It's an undeniable fact that female characters are more heavily and unfairly scrutinized than their male counterparts.

Female characters, especially in "nerd communities" like Star Wars, Marvel, GoT, etc, are constantly being mistreated. They are picked a part more harshly, nitpicked, and double standards are fully rampant. I am going to go down a list of female characters that recieved some unfair treatment over the years in order to get my point across.

Rey: Rey is the Chosen One. A girl born from nothing who relied on herself to prosper and live a healthy life. She learned how to fight by herself and studied how to fly and fix ships. She was introduced as a strong woman by default, and the context clues regarding her origin is enough to where you don't have to see her training. She is strong in the Force but she isn't a militant warrior in the likes of Yoda yet. She is still untrained and erratic with her powers. She lacks focus and her emotions are wayward. This doesn't make her a Mary Sue. It makes her a powerful and scared girl who has always had this ability but was too afraid or ignorant to use it. Luke Skywalker was a farm boy raised in a decent household. He was able to use a lightsaber decently well with no prior experience in combat. He was an expert pilot and was trusted to blow up the Death Star even though the Rebels had just met him. However, Luke is beloved and no one blasts him like they do Rey.

Carol Danvers: Captain Marvel, like Rey, was a strong woman before she got powers. Fans feared that she would kill Thanos and steal the spotlight away from the Avengers. They claimed her power is unwarranted and she is too "OP". But that isn't the point of her solo movie. Spoilers for CM. The point was that she is an already powerful woman who is being robbed of her potential. She has flaws: she's a hothead, too passionate for her own good, too headstrong, not a team player, etc. In Endgame, Carol has been a hero for twenty years, which is more than most heroes with the exception of Thor. Doctor Strange only had one movie and was still the key to the Avengers' win. No one cared about this and lauded Doctor Strange's prescence in the film.

Shuri: Shuri get's blasted for being the smartest person in the MCU. Despite this being a non issue, Shuri's intelligence is shown throughout BP and IW. Instead of telling us simply, Marvel shows us why she's the best, and isn't that what people want them to do? Her intelligence is no difference than how Tony or Bruce portrayed their intelligence. But the difference is that fans can easily see Tony as the smartest, but doubt Shuri's. It isn't outlandish to understand that a royal girl who recieved an education in the best country on the planet would be smarter than an American billionaire.

Arya Stark: This is the newest controversy. Supposedly, after recent events in GoT, Arya Stark is a Mary Sue. Arya has shown her training throughout the seasons and proved time and time again she is a dedicated fighter. Her actions in the recent episode of GoT reflect that character development.

My point is, the Mary Sue argument is tired, sexist, and contradictory. If we had reservations to characters who were good just because (John Wick, Dominic Toretto, the Rock, Ender) movies will be way less enjoyable. Rooting out these toxic elements in fandoms would provide a better space for fans, especially female fans.

Submitted April 30, 2019 at 12:21AM by Kazrules http://bit.ly/2Ld7kcn