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The Mary Sue

A First Look at Geekosystem’s Soon-to-Launch Sister Site, The Mary Sue

by Susana Polo | 12:56 pm, February 10th, 2011

We’re just about two weeks from the launch of TheMarySue.com, an entertainment/news site for the the geeky girl, from the ones who love The Lord of the Rings but have never actually read the books, to the ones who want to know which movie stars are going to be at Comic Con, to those planning out their Minecraft cross stitch samplers.  (Just me?)

We are planning a February 28th launch, so we’re not quite ready yet, but I wanted to share one part of it that we’re particularly proud of: our logo.

I knew, going into the site design on The Mary Sue, that it would be very, very important to get the look of the site right.  (In fact, I believe my exact first words on the matter were “It can’t be pink.”) The first thing we tackled was, naturally, the logo.  ”How about a generic girl geek?  The every-geekwo-man!”  Well, that sounded great until we sat down to try and decide how to depict a generic and obvious but inclusive girl geek without diving headfirst into stereotype.  Do you give her glasses?  A book?  A certain air of social unease?

Harder than it sounds. Eventually we decided to tackle the problem from a completely different angle: have a bunch of different geek girls as our logos, each one inspired by the look of a different iconic and well loved female character. (The very talented Christianne Goudreau put them together for us.) Maybe a hero, maybe a villain, maybe just a character that was interesting or well rounded; but every one a character that a geek girl might think about when we need just a bit more psychic armor to get us through the day; and not just another Mary Sue or Affirmative Action Girl shoehorned into the plot.

Since the women have attributes that were just inspired by characters, they may not be immediately identifiable.  So let me give you some hints.  (Okay, maybe not hints so much as defining clues.)

1. A Wonder Woman look was a given, as the female superhero with perhaps the greatest mainstream recognition.

2. There were certain fandoms that we wanted to be sure to make a shout out to (okay, maybe there were just certain fandoms that we are really into), and Avatar: The Last Airbender was one of them.  There are plenty of female characters to choose from in the series, but Katara’s braid and “hair loopies” are the most recognizable.

3. Like Airbender, Battlestar Galactica has no dearth of great women in it, but Starbuck wins out, particularly because she was originally a male character, and many fans thought that a cocky, boozing, promiscuous fighter pilot wouldn’t work as a woman.  They were wrong.

4. Carmen Sandiego, the villain of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, for all of us who wanted to be a mysterious globetrotting thief.

5. Many of these characters were chosen because they could be represented by a few simple (subtle) distinguishing characteristics.  Rei Ayanami, of Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of them.

6. Tank Girl, eponymous protagonist of Anglo-Australian post-apocalyptic psychedelic mutant kangaroo comics, was another inspiration.

7. We chose to include San, the titular character of Princess Mononoke, but we could have just as easily picked her adopted mother Moro, who bites off a rival’s arm after having her head cut off.  Moro, however, is a wolf.

8.  Velma, founding member of the Scooby Gang: the brainy girl who solves the mystery, isn’t arm candy, and is right up there with the alpha male in terms of usefulness to the group.  Is also one of the oldest sources of inspiration in this slideshow.

9. The Bride (a.k.a., Beatrix Kiddo, a.k.a. Black Mamba, a.k.a. the woman who wants to Kill Bill) is the answer to every movie studio that thinks that female characters can’t carry action movies.

10. We almost forgot to put Leela in here, because her role in Futurama is so rarely used to drive typical “feminine” sitcom plots that we kind of forgot she was female. Even though she’s the eternal object of affection for the main character, she’s also a completely rounded character with plenty of her own problems, character development, and really solid reasons for turning him down.  Which is exactly why she should be on the list.

11. The game Portal is viewed from a first person camera, and so it takes a bit of finagling to get a look at yourself.  But when you first figure out how to put two portals in a corner and use them as a highly expensive mirror, it reveals not the usual “Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Culturally Ambiguous Adventure Person” that most video games default to, but an olive-skinned, understandably disheveled woman.  In fact, pretty much every character in Portal is a woman, but, like Moro, GLaDOS isn’t exactly… human.  Or humanoid.  Or humane.

Like The Mary Sue will at launch, we’ve tried to cover the gamut, from video games and movies, comics and television, cartoons and live action, western and eastern animation, indie and mainstream, comedy and drama, sci-fi and fantasy.  I’m certain there are geek women icons that we’ve failed to pay homage to and I can’t wait to expand our logo repertoire. Just you wait.

