Mary Sue Must Die!
By Gail Z. Martin
Imagine a character who is extremely attractive, in excellent physical condition, has but to look at a member of the opposite sex to successfully seduce that person AND is an expert with weapons, covert operations, all forms of martial arts. Everyone wants to either be this character or sleep with this character.
A real ‘Mary Sue’–right? Must be the writer projecting onto a character, living vicariously, building a fantasy alter-ego instead of crafting a realistic character.
Wrong. The name is Bond. James Bond. And I’ve never yet heard anyone describe Bond as a ‘Gary Stu’ (the male equivalent of Mary Sue) even though Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, was a former spy and had a lot in common with good ol’ 007.
The term ‘Mary Sue’ gets used a lot, and most of the time, it’s used improperly, even by book reviewers, in ways that are overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, aimed at female writers and female characters. Maybe that’s because there are three meanings for the term, only one of which is technically correct. Too often, the term is used incorrectly and translates into a generic put-down of any interesting and talented female character written by a female author.
Mary Sue #1–The Original. The term ‘Mary Sue’ comes out of Star Trek fan fiction, and describes an early story with Lt. Mary Sue who was braver than Kirk, smarter than Spock, better at everything than anyone, loved by everyone and desired by every man on the ship. It was a charicature, not a real character, and a cautionary example of bad writing by an fan author. I’ll argue that this–and only this–is the way the term ‘Mary Sue’ or ‘Gary Stu’ should be used.
Mary Sue #2– The Put-Down. As already noted, men can create superheroes and ace detectives, fearless warriors and super-spies with nary a charge of wish fulfillment. But too often, when professional female writers have characters who are 1) exceptionally good at anything, 2) good at more than one thing and 3) not ugly (horrors!) there’s likely to be charges of Mary Sue-ism. Why? Who says that a woman can’t be an astrophysicist and good at martial arts and be pretty? Or any other combination of accomplished, awesome and attractive? How does it add up that if a female writer creates such a character, she is obviously living out her fantasies as opposed to just writing an interesting protagonist?
