# Mary Sue > Mary Sue is a derogatory fan fiction term from Paula Smith's 1973 Star Trek parody, describing an idealized original character who warps the story as a self-insert. Mary Sue is a derogatory term from fan fiction criticism describing an idealized, overly perfect original character who warps the story around them, often assumed to be a wish-fulfillment stand-in for the author. The name originated in Paula Smith's 1973 parody Star Trek fanfic "A Trekkie's Tale," published in the fanzine *Menagerie*, and quickly became one of fandom's most loaded labels. Over five decades, the term spread from zine culture to mainstream media criticism, sparking fierce debates about gender bias, creative expression, and what makes a character "too perfect." ## Origin In 1973, Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro were editing *Menagerie*, one of the earliest Star Trek fanzines. They kept noticing an unmistakable pattern in their submissions: story after story featured a young woman who would board the Enterprise, charm the entire crew, outperform everyone, and usually die beautifully at the end[1]. "They were simply placeholder fantasies," Smith later recalled. "And, certainly, I can't say I didn't have placeholder fantasies of my own"[1]. Smith decided to write the definitive parody. Published anonymously in *Menagerie* #2, "A Trekkie's Tale" was a 200-word story about Lieutenant Mary Sue, the youngest officer in the fleet at fifteen and a half years old[4]. The story opens: "'Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky,' thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise"[10]. Captain Kirk immediately declares his love. Mr. Spock calls her judgment "flawlessly logical." She reveals she's half-Vulcan, springs the crew from an alien prison with a hairpin, runs the ship so well she receives the Nobel Peace Prize, and then dies a heroic death while the entire crew weeps "at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability and all around niceness"[10]. Smith and Ferraro had initially kicked around male names like "Murray Sue" and "Marty Sue," but went with a female name because the pattern they were parodying came overwhelmingly from female writers[2]. The inspiration for the parody was a specific 80-page, double-sided submission featuring a young protagonist who was brilliant, beautiful, died heroically, and then resurrected herself. "I'd never seen that one anywhere else," Smith said. "So, I have to give [the writer] kudos for that"[1]. - **Platform:** *Menagerie* fanzine (Star Trek fan community), internet forums and LiveJournal (online spread) - **Creator:** Paula Smith (author of "A Trekkie's Tale"), Sharon Ferraro (co-editor of *Menagerie*) - **Date:** 1973 ## Overview A Mary Sue is a fictional character, almost always female, who is portrayed as flawless to an absurd degree. She's young, stunningly beautiful (often with unusual eye or hair colors), extraordinarily talented at everything, and beloved by every other character in the story. The existing cast bends around her like gravity, acting out of character just to praise her or fall in love with her. If she dies, it's a tragic, heroic sacrifice mourned by the entire fictional universe[1]. The term started as specific shorthand for a pattern in Star Trek fan fiction but ballooned into a catch-all critique applied to characters across all media. A Mary Sue can show up in fanfic, novels, TV, film, or video games. The male equivalent goes by "Gary Stu" or "Marty Stu," though male characters fitting the same archetype historically receive far less scrutiny[2]. The label carries a sting because it implies the author is indulging in self-insertion fantasy rather than crafting a real character, and it's been wielded as both legitimate writing feedback and a blunt instrument for dismissing female protagonists[3]. ## How It Spread After publication, Smith began speaking at early fandom conventions, and the term took root fast[4]. Smith and Ferraro wrote letters to editors of other zines calling out stories that "contained a Mary Sue," explaining the characteristics they saw as damaging to fiction. When writers and fans pushed back, Smith argued she was trying to help amateur authors improve their craft enough to be taken seriously[8]. By 1976, *Menagerie*'s editors had codified the archetype in their submission guidelines, warning against "the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy" who is "characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling"[11]. The concept spread through zine networks during the late 1970s and 1980s. Folklorist Camille Bacon-Smith examined the trope in her 1992 book *Enterprising Women*, noting that Mary Sue "represents the woman's ideal of perfection: she is young and desirable, competent and moral"[9]. By 1994, the label was already being applied as a blanket term for any heroine in Star Trek fanfic, and writers were self-censoring out of fear[4]. The internet supercharged everything. In March 1999, Pat Pflieger presented a paper