Everyone’s Superhero: A Cultural Theory of Mary Sue Fanfiction as Fair Use
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The Contested Body of Mary Sue
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Mary Sue, Who are You?
Of self-inserted characters, there is a name that rises above all others, Mary Sue. In 1973, a Star Trek fan named Paula Smith anonymously published a story called "A Trekkie’s Tale" in a Star Trek fanzine. The story was a little over 300 words and its influence can still be seen today. A Trekkie’s Tale was a satirical story relaying a day in the life of Lieutenant Mary Sue, a star member of the fleet. Mary is young, beautiful, smart, and beloved by all the characters. In the span of the short story, Mary Sue saves the day, receives a Nobel Peace Prize, and tragically dies at the side of Kirk and Spock.
The story was a critique of a trend that Smith had started to notice in fan stories, a female protagonist that appears to just be an idealized version of the author, a “black hole” character that bends all other characters to her will (P. Smith). The definition changes depending on who you ask, but the signs are often clear. The Mary Sue is young and beautiful, she is exceptionally and unrealistically talented, she is the object of desire for most (if not all) male characters, and she’s usually the one who ends up saving the day.
The Mary Sue is often (but not always) an original character. The self-insertion of the author as a character in the story can be seen as a form of wish-fulfillment. The Mary Sue is often romantically involved with the author’s favorite character. In her essay on self-insertion, Melody Strmel explains “while not all Mary Sue stories are written by women, use female author avatars… or engage in heterosexual relationships, Mary Sue self-insertion fanfictions are generally assumed to be written by young cisgender heterosexual females” (18). This assumption comes from an already existing assumption about the predominance of women fanfiction writers as well as a generalization that a self-inserted character will share the gender of the author.
“She’s amazingly intelligent, outrageously beautiful, adored by all around her—and absolutely detested by most reading her adventures. She’s Mary Sue, the most reviled character type in media fan fiction.” explains Pat Pflieger (1999). On a fanfiction.net forum discussing the trope, many users cited a lack of realism, annoying character traits, and a lack of depth for their dislike of the trope (misty005). Mary Sue, according to writers Chaney and Liebler, has no character flaws, or, rather, she is not allowed to. “Mary Sue's perfection is often upheld at the expense of other female characters... This mirrors the very real pressure placed on real-life women to be the prettiest, the smartest, the most sexually desirable, the most traditionally feminine-or risk being supplanted or ignored” (56).
The Mary Sue is ever-present in fanfiction, and while there are no specific rules against her inclusion in a story, “the charge of Mary Sue is so serious, especially to a more mature and committed writer,” (Wright, 172). An accusation of a Mary Sue can be used to question an author’s writing ability, but, at the end of the day, it’s generally accepted that Mary Sues aren’t going anywhere. One user on a forum about Mary Sues actually posted a pre-written message to send to authors as a way to help new writers avoid the trope or recognize the trope in their own writing:“This is a mary sue fic, you have created a character with unrealistic qualities to overshadow the main characters and obsene [sic]plot holes. This is a cliche. I repeat this is a cliche story. Please try writing something original and refrain from using mary sue's or stu's in your fics, visit www.helium.com how to write original fanfictions without cliches. Many younger authors don't realise they are doing it and their work improves later, I'm sure you can do better. Thank you Greenbow” (mary quiet contrary)
While this message is included as an alternative to “flaming” or engaging in personal attacks on an author, it still can be read as rude or condescending. It is no wonder, then, that authors are afraid of writing Mary Sues, something clearly exhibited in another forum post:
“Hello, I've read all of this and was doubting my characters. I've just read Michelle the Editor post and I was wondering if someone could take a look of my fanfics and PM or review if the characters are mary-sues/gary-stus? A bit of a warning, my OCs(Gregory) is a gary-stu that I made out of boredom and didn't think it was right to get rid of him. When I first made this acc, it was to fav. the stories I liked and write my own fanfics. When I started writing fanfics, my ocs WERE mary-sues/gary-stus. I mean it! There was one with blood red hair with black strands here and there, there was one with deep purple hair, there was one with white hair, there was one with blue hair. They all had different eye colors!! Um, what I'm trying to say was that, can someone look at my fanfics and tell me what makes my characters mary-sues/gary-stus so I can change that? Please and thank you!!” (blaleblelelel)
The taboo of writing a Mary Sue is notably juxtaposed with the fact that many writers “readily admit to having written at least one Mary Sue story,” (Bacon-Smith, 141). In many ways, the Mary Sue is a “rite of passage” (Bacon-Smith, 146). Writing a Mary Sue, experiencing the criticism that comes from writing a Mary Sue, and a final indoctrination into a disdain for the trope are all part of the process of becoming a fanfiction author. As user, the-charcoal-alchemist puts it, “Everyone goes through a Mary Sue stage (in my opinion). It happens when a writer first tries to create an original character, be it for original fiction or fan fiction. In most cases, as the author themselves matures, so does the character.” (the-charcoal-alchemist)
Not everyone , however, agrees that Mary Sue’s are a bad thing. “Fans have noted that James Kirk himself is a Mary Sue, because he represents similarly exaggerated characteristics of strength, intelligence, charm, and adventurousness,” explained Camille Bacon-Smith, “they note that the soubriquet of “Mary Sue” may be a self-imposed sexism – she can’t do that, she’s a girl” (141). The apparent severity of the taboo of writing a Mary Sue has given rise to critiques of the notion that the Mary Sue is a negative trope, reclaiming Mary Sue as “offer[ing] important epistemological interventions in the reigning discourse, confronting the traditional production of knowledge by reworking the canon to valorize women and marginalized communities,” (Chander & Sunder, 601).
