A post at the Cringepics Subreddit displays a highly-awkward attempt by a “fedorabeard” (a term I am totally stealing) to flirt with Kitty, a Hot Topic employee that suits his highly-superficial fancy. Of course, he couldn’t just ask for her number or social media info directly—after the smackdown she gives to fedorabeard, the person who gave him her info should probably run for the hills. Here’s a highlight, and the whole Imgur album is below:

Listen, buddy, you don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me, and from the obliviousness I’ve witnessed here I doubt you’d know your ass from a hole in the ground. I’m not your Felicia Day, I’m not your Ramona Flowers. I’m not your manic pixie dream girl. I’m an actual, real live human being and you’ve had a single five minute conversation with me. You can take your little nerd-girl fantasies you’ve so thoughtfully projected on me and shove them right back into the box of tired, worn out Hollywood tropes you pulled them out of.

***

And one last thing to leave you with, bucko. If you have to tell somebody you’re a nice guy, you’re doing something wrong. Or you’re not actually a nice guy, you’re a pushy fucking creep living in a fantasy world where girls fit whatever cute little mold you decide they should. You ever wanna buy your collectibles in my store again, deal with another associate or find it within yourself to treat me with the respect and distance you’d afford to a stranger whose pants you DON’T wanna get into. Creep.

There is no one specific moment when the guy blew it, but among the myriad things he should not have done, comparing Kitty to “a real life version of Felicia Day or Chloe Dykstra,” followed by the acknowledgment that they are real people but that he’ll never meet them, has to be among the dumbest things anyone has ever said to anyone.

This particular archetype of the geek girl does not actually exist in real life, and manic pixie dream girls only exist as supporting characters in movies with male main characters. The trope does damage to the women perceived as manic pixie dream girls, and the men who hang their hopes on a spunky Natalie Portman lookalike swooping in and showing them how to savor life. Continue reading →