Captain Marvel. Rey Skywalker. Bella Swan. Hermione Granger. Anastasia Steele. Lara Croft. What do these women have in common? They’ve all been deemed “Mary Sues.”
A Mary Sue is a fictional female character who lacks any weaknesses or flaws. She is often adored by every character she meets, physically attractive and lucks her way out of every challenge. She is sexy, friendly, funny and strong; she is practically perfect.
She is also boring.
The name was coined by Star Trek fan Paula Smith to refer to a common theme in fan fiction about the franchise. Countless stories followed a young, beautiful woman who would board the USS Enterprise. Every character would soon fall in love with her cleverness, talent, amazing style and skill. She would save the crew when all seemed to be lost and then ultimately die a heartbreaking death, mourned by the other characters for the rest of their lives. Then, maybe, she would be resurrected.
In 1973, Smith created “A Trekkie’s Tale,” starring Mary Sue, the universally adored 15-and-a-half-year-old half-Vulcan lieutenant, and thus, the Mary Sue was born.
Ever since the trope got its name, the Mary Sue has been wrapped in caution tape. Creating a Mary Sue is something an author should avoid at all costs, and when she does appear, the audience is quick to label her as such. Sometimes too quick, as many engaging women have been falsely given the Mary Sue title. However, sometimes she flies under the radar, which normalizes an unreasonable standard of perfection for female characters and all women.
Take the 2020 live-action remake of “Mulan,” for example. Mulan is the perfect picture of a Mary Sue: beautiful and effortlessly talented. From the film’s opening scene to the final fight, she defeats swaths of enemies for one simple reason: she’s just always better. She was born with incredible talent, which is what won her battles.
Comparatively, in Disney’s 1998 animated film, Mulan begins as an embarrassment of a soldier. She hasn’t fought nor trained a day in her life. 1998 Mulan and her fellow scrawny, scruffy soldiers work hard to become great fighters, which makes the conclusion so rewarding. 2020 Mulan, on the other hand, has no need for character development because she’s already ‘perfect,’ making the film as a whole boring. The Mary Sue has become increasingly overused in recent decades as realistic, complex women get replaced by one-dimensional “girlbosses.”
It can be beneficial to call out Mary Sues in modern media — female characters should be multifaceted, interesting and valuable. However, the label has become misused to discourage any female characters from rejecting patriarchal ideals of femininity. It has become far too common to mislabel engaging, strong women as Mary Sues when they are nothing of the sort.
To learn that Katniss Everdeen is widely considered a Mary Sue filled me with confusion. The idea that her archery skills and strength mean that her victory “comes too easily” feels completely dismissive of her character development. Katniss struggles, loses friends and ultimately wins the Hunger Games because of her wit, not because she stumbled her way into the final fight.
I can’t help but notice that many of these false Mary Sues are powerful, talented women who choose to fight rather than be the classic damsels in distress. I also can’t help but notice that it’s mostly men who are giving these characters the title. To see a woman who is well-equipped for challenges, who is viewed as the equal to her male companions rather than a victim, can be scary to the misogynistic man. “Mary Sue” can be an easy insult to throw at an intimidating, powerful character. She’s too strong, too skilled. She ruins the story. To call a character a Mary Sue is to undermine her, and it challenges the value of the power she has.
“There were the people who would say anytime there was a female protagonist that’s a Mary Sue,” Smith told Smithsonian Magazine. “It just developed in all sorts of ways.”
There is also a male version of a Mary Sue, often known as a “Gary,” “Larry” or “Marty Stu.” The indecisiveness in the name alone shows the disproportionate usage of Mary over Marty. From James Bond to Harry Potter to every single character The Rock plays, there are countless examples of Marty Stus in popular media. To be the ideal hero, it’s considered a given that a man must be “a genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist,” to quote Tony Stark, another beloved Marty Stu. Yet the Mary Sues are the ones that meet backlash.
Mary Sues and Marty Stus are telltale examples of lazy writing and boring characters, but for some reason, Marys are given far more attention, some of which can be undeserved. Misogynists of the world, before you go and post that tweet about how the newest female lead was such a badly-written Mary Sue, go Google the actual definition of the term and decide for yourself if your favorite male superhero fits the name, too.
