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Recently, a friend posted a link to this article:
Mary Sue what are you? Or why the concept of Sue is sexist.
I disagree.
( The long version... )
The problem with Mary Sue is not one of gender but one of quality and maturity of writing. There can be good Mary Sues. There can be male Mary Sues (or Gary Stu or Marty Stu or whatever you want to call him).
Even transparent Mary Sues can have their place, depending on the audience. Kids love Jar Jar Binks and Scrappy Doo and all sorts of cheesy kid sidekicks, the "relatable" characters who get to run around with the grown-up heroes. (Not Mary Sues for the authors, but projected Mary Sues for the younger members of the audience.) But adults hate those characters. Because it's immature writing. Want to sell a Mary Sue to an adult? Write well, acknowledge the fantasy, and be prepared to give the character some depth and flaws. That's when you get Batman (at least, some versions of him).
Now, why is it that Wonder Woman, symbol of female independence and empowerment, has frequently been shown being tied up and subdued by men? Why is it that just about any other female character you can name is called "girl" and is a knock-off of a better-known male character? Why is it that Womanthology needed to be crowdfunded... or that it needed to exist at all? Why is it that Barbie having a prestigious and intellectual career like astronaut invites laughter and derision? Why is it that Wonder Woman and Superman, who both have idealized bodies, both have bodies which suit the male ideal (as explained in this comic)? Why is it that James Bond gets movies by the dozen while female counterparts (Halle Berry's Jinx or Cate Dermody's female spy novels) get little attention?
All that comes down to sexism, plain and simple, and no shortage of it. But that's not what (the bad kind of) Mary Sue is about. Mary Sue is about sloppy, lazy, and most of all immature writing. (All of which, it should be noted, are subjective calls. And, again, very much context-sensitive.)
The original poster says that there's nothing wrong with a power fantasy, but that girls are discouraged from having them. That's another matter, I think. That's not why people talk about Mary Sue. Mary Sue is about poor writing. She's about a very specific and recurrent type of poor writing with recognizable symptoms. You're entitled to your fantasies. Everyone has them. But when you write them up and release them to the public as literature, you open yourself up to public criticism. And it doesn't help the author any to say that the story is in some way poorly written rather than to say that it's a Mary Sue story. It just makes the criticism more vague and confusing.
How do we make things better, more even for girls? We encourage things like Womanthology. Show them that women can write well, show them that women can be powerful, show them that women can be important, show them that women have a better place in fiction and fantasy. If you call them out for writing a Mary Sue, don't just tell them they're wrong for indulging their fantasies. Give them constructive criticism so that they can see how to improve their writing. But sweeping Mary Sue under the rug isn't going to help.
Mary Sue what are you? Or why the concept of Sue is sexist.
I disagree.
( The long version... )
The problem with Mary Sue is not one of gender but one of quality and maturity of writing. There can be good Mary Sues. There can be male Mary Sues (or Gary Stu or Marty Stu or whatever you want to call him).
Even transparent Mary Sues can have their place, depending on the audience. Kids love Jar Jar Binks and Scrappy Doo and all sorts of cheesy kid sidekicks, the "relatable" characters who get to run around with the grown-up heroes. (Not Mary Sues for the authors, but projected Mary Sues for the younger members of the audience.) But adults hate those characters. Because it's immature writing. Want to sell a Mary Sue to an adult? Write well, acknowledge the fantasy, and be prepared to give the character some depth and flaws. That's when you get Batman (at least, some versions of him).
Now, why is it that Wonder Woman, symbol of female independence and empowerment, has frequently been shown being tied up and subdued by men? Why is it that just about any other female character you can name is called "girl" and is a knock-off of a better-known male character? Why is it that Womanthology needed to be crowdfunded... or that it needed to exist at all? Why is it that Barbie having a prestigious and intellectual career like astronaut invites laughter and derision? Why is it that Wonder Woman and Superman, who both have idealized bodies, both have bodies which suit the male ideal (as explained in this comic)? Why is it that James Bond gets movies by the dozen while female counterparts (Halle Berry's Jinx or Cate Dermody's female spy novels) get little attention?
All that comes down to sexism, plain and simple, and no shortage of it. But that's not what (the bad kind of) Mary Sue is about. Mary Sue is about sloppy, lazy, and most of all immature writing. (All of which, it should be noted, are subjective calls. And, again, very much context-sensitive.)
The original poster says that there's nothing wrong with a power fantasy, but that girls are discouraged from having them. That's another matter, I think. That's not why people talk about Mary Sue. Mary Sue is about poor writing. She's about a very specific and recurrent type of poor writing with recognizable symptoms. You're entitled to your fantasies. Everyone has them. But when you write them up and release them to the public as literature, you open yourself up to public criticism. And it doesn't help the author any to say that the story is in some way poorly written rather than to say that it's a Mary Sue story. It just makes the criticism more vague and confusing.
How do we make things better, more even for girls? We encourage things like Womanthology. Show them that women can write well, show them that women can be powerful, show them that women can be important, show them that women have a better place in fiction and fantasy. If you call them out for writing a Mary Sue, don't just tell them they're wrong for indulging their fantasies. Give them constructive criticism so that they can see how to improve their writing. But sweeping Mary Sue under the rug isn't going to help.