It’s time we talked about the term Mary Sue.
Or rather, the absurd hypocrisy and blatant misogyny behind it.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Mary Sue is a derogatory term meant to insult fictional female characters and demean the movies or TV shows they’re in. While a lot of the people who throw it around pretend it’s a valid criticism describing female characters who are good at everything and lack flaws, it’s really just a hypocritical phrase they hope will camouflage their misogyny and sexism.
Originally coined in the 1970’s after some Star Trek fan fiction, Mary Sue has become the favourite term by men who hate seeing strong women on screen (big or small). The kind of men who think the only thing a woman should be is a victim, a villain or eye candy to be sexually earned by the hero.
In case you have any doubt, here’s a quick question for you; what’s the dismissive term for a male character that can do everything really, really well onscreen.
For those who have just returned from Google, let’s continue (odds are you may have found a term or two that applies to male characters, so we’ll come back to that shortly).
Any female character who has earned any kind of status in pop culture eventually finds themselves in the Mary Sue crosshairs. Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery has been labelled a Mary Sue since the day the show first aired. Rey from Disney’s Star Wars trilogy was another. Let’s not forget Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road. The Mary Sue gun was even aimed at Hermione Granger during the course of the original Harry Potter movies.
The truth is just about any female character who isn’t a damsel in distress has been branded a Mary Sue. Esmerelda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Bella Cullen from Twilight. Squirrel Girl from Marvel Comics. Moka Akashiyafrom Rosario+Vampire. And about a million others have been labelled Mary Sues by sexist fanboys with far too much time on their hands and too much poison in their dirty little souls.
While the definition seems to change to suit the needs of the woman hater using it, the incels and misogynists like to use it to describe any female character with the the slightest bit of competence. There’s even a quiz you can take online to determine if the woman in the last movie or TV show you watched is a dreaded Mary Sue. Isn’t that pathetically quaint?
But here’s the thing, no one ever talks about the male Mary Sues. You know, the men who are divinely infallible with nary a weaknesses of their own.
Need an example? Head over to Gotham City’s zip code. According to DC’s official character wiki, Bruce Wayne has mastered 34 distinct fighting styles on top of being a master detective, and an expert in virtually every scientific discipline known to mankind. He’s even a Nascar caliber driver to boot. Perfect at virtually everything and lacking any genuine flaws, Batman is the very definition of a Mary Sue. Yet you never hear any complaints from the “no one can be perfect” crowd.
Need another one? James Bond can outfight, outshoot, outdrive, outfly, outdrink and outpoker any other human being on the planet. And apparently he can also spontaneously master any skill the plot of the movie he’s in needs him to do. Need to drive a tank? No problem. Need to disarm a nuclear bomb? He can do it blindfolded. Need to amputate someone’s arms with a pair of chop sticks and a rusty scalpel? Not only is he your man but he can do it while wearing a straight jacket. And on top of all that he’s a walking, talking Kama Sutra, irresistible to every heterosexual female on the planet. Yet where are the complaints of “unrealistic perfection?”
Was there anything Captain Kirk could never do? Or Sherlock Holmes? Kwai Chang Caine from Kung Fu: The Legend Continues was a master martial artist, had a dozen new psychic powers every week, a healing factor, could travel through time using the power of meditation and could even journey to the nether realms of the dead. Did you ever hear anyone call out his virtual omnipotence? Nope.
Yet have a female Jedi use her space magic to fly a space ship really well and it’s the most unrealistic portrayal in the history of cinema.
Remember that Google search you may have done earlier? Because there is indeed a name for male characters who are perfect at everything they do. There’s a few of them actually. The most popular is Gary Stu. There’s also the Marty Sue. Or Larry Stu. But when was the last time you heard of any of those terms used? Because right now there are a bunch of guys on a bunch of message boards getting ready to label Ashoka Tano or Emperor Georgiou or Carol Danvers or Barbara Gordon Mary Sues while completely forgiving the existence of perfect male characters.
This of course misses the point that all of these characters are pure fiction. They aren’t real and they don’t affect your life in the slightest. I can’t believe in characters that are too perfect! you may protest. Fair enough. But if you accept the existence of space wizards and super heroes and sorcery and starships crossing the stars at ten times the speed of light but refuse to accept the idea of a perfect character regardless of gender, you may want to reconsider a lot of your life choices.
If you love perfect characters, more power to you. If you don’t, no worries and you be you. But anyone who can’t accept that kind of character should apply that standard evenly across the gender spectrum. Because if you only hold the fairer sex to that criteria, well that makes you a special and detestable breed of troll.
And person.
The truth of the matter is anyone and everyone who uses the term Mary Sue is just a Grade A misogynist wearing Nerd’s clothing. Not only is its time to accept that, but also to realize that the very term term itself is just another way to hate women, fictional or otherwise.
Image via www.vox.com