titled "Too Good To Be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue" at the American Culture Association conference, tracing idealized self-insert characters back to stories published in the children's magazine *Robert Merry's Museum* throughout the 1800s[13]. Her research cataloged 30 different characters written between 1849 and 1999 that fit the Mary Sue archetype[4]. The early 2000s brought LiveJournal communities dedicated to identifying and mocking Mary Sues. The Mary Sue Report launched in 2002, linking to fanfics with highlighted Sue traits[4]. The Canon Sue Report followed in 2003, applying the label to characters from published media like Rose Tyler from *Doctor Who*, Lana Lang from *Smallville*, and Maito Gai from *Naruto*[16][17]. Entire ecosystems of sister communities sprung up across LiveJournal, organized by fandom: *pottersues*, *narutosues*, *lotrsues*, and dozens more[18]. Writing guides warning authors to avoid Mary Sues appeared on Yahoo!, Salon, and Fiction Press[4]. Online "Mary Sue Litmus Tests" let writers answer questions about their characters to calculate a Sue score[7]. The concept had gone from zine-culture jargon to a core piece of internet literacy. ## How to Use "Mary Sue" typically gets deployed in a few ways: 1. **Fan fiction critique:** Point out that an original character is too perfect, too central, or too obviously the author's self-insert. Common callouts include unusual eye colors, tragic backstories, every canon character falling in love with them, and abilities that don't fit the story's universe. 2. **Media criticism shorthand:** Label a character in published fiction, TV, or film who seems to lack meaningful flaws or struggles. Often applied when a protagonist masters skills too quickly or warps other characters' behavior around them. 3. **Ironic/self-aware usage:** Writers sometimes acknowledge their own characters as Mary Sues with a wink, especially when writing deliberately indulgent fanfic. 4. **Gender discourse:** Call out the double standard of labeling female characters Mary Sues while ignoring male characters with identical traits. Sometimes used defensively to push back against the label. ## Cultural Impact The Mary Sue concept jumped from fandom jargon to mainstream vocabulary over the course of four decades. The term earned an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, a rare achievement for fandom-origin slang[5]. In academia, multiple papers have analyzed the trope. Pat Pflieger's 1999 "Too Good To Be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue" traced the archetype to 19th-century children's literature[13]. Ashley Barner's 2011 paper in *Reconstruction* used the framework to connect Samuel Richardson's *Pamela* (1741) to *Twilight*, arguing the trope exposes centuries of anxiety about women's creative engagement with fiction[9]. The feminist website The Mary Sue launched in 2011, deliberately adopting the name to reclaim it[1]. The site became one of the larger pop culture outlets focused on women in media, turning the label from insult to badge of identity. The 2015 "Is Rey a Mary Sue?" debate around *Star Wars: The Force Awakens* brought the term to its widest audience yet, with think pieces appearing in major outlets and the conversation reaching people who had never engaged with fan fiction[5]. Similar debates erupted around *Game of Thrones*, the *Mad Max* franchise, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe[5]. Salon published a writing advice column in 2010 warning literary fiction authors about Mary Sues, arguing that the concept applies well beyond genre fiction: "Mary Sues occur in every kind of book, from historical novels about spunky young women with anachronistically modern values... to contemporary fiction in which the hero is the entirely blameless survivor of a bitter divorce"[6]. ## Fun Facts - Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro's specific inspiration was an 80-page, double-sided submission where the protagonist died heroically and then brought herself back to life. Smith called it a first: "I'd never seen that one anywhere else"[1]. - The *Menagerie* zine was named after a two-part episode from *Star Trek*'s first season[11]. - The famous Harry Potter fanfiction *My Immortal* (featuring Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way) is widely considered the most iconic Mary Sue played straight, though whether it's sincere or satirical is still debated[5]. - Smith's original parody was published anonymously. She later described her intent: "I wanted to write the complete sort of Mary Sue that there was because they were all alike"[1]. - Researcher Angie Fazekas and Dan Vena argued that Mary Sue characters "provide an opportunity for teenage girls to write themselves into popular culture narratives as the heroines of their own stories"[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is a Mary Sue? A Mary Sue is a fictional character, usually female, who is unrealistically perfect, free of meaningful flaws, and