Rey as Mary Sue in Star Wars

Population and Society
In the Star Wars: The Force Awakens film, the character of Rey is conceived and communicated as a stereotypical Mary Sue—a character who is seemingly perfect at whatever she does and goes through little or no struggle to acquire skills that an ordinary person would take years if not a lifetime to perfect. For example, Rey acquires the skills of a Jedi Knight within a short space of time, while it takes Luke in the original film a great deal of practice, training and perseverence before he can begin to harness the force. Rey portrayed as a Mary Sue creates a negative bias in the audience because it fosters an unrealistic expectation of womanhood—that women can do anything by virtue of their being strong women. As Byrd (1978) points out Mary Sue stories first emerged in Star Trek and described “the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy and ever get a commission at such a tender age” (p. 53). They were more political than realistic—political because they presented an image of woman during the Feminist Movement, an image of a young woman who was beautiful, more talented than any other living being, and basically infallible: in short, a goddess. Presenting women as goddesses creates a negative bias because it causes people—both men and women alike—to view women unrealistically. Women have bad days, just as men do. Women do not always look or act perfectly, just as men do not. Women have to go through a learning process, just as men do, before they can be considered masters. The problem that the Star Wars film perpetuates is the myth of the female Mary Sue—the perfect woman who is so perfect that she becomes uninteresting and causes the viewer, ultimately, to despise her and the gender she represents (Kadish, 2018). This paper will explain the stereotypes and biases that can be seen being perpetuated by this artifact and discuss how it could be rewritten without the negative bias.
I selected this artifact because there is a new Star Wars film opening soon and the trailer recently dropped for it, depicting Rey once more in all her unstoppable and unrealistic glory. It seems fitting to address this Mary Sue stereotype, which does have negative connotations and does create negative biases.
A discussion of the problem of Rey is provided by Thor Skywalker (2018) on YouTube here. Thor Skywalker (2018) notes that the big problem with Rey being written as a Mary Sue is that she has caused many fans of Star Wars to reject the main character of the new trilogy who was meant to be iconic—which is a problem because “it is being taken as a rejection of all female characters in general” and interpreted as sexism. So in other words there is a negative feedback loop occurring. The Mary Sue character is criticized by male viewers because they cannot relate to the perfect character who never fails at anything—unlike Luke in the original trilogy, or even unlike other films that featured strong female characters who did struggle and were relatable, such as the main female leads in the Alien trilogy, the first two Terminator films, or movies like Erin Brockovich—all of which are films that feature strong female characters who define themselves by their struggle to overcome some obstacle and thus win the admiration of the viewer. In Star Wars, there is very little to no struggle for Rey, which is why she fits the definition of a Mary Sue put forward by Byrd (1978). However, when male viewers dismiss her character and find her unappealing, they are in turn criticized for being misogynistic by the purveyors of the politically correct culture that policies social media platforms and addresses any attacks on “PC” media types by demonizing those who do the attacking. It all turns into an unhealthy back and forth that really is not necessary at all. The criticisms of the Mary Sue are valid. Better films have depicted better female leads: Sigourney Weaver was beloved in Alien and a more recent example would be Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road. In the latter film, Charlize represented strength and heart, weaknesses and the ability to persevere in spite of obstacles. She was appealing in the same way Luke was appealing in the first Star Wars film. She was human, which is all anyone really ever wants in a character.
I would rewrite the script of this artifact to change the way others would view the female population, which does not need to be admired for its perfection or ability to do anything and everything. Women should be admired because they are women, just as men should be admired because they are men: we are all what we are, and that means we all have strengths and weaknesses—and no one should be made to feel that he or she has to live up to this unrealistic ideal in order to be admirable. The way I would rewrite this script would be to make it more realistic and to characterize Rey as a person who, like Luke did in the original, has to work at the Jedi skills and demonstrate some level of perseverance. I would show some scenes in which she struggles with her calling, struggles with fear, or struggles with despair—because these are real struggles that people can relate to and, rather than make her look weak, they would make her look all the stronger for overcoming these challenges within herself. By rewriting it this way it would take away all the negative emotions surrounding the character, the antipathy from males who despise being made to feel that they need to “worship” this perfect woman who seemingly is born without any problems whatsoever and is wholly inhuman and cannot be related to as a result.
For instance, in the film, Rey is able to use the light saber like a Jedi with minimal practice. She is able to fly the Millennium Falcon with no experience. She is able to be heroic in numerous ways without ever seeming to have to try or fall or do anything at all to become heroic. In the Rocky films, Rocky has to work out and train for half the film just for one fight. In Star Wars, Rey as a Mary Sue knows everything and can do everything already. The audience is led to believe that she could even defeat Rocky with one hand tied behind her back if she needed to. To reduce the risk of the perpetuation of a negative stereotype about women being perfect creatures, I would show Rey as more human, less able right out of the gate, and thus more easily related to.
The role of popular culture in communicating harmful or incorrect stereotypes or biases is something that should be considered very seriously because it does play a part in how people think about themselves and others. When pop culture presents a stereotype, people tend to accept it as reality. They judge people in real life according to the stereotype they have learned from popular media. So someone who does not know much about women or people in general but who has grown up watching Rey in Star Wars may not be prepared to handle reality.
In my rewriting of Rey, she would not be able to acquire the skills of a Jedi in the first film (Luke certainly did not) nor would she be able to save the day by flying a ship she has never been in. I would change the story completely so that the plot does not depend upon her having these unrealistic abilities. I would make the story focus instead on her own path, struggles and overcoming of at least one obstacle so that she is depicted as more realistic and human. This would prevent male viewers from loathing her, which would prevent others from attacking the viewers and accusing them of being sexist. It would cut out that whole negative loop of negative emotion and unfair judgments.

References
Byrd, P. (1978). Star Trek Lives: Trekker Slang. American Speech, 53(1), 52-58.
Kadish, M. (2018). Is Rey From The Last Jedi A Mary Sue & Is It Sexist To Think She
Is?  Retrieved from https://medium.com/@matthewkadish/proof-rey-from-the-last-jedi-is-a-mary-sue-storycraft-72cb51aefd2b
Thor Skywalker. (2018). Rey and the sad devolution of the female character. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjkWb2mqdE