I heard once that the most common 'negative' characteristic of a Mary Sue is clumsiness.
And then I thought: "Ohmigod. I am a Mary Sue. I am a badly written female character!"
And I have multiple things to say about this.
1.
I will never not find it unintentionally hilarious that we are talking about Mary Sues in a world that has textual works in which the main protagonist is Batman.
2.
Why is Batman a protagonist, but a seemingly female character with the same characteristics is a Mary Sue and should be purged by fire?
3.
Also, Superman?
4.
Exactly what is it that is so objectionable about self-insertion?
5.
How come that these 'clumsy' Mary Sues never actually are clumsy?
I don't know. I am clumsy, and work hard on negating that. And most people around me probably wouldn't describe me as clumsy. But clumsy, isn't that when you use an inappropriate amount of force when handling things? Pulling to hard, not holding on hard enough, constantly pondering if there really is a hole in you chin because you keep spilling your drinks out of your mouth? Somehow requiring more than a year to learn how to get in and out of a specific car gracefully without hitting yourself?
6.
Why is 'clumsy' a character trait that is somehow not negative enough, and therefore the negative character trait of a Mary Sue?
7.
Why can't women be terrifyingly awesome?
8.
I'm going to go about my day and be terrifyingly awesome, thankyouverymuch.
Therefore I am a Mary Sue and a badly written female character.
9.
Also, I am not.
If we're gonna be technical about it I'm not a woman. If you want to force me, your gracious host, your author this evening, to use words, I'd say that I am genderqueer, and that I have the weirdes passing issues.
But.
Because the idea of Mary Sues exist. Because I am a badly written female charater, and because men are the default, I use feminine pronouns about myself, I don't mind [terribly] to be gendered as female by others. Because there is this political implication for me to remain in the fold of the female human on a scale that has opposed and binary genders.
10.
Can people stop being douches?
