasped this. Carmy has not had many relationships, he never went to parties and missed out on being a young man because of his career; so, it’s understandable that Claire, his first real love interest, would be someone he idealises. She’s too good to be true, because she is too good to be true.

Claire is a fantasy of Carmy’s, and her character actually enhances the show’s narrative (albeit in an annoying way). Carmy uses her as a distraction, and to scratch his itch for being seen as ‘fun’. But, in reality, he wants to focus on the restaurant. Claire is a symbol of another life, another path he could have taken; a rose-tinted glasses version of domesticated bliss and the ‘perfect’ girlfriend. Maybe in season 3, we’ll see a more realistic Claire. Maybe we won’t. But one thing’s for sure: we need to stop hating on the MPDG.

Back in 2007, the term ‘manic pixie dream girl’ was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin after seeing Elizabethtown. Defined as as a fantasy figure who “exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” In 2014, Rabin wrote a piece titled I’m sorry for coining the phrase “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”. In which he said “Let’s all try to write better, more nuanced and multidimensional female characters: women with rich inner lives and complicated emotions and total autonomy, who might strum ukuleles or dance in the rain even when there are no men around to marvel at their free-spiritedness. But in the meantime, Manic Pixies, it’s time to put you to rest.”

Molly Gordon’s Claire joins a long list of MPDG characters, who all deserve better. Natalie Portman in Garden State; Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer; Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; Helena Bonham Carter in Fight Club; Kate Hudson in Almost Famous; Charlize Theron in A Million Ways to Die in the West; Charlotte Richie in You.

So, even the inventor of the term feels bad for the MPDG, and yet we still continue to turn on her. On social media, commenters of the show have said “I love The Bear but I cannot stand the “perfect girlfriend” archetype that is Claire. She has no character other than unwaveringly supportive and smiley” another added that “rewatching the bear and claire really is the most boring unlikeable indie girl ever created.”