So I was on s_f drama and there was some grossness on a thread at TVTropes and somehow that led me to seeing these videos making fun of people at TV Tropes.

It’s basically just reading the comments in a way that highlights the bad things about them, usually in an affected “nerd” voice or whatever.

I really liked the first one I saw for Chivalrous Pervert since it seemed to mostly call out the misogyny and creepiness of all the random “Nice Guys” (Plus I really hate that trope in the first place. It isn’t even a thing, okay). And stuff like All Girls Want Bad Boys is similar. I’ve been wanting to call this shit out myself, so it was nice there are videos that highlight how stupid this shit is?

I thought all of them would be about calling out isms and creepiness but…yeah, no.

A lot of them are just making fun of people for being….nerds? Having no social skills? Getting too excited and dorky on the internet? Not expressing joy or frustration in a socially acceptable way?

and…I have no idea where the dude making these videos feels he can get on his high horse about these people being “pathetic” when he is….making youtube videos about how he spends time reading what random nerds write on a nerdy site he hates and putting a ton of effort into them. That doesn’t exactly speak of you being the height of social acceptability and teh popular, bro. I mean, people are being nerdy on the internet!!!! in a place specifically designated to allow people to be nerdy!!!! STOP THE PRESSES THIS NEVER HAPPENS!!!

I get that it’s fun to feel superior, but self-awareness is also good, and some of the people you mock are way more self-aware about what they’re doing than you.

But it really made me laugh, so I kept watching for a while until is got too much. In the Guilty Pleasure video they read some person saying they like Sailor Moon. Um. What’s heinously newsworthy about that? Why was that something that stuck out so much you needed to read it? Are you grasping for straws here? (It was sort of funny the person was like “I don’t count episode 89” I guess that’s the dinosaur ep idk never saw that one) Look at your life look at your choices.

Just sticking to calling out creepiness would have been way more entertaining. And it’s TV Tropes, so you’d never run out of ammo.

also, then I read the comments he attached and they weren’t very…yeah. Then there were the fact the top rated comments on all those videos were stuff like “these people have autism” and “these people are fat!!!!”

what

first of all, you’re not original

second of all

what

so yeah, fun while it lasted, but this was actually just some dude and his superiority complex and his friends doing nerdy voices lol

a channel just calling TV Tropes on it’s real bullshit would be great…

Looks like this essay was needed, so I went ahead and did it. Not sure I said everything I wanted to say, but I tried.

So, there’s this girl. She’s tragically orphaned and richer than anyone on the planet. Every guy she meets falls in love with her, but in between torrid romances she rejects them all because she dedicated to what is Pure and Good. She has genius level intellect, Olympic-athelete level athletic ability and incredible good looks. She is consumed by terrible angst, but this only makes guys want her more. She has no superhuman abilities, yet she is more competent than her superhuman friends and defeats superhumans with ease. She has unshakably loyal friends and allies, despite the fact she treats them pretty badly.  They fear and respect her, and defer to her orders. Everyone is obsessed with her, even her enemies are attracted to her. She can plan ahead for anything and she’s generally right with any conclusion she makes. People who defy her are inevitably wrong.

 God, what a Mary Sue.

I just described Batman.

  Wish fulfillment characters have been around since the beginning of time. The good guys tend to win, get the girl and have everything fall into place for them. It’s only when women started doing it that it became a problem.

TV Tropes on the origin of Mary Sue:

The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment.

Notice the strange emphasis on female here. TV Tropes goes on to say that is took a long time for the male counterpart “Marty Stu” to be used. “Most fanfic writers are girls” is given as the reason. So when women dominate a genre, that means people are on close watch, ready to scorn any wish fulfillment they may engage in. This term could only originate if the default was female.

 In fact, one of the CONTROVERSIES listed on the TV Tropes page is if a male sue is even possible. That’s right, it’s impossible to have an idealizied male character. Men are already the ideal.

 In our culture, male tends to be the default. Women take on the distaff parts. “Him” and “mankind” are what humanity are, “her” and “womankind” are secondary. Yet this isn’t true for Mary Sue as a term. That name was created first. It was a Star Trek fic that coined it and the female desigination was likely a big reason it caught on. This female is name the default to use when describing idealized characters. Marty Stu and Gary Stu are only to be used if you’re discussing men specifically.  Heck, there isn’t even an agreed upon term for them. So the only time female can be default is when discussing a badly written character, someone who is more powerful or important or liked than they should be allowed to be, someone the plot focuses on more than you would like, someone you don’t want to read about. Hmmm.

 What’s really wrong with a thirteen year old girl having a power fantasy, even if it’s badly written?  Who is it hurting? Men have baldly admitted to writing power fantasies and self inserts since the beginning of time. How many nerdy, schlubby guys suddenly become badasses and have hot girls chasing after them in fiction? See: Spiderman- blatant everyman who happens to  stumble across amazing powers and catch the eye of a supermodel.  Mary Sue is considered the worst insult to throw at a character as it renders them worthless. But since when are idealized characters automatically worthless? Aren’t all heroes idealized in some way? Don’t all heroes represent the author in some way? Aren’t these characters supposed to be people we look up to, people who represent human potential, the goodness that we strive for? Fantasy by nature is idealized, even the tragic ones.

