“Annie, relax.”
“I’m not a relaxed person, Britta! I think ahead. I prepare.”
We’ve all met someone who takes everything a little too seriously.
“I haven't gotten an "F" since I failed recess in second grade.
‘Teachers need a break too, Amy.’”
They’re known as “Type A” personalities,
and onscreen they’re often embodied by neurotic women
who live in constant conflict between their worries
and their life plan,
with a frantic energy most people can’t begin to match.
“I know! I know! I know!”
“Monica, you asked the question.”
This neurotic, Type A woman has many quirks that define her, such as:
her ambition and anxiety combine to make her the ultimate go-getter.
“This job is yours, you just have to go in there and take it!”
She’s also the responsible one:
exceptionally clean, scheduled, and organized.
“See, I've spent the last few months brainstorming.
And I have some really great ideas and I put them in my idea binders.
I mean, they're color coded, for God's sake.”
But what separates the Type A Woman from your classic workaholic
are her more traditionally feminine interests.
“I'm always the hostess. I mean, even when I was little,
the girls brought their dollies to my tea party.”
And despite high expectations for herself, she fails.
“She had braces and acne and a pill addiction
and a nervous breakdown ending with her running through
a plate-glass door, screaming, ‘Everyone's a robot!’"
We frequently see the Neurotic Type A struggle with her career,
her relationships, and her sense of self.
Her story highlights just how much
she needs to be in control to feel secure—
which may be annoying to others but is hardest of all on her.
“That isn't fun for me, do you realize that?
Being the uptight girl? I hate it.”
The Neurotic Type A is often portrayed as a joke.
“Cruise itineraries, hot out of the laminator.
Who's ready for some nonstop totally scheduled fun?”
She’s sometimes even the villain.
“Who knew how high she would climb in life?
How many people would suffer because of her?”
But it’s her struggles— and her relatable fears—
that make her feel both complex and familiar.
Here’s our Take on what makes the Neurotic Type A Woman tick,
and what her journey says about understanding our inner selves.
"Actually, I’m highly logical, which allows me to look past
extraneous detail and perceive clearly that which others overlook."
Hi everyone! So today Susannah and I have some really exciting news
that we want to share with you.
We’ve created a brand new series called “Take Two,”
and it’s airing now on the Netflix Film Club YouTube channel.
So, if anyone knows Debra and me,
they know we don’t always agree on everything.
And sure, we agree about all the important things,
and a lot of things—
like how much we love Film, TV, and pop culture.
But apart from that, we’re constantly debating.
I really dig a strong female character— and I love an antiheroine.
For me, a great film can still have a classic happy ending—
And I’m not so sure the happy ending rings true, anymore.
For us, the essence and the fun of loving movies—
is discussing them, debating them, and even disagreeing about them—
even though I’m usually right.
So Netflix Film Club gave us the opportunity to play out
these conversations we have all the time, as a video essay.
So after you watch this video, please go check out
the pilot of Take Two, let us know what you think,
and you can really show your support by liking, commenting,
and sharing with your friends!
Two Takes, two sides, one new series—
check it out now on the Netflix Film Club YouTube channel.
“You're the definition of neurotic.”
“No, the definition of neurotic is a person who suffers
from anxiety, obsessive thoughts, compulsive acts...”
We often use ‘Type A’ and ‘neurotic’ interchangeably,
but it’s their specific combination that makes this character so distinct.
“I'm sorry, I'm a little overly thorough.
Some people would say that I am bossy and controlling.”
As one of the so-called “Big Five” personality traits,
neuroticism is characterized by a propensity for negative emotions:
neurotic people have extreme reactions to any stress in their lives.
[scream] “I’ve never gotten a zero before.”
They have a tendency toward doubt and worry,
which can sometimes spill over into anxiety and depression.
“I don't want to be overdramatic, but today felt like
a hundred years in hell and the absolute worst day of my life.”
And when those neuroses are combined with the ambition,
rigorous organization, and controlling behavior
of the classic Type A personality,
it creates someone who rigidly plans every aspect of their lives,
then becomes upset when any part of it goes awry.
“I give you the headset.”
“Oh.”
“Well, I don't really wanna give you the headset.”
The Neurotic Type A Woman
switches seamlessly between self-doubt—
"I've got this uncontrollable need to please people."
and self-assurance.
"And remember, if I'm harsh with you,
it's only because you're doing it wrong."
Her need for control curbs the doom and gloom of a neurotic personality,
which enables her achievements:
Her high expectations— and fear of not measuring up—
drive her to work incredibly hard.
“I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading.”
“This is light?”
The Neurotic Type A uses her fears as fuel.
Stress is just the price she accepts for her success.
“It's called a stress headache. I got my first one when I was four.”
While male characters might demonstrate some aspects
of the neurotic Type A,
its traits have long been coded as feminine.
And on screen, this trope is especially common to female characters,
with its roots in the classic TV mom.
“What do you mean by that?
It may be a good morning for you, but it wasn't for me!
