thespectacularspider-girl:

mkalyss:

constellationrose:

cleoselene:

beckytext:

This rant brought to you by Star Wars: The Force Awakens (featuring Rey, the lady scavenger-pilot-mechanic-Jedi of my heart) and also years of simmering resentment.

I think the most depressing thing about the Mary Sue phenomenon is that it arose from a largely-female based fandom and is thus a really unpleasant reminder of how much sexism women internalize

and internalized any kind of -ism is just about as depressing as it gets

…I’ve absolutely never felt this way? Seriously, have you guys read some of the fic that’s out there? And have you ever heard the term ‘Gary Stu’? Mary Sues are obviously going to be a prominent phenomenon because of the number of young, inexperienced female fanfiction authors, who haven’t learned to write balanced characters (which I would argue is largely because of their lack of representation in ORIGINAL CANON DAMMIT), but there are also plenty of Gary Stus out there (cringe), and there are good number of well-written, balanced OCs as well.

From what I’ve seen, Mary Sues and Gary Stus are usually OCs who have bad writing (bad characterization, introduction, and such) who take a dangerous amount of attention away from already-known characters, or are fantasy-based (as in, for example, a ‘popular girl’ fantasy or a ‘male power’ fantasy) self-inserts who often destabilize any kind of plot or previously known characterization of canon characters. (Which is not to say you can’t have a fic with an OC main character, be they male or female; just don’t make them dull or predictable. Give them choices – hard ones! Let them be problematic at times! Let them experience love, betrayal, conflict, difficulty! Nothing is ever easy, for a good protagonist, and good protagonists can rarely make it on their own.)

Additionally – last I knew (correct me if I’m wrong) ‘Mary Sue’ and ‘Gary Stu’ were supposed to be fanfiction terms? Obviously you wouldn’t use them for canon; that’s not what they’re meant for. You can have overpowered, unbalanced protagonists in canon writing, but that’s just plain bad writing or bad characterization.

So, no, Rey isn’t a Mary Sue, and anyone who says so is a) misusing the term, in my opinion, and b) entitled to their own opinion, but should compare Rey to Luke in ANH and re-evaluate their statement.

I can’t believe we’ve gotten to the point where this many people think the term “Mary Sue” is misogynistic.

Despite the fact that “Gary Stu” exists.

Despite the fact it has everything to do with writing quality and character building and nothing to do with gender.

You people are reaching too far and too hard to find something that just isn’t there.

The term “Mary Sue” originating from a female-based fandom does not confirm “internalized misogyny”, it destroys your fucking argument by showing that the term was and continues to be a critique on poor writing, and that it has absolutely nothing to do with shaming female characters. It was started because there was a slew of poorly written, special snowflake characters that made most fanfiction uninteresting at best and cringe-worthy at worst. There are OP male characters, there are OP female characters. The Fanfic community has called out both using “Mary Sue” and “Gary Stu”

Maybe you guys should learn to take some fucking criticism.

OP is a moron.  Not only is there a male term for Mary Sue but it absolutely can be used to critique a female character because there are actual connnotations for the term.

Namely, it is about an insert character that seems to excel at things they should either not be capable of or otherwise better at something than established characters who should be better than them.

The OP can’t handle the fact that some people have legitimate gripes over a female character.  If they weren’t legitimate she’d have sat down and actually punched holes in them, not used the mythic ‘misogyny’ catch all retort.