Reflection and Analysis

General: Mary Sue Contraversies... or Not (12/30/2020)

I am currently looking at the Mary Sue trope page. Do I agree that the term is derogatory?

If one means that the term is "expressive of a low opinion" then yes, the term is derogatory. However, I don't think using the word derogatory is in the best interests of helping to define what a Mary Sue is or isn't given the fact the definition certain individuals will jump to isn't the first one on Merriam-Webster, but the second, where the term is "detracting from the character or standing of something". Not when there is a whole slew of articles denouncing the term as being nothing but the second definition.

And yes, there are people who do use the term the second way, but those of us who specialize in Mary Sue critique hold that the second use is a misuse of the term and that using the word for a work which isn't a Mary Sue is highly insulting, but then I'd also argue that is no different than say labeling a work as any form of bad writing when it isn't. If though the work is bad writing, well, calling what it is isn't the second definition, but the first.

I'm also going to say here I'm tired of the claims that the term Mary Sue is used to attack female characters and female writers. Case in point – Rey from Star Wars. I loved and adored the first movie and wouldn't have used the term Mary Sue to describe Rey at first, but then the second and third movies came out and the term aptly applied. The actress who portrayed Rey put forward the idea that it was because people were simply highly critical of female characters, to which many Star Wars fans pointed out female characters in fandom that didn't receive the same criticism as Rey.

Of course, Star Wars isn't my strong point fandom wise, so I point you to Matthew Kadish's article "Is Rey From The Last Jedi A Mary Sue & Is It Sexist To Think She IS?" They do a really good job of not only going into why she is a Mary Sue, but they also do a good job of going into why Luke is not a Gary Stu. They also point out that there is nothing wrong with enjoying a Mary Sue, but that we shouldn't mistake a Mary Sue character as a good character, that while they are good for wish fulfillment purposes, they're like cake and too much of that isn't a healthy thing.

This isn't to say writing and reading Mary Sues is a bad thing. It has its place. Young writers for example start here and grow out of it. Of course, there are older writers who use the writing of a Mary Sue as a stress reliever. No, what makes a Mary Sue unhealthy is first, not recognizing it as such and thus recognizing that what we girls deserve strong female characters that don't just exist for wish fulfillment. Seriously, after having been told by someone that complaining about actual issues regarding poorly written female characters was why we girls don't get good things despite the fact that wasn't a good thing, I really think we need to question what we're saying when we shouldn't call characters out for being a Mary Sue.

To quote the above article, "Though many "Mary Sue" defenders can argue that sexism is why an audience may reject a female character, it is also the height of irony that the very reason they defend the character is based solely on the fact that they feel the character's gender puts her above criticism." This also applies to a writer being female, or any other minority for that matter, but I am tired of this idea anybody is above criticism when they've chosen to publicly publish anything. Actually, I am quite thankful to the fact, despite the fact the past NaNoWriMo forums swung towards this mantra that finally this year the forums snapped back because people have had enough of this minority group pushing the idea that criticism of ones work is somehow harmful and that a writer could ever be above criticism.

Of course, it helps that there have been a few changes on A03 where I believe a lot of the anti-critique crowd hangs out. That, and social networking sites such as Tumbler which is also having its own backlash in that a lot of people in fandom don't really take such sites seriously because of the wank. What I'm speaking of is that until last year I actually didn't know that one couldn't block people on A03 like they could on Wattpad and ffnet, the other two sites I post fanfic to on a regular basis, nor could one disable comments if someone started harassing individuals.