Thinking about complaints of Mary Sue vs. Marty Stu made me stop and look at my biases. My Mary Sue threshold is much lower than my Marty Stu, I realized. It's more noticeable to me that a woman in a story would have so many accomplishments whereas I let it slide more for a male character. I have been a bit stunned by that revelation.

Fanfic writers can spin gold out far less than nothing, I believe, and what we do and don't grab onto says a lot about us. I do think this issue is complicated by the human tendency to caricature even well-written, complex characters -- I think of this as forcing pop culture characters into well-established cultural roles whether or not ti fits because we like the story. And then there's those whole thing about viewing the character not for herself but basing it on how she relates to the writer's OTP. Add in that fanfic is recreational and that it's often cathartic or "fix its" or enjoying a fantasy rather than a writing exercise undertaken with a careful eye to honing the finer points of characterization and plotting...well, I suppose I'm going far afield here from the point.

It's hard to separate that issue from the gender issue but my own admittedly limited and unscientific experience has produced far more vitriol against, say, Samantha Carter in Stargate SG-1, than Ethan Gold in Queer as Folk, though both characters are the subject of a lot of bashing.