  • http://eatdrinkandbemarysue.wordpress.com Mary Sue

    As someone whose parents had the great temerity to name her “Mary Sue”, I highly approve of the name of the new site.

  • http://twitter.com/RebekahMonson Rebekah Monson

    What, no Buffy or Willow? Psyched for this site!

  • Anonymous

    Looking forward to seeing the spiky silhouette of Lisa Simpson.

  • Zombie Hunter

    Although I’m male, I’m really going to enjoy this site. I refresh Geekosystem many many times a day, so any extension of it is very welcome. Will Susana be leaving here in favor of it though? I’m a comic reader, and I love having all the nerdrage I feel be directed at worthy areas. It also would be a shame if The Mary Sue and Geekosystem became the gender specific opposites of each other, lord knows we have enough male-centric sites out there, I love how thus at least attempts overall to be gender neutral. Please don’t let all the female writers leave!

    How about Samus for the icon? Non zero suit obviously. Eowen, Hermione, Athena maybe?

  • ganymeder

    Why do we even need a ‘Geek girl’ site? Geeks and nerds are just that, regardless of gender. This site has catered to my geek taste just fine, without specifically targeting me as a woman. Also, it’s unnecessary and (imo) mildly insulting.

  • http://twitter.com/LDG22381 Melissa E.

    Can’t wait to see this website!

    What about a logo featuring Daria Morgendorffer, the ultimate “Mary Sue”?

  • Anonymous

    Lol You know that a Mary Sue character is the sort of character most disliked and laughed at for a lot of good reasons? http://MarySue.pbworks.com

  • Anonymous

    I agree with you. there’s more than enough gender-related weirdness out there anyway, and there’s just no need to create a site for geek girls, or geek boys IMO.

  • Anonymous

    Which is why I think they should rename the nightmarish fictional character type “Senna Marie” instead, making it not so rough on you or anyone else with the real name Mary Sue.

  • Jess

    So obviously a name that needs some good publicity, right? :D

  • Guest

    Why this need for gender stratification? I’m female and perfectly capable of enjoying geekosystem. I loved how there were male and female contributors here and how gender isn’t made a big deal out of, I’m offended that you feel the need to cordon off girl geeks from guy geeks. Why haven’t I heard about this girlgeek site before on this site? What exactly would it offer me that I couldn’t get from this site? And if those things were for geeks, why couldn’t it be put here?

  • http://witchbabywigg.livejournal.com/ Witchy

    I find the idea that I experience Star Wars or video games differently because I need tampons to be more than a little insulting.
    What is this site for? Why should the content be separated from Geekosystem?
    If you find a problem with the lack of female voices in nerd culture than change it by INCLUDING it here, don’t create a separate gender-specific website…..

  • laylamishto

    It’s amusing how you spend the whole article talking about how you didn’t want to create an offensive stereotype for the website’s logo, and yet the first paragraph (and the whole site’s purpose, as far as I can tell) relies entirely on incredibly offensive geek girl stereotypes?

  • ShakingHandsWithGod

    Wow, really? It hadn’t occurred to me that THIS site was for men. I thought it was for GEEKS. What would we do without info on movie stars at CC (since that’s why WE go), cross-stitch patterns and men who make books with big words into moving picture shows so we can understand them. BTW, where is the ass shot logo for the MEN’S site? I think from now on I’ll go elsewhere for my geek news. It’s hard enough for me to have to read (sigh) and lean forward to click on the pictures what with my boobs being in the way. GeekOsys’, YOUR MOTHER HAS A SMOOTH FOREHEAD. GFYS.

  • ShakingHandsWithGod

    “Uniting the tribes of geekdom under one banner.” Recognize that? I believe it’s posted under the Twitter account I just unfollowed. You should think about amending it to specify exclusivity to testicled geekdom. Send news tips to tips@geekosystem.com? I’ll send you some news and a tip or 2.

  • Josh

    Great idea for a blog, don’t let all the haters get you down. The whole “written by girls, for girls” concept is not new. I don’t know why everyone is getting so worked up about it. I’m a guy and I want to give the site a try. Look, geek culture has been male dominated for too long. If there’s a site that is attractive to women and introduces them to the delights of geekdom, I say GO FOR IT.

    Of course the possibility that this will be a stereotyping disgrace is still there. No pressure.

