What are Mary Stus, and why do they bug me?

[bluecove]

DISCLAIMER: I have nothing against slash. In fact, I like Jack/Daniel very much, when it’s well-written. I also have nothing against gays, either real or fictional. The following rant refers to a certain type of slash fiction, written by a certain type of author. Please don’t try to make anything more out of it

Comments

What are Mary Stu's

[shadowchaser44]

...damned annoying, is what they are. I haven't read any SG fic, but I've sure seen the same thing happen in other fandoms. As a writer, I freely admit it's hard to leave yourself and your views out of a story, but when it's m/m you really have to try to write from a male perspective, as much as possible.

Too often male characters who are seen (by some viewers) as somewhat effeminate are written as females would be written in a bad romance novel, the kind written years ago. Personally, one of the reasons I like slash is that it gives the opportunity for a pairing to be seen as close to equals. I doubt there's truly any 50/50 relationship possible between any two people, but when one male character is hypermasculinized, and the other hyperfeminized, the result is a bit bizarre, and jarring, if one is expecting to see a familiar character. It's every bit as jarring to change a character that much as to take someone who's usually the bad guy and show him as a hero, with no explanation for the transition. It would be nice to at least have an explanation, like the story is AU, or some kind of warning to let people know someone is going to be written OOC.

Or, perhaps the problem is that some writers don't realize that their perception of a character may differ from other people's, and if there are a fair amount of people who agree with their characterization, maybe it's a valid perception. Part of the problem is probably the fact that most of us invest a lot of what we want to see onto an already existing character. Some people might have little to add, feeling the character they see on screen is very much the way they think he should be. Others have a very different idea of what they would like the character to be, that's not seen on screen, and that's where the OOP-perception comes in. Someone says, "My Daniel is the one I see on screen," and another person says, "Well, my Daniel is better than the one on screen, because I think he should be/have/do/say/believe...etc." Nothing wrong with either view, but those two viewers are going to have vastly different ideas of what they want to read about the character.

Would be nice, though, if people who want to see a character drastically different than the one on the show, would let the reading audience know ahead of time, so they know whether they want to read it or not.