often suspected of being an idealized version of the author inserted into the story[2][4]. ### Where did the term Mary Sue come from? Paula Smith coined the name in her 1973 parody "A Trekkie's Tale," published in the Star Trek fanzine *Menagerie*, to satirize the flood of idealized female characters she and co-editor Sharon Ferraro kept receiving in submissions[1][10]. ### What does Mary Sue mean? It's a pejorative label meaning a character is too perfect, too central, and too obviously a wish-fulfillment stand-in for the author, to the detriment of the story's quality[6]. ### How do you use the term Mary Sue? People use it to critique overpowered or flawless characters in fan fiction and mainstream media. It's also deployed in gender debates about double standards in how male and female characters are judged[5]. ### Is Mary Sue still a widely used term? Yes. The term has been in use for over 50 years and entered the Oxford English Dictionary. It regularly surfaces in debates over new film and TV characters[5]. ### What is the original "A Trekkie's Tale" story? A 200-word parody about Lt. Mary Sue, a 15-and-a-half-year-old half-Vulcan who joins the Enterprise, is loved by the entire crew, wins the Nobel Peace Prize, dies heroically, and has her birthday declared a national holiday[10]. ### What is a Gary Stu or Marty Stu? The male equivalent of a Mary Sue. Smith and Ferraro originally considered male names like "Murray Sue" before choosing the female version, since the pattern they observed came predominantly from female fan writers[2]. ### Why is the term Mary Sue considered sexist? Critics argue it's disproportionately applied to female characters while male characters with the same traits (like Superman or James Bond) escape the label. Smith herself acknowledged this double standard[1][5]. ### Is Bella Swan a Mary Sue? She's one of the most frequently cited examples in published fiction. Critics point to her lack of real flaws, universal attractiveness to male characters, and Stephenie Meyer's acknowledged self-identification with the character[14][15]. ### Was Rey from Star Wars called a Mary Sue? Yes. After *The Force Awakens* (2015), commentators widely debated whether Rey's quick mastery of the Force made her a Mary Sue, sparking one of the biggest character-writing debates in franchise history[5]. ### What is the Mary Sue Litmus Test? An online quiz format where writers answer questions about their original characters to score how many Mary Sue traits they exhibit. High scores suggest the character may need reworking[7]. ### What is a Canon Sue? A term for Mary Sue-like characters in official, published media rather than fan fiction. A LiveJournal community dedicated to identifying them launched in 2003[16]. ### Did Mary Sues exist before 1973? Yes. Pat Pflieger's 1999 research traced idealized self-insert characters back to stories published in the 1840s in children's magazines, making the archetype at least 150 years old at that point[13]. ### How old was Paula Smith when she created the term? Smith was in her early twenties when she and Ferraro launched *Menagerie* in 1973. As of the Smithsonian interview, she was 67[1]. ### What is The Mary Sue website? A feminist pop culture website founded in 2011 that intentionally adopted the name to reclaim the pejorative. It covers women's representation in media and geek culture[1]. ## References 1. [Reconstruction 11.3 (2011): Gender and Popular Fiction, edited by Cameron Leader-Picone and Matthew Schneider-Mayerson]() 2. [How to Avoid Writing a Mary Sue Fiction Character - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com]() 3. [Bella Swan | Cracked.com]() 4. [Mary Sue - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Mary Sue]() 6. [Mary Sue - Urban Dictionary]() 7. ["Is My Character a Mary Sue?" Get the Truth]() 8. [Mary Sue]() 9. [Mary Sue Meme | Memes | Quotev]() 10. [The Women Who Coined the Term 'Mary Sue']() 11. [When Did the Idea of a Mary Sue Become Sexist?]() 12. [Mary Sue — Fansplaining]() 13. [Mary Sue - TV Tropes]() 14. [A reader's advice to writers: Beware of Mary Sue - Salon.com]() 15. [Quick hit: “Mary Sue” policing | Geek Feminism Blog]() 16. [Mary Sue]() 17. [Mary Sue - Fanlore]() 18. [Robert Merry's Museum : Goodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold), 1793-1860, ed : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive]() 19. [Menagerie (Star Trek: TOS zine edited by Paula Smith & Sharon Ferraro) - Fanlore]() 20. [Better That Way: Bella Swan, the Queen of Mary Sues?]() 21. [mary+sue | Tumblr]() 22. [canon_sues - Profile]() 23. [Rose Tyler: canon_sues — LiveJournal]() 24. [Paula Smith - Fanlore]() 25. [Gai from Naruto: canon_sues — LiveJournal]() 26. [Lana Lang: Smallville's Sweetheart: canon_sues — LiveJournal]() 27. [marysues - Profile]() 28. [150 Years of Mary Sue -- The Mary Sues]() 29. [The Good, The Bad, The Mary Sues - Reactor]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/mary-sue Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library