Mary Sue: because women aren’t supposed to be heroes

[leavethesky]

Originally posted by feministsf at Mary Sue: because women aren’t supposed to be heroes

http://blogs.feministsf.net/mary-sue-because-women-arent-supposed-to-be-heroes

http://blogs.feministsf.net/?p=1686

I was reading this fabulous essay by Comic Book Girl, Mary Sue, what are you? or why the concept of Sue is sexist:
So, there’s this girl. She’s tragically

Comments

[trancer21]

It sounds bad to say “I don’t like this female character. I don’t like that this woman is powerful. I don’t like it when the plot focuses on her. I don’t like that a character I like has affections for her.”

I'd also add 'I don't like this female character because she is neither apologetic nor punished for *being* female'. Which is my interpretation whenever the Mary Sue label gets thrown at a character.

Is there any useful way to use the trope “Mary Sue”?Yes, but I have no other way to explain than to say I think we already do. Like, I'd consider Xena a Mary Sue. It's just that the term Mary Sue is thrown around so casually these days, I think it should be changed to 'female character', you know. Because that's what it boils down to, a deeply ingrained misogyny in which any female character is defined as 'bad'.. until they prove themselves worthy, typically through a male character (see every female character on Glee

[laurel_hardy]

Hmmm...being olde I haven't had much to do with comic books in decades, back then even guys had to read them on the down low after they reached the age of 12 or so. BUT, that puts me of an age to have been heavily influenced by the feminists of the early 70s, which means I'm also old enough to remember that the girls/women coming up after me often ran from the title. I don't think this meant that they actually wanted to be confined to the approved roles for women that came before feminism, but they were terrified of the idea of being thought 'unwomanly/undesirable'. In other words, they were terrified of being labelled as lesbians. Just to reiterate for the younger readers, the cascade effect of social liberation and empowerment (at least in the US) went forward to include these groups in this order: people of (at least some) African descent, women, gays. So, with the humasexshuls still being openly denigrated, it was used as leverage to keep the little women in their place and to drive a wedge into any nascent solidarity. And as we

[telepresence]

I'm okay with the idea of Mary Sues, but I never didn't notice there were male Mary Sues or Gary Stus or however you want to call them. (If you want a laugh, track down the Buck Rogers theatrical movie, basically the extended pilot of the 80's show with Gil Gerard. The degree to which the text constantly fawns over his every aspect of cleverness, handsomness, physical prowess, etc, is hilarious