Club Jade

Many of the points being made by Dan Abrams and Susana Polo as they seek to launch a site for female geeks are true: The audience is underserved. On the other hand… They’re calling it TheMarySue.com.

She explained by phone that the name of the site is an ironic twist on the Mary Sue character in fan fiction. A Mary Sue is typically a beautiful female character who represents a standard of perfection that’s impossible to live up to.

“I feel that that is a very familiar concept to women in the geek world,” Polo said. “Women in the sciences often feel that they must be twice as competent as their male counterparts to get to the same regard. If society expects us to be a Mary Sue, well, we can certainly try, but in the meantime we’d like to giggle while pointing out the hypocrisy of the whole thing.”

I can see what she’s trying to say about the name, but mostly it just makes me wince. (And that’s not even going into the term being so overused that it’s practically lost all meaning as a defining term.) Thoughts, ladies?

Ha ha. If only I could come up with something beyond ‘Snarkier than Leia…’ More idealistic than Padme? Bluer than Aalya? Blander than Callista? (via antick musings)

Anyone who’s seen Smallville knows that Mary Sue is no stranger to the mainstream. But the term ‘Mary Sue?’ Not so much. At least, until it showed up in this review of Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

The Infinite Force explores the idea of being a Jedi or a Sith in real life. Just stay away from the census polls, okay?

Pablo talks about the origin of the Rookies webstrips.

Ravenclaw Devi considers Mary Sues and related issues.

Jedimaster13109 provides us with a nice overview of the Force.

In EU corner, Mike Beidler has some thoughts on Vector Prime. Meanwhile, Padawan Katis is reading The Phantom Menace novelization and Sunnyskywalker continues her spot-on Courtship of Princess Leia analysis with Chapter 5.