Mary Sue, me and you
It’s time for my final blog post of 2019, and it’s that time again when many people take the opportunity to reflect back on the year that’s just gone.
Well, if it’s all the same to you, I think I’d much rather not.
(Although if you want to, you can read my blog post entitled ‘A Bad Year’)
For now, I’d rather talk about Mary Sues.
A Mary Sue, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a type of character who is most commonly associated with fanfiction but can also be found running wild in all types of media. She is usually a self-insert for the author (only way cooler). Her most defining traits are that she is super special and perfect in every way, that she overcomes her tragic backstory to defeat evil, and that she kicks ass at everything. Oh, and all the other characters are in love with her, except for the evil ones, who hate her because she’s just so awesome and they can’t bear it. She is often accused of annoying readers, and held up as an example of Bad Writing.
The term originates in the Star Trek fandom of the 1970s, and if you want to ruin your life, I recommend the TV Tropes page for a full history. For people of my generation, our most formative experiences with Mary Sues are the Harry Potter fanfics of the late 90s and early 00s. Countless teenage (and younger) Potterheads wrote stories fantasising about their avatar going to Hogwarts — a trend which culminated in possibly the greatest ever Mary Sue, Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, star of the (in)famous fic My Immortal.
So Mary Sues are always bad, yeah? Now, if you are already familiar with the term, you’ll probably also be familiar with the feminist anti-anti-Mary Sue backlash. The memes pointing out that super-competent female characters get labelled Mary Sues, whereas male characters with similar traits are — protagonists. That characters from Luke Skywalker to James Bond to Batman get a free pass for being hyper-competent handsome badasses with tragic backstories, and yet female versions never do. The discourse pointing out that the whole concept of the Mary Sue is designed to shame young female writers for imagining idealised versions of themselves at the centre of their own stories, when what exactly is wrong with that? (For the record, there is a male version of the term, known as a Marty Stu or Gary Stu, but it’s not nearly as widely used).
In recent years, there’s been a movement to either end the use of the term — check out the message which now sits at the top of that classic writers’ resource, the Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test — or, bolder still, to reclaim it. The Mary Sue is now the name of a feminist geek news website. And I’m here to say — go for it. Write that Mary Sue story. Create that character who’s a version of you only with purple eyes and mad sword-fighting skills and a secret identity as the rightful heir of the Magic Kingdom. Send her off on adventures where she gets to dance the waltz with a handsome prince and then stab Evil Duke Malodo in the face and then fly away from the castle at midnight (did I mention she has wings?)
Because why not? Why not enjoy some wish fulfillment and flights of fancy, some fabulous fantasies and harmless fun? And if anyone tries to tell you that no, that isn’t Good Writing, that to be a Real Author you have to spend all your time describing miserable people doing miserable things, well then — just get your unicorn to stab them.
A Merry (Sue) Christmas everyone, and here’s hoping for a happier new year!
