commanderbishoujo:

fyi

the term Mary Sue stems from an actual character named Mary Sue in a Star Trek fic way back in the stone age of the 70s that was written specifically to mock female Trek OCs for being badly written wish fulfillment vehicles for teenage girls

it was always specifically gendered and used to shit on female power fantasies in fanfiction

the fact that ppl can’t even agree on a comparable term for male characters (is it Gary Stu or Marty Stu?) should tell you something about its purpose

the types of legitimate criticisms we can make about these types of characters are not by any means restricted to them, nor are they restricted to female OCs

ergo why I always ask the question, “why do we need a specific, gendered term to describe a poorly written character?”