Mary Sue: An attempt at a definition

This is taken, largely unmodified, from a post I made on Sufficient Velocity. Because apparently I find it easier to define stuff during a conversation than I do in developing a post.



Let me talk about something I've given a lot of thought to over the years: Mary Sues. (Warning: TVTropes link)

Now, back when I first came into the realm of fanfiction, the Mary Sue archetype was recognized to be that of a woman who is unbelievably beautiful, universally desired by everyone male and with all females jealous of them, who would have eyes 'that glittered like jewels' etc etc. Over time this particular archetype died off, in part because pretty much no one actually wants to read someone else's Mary Sue, even if they are busily writing one themselves, and I suspect in part because female demographics/desires changed. The classic Mary Sue is an idealized fantasy of a woman who views herself in terms of getting ahead in life by getting married to a man, and the women who write fanfiction have shifted away from being dominated by women who think in those terms.

But Mary Sues didn't actually go away, even though that particular archetype did.

Eventually it entered into fandom's awareness that you could have a male Mary Sue ('Marty Stu' is the popular form, but I usually stick with Mary Sue regardless) and that the male version was liable to be a hypercompetent unfeeling badass who all the women wanted. Being handsome was optional, rather than emphasized, and indeed a lot of male Mary Sues are/were actually explicitly average in appearance or outright homely. This particular archetype hasn't really changed or gone away, but individual fandoms have codified their own male Mary Sue archetypes which are then summarily banished from the fandom-

-only to be replaced by chameleons that are fundamentally still Mary Sues but don't look like the accepted archetype.

(This goes on with female Mary Sues as well: codification within a fandom, rejection of the archetype, and then Mary Sues continue on anyway in a new form. I first noticed the pattern with male ones, though)

I spent a long, long time clear that a failure to conform with recognized Mary Sue archetypes did not mean a Mary Sue wasn't a Mary Sue. Indeed, I was often clear that Mary Sues would include a trait -such as a 'flaw'- in an attempt to insist to the audience that they weren't a Mary Sue, which was invariably done in a way that didn't actually detract from them being a Mary Sue at all.

However, I couldn't put my finger on what made a Mary Sue a Mary Sue. I could point at a character and say they were a Mary Sue, but I couldn't tell you why I was so sure of that. I stalled, frustrated.

Wait a decade or so and I learn about 'pecking order', and, later, learn about the origin of the term -that 'pecking order' comes from how chickens have a (mostly) unidirectional hierarchy of which birds can get away with pecking at which other birds. (ie in most cases Bird A pecking Bird B who pecks Bird C predicts that Bird A will also peck Bird C freely)

This percolated in my brain for a while. It was a new concept for me, because honestly I'm more used to a military mindset where chain of command is about clear communication, redundancies ensuring the functionality of the organization if holes are punched in it, and the people in charge are responsible for those below them. Yes, if your superior officer gives you an order, you hop to, but equally if your superior officer abuses this power over you then justice is going to come down on him like a ton of bricks. The idea of a hierarchal structure in which those above get privileges that include abusing those below them was a pretty bizarre concept, and it took me a while to connect it to what I already knew and apply it to various things. (Among other points it finally explained why so many adults in my childhood had been asshats to me)

Eventually we wrap back to Mary Sues: it occurred to me that the key feature of a Mary Sue seems to center around pecking order. Specifically, they're at the top of their pecking order, and quite often the universe is structured so that their pecking order is the top of all pecking orders. (An odd phenomenon I noticed in shonen long before I had this realization was that if, say, our protagonist was or wanted to be a mailman, then The Mailmen are the most important and respected people in the entirety of the world. Please note I am not making up this particular example as a hypothetical. I have actually seen it)

This fits with the malleability of their appearance, behavior, goals, etc. A Mary Sue is not someone who is beautiful, or badass, or kind, or any number of other traits you could name. They're someone who is Lord of the Flies, King of the Hill, top dog, whatever realm they might be the top of. If women are valued based on their marriageability, Mary Sue is the most eligible bachelorette in the entire universe, and everyone knows it. If women are valued on their capacity to be kickass ninja warriors that also look good while they beat up bad guys, then Mary Sue is the most kickass and good-looking ninja warrior to exist. (Male Mary Sues just replace 'women' with 'men')

Now, Mary Sues are usually conceived of as a phenomenon restricted to fanfiction, but as my allusion to shonen might suggest, my experience is that it applies even to original fiction, where it can be plenty ruinous to a story. It may be less obvious that Mary Sue-ification is occurring because there's not a barometer called canon to compare it against, but that doesn't mean the effect isn't occurring, nor does it mean the negative impact of it doesn't apply.

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