You didn't have to clean up the mess that this one made
when he decided to finger paint all over the bathroom mirror
with the toothpaste.”
The housewives of the ‘50s and ‘60s, like Leave It To Beaver’s June Cleaver,
maintained strict control over their perfect homes—
the only place they were allowed true power and agency.
“I'm not trying to tell you how to run your business;
I'm just telling you what you ought to do.”
As more women entered the workplace, Type A characters like
The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s Mary Richards refocused those same
energies on their careers, constantly anxious to prove themselves.
“I get to thinking my job is too important to me.”
For M*A*S*H’s Margaret Houlihan,
taking everything seriously was her only hope of earning
the respect of her male coworkers.
“If you can't keep your mind on your job, Major ma'am,
then stay out of the O.R.”
Friends’ Monica Geller shaped our modern idea of the Neurotic Type A:
she was just as serious about her career as she was
her obsessive cleaning habits.
“I'm Monica.
I wash the toilets 17 times a day, even if people are on it!”
Over time, the Type A Woman has evolved into someone
whose determination and assertiveness
are seen as admirable—
like Brooklyn 99’s Amy Santiago,
whose obsession with rules and organization earn ridicule
from her fellow officers, but also their respect.
"I already got my paperwork in, Captain."
"Well, then I guess this little reminder isn't for you."
Or Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope,
one of TV’s most passionate, competent women who—
as Alexis Soloski wrote in The New York Times—
offers a “vindication for principled, chatty ladies everywhere.”
“I'm sorry if I can be a little annoying at times.
But one person's annoying is another person's inspiring and heroic.”
While today’s Type A women have a relatively easier time
establishing their authority outside the home,
their need to exert control stems from an era when women
still had very little power over their lives.
“It's the having to have the dinner on the table as soon as the husband
gets home and having to look perfect to do housework and the whole concept
that her one point in life is to serve somebody else.”
their determination reflects a continued striving to assert themselves,
in a world that’s long kept them in check.
“Sometimes being really good all the time feels really bad.
But I'm on a journey. It's my journey and I'm okay.”
The Neurotic Type A is undeniably high maintenance,
which puts her at a social disadvantage:
she’s not cool.
“Well, I can be cool, too. I'm cooler than cool.
I'm frigid.”
The cool girl doesn’t care if you leave your dishes in the sink,
doesn’t obsess over her career or nag her partners about commitment,
and she doesn’t even really have to try to be beautiful.
When the Neurotic Type A is compared to the Cool Girl,
it’s never exactly flattering.
Our culture has long equated caring too much
with being uptight and annoying,
while portraying not caring as attractive and fun.
“I can throw wet paper towels here.
No, but at Monica's, you can eat cookies over the sink.”
We often see the Neurotic Type A paired up with the Cool Girl
for comedic effect.
On Don’t Trust The B---- in Apartment 23, the driven June
is contrasted with her roommate Chloe, a slinky socialite and con artist
who’s besties with James Van Der Beek and is so fun she inspires a comic book.
“Your character drives around on a motorcycle that has a sidecar!”
The spontaneous, sexually adventurous Chloe
is the exact opposite of worrying, responsible June,
and their differences only make June feel more insecure.
“Inside, I'm still the girl who's afraid to go skinny-dipping.”
“Oh, skinny-dipping? Are people going?”
“See? I'm not confident like you.”
Even when they’re friends, the cool girl seems almost
specifically designed to exacerbate these feelings of inadequacy
in the Type A Woman.
“See, this is what you do.
You act like I'm uptight, and then I follow suit.
I become uptight.
It is the most frustrating dynamic on the planet.”
We’ve come to recognize that the Cool Girl is largely a male fantasy.
“Cool Girl is hot. Cool Girl is game.
Cool Girl is fun.
Cool Girl never gets angry at her man.”
She has none of the fussy, overbearing, perfectionist qualities
that men would find unappealing.
“Low maintenance. No maintenance.
I'm gonna be one of those cool girlfriends like in movies,
she has bedhead and wears men's shirts.”
In this, the Type A Woman can be seen as the anti-fantasy:
she’s the opposite of the simple, carefree, and easy to handle woman
men are supposedly looking for.
“I made us his-and-her relationship calendars.
That way, we always know what the other is up to...
So you can't say you forgot we had plans
when you miss our dates anymore.”
An illustrative example of how the Type A-Cool Girl dynamic
often revolves around men
can be found in Community’s Annie and Britta.
Jeff, the male lead, starts off romantically interested
in cool, leather jacket-wearing Britta,
while Annie is the neurotic, overeager Type A
that Jeff might be attracted to, but can’t genuinely see himself with.
“The long looks, the stolen glances…”
“Annie, I think you're reading into some things.”
But as those feelings become less of a joke,
Britta and Annie begin to change.
Britta becomes more uptight and assertive.
“Maybe these woods are their rightful land,
and from their perspective...” [everyone groans]
“You’re the AT&T of people.”
Meanwhile, Annie relaxes, offsetting her Type A tendencies
by becoming more fun and flirtatious.
