On June 9, 2023, a beloved member of The Mary Sue community passed away. Brittany Knupper was a contributing writer and frequent temporary weekend editor from 2019 until earlier this year. Brittany was an exceptionally talented playwright and storyteller, and she approached pop culture and political commentary and criticism with humor, wisdom, and a cutting incisiveness. She could write about everything from historic feminist activism to the ranked horniness of Disney songs, and approach it all with the same authority and passion. The way she publicly documented her long battle with cancer was breathtakingly powerful in its candor. Her wit, her brilliance, her work, and her friendship will be deeply missed by all of us here.
Below, we’ve collected some of our favorite pieces written by Brittany for this site.
—
Disney’s Gargoyles Ranked From Least to Most Daddy
Our Rachel Leishman comments on what makes this article so great: “Brittany was such a funny person to talk to, she’d constantly pick the best pieces to write up but the one I think of the most often is her ranking of how daddy the gargoyles from the show Gargoyles are. It is such a perfect look at her humor, talent, and why she was such a special person to know.”
Our Kaila Hale-Stern adds, “This was one of my all-time favorite articles I had the pleasure of editing on TMS and I frequently cite it as an example of how to be hilarious and compelling in text.”
He’s large. He’s jolly. [Broadway] loves his belly and musical theater. But he also loves westerns and detective stories. He’s also compassionate, intelligent and kind. He is the daddy that will watch Turner Classic Movies with you on the sofa but will also fit right in at the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. He also has the largest wingspan of any of the gargoyles … if ya know what I’m saying.
The Sex Negativity at the Heart of The Stand‘s New Vegas on CBS All Access
Brittany was an incisive thinker when it came to cultural criticism, and in examining The Stand, she uncovered deeply problematic attitudes about sex and queerness.
The Stand’s depiction of all of these things as evil feels worryingly dated and out of step, especially considering the source material, published in 1978, contained none of this sex negativity or hidden homophobia. (Characters within the book are homophobic, but that’s a different subject altogether.) That leaves the troubling question of “Why?” Why have queerness and sex been relegated back to the side of “evil”? And if this is the first wave of a larger cultural backlash, how do we once again push forward?
5 Iconic Movie Monsters to Channel When You Want to #Girlboss Just Like Kyrsten Sinema
In this article, Brittany roasted Senator Kyrsten Sinema for turning her back on her Democratic constituents, with hilarious results.
Who could forget Sinema’s iconic sassy thumbs down vote against raising the minimum wage? Her constituents might be starving but she’s got her designer bag baby! A true quirky, Gen X, bisexual icon honey! She is not a regular senator, she’s a cool senator! Don’t look at her bank account look at her Penelope Garcia glasses! And now that her position as one of the main barriers to progress has become less relevant she has to follow her donors instructions – uh I mean her principles – and declare herself an independent woman!
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Has a Terminal Case of Stage 4 ‘Movie Cancer’ Tropes
As a writer who battled cancer for seven years, Brittany had a keen eye when it came to portrayals of cancer onscreen—especially when those portrayals fell short.
[Jane’s] sassiness is, essentially, another form of stoicism, a trope deployed to lessen the discomfort of the audience. If she is laughing and cracking jokes, then it must not be that bad right? (I write this as someone who deploys jokes as my go to defense mechanism, laughing into the void and what have you.)
P-22, The King of Los Angeles, Has Died
Even Brittany’s shorter posts were a pleasure to read. Here, she wrote an eloquent memorial for P-22, the most famous mountain lion in Los Angeles.
P-22 first came into our hearts and trail cams over a decade ago and has charmed us ever since. A bachelor for his entire mountain lion life, he nevertheless had won the love of an entire city. He migrated from the Santa Monica mountains to his home in the Hollywood Hills, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Men On Twitter Once Again Have No Idea What a “Mary Sue” Actually Is
Along with being an insightful culture critic, Brittany was also good at calling out bullshit when she saw it.
Because the real issue here is the misogyny that says strong women are unlikeable. That strength is somehow anathema to femininity, that confidence and stubbornness and stoicism are qualities that are only allowable in our male heroes. That women somehow do not possess any of these qualities in the real world.
Little Women and the Importance of Loving Both Amy and Jo
Our Vivian Kane writes: “Brittany was a Jo March type if ever there was one. It’s not just the way she poured her entire heart into her writing (although she did that with a fervor that never failed to amaze me) but also how she was so unapologetically herself. We all have rough edges that life tries to smooth out of us from an early age. Jo March took hers—her zealousness, her intelligence, and intensity—and embraced them so wholeheartedly it was like she was daring the world to try—just go ahead and try—not to accept and admire her whole self. That was Brittany.”
But watching Ronan and Pugh bring Jo and Amy’s rivalry to life in such a nuanced and humanizing way caused me to reflect on my relationship with my own sister, especially the ways in which our lives echoed that of the fictional March family. Pugh, in particular, pours so much empathy into Amy that I saw my least favorite character in the novel in a whole new light. I truly felt her frustration with Jo and the obliviousness to her older sibling privilege.
Gender as Taxidermy: Why I’m Obsessed With This Episode of ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’
If there was anyone who could make Judith Butler and Louis Althusser fun, it was Brittany. She was able to seamlessly apply heady academic concepts to pop culture, crafting analytical essays that were a joy to read.
Unfortunately for Stacey, she has an allergic reaction and her face becomes a giant ugly rash. But Stacey, (coaxed by a devious Dan Stevens as the Alo Glo salesman ) refuses to stop using the lotion. Her loving husband watches in dismay as she continues to coat herself in the goo, and grows increasingly frustrated as she ignores his pleas for her to stop hurting herself.
—
The Mary Sue director of content Kaila Hale-Stern writes: I had the privilege of editing Brittany off and on during her time here, and I accounted it a true privilege to see her work first. Brittany was an editor’s dream of a writer, by turns brilliant, incisive, nimble with words, and, as many have shared, blisteringly funny. She had a way of humanizing humor, of making us laugh while shining a much-needed spotlight on issues both personal and political. Her voice was unique and compulsively readable—there was never any doubt that you were reading something by Brittany. And the range of what she had to say was dazzling: from decisively ranking the Star Trek series to schooling us on the ins and outs of the Survivor fandom to this unforgettable piece on what the Rocky movies taught her about resilience, Brittany’s articles have stayed with me since those initial edits and long after. I’m so glad that TMS will continue to host her words for others to discover, and that readers will be laughing along with her wit and wisdom into the future.
If one of your favorite articles by Brittany isn’t listed here, please feel free to share it in the comments.
(images: Brittany Knupper)
