Springhole.net, one of the remaining early internet sites with a mary sue litmus test, has gone regressive and put up a note in the mary sue test page demanding people stop using the term by falsely claiming that the term is "just used to tear down female characters simply for having a prominent, active role in a story.".
mary sue test page with the note https://archive.is/CyVWS
info page with another note: https://archive.is/ct27G
A newer page that tells people to move on from the term: https://archive.is/5Smbi
They've been regressive for a while now. Since their owner/writers really like to use "xir" type terms in articles.
A real shame about this progressive push back on mary sue. I'll really miss the first half of the 2010s when I was learning to write fiction. Not only was it fun to see how dumb some people wrote characters. But also because of all the unabashed op characters where we made no secret that yes, they are just absurdly strong. Mostly as a joke.
Nowadays, it's a shame with all these "girl power" shills that exist. No one seems to know anymore what makes a mary sue. Because there's more to it, than just simply being overtly strong or capable beyond measure.
Funny enough, I can enjoy those story where the mc is clearly strong just so they can be better than everyone. And not only that, but get all the ladies while doing it. It's so obviously for a power fantasy, yet that's kind of what makes it special. Something just fun for the reader, and maybe self-insert themselves.
Too bad that feminists just ruined that fun. Doing some of the same stuff, but act like they're doing some type of moral good by "inspiring" girls. All while desexifiying those characters and adding on dumb males to make fun of men.
They just miss the point so badly, it's kind of sad. Like, if I read one of those power fantasy type stories, it's clear that they don't hate woman. If anything, the readers are quite fond of them, I might say. Meanwhile, those feminist stories very clearly hate men.
Sorry, I guess this went on for longer than most would care to read. It's just that this has been something that I care deeply about for many years now. So it getting infested with SJWs, which kind of has been for a while now, to be honest. Just gets me feeling a little down about yet another hobby of mine.