“I guess I have a lot to learn about holiday tradition.”
The Neurotic Type A may not be the idealized male fantasy,
but we often see how all the things
that don’t make her cool
do make her uniquely loving. “A mosaic portrait of each of you
made from the crushed bottles of your favorite diet soda
and a personalized 5000-word essay of why you're all so awesome.”
Much as she’s often paired with the “cool girl” as a friend,
the Type A Woman tends to end up with a more laid-back guy
who appreciates her neuroses as lovable assets.
“Claire is a perfectionist, which sometimes is a good thing,
like when it comes to picking a husband.”
And although she may never be cool,
she forms strong and rewarding relationships with the people
she supports so tirelessly, who in turn support her.
“So they can say that you're high maintenance,
but it's okay because I like maintaining you.”
While the Neurotic Type A can be both admirably ambitious
and endearingly quirky,
at her worst, she exhibits an almost toxic need for control.
“I know you don't like to relinquish control.”
“Oh, relinquish is just a fancy word for lose.”
Exerting strict control over herself and her situation is the only way
to deal with her near-pathological fear
of things going wrong.
“There’s nothing we can’t do if we work hard, never sleep,
and shirk all other responsibilities in our lives.”
And while this anxiety often helps her succeed,
it also leaves her unable to cope with setbacks,
or to fully embrace all parts of herself—
especially the ones that scare her.
“Was that before or after you were delivered to my door
in a squad car, wearing nothing but your underwear
and a police blanket?”
The psychologist Carl Jung spoke of shadow functions—
the parts of ourselves that remain mostly repressed in our natural state,
but surface under pressure.
Onscreen, we often see the Type A Woman
losing control by unleashing that darker, wilder side.
“Can we get another round, please?”
“What happened?”
Community’s Annie is well aware of this shadow self.
“I'm only here because of a brief addiction to pills
that I was told would help me focus,
but they actually made me lose my scholarship and virginity.”
Annie’s fear of losing control again
leads to her tight grip on her inhibitions.
“I like being repressed.
I am totally comfortable being uncomfortable with my sexuality.”
Notably, when Annie becomes the “Evil Annie” of a darker timeline,
she is the manifestation of her Jungian shadow self:
a woman who’s unabashed,
even aggressive about her sexual appetites.
“Annie, why are you acting like a mistress in a Lifetime movie?”
“You're funny.”
In this trope, we often see the Type A relying on
her neurotic habits as a way of keeping this unruly side of her in check:
Monica’s controlling behavior can be seen as a response
to issues with overeating in her adolescent years.
“The fat girl inside me really wants to go.
I owe her this. I never let her eat.”
But the healthy way to deal with your shadow self isn’t to bury it—
"How did you get in there?!"
[giggles] “You're messy."
this can only cause it to surface in ways that are unhealthy,
even dangerous.
For Annie, accepting that she can’t control everything is the key
to gaining true power over her life.
“I was trying to make life go according to some script.
I can't. You can't.
We both need to get more comfortable winging it.”
And when Monica’s dream of having it all by becoming a mother
is almost thwarted by her inability to conceive,
"My uterus is an inhospitable environment?
I've always tried so hard to be a good hostess."
she finds another chance for happiness by letting go
of her rigidly pre-scripted plan, and looking forward to adopting instead.
“How do you feel about that?”
“I think I feel okay about it.
Actually, I think I feel really good about it.”
Although the Neurotic Type A is initially recognized
by her inflexibility,
most often her story arc involves finding new ways to adapt—
learning to take life as it comes, and accept the parts of herself
that scare her.
“June, you can't plan your life.
You have to leave room for new experiences.”
And by learning to let go, even just a little,
she ends up getting more than she ever planned for.
“Yeah, but you don't have a plan.”
“I think maybe that's a good thing for me.”
Although neuroticism is defined by largely negative emotions,
the Neurotic Type A shows us how they can be harnessed into positives,
making you more successful, more resilient,
and — to the right people — even more lovable.
“Hermione, you're honestly
the most wonderful person I've ever met.”
Her devotion to being organized is an outgrowth of being
extremely passionate.
“Oh, it's just some stuff I picked up. For, you know, the baby.
Babies need a lot of things. I want everything to be just right.”
and her lack of cool can make her extraordinarily warm.
“I guess some people object
to powerful depictions of awesome ladies.”
She teaches us that it can be healthy to set expectations for yourself,
and to hold onto the aspects of your personality
that others might find intense—
“I’m sorry, are you shutting the door on us?
Because that’s not subtle. We will persist!”
as long as you don’t let them stop you from growing or adapting.
“You would be a lot happier if you weren't so obsessed
with everything being perfect”
As our society gains greater appreciation for smart,
hard-working women, the Neurotic Type A
has become less of a villain, or a punchline,
and more of a role model.
“What if we each agree to face one of our fears today...
for ourselves and for all of womenkind?”
So that’s one less thing for her to worry about.
"You're not easygoing, but you're passionate,
and that's good."