In November 2013, the new Cartoon Network show “Steven Universe” hit the TV channel as a new television show sensation for young children and teen viewers. Created by Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe tells about the growing adventures of a boy named Steven Universe and his friends Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet. Steven grows up as a half-human, half-gem species, and lives with his three acquaintances to fight off evil and danger; all together they are known as the Crystal Gems. Being the youngest out of his magical gem friends, Steven discovers and learns about his gem powers that emanate from his belly-button with help from the Crystal Gems.
The show Steven Universe is not only fun and exhilarating to watch, but one of the show’s sole purpose is to teach young viewers about strong-will power, feminism, gender and sexuality, independence, being yourself, and the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships. Although the show is not very similar to our reality, it plays a big part in adapting its moral lessons into our everyday life and the lives of children.
For myself, Steven Universe has opened my mind up to everyday problems we face in the real world, and it has taught me about gender equality and how to love and be yourself. The show has even taught me what a healthy relationship is and what an unhealthy relationship can be like.
Here are some points I believe Steven Universe has given insight to viewers and our society…
1. Love yourself because everyone is different
What many young people struggle with in life is how to love and accept themselves. Amethyst from the Crystal Gems has always struggled with accepting herself for who she is because she was created differently than her other former gem siblings. Her sister Amethyst gems were all created tall and sturdy, as for Amethyst herself who was