"Mary Sue is the woman who asks for and gets everything she wants"
This is my utterly knee-jerk comments after reading your post. Once I was chatting with a fannish person on the friends list, and we decided that Mary Sues tend not to do anything like bring peace in the Middle East or cure cancer. Whatever great and wonderful traits are used for getting into canon character's pants/getting canon characters together. So, I really do not see that sort of OFC as a feminist model.
I don't think that is character that fairestcat sees being called a Mary Sue, however. Perfectly perfect male characters (whether original or 'just visiting') are given far more slack by some fans than female characters who happen to be bright, pretty, or mooning over someone. Maybe a gender neutral term for annoying and shallow original characters in other fandoms would be better, but I know it is not enough.
I could rant about 'feminine = bad' and 'make things look bad by comparing them to girly things' making me call myself a feminist and not just an egalitarian. However, I don't want to hijack your journal.
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Date: 2007-06-08 11:45 pm (UTC)This is my utterly knee-jerk comments after reading your post. Once I was chatting with a fannish person on the friends list, and we decided that Mary Sues tend not to do anything like bring peace in the Middle East or cure cancer. Whatever great and wonderful traits are used for getting into canon character's pants/getting canon characters together. So, I really do not see that sort of OFC as a feminist model.
I don't think that is character that fairestcat sees being called a Mary Sue, however. Perfectly perfect male characters (whether original or 'just visiting') are given far more slack by some fans than female characters who happen to be bright, pretty, or mooning over someone. Maybe a gender neutral term for annoying and shallow original characters in other fandoms would be better, but I know it is not enough.
I could rant about 'feminine = bad' and 'make things look bad by comparing them to girly things' making me call myself a feminist and not just an egalitarian. However, I don't want to hijack your journal.