Andrew Kim: "Dear Elsa Sjunneson-Henry: Accepting Opinions and Comments in the Modern Society"

Dear Elsa Sjunneson-Henry: Accepting Opinions and Comments in the Modern Society

By Andrew Kim

            Well, this was an interesting question. It seemed very focused on calling things Mary Sue’s, but I think the topic is related to a great many things that have an effect on it. With Ms. Sjunneson-Henry being a disabled author, I feel I may understand why she may be concerned with this idea.

To begin, I think it is relatively easy to tell if a character is a Mary Sue. Something about the character or the story is very off-putting. People want realistic stories that they can relate to and Mary Sue’s are very idealized. Nobody wants to not be the “Mary Sue” and if the story seems to be placing itself over the audience, the automatic defensive reaction of the audience is to dislike the story. If a character is too perfect, the natural reaction is suspicion and jealousy.

As for your point of mainly male authors, I feel that was badly worded. There are many more factors in that aspect. As I mentioned before, people may feel inferior from Mary Sue’s and since you write about females, it may be the men’s natural human reaction that feel this more strongly. If someone wrote about Marty Stu’s, then it may be the females who are pushing back and arguing about this topic. I think we must begin analyzing this question without premade assumptions or attempting to push a certain point.

            Additionally, I believe that yes, diversity is important, and it is important to have different views. In that way, calling a story a Mary Sue is also in itself, diversity. As you said, “listen[ing] to more diverse voices,” includes listening to the people who call certain stories Mary Sue’s. Now, of course there are people who are uneducated and call everything Mary Sue’s and whatnot, and we should be careful with taking every comment with equal consideration. I always say, take it into consideration, but don’t let it control you. I believe everyone’s opinion can be taken into consideration to various degrees, but none of them should be deciding how you yourself think. Thus, other people calling a story a Mary Sue should not be hindering writers from writing with their own marginalization’s.

            As for this hindering, I think calling stories Mary Sues is like swear words or derogatory terms. The importance on the word is the perceived importance people place on it. I do not believe that we should get rid of calling things Mary Sues just as we can’t simply get rid of a derogatory term. This is only a short-term goal that doesn’t solve the complete problem. The eventual goal should be for the term to lose its meaning. I remember watching a video (unfortunately, I can’t find it), but the speaker talked about how there used to be an extremely derogatory word in England back in the day comparable to the N word or the F word for homosexuals today. However, now in the current world, nobody knows of the word and thus, it lost its derogatory meaning. This should be the final goal.

           If anything, we need to try to understand why the word exists and continues to exist in the modern society. As I mentioned above, calling something a Mary Sue should not but does make writers feel less welcome, so I agree it’s a problem. However, since we cannot simply get rid of it, we should, as individuals, understand. And by understand, I mean to understand the word, the opposite perspective, and the people behind it as well. For people’s backgrounds determine their actions of calling things Mary Sues.  

            In conclusion, I do not believe we should simply end calling things Mary Sue’s. There is a reason that term exists, and it is important to understand why. Just as analyzing memes can tell us a lot about the modern society, this term has a historical and cultural significance. Your original point of diversity is the most important part of this argument. Calling something a Mary Sue is diversity. Since calling a story a Mary Sue should not have an impact on hindering their ability to publish, the audience should not be forced to accept stories they do not enjoy because it may have Mary Sue aspects. With the term Mary Sue, we can still listen to more diverse voices, publish more diverse stories, and enable storytellers to write their own marginalization’s. Mary Sue did nothing here.