  • Anonymous

    sexist – unfollow

  • Ed

    I started agreeing with the dissenters that sites for geeks are for geeks regardless of gender, but then remembered that I play Magic: The Gathering and women are rare in the game. It is true the voice of the female geek needs to expand, so if this helps that cause, them I’m all for it. Also, LEELA ALL THE WAY!!! As any Futurama-obsessed overly analytical fan can tell you, she’s the actual “chosen one” by The Universe. Fry just happens to be her soul-mate. Oh, also insulting is the implication that being loved takes away a woman’s strength. WTF?

  • ganymeder

    Of course the fact that so many women are actually saying its unattractive to them, that it separates us instead of including us, and that its insulting shouldn’t stop them; right? Because the site is obviously representing *them*.

    Amazingly, I’ve actually read Tolkien and couldn’t care less about cross stitch or movie stars. So, from the brief description I’ve read, its not appealing to me. And because the target audience of the Mary Sue site is *supposed* to be women with geeky interests, it’s not unreasonable to express our opinions- dissenting or not.

    My personal opinion is that the site is unnecessary. Just include geeky articles HERE. I didn’t feel excluded until I read about the Mary Sue site. All it does it make this site seem more like it’s targeting men instead of targeting geeks in general.

  • Asreal

    I don’I don’t think you’d like it Mary – people might post stuff that conflicts with your opinion of how utterly awesome you are and you probably wont be able to ‘moderate’ the comments like you do on your blog =P

  • http://www.weddingfavourskingdom.co.uk/ Annegwells

    I’m looking forward to seeing the new site!

  • http://www.dinnerwarecenter.com/ Martincspencer

    Mary sue. So geeky that every geeky girl would want to visit the site.

  • Anonymous

    Princess Leia. And calm your feminazi asses down.

  • Anonymous

    Geekosystem is proud of its firm stance on not defining “geeks” as male, or female, gay or straight, or anything else other than “what your hobbies are.” That’s not going to change.

    The Mary Sue will focus on entertainment coverage (@Zombie Hunter will just have to drop in every now and then to hear why I’m angry about Batman), and shedding light on a lot of stories that we’ve passed over even on Geekosystem because of the site’s wide lens.

    I’m personally very aware that the only thing geek girls (and every other geek minority) want is to just play with the boys. But if you think of a “women’s” site on the internet, you’re likely going to name something celebrity gossip, fashion, or dating advice oriented. I submit that there is no harm in creating an inclusive site that promises to bring greater attention to women in science, sci-fi, fantasy, comics, animation, and in the great spec-fic traditions and tropes of our culture.

    Not to mention plenty of meditations on the place of the girl geek in geekdom probably including such (still, for some reason) controversial subjects like booth babes, and internet anonymity… and awesome things like female ragefaces.

  • Anonymous

    The original original idea for the logo was to have only one girl, and cover her in one distinguishing accessory from a whole bunch of geek girl icons. One girl with Katara’s hair, Carmen Sandiego’s hat, the Bride’s track suit, Wonder Woman’s lasso, Leela’s wrist thingy, and Leia’s blaster. I gave our artist and designer a huge list of characters with single bold distinguishing characteristics which actually did include Samus, Seven of Nine, Renee Montoya!The Question, Lara Croft, and others.

    This was right about when we decided to do a logo that changed on refresh, and so Christianne and Rex picked from that big list I’d made and gave us 12 (well, actually 13, but it turns out that when you can’t see Seven of Nine’s facial circuitry, she’s hard to identify).

  • Anonymous

    Kind of like naming your women’s website after a biblical harlot?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jezebel

    Or perceived harlot, anyway, thanks Isaac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_caves_of_steel).

  • Anonymous

    I wasn’t trying to imply that Leela being loved made her a less interesting character, but rather my surprise that the writers managed to let her turn down Fry (the main character and therefore audience/writer proxy) again and again without becoming a stone cold bitch. After all, it could have easily gone that way if the writers hadn’t put effort into making her her own character and not just a hub for Fry’s affections to orbit around.

  • ganymeder

    If its an entertainment based site, why not just market it as geek entertainment then? Why label it as for ‘girls’?

  • Anonymous

    And I don’t go to any of the “women’s sites” fashion, bores the heck out of me. Celeb gossip, – I couldn’t care less. But then, I’m not a Twi-fan either. :P

  • Anonymous

    Which is why I’d really like the term changed from Mary Sue to Senna Marie or something equally atrocious.

  • Anonymous

    Yes. I think I sort of understand this idea about wanting to get more girls interested, but shucks, that’ll keep happening without making a geek girl site. I’m pretty sure I won’t be going to the new site – because it is gender-specific.

