The Mary Sueing of Hurt/Comfort
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| Title: | The Mary Sueing of Hurt/Comfort |
| Creator: | Leslie Shell |
| Date(s): | August 1998 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Mary Sue |
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The Mary Sueing of Hurt/Comfort is a 1993 essay by Leslie Shell.
It was printed in Strange Bedfellows #2 in August 1993.
Some Topics Discussed
- Mary Sues
- the genre hurt/comfort
- complaints that h/c is about victimization, sadism, a substitute for sex
- description of a time when this fan needed assistance from friends after a surgery and how this changed the dynamics of a relationship
- shows: The Lawman and The Big Valley and how canon uses the trope
- the argument that we should see h/c as a tool in writing rather than as a tool to examine fans' desires like a "disease"
Excerpts
Hurt/comfort seems to be falling victim to the Mary Sue syndrome. Once upon a time, there was a distinct genre of story with the jill-of-all trades and still-looks-smashing-in-an-evening- gown heroines. The time period in which these stories were common was very brief.
[snipped]
In a remarkably short time ANY female character that was smart enough to chew gum and walk across the room at the same time was in danger of being labelled Mary Sue. This produced a fandom of female writers not using female characters because their female readers would accuse them of writing females that were too smart/competent. But that's another rant.
Now, the guns of our own derision are turning on a new target -- hurt/comfort.
"Victimization!" With the rapidity of a word association test, this was shot back at my mention of hurt/comfort. "Huh?" was my quick response. Does wanting Doyle to be the unwilling guest of a motorcycle gang/band of mercenaries/tribe of pre-reform Vulcan's mean I enjoy turning him into victim? Well, yes, but...
If there is a victim in the room (or around the campfire chained to a Harley) who is the oppressor? Excuse me, but if I'm the sick puppy who needs to see him victimized, then I am the oppressor. I'll pass on this explanation.
Sadists is how one friend of mine refers to h/c fans. She is a nurse, and I get the "if you only saw what I had to deal with..." and the ever popular "if they were hurt that badly, sex would be the last thing on their minds" [1] This always leaves me feeling like a rubbernecking driver looking at bloody accident. How could I be so sick?!?!?
Yes, there is ludicrous h/c that makes even those of us who enjoy elements of h/c cringe. But, just like all female characters were tarred with Mary Sue's brush, all h/c is suspect because of the stories that are graphic hurt mongering expeditions into pain rendering adjectives (like this last sentence).
Chickens. All that hurt is just a substitute for sex. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that one! What's worse is that when I was in my Slash - them's fightin' words- days I was saying it, too. But it comes back to the same thing, discussing h/c as if it was the next 12-step recovery program to tackle. The implication being, wouldn't it be healthier to admit that you really want to see Bodie applying lubricant than anti-biotic cream?
Yes, I was caught in a real life hurt/comfort scenario. But there was no victimization going on; no sadistic friends poking the staples as I slept; and no worry that the comfort of a cold compress was really misguided passion.
But, for those days, the dynamics of our relationship changed. I, as the injured party, did cede power to my friends. They crossed boundaries I normally kept much higher. I, in turn, asked more of them than I would have under normal circumstances.
[sniped]
That is hurt/comfort in a nutshell -- changing dynamics.
We also need to get over the idea that hurt/comfort is the warped creation of crazed fan writers. One of my earliest TV memories is "The Lawman". Marshall Dan Troop had a really cute, young deputy named Johnny McKay (a baby Peter Brown). I don't remember much of the show, but I loved it when Johnny got shot in the shoulder.
Hurt/comfort flooded The Big Valley! Who could forget the prison camp episode. Poor Heath was shut up in a hot box by the evil camp commandant. When Nick finally rescued him. Heath ambled out of the box right into Nick's arms. Nick was all over that boy like white on rice. Heath was the "Illya of the Valley" (ho-ho-ho), getting shot, beat-up, enslaved, horse-whipped. Even the boring brother (Jarrod, the lawyer) got to go blind (yet another plot done on EVERY show).
Did we sit around discussing the personal demons of the writers of these episodes? Did we worry if they were sexually well-adjusted? Decry their need to victimize the characters? I don't think so.
Yes, it is easy to find a hurt/comfort story to ridicule. Bodie being broiled over an open fire jumps to mind. I have another friend who really loves h/c. Her idea for a story is to think up a hurt. Like a dummy, I always ask how this ties in with the story. But, is the hurt/comfort vignette any different from the fuck vignette? It all depends on which side of the crash cart you're on, doesn't it?
Hurt/comfort is a tool for writers. I'd be happier if we concentrated on reviewing how well the tool is wielded within the story instead of treating the tool like the disease.
References
- ^ This is likely a reference to a quote in Joanna Russ' 1985 essay Pornography, by women, for women in the book Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans and Perverts: ... if your beloved appears at your door bleeding and battered in real life, you probably don't feel a rush of erotic tendresse. In fact, once you've called for an ambulance, covered said beloved with a blanket, made sure the patient's head is lower than the patient's feet, and administered what medical help you can, you are far more likely to go into your bathroom and throw up.