ok so i love steven’s universe for a lot of reasons, but I just noticed something:
everyone who watches the show knows that Rose is seen as beautiful, and elegant and likely the most attractive character in the show.
But then we also see stuff like:
Mayor Dewy thinking Pearl is beautiful, and even calling her “hot”
Jamie thinking Garnet is literally the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
Stevonie, a non-binary but mostly female appearing character, being seen as very attractive by multiple other characters, and Sadie finding her attractive instead of being catty.
Then we have these two. Saphire is a tiny blue one eyed ice smurf and is also seen as beautiful. Ruby is a tiny red angry square with almost no traditionally female characteristics and is also seen as attractive enough to find true love.
Vedalia even says Greg is hot. A+ body positivity despite gender and body type.
What I haven’t seen EVER in Steven’s Universe though is any of the characters being portrayed as ugly or physically unappealing to anyone. Fat characters get body positivity, skinny characters get body positivity, curvy characters get body positivity, tiny characters get body positivity. You know what else? No two characters have the same body type just like real life. It teaches you that there are endless different ways to look and still be beautiful.
No one gets left out. No one gets called ugly. The only “bad” characters arn’t bad because of the way they look, but the way they act. Fat characters are never seen as ugly because they are fat.
This is so important for little kids to see.
And I know the counter argument to children being taught that it’s “ok” to be fat will always be “well being fat is unhealthy and they should feel bad about being fat so that they will work on loosing weight”. But guess what, that kind of thing leads to eating disorders, and kills children’s self esteem, and makes them hate their bodies. Some people do need to loose weight if it actually does affect their health but a lot of the time they really don’t, or they can’t for whatever reason. Some people feel more comfortable being on the heavier side. But even if you are concerned for a person’s health, the stress and depression that comes along with having a poor image of yourself is much more unhealthy and limiting than a little belly fat.
It also shows you that the Gems choose their appearance, which is also supper important. Pearl, and Lapis choose to be skinny, Amethyst and Rose choose to be fat, Garnet chooses to be a giant curvy square, and all of those things are completely accepted and ok.
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