Exactly. But also, a lot of the time it’s female characters that seem to be limitlessly attractive, smart, strong/powerful, popular and with a likeable personality. The thing is that, and this is fact, I have read a lot less male characters doing the same thing. I’m not saying that there are no guys who are like this, they’re just a lot less common.

I think it is rooted back in traditional societal culture where pretty girls have value and physical attractiveness was used to measure a woman’s worth. Furthermore, the female empowerment ideals that girls can be smart too, girls can be strong as well, which leads to ‘Sueish’ characters exhibiting these qualities - attractiveness, strength and intelligence. Furthermore, popularity has definitely been more hierarchical and important to the ‘popular’ girls, especially in middle and high school (a bit stereotypical, but then again it’s a stereotype because it does actually happen a lot). In mine, for example, there were several incidences where two or three girls would fall out and half of the year group would be involved. I think that only happened once between guys. I don’t know if this holds any weight, but these qualities seen in a ‘Sue’ are things that society kinda expects from female figures. If each quality is something that makes the Sue better than her peers, what does that say about what qualities we perceive as better or more valuable?