 If you look at the TV Tropes page for Mary Sue, it’s ridiculous. You can be a sue for having too many flaws, or not enough, for fixing things or messing things up, for being a hero or a villain. And of course, this is specifically pointed out as a trope related to the Princess and Magical Girl genres- genres aimed towards women are naturally full of Mary Sues.  Magical girls are powerful and heroic and actually flaunt femininity as a good thing. They are a power fantasy designed for girls. So of course, a girl using traditionally feminine traits to dominate and triumph means she’s a sickeningly pure Mary Sue who makes everything go their way. Feminine traits are disdained and look down on, so when the positive feminine traits are prominent, the reader has an aversive reaction. How can a character be so feminine and triumph? She must be unrealistic, she must be badly written, because everyone knows it is impossible to be feminine and powerful.

 Let’s look at what kinds of Mary Sues people will point to. People will claim a female character is a Mary Sue if she is a love interest. Put a female character within a foot of a male character, and people will scream “Mary Sue!” Why does someone falling in love with her make her a Mary Sue? Well, she hasn’t “earned” this awesome dude character’s love. What has she done to show she’s worthy of him? Fans miss the irony that this line of logic makes the male character seem more like the Sue in Question, as he’s apparently so perfect one has work for his coveted love and praise.

  The idea that woman has to “earn” any power, praise, love, or plot prominence is central to Mary Sue.  Men do not have to do this, they are naturally assumed to be powerful, central and loveable. That’s why it’s the first thing thrown at a female character- what has she done to be given the same consideration as a male character? Why is she suddenly usurping a male role? “Mary Sue” is the easiest way to dismiss a character. It sounds bad to say “I don’t like this female character. I don’t like that this woman is powerful. I don’t like it when the plot focuses on her. I don’t like that a character I like has affections for her.”  But “Mary Sue” is a way to say these things without really saying them. It gives you legitimacy.

 If a character is badly written, there’s generally something much more problematic than idealization going on. The plot will be dull and the character will perpetuate harmful stereotypes while other characters act oddly.  For instance, Bella Swan is one of the only characters I’d even begin to classify as a Mary Sue, yet it’s not really her supposed Mary Sue traits that bother me. I don’t mind that she gets what she wants and everyone loves her, that she’s Meyer’s power fantasy. What I actually mind is that Stephenie Meyer has her perpetuate harmful anti-woman stereotypes- women need to be protected, women are shallow, women’s worth rests in desirability. That’s what’s actually harmful about her and worth discussing. I would criticize that rather than even get to the fact Bella got to be “too perfect and powerful”- that’s just a tiny, insignificant thing not worth mentioning in a huge pile of problems.

 And that’s why I don’t call characters Mary Sue anymore. There’s really nothing bad about a power fantasy or wish fulfillment. It’s what’s fiction’s about.  If one of my characters is called a Sue, I’ll proudly say “yep”, because that must mean that she broke out of that box a female character is supposed to be in.  So I’ll go and say it: I love me some Mary Sues.

Because looking at the page there shows you how ridiculous it gotten…

The related tropes are magical girl and princesses.

Because everyone knows genres aimed toward women= mary sue

oic

this essay is def getting written now.

Basically they were about Winry and May.

A couple were “ugh I don’t like them I don’t like girls who act enthusiastic and sparkly eyed and have high pitched voices it is an anime cliche” :(:(:( 

which like what

I don’t even know

what is this weird thing against high pitched voices uh people tend to have high pitched voices before they hit puberty and since when is having a high pitched voice a crime lots of people have them

also fun fact: Japanese women tend to have a higher pitched tone than other cultures because of the way the language is set up. It’s actually a fact. SO DEAL WITH IT.

And Winry’s isn’t even noticably high pitched? Al’s voice is more high pitched than hers, actually. SHOCKER. 

Also: there’s no wrong way to be a girl. There’s lots of enthusiastic sparkly eyed guys in anime too.

Anyway, moving on. The main thing was about how Winry and May are UNREALISTIC because Winry is a child prodigy in automail!!! She’s just too smart! You know, the same way our protagonists were child prodigies in alchemy. Um.

And then May’s also a child prodigy in martial arts and alchemy at age-vaguely-probably-ten. You know, the same way Ed and Al were at age ten. Never mind that May would have likely been trained from birth as well, and clearly had to shoulder a lot of responsibility at a younger age than Ed and Al did.

So. Basically, it’s okay for the guys to be child prodigies, but not the girls. Okay, got it fucker. You’re officially on my black list

/random procrastinating complaining over

And then

it was changed *_*

oh my gosh

this seems like a huge coincidence did someone change it because of my post? If so, then THANK YOU

lets conquer all the pages together

after I finish this paper

like really? That’s the most important thing about the trope? I get that a lot of characters, that is the basis for making them a mechanic and you’re not likely to find an not-hot female mechanic in media, but the page completely doesn’t treat them like they’re characters in their own right. It’s perpetuating that idea instead of calling it out.

Yeah, Winry is developed and wears pretty revealing outifits a lot of the time- but um, isn’t it more important that she’s a child prodigy and you know, her job is really important to the series? Nope, instead the picture of her on the page must focus on how envious any troper would be of that wrench she’s holding (that…that means you’re likely to get flung at Ed’s head, do you really want that) and of course assumes anyone who reads this is into that by default!

whatever I just

am cranky about everything tonight

I guess this is a complaining about TV Tropes blog now because I know anything I change will be changed back.