[[this is who i am]] –– On Garnet, identity, and transphobia
Steven Universe is incredibly nuanced, particularly for a children's show, and through its expertly crafted characters, the writers are able to make powerful statements about everything from grief and loneliness to codependency and self-worth.
This is the first of a series of metas I'm writing about Garnet. My overall interpretation of her character is that, for whatever reason, the gem at the core of Garnet's being is contained in separate gems. Ruby is not a ruby, and Sapphire is not a sapphire – they are a garnet, split. Their love is what binds her together so tightly, and what makes her the Gem she is – but Garnet is more than the culmination of a relationship. Garnet does not exist because Ruby and Sapphire are so obsessively in love that they need to be together all the time. She is their identity – she is who they really are.
I most often see Garnet's experience as a fusion interpreted as an exploration of same-sex relationships, and the challenges that come with being a part of a systematically homophobic society. This is very obviously true – with society's widespread prejudices and misconceptions about homosexuality being sinful and inappropriate for children, you can't just put a visibly gay couple on Cartoon Network without making a statement.
But this analogy only gets us so far. Garnet has appeared as herself in every episode to date, but excluding The Answer (which is a flashback and not part of the main plot), we've only seen Ruby and Sapphire three times. There's a reason for this. In general, it doesn't make sense to look at Garnet from the perspective of Ruby and Sapphire's relationship as individual Gems, because they are not individual Gems.
Ruby and Sapphire are important, but to insist that their relationship is the extent of Garnet's identity is to ignore the thousands of years she has spent getting to know herself. She is not Ruby, and she is not Sapphire. She is the embodiment of their love, not just for each other, but for the Gem they are together. She loves the experience of being Garnet, she loves the Gem Garnet is, and she loves that Garnet is her true identity. Garnet is made of love. She is love. And tethering her identity to Ruby and Sapphire's romantic relationship, or indeed to any other sort of conventional relationship, prevents fully understanding of what that means.
Garnet exists because a conventional relationship between individuals was not enough to complete either Gem. She exists because Ruby and Sapphire are Garnet, and no amount of interpersonal intimacy could compensate for that. And so, while Ruby and Sapphire as individuals in a relationship are certainly meant to be representative of lgbt characters, it's not a comparison that fully describes Garnet’s experience in the 80 out of 84 in which Ruby and Sapphire do not appear.
The bigotry Homeworld Gems exhibit around Garnet, from one perspective, does focus around Ruby and Sapphire's relationship. But that focus actually gets at the deeper issue going on – Homeworld Gems see Garnet as two confused Gems and their twisted farce of a relationship, when Garnet is a undivided Gem, an identity and not the culmination of an interpersonal relationship.
This seems to parallel transphobia more than homphobia, though the comments about Ruby and Sapphire as individuals is reflective of a homophobic perspective. Homeworld Gems insist that Garnet is fundamentally wrong about who she is as a person, and that seems to mirror the way that people will refuse to acknowledge a person's gender identity. Jasper is disgusted by Garnet, convinced that it is unnatural for her to exist and that she is just playing at being something she's not. Homeworld Gems know what they really are, after all, and the fact that Ruby and Sapphire refuse to acknowledge that is indicative of a deep defectiveness in both.
This is present in Jasper and Peridot's statements about Garnet.
Jasper: Oh great, you're both out? And you're fused again? Why? Fusion is just a cheap tactic to make weak Gems stronger. Quit embarrassing yourselves! I've seen what you really are.
Jasper uses the wrong pronouns here – she doesn't even acknowledge Garnet as her own person. It is a complete rejection of even the existence of Garnet's identity.
Peridot: I could call her lots of things. I could call her two things! Two clods! *laughs* Walking around like she's... one clod! *snickers*
Steven: What's wrong with that?
Peridot: She's not even fighting! She's, you know, she's just, y-you know like the... *pounds fists together* you know!
For Peridot, the fact that Garnet existing as a single Gem is so obviously wrong that she can't even find words to explain why. She has no reason or fact behind her statements – she just knows that what Garnet is doing isn't done, and obviously that must be indicative of severe personal defect.
Understanding Ruby and Sapphire's relationship in the context of a human romance is certainly valid up to a point, and the show absolutely uses it as a device to comment on homosexuality in our society. That being said, on the whole, Garnet's experience is about her identity, not who she loves – and as such I think her character is more an exploration of experience as a transgender individual, rather than of a lesbian couple. Garnet's life has been one in her fundamental existence has been denied and invalidated – and more than anything, she is an exploration in personal identity.
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