In Rewriting Mary Sue: Ecriture Feminine,” Beth Bonnstetter discusses her original character, Vanessa, in great depth. She describes Vanessa, and other Mary Sues, as a “coping mechanism” for the often hostile environment girls (and women) have to live in. Despite the unpopularity of the trope, authors continue to create Mary Sue characters. “Ironically,” Bonnstetter writes, “it is precisely in violating this directive that authors of the Mary Sue fan fiction exercise rhetorical agency and challenge the patriarchal economy of writing,” (p. 351).A Tale of Two Sues
Below are two examples of characters that fit into the trope of Mary Sue and one that doesn't. These links are modeled like the fanfiction entries in Archive of Our Own and show which stories the characters come from. Click the titles to learn more!Link to Actual Fanfiction, Gender, Harry Potter, Queering Hogwarts, The I In Fanfic, Fantastic Tropes and Where to Find Them
An analysis of the most (in)famous fanfictions of all time including a Mary Sue named Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way
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Link to Actual Fanfiction, Gender, Harry Potter, Fantastic Tropes and Where to Find Them
Not all Mary Sues are necessarily a bad thing. Some are really well received as fans. This section analyzes a Mary Sue named Christiana
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Link to Actual Fanfiction, Gender, Harry Potter, The I in Fanfic, Fantastic Tropes and Where to Find Them
Are all self-inserted characters Mary Sues? What's the problem with generalizing. Our last character is an original character that doesn't fit the mold of a Mary Sue
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Approaching a New Sue
My concern with current academic discourse on the Mary Sue is that it often reflects the fan practice of labeling any and all self-inserted characters as Mary Sues. “The specter of Mary Sue is so powerful that in many fandoms a female OC is automatically labeled as Mary Sue even if she is a realistic, well-rounded character,” explains Wright in her discussion of the trope (169). Such is the case with Beth Bonnstetter’s previously discussed character, Vanessa. I would argue that this character doesn’t fit well into the trope. This, however, is only my interpretation of what a Mary Sue is and there are many people who would disagree with it. The problem with discussing a trope such as the Mary Sue in such dichotomous terms, is that the term itself cannot be easily reduced to a single definition. Quite simply, the term has become so widely used that it has ceased to mean anything with any certainty. As Kristina Busse points out aptly:
“Different groups use diverging definitions as they defend or dismiss the concept, but all of the definitions are equally limiting. If one defines Mary Sues as bad writing, then all Mary Sue stories are tautologically badly written. If one defines Mary Sues as a stage in most writer’s learning process, then the immaturity is both cause and effect of the writer’s developmental, if not biological, age. And if one defines Mary Sue as any female original character, then the critical specificity loses much of its power.” (161)
We focus too much on what (or who) the Mary Sue is and it is not particularly productive as the definition is so fluid. What remains important and ripe for exploration what the discourse surrounding Mary Sues says about the fanfiction community and society as a whole. “The fan versions of Mary Sue often expressed a cultural truth of their time” said Bacon-Smith of Mary Sue characters in Star Trek fanzines (146). Yet, how does this “cultural truth” change as the term expands to the point of illegibility? In questions such as these, it is perhaps more helpful to look at the Mary Sue from a performance rather than a literary lens. As authors attempt to perform their own idealized version of femininity, they must do so convincingly or face ridicule for bad writing. However, what makes up a convincing performance and how does it change over time?
Each enactment of gender within fanfiction helps solidify the norms of the community. For example, within the Star Trek fandom, a telltale sign of a Mary Sue is the fact that she dies a martyr. This sign isn’t often discussed outside of the Star Trek community. In the case of Harry Potter, a Mary Sue is often related to a main character, such as Christiana, the daughter of Severus Snape. Most fandoms have specific qualifications for the trope that sometimes become universalized. This makes creating an original female character feel like walking on eggshells, trying to avoid the checkboxes in order not to set off any red flags that a character might be a Mary Sue. The signs get more vague as time wears on, allowing people to claim an instance of a Mary Sue simply because a character is exceptionally intelligent or popular. Judith Butler argues that the gendered body can be “reconceive[d]... as the legacy of sedimented acts,” (523) but what happens when each layer of sediment is as visible as the next? Unlike our everyday offline performances of gender, online performances in fanfiction exist within visible archives, creating a hyper-citationality of tropes. The Mary Sue shows us that online performance, and particularly online gender performance, is informed by offline performance and exaggerated through the structure of digital life.
