Jerk Sue/Quotes

"Seriously, Mary Sue, you worry me. You do realize that there is a difference - a very BIG difference - between a cool, collected, liberated woman and a violent, self-aggrandizing bitch? I can't get over how many of you girls think that physically abusing men for no reason other than you're annoyed with them makes you look 'cool'. It doesn't. You do realize that punching men for talking to you does not make you look feisty and independent, it makes you look dangerously unhinged and would not serve to endear you to anyone, still less the man you've just punched?"

—From this rant

"Nomi is from the honored society of the 'charming bitch' archetype. Y'know, we like her because she's tough and treats everyone like shit!"

—The Nostalgia Chick, on Showgirls

Will somebody do something? Every week he gets worse and nobody does anything!

—Wendy Testaburger, in the South Park episode "Breast Cancer Show Ever

She's a "strong woman" who can take care of herself, and apparently a "strong woman" is someone who is inexplicably hostile and has poor impulse control.

—Cracked, 6 Obnoxious Assumptions Hollywood Makes About Women

The essential story structure of a Macho Sue tends to revolve around untouchable pride. If love means never having to say you're sorry, being Macho Sue means the whole of reality loves you. Typically, Macho Sue's storyline follows a certain trajectory: he begins by acting egregiously, picking or provoking fights and causing problems. However much the ensuing difficulties can be laid at his door, Macho Sue is not about to apologise, in any way. So the problems continue - only to be salvaged by some immense reversals that give the impression that he was right all along. The man he insulted turns out, suddenly, to be a bad guy. The woman who dislikes him falls into his strong arms when he solves a problem that is not the same problem he caused for her. People change their personalities, storylines shift and flip like a mechanical maze popping up new paths and lowering old gates in order to keep Macho Sue from ever, ever having to backtrack. As John Wayne says, "Never say sorry - it's a sign of weakness."

(...)the dominant feature of Macho Sue is that his arrogance and unwillingness to listen to others often create at least half the problems of the early part of the story, and the rest of the story involves, somehow, proving that the problems he created weren't really problems at all. Which is something of a non-story: things happened! Oh, but not really. An alternative narrative is that Macho Sue behaves like a complete wanker for most of the story, then pulls off some feat that's considered so impressive that everyone conveniently forgets what an ass he is.

—Kit Whitfield, from the article "Macho Sue"