A Mary Sue is a character archetype in fiction, usually a young woman, who is often portrayed as inexplicably competent across all domains, gifted with unique talents or powers, liked or respected by most other characters, unrealistically free of weaknesses, extremely attractive, innately virtuous, and/or generally lacking meaningful character flaws[1].
 |
| [Batgirl and the actress who played her] |
Mostly, she is a slim and beautiful young woman. If a Mary Sue hits a grown man weighing about 100 kilograms, he will fall down like he's been hit by a 10-ton truck.
As a literary trope, the Mary Sue archetype is broadly associated with poor-quality writing, and stories featuring a Mary Sue character are often considered weaker for it. Though the term is mostly used negatively, it is occasionally used positively.
Always female and almost always the main character, a Mary Sue is often an author's idealized self-insertion and may serve as a form of wish fulfillment. Mary Sue stories are often written by adolescent authors or adults who didn't grow out of their adolescence[2].
There's a syndrome lurking beneath that childish writing. Why would a grown man write about a fictional and idealized woman who has no flaws? In this divisive world where 'woke' is equivalent to 'broke', such a unnatural depiction of women will drive away the public that simply wants to watch a movie to be entertained.
[1] Framke: What is a Mary Sue, and does Star Wars: The Force Awakens have one? in Vox - 2015. See here.
[2] Whatsawhizzer: The Mary Sue and Female Inconsistency Syndrome in wattpad. See here.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten