A few (possibly contradictory) thoughts on Mary Sue.
I've been watching the Mary Sue wankfest from afar for a while now. I find it interesting on many levels. Are Mary Sues evil incarnate? Or just misunderstood? And even more scintillating, what does how we feel about her say about us? Is it sexism? Snobbishness? Quashing the dreams of young writers? A secret kink? Maybe it's all of those.
+Suspicion that rabid hatred of Mary Sue may have roots in the way we feel about female characters in general and very little to do with Mary herself. A la 'there are no well written women out there and therefore I have no interest in them' fallacy. Do we judge our women characters according to a different spectrum of values? And can that judgment be flavored with internalized misogyny? Do we hate women characters for being flawed, and also hate them for not being flawed enough? Is this really nothing more than being picky and wanting women characters that are the perfect crux of flawed and not flawed, or is it something a bit more insidious? As always, I tend to lean towards suspicion of internalized subtext. It's an evasive son of a bitch.
+BUT! Isn't the crafting of a Mary Sue to serve as love interest of the hero saying that the normal women around her aren't good enough for the hero? Ah, the flip side of the sexism coin. It's true that character bashing is often born of the way the author feels about women (i.e. She's not good enough for him!), that a flawed woman is seen as never worthy enough of the superior male hero. And maybe Mary Sue is an extension of these unrealistic expectations heaped upon female characters. I have to say though, that the Mary Sue is less perfected womanhood than self-insert. It's fantasy. It's 'wouldn't it be great if this hero I love could fall in love with me? If I could be in this world I love so much?' And maybe her superpowers and perfect looks and angst say something a bit disturbing about what we think it takes to be worthy.
+Mary Sue becoming a blanket slur to vilify any attempt to write original female characters in fanfiction. For many, fanfiction is all about wanting to read more of their favorite characters. Perhaps this inherently creates animosity towards any character not part of that canon. They are simply distracting too much from the characters we already care about. But it also creates a real sense of unease and even fear among writers, that if they dare to write an OC, they might get attacked with the dreaded Mary Sue slur. It's a sad truth that Mary Sue is so vilified and over-used that many authors hesitate to even consider throwing in any original characters. And I think that loses us the potential of a heck of a lot of interesting female characters.
+Vilification of Mary Sue stops some people from ever giving writing a try. This one is the one that saddens me the most. Mary Sue is the logical first step in developing the ability to tell stories. It's fantasy. It's imagine yourself in a beloved, familiar situation and what you would do and what you would *want* to do and let the experimentation go from there. Sure, you're left with a self-insert that will be varying levels of obvious, but it's a place to start. I guarantee that anyone who writes fiction as hobby or profession has at least one Mary Sue in their closet. Some of them are published, some of them are in a worn journal hidden under the bed, and even more are just locked away in the dusty secret parts of our brains, never to be spoken of. But they are there. And if we've all done it, why not just come out and admit it? Hell, I'll go first. Mine is published and out there and sure, maybe it embarrasses me sometimes, but I don't regret it. Mary Sue was a hell of a lot of fun to play with even if she doesn't interest me quite as much as she used to.
+Hey, I like reading about Mary Sues! There is also a class of fan who is brave enough to say, "You know what? I like reading about violet-eyed, tragic, can't lose, unbelievably awesome women getting everything they want." And how, really, is the reading of such fantasy so much different than reading over-idealized, quadruple-orgasm, superhuman feats of strength porn? Mary Sue fic is a genre unto itself and fandom is the last place in the universe anyone should feel the need to apologize for their taste.
+Hey, I reserve the right to have no interest in Mary Sues! Yes, you certainly do. As with any matter of taste though, your right not to read or write about Mary Sue does not dictate a right to bash/repress people who do. Haven't we all learned the most important fandom lesson of all yet? To each her own. Or, alternatively: Don't be a dick. The end.
+Suspicion that rabid hatred of Mary Sue may have roots in the way we feel about female characters in general and very little to do with Mary herself. A la 'there are no well written women out there and therefore I have no interest in them' fallacy. Do we judge our women characters according to a different spectrum of values? And can that judgment be flavored with internalized misogyny? Do we hate women characters for being flawed, and also hate them for not being flawed enough? Is this really nothing more than being picky and wanting women characters that are the perfect crux of flawed and not flawed, or is it something a bit more insidious? As always, I tend to lean towards suspicion of internalized subtext. It's an evasive son of a bitch.
+BUT! Isn't the crafting of a Mary Sue to serve as love interest of the hero saying that the normal women around her aren't good enough for the hero? Ah, the flip side of the sexism coin. It's true that character bashing is often born of the way the author feels about women (i.e. She's not good enough for him!), that a flawed woman is seen as never worthy enough of the superior male hero. And maybe Mary Sue is an extension of these unrealistic expectations heaped upon female characters. I have to say though, that the Mary Sue is less perfected womanhood than self-insert. It's fantasy. It's 'wouldn't it be great if this hero I love could fall in love with me? If I could be in this world I love so much?' And maybe her superpowers and perfect looks and angst say something a bit disturbing about what we think it takes to be worthy.
+Mary Sue becoming a blanket slur to vilify any attempt to write original female characters in fanfiction. For many, fanfiction is all about wanting to read more of their favorite characters. Perhaps this inherently creates animosity towards any character not part of that canon. They are simply distracting too much from the characters we already care about. But it also creates a real sense of unease and even fear among writers, that if they dare to write an OC, they might get attacked with the dreaded Mary Sue slur. It's a sad truth that Mary Sue is so vilified and over-used that many authors hesitate to even consider throwing in any original characters. And I think that loses us the potential of a heck of a lot of interesting female characters.
+Vilification of Mary Sue stops some people from ever giving writing a try. This one is the one that saddens me the most. Mary Sue is the logical first step in developing the ability to tell stories. It's fantasy. It's imagine yourself in a beloved, familiar situation and what you would do and what you would *want* to do and let the experimentation go from there. Sure, you're left with a self-insert that will be varying levels of obvious, but it's a place to start. I guarantee that anyone who writes fiction as hobby or profession has at least one Mary Sue in their closet. Some of them are published, some of them are in a worn journal hidden under the bed, and even more are just locked away in the dusty secret parts of our brains, never to be spoken of. But they are there. And if we've all done it, why not just come out and admit it? Hell, I'll go first. Mine is published and out there and sure, maybe it embarrasses me sometimes, but I don't regret it. Mary Sue was a hell of a lot of fun to play with even if she doesn't interest me quite as much as she used to.
+Hey, I like reading about Mary Sues! There is also a class of fan who is brave enough to say, "You know what? I like reading about violet-eyed, tragic, can't lose, unbelievably awesome women getting everything they want." And how, really, is the reading of such fantasy so much different than reading over-idealized, quadruple-orgasm, superhuman feats of strength porn? Mary Sue fic is a genre unto itself and fandom is the last place in the universe anyone should feel the need to apologize for their taste.
+Hey, I reserve the right to have no interest in Mary Sues! Yes, you certainly do. As with any matter of taste though, your right not to read or write about Mary Sue does not dictate a right to bash/repress people who do. Haven't we all learned the most important fandom lesson of all yet? To each her own. Or, alternatively: Don't be a dick. The end.