  • Anonymous

    Yes, I think they’d do well to drop this idea as a dud.

  • Anonymous

    Um, who said anything about “haters”? And people aren’t getting “worked up” they’re expressing opinions, and some pretty good points too. There doesn’t need to be gender-specific geek sites. IMO there are already too many sites out there that cater to one gender or the other. Who needs it?

  • Anonymous

    But I don’t think we need a gender-specific site to get more female contributers. They’ll come here if they’re interested, and they won’t if not, simple as that.

  • http://eatdrinkandbemarysue.wordpress.com Mary Sue

    Huh. Comments. Blog. I should go look in the moderation queue, I haven’t in– six months? Seven? Hm. Oh well.

  • Asreal

    “Thank you for commenting! There’s been an increase in douchebags
    rolling through, and I’ve got better things to do than listen to
    everyone tell me how to write, so don’t hold your breath waiting for
    your comment to be approved.”

    Gotto love the automated message. Calling people douchebags by default is always a great way to make new friends. Keep up the great work. =)

  • Asreal

    “Thank you for commenting! There’s been an increase in douchebags
    rolling through, and I’ve got better things to do than listen to
    everyone tell me how to write, so don’t hold your breath waiting for
    your comment to be approved.”

    Gotto love the automated message. Calling people douchebags by default is always a great way to make new friends. Keep up the great work. =)

  • Asreal

    “Thank you for commenting! There’s been an increase in douchebags
    rolling through, and I’ve got better things to do than listen to
    everyone tell me how to write, so don’t hold your breath waiting for
    your comment to be approved.”

    Gotto love the automated message. Calling people douchebags by default is always a great way to make new friends. Keep up the great work. =)

  • Ides of Ulven

    Ironic that all the proposed logos for a women’s site allude so heavily to the male gaze. Apparently women in the geek community don’t need faces, but our boobs, butts and hip-to-waist ratios require extra emphasis. (Am I supposed to feel like we’ve come a long way, baby, just because she’s not wearing a chainmail bikini and f-me boots?)

    This doesn’t appear to be this artist’s usual style. Whose idea was it? Did that person even stop to think what values were being communicated here, or where those values came from?

    So I’m with the dissenters. I’m tired of the notion that men are the default sex and women need their own little section. And I’m even more tired of being shown that women must be done up and/or posed in sexual appealing ways in order to be granted any kind of near-human status in the geek community. I don’t see why you objected to making the new site pink. You’re still dressing it up in full patriarchal regalia.

    If I’m wrong, why not go ahead and make a logo that shows a strong woman in action without apologizing to the hypothetical misogynist viewer with a simultaneous emphasis on T&A? Or at least, please, ask yourself why there aren’t more such images in existence…

    FYI, if I were going to spend my time at a site targeted at women, it would have to be a place where I felt LESS objectified and othered than usual, not more.

  • Vaylon

    About your choice from Evangelion… wouldn’t Asuka or Misato have been a better choice than Rei? Rei barely has any personality at all.

  • The2thinkers

    It would be nice to have a black icon. Like Uhura?

  • The2thinkers

    It would be nice to have a black icon. Like Uhura?

  • The2thinkers

    It would be nice to have a black icon. Like Uhura?

  • guest

    Methinks you’re a troll.

    If you’re not, I suggest you go look up what the word Nazi means.

  • Cdeckerwi

    How could you forget Firefly?!

  • Anonymous

    Allow me to rephrase. All you ladies getting up In arms about this, I suggest you view this new site not as a division, where were being segregated from the men, but as an extension. We all know that people forget about women in geekdom, and it will be this site’s function to make sure that doesn’t happen.

  • http://twitter.com/SweetonGeeks SweetonGeeks

    VERY excited about this.

  • Laura

    Who are these women who love The Lord of the Rings but have never actually read the books? Interesting statement to lead with. Also, I’m not sure why we need the geeky girl logos. I just want to read the news.

  • http://www.facebook.com/squiggles.am.i Stefanie Fernandez-Paradis

    Urmom’s sexist – unfollow

    Mary Sue – ftw

  • http://www.facebook.com/squiggles.am.i Stefanie Fernandez-Paradis

    1) Because, damnit, as a woman I am fine as hell, and I know it.

    2) I think the ladies are lovely. OBVIOUSLY, they’re telling me that voluptuous is beautiful, and not twigs like most women sites. :P

    3) Give the site a fucking chance before jumping down it’s throat.


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