hey so i just saw a post that said steven universe is the worst kind of show because it's full of faux progression. it's supposed to have positive female and race representation, but the gems don't actually have any gender or race. and it's supposed to have positive lgbt representation, but there's only one canon healthy gay couple and they're rarely seen on-screen. what are your thoughts about this?
i feel like that kind of statement neglects both the crew’s intentions - which is to bring representation to cartoons - and how representation works. if thousands of girls see themselves, and feel like it’s ok to love like pearl, ruby and sapphire do, then a never-mentioned-in-show ‘technicality’ isn’t gonna stop that. if black girls find a role model in garnet, the gems being aliens isn’t gonna stop that. i don’t think the sci-fi angle ruins representation, and i feel the agender argument is often brought up to like… “de-gay” the show, which is ridiculous both because of the amount of gay non-binary people out there, and because the gems i mentioned have only shown attraction to other gems (/human women, counting mystery s).
like… this isn’t subtle, debatable or baiting. it’s not trying to score “points” with anyone. it just exists, naturally, as a form of love in the show. and remember that steven universe isn’t a romance - it’s a kids show. there’s probably never gonna be a couple we see every episode.
in the same vein, i feel rose quartz, lars and sadie are interesting, nuanced characters who are probably bisexual (especially rose, like… her interactions with pearl. all of rainbow quartz. crew statements. “both of you”). we have mr smiley and mr frowney, if you want confirmed gay human characters. if indian girls see themselves in connie, that’s representation. if kids feel like it’s ok to be neither a boy or girl, like stevonnie, that’s an amazing step forward too. it’s interesting to hear ruby and sapphire are “rarely” shown onscreen, considering how many complaints i’ve heard that we see them “too much” compared to garnet, and that their episodes focus “too much” on their relationship.
regardless, the representation is completely intentional. rebecca sugar is cartoon network’s first female show creator, and openly bisexual herself. plenty of the crew are non-white and non-straight, and they care deeply about creating more diverse cartoons. the crew have talked about this many times. they’ve been transparent about rupphire and pearlrose being canon. matt burnett said on stevonnie, after seeing how much they meant to people, that he now wants to include them in more episodes - this was way back in the day, and he’s since made good on that. they’ve also been clear they don’t want to take representation from anyone: it’s ok to think of gems as a “one-gender race”, and it’s ok to think of them as girls - they call each other girls, after all.
you can argue about how those characters are portrayed, or how a certain issue is tackled, of course… but you cannot deny that the intention is there. the show’s representation in a mainstream cartoon is trailblazing in many ways, and no matter if you’ve suddenly decided su sucks because of whatever other reason, we should really give some credit where due.
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