Taking a break from Fandom Wank the "Death Star" debate...
I was searching the 'Net for references to our, er, highly esteemed organization, and came across this. It's an article on Mary Sue that pretty much gets everything wrong. Oh, and we're mentioned.
Protectors of the Plot Continuum
Another form of community policing
*giggle*
in fan fiction is the more activist approach known as the Protectors of the Plot Continuum (PPC). The PPC establishes a voluntary virtual brigade of agents who 'correct' perceived problems in fan fiction
Yes, the likes of "Aragorn daughter of Arathorn" are only a PERCEIVED problem.
The establishment of the enormously elaborate organisation of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum affords fan fiction community members opportunities to be playful and clever with fictional structures. Like fan fiction itself, the PPC also affords opportunities for self-indulgence, in a community-sanctioned environment. The authority and standards of a virtual community can thus be enforced within the guise of a free-wheeling enterprise.
Here that, guys? We have authority! And here I thought we were just fanfic vigilantes out for a little fun. I had no idea we were Ye Fandom Police.
Teach me more, O knowledgable one!
As in most authoritative structures, opportunities abound for highly opinionated and perhaps overly assertive people to bully meeker writers within virtual environments using such devices as 'Mary Sue' litmus tests and PPC agents.
The hit the nail on the head. I mean, all of the Suethors we've dealt with have been exceedingly meek, their avatar characters without any ego or pretension. THEY'RE MEEK I TELL YOU!
Chander and Sunder (2007) would make a stronger argument that such regulation attempts to shut down political spaces that may be opened up by fan fiction. In their analysis, a Mary Sue has the potential to challenge media agendas on many questions including gender, race and class.
It's not enough that we are bullies...we also aid and abet racism, sexism, and classism! We sure get up to a lot for an online fanfic community.
I guess they're right, Boarders. I apologize for not realizing all these years that Mary Sue was a feminist beacon for the ages. She defines, sorry, defies all the most awful stereotypes of women, from the aggressive Warrior Chick to the fainting flower to the Can't Seem to Stop Using My Feminine Wiles seductress.
(And how many poor and/or minority Mary Sues have you seen, by the way? Yeah, me neither.)
According to an article they cite, Mary Sue is often a pejorative expression, used to deride fan fiction perceived as narcissistic. We dissent from this view. In this essay, we rehabilitate Mary Sue as a figure of subaltern critique and, indeed, empowerment. … As exemplified by Lieutenant Mary Sue, this figure serves to contest popular media stereotypes of certain groups such as women, gays, and racial minorities. Where the popular media might show such groups as lacking agency or exhibiting other negative characteristics, Mary Sues are powerful, beautiful, and intrepid (599).
I'm going to leave this paragraph open for comment. I know I'm not the only snarker here. Have at it, Agents! Your honor is at stake!*
__________________
* = Unless, you know, you don't take Mary Sue assassinations 100% seriously and are here to have fun. But that, of course, is out of the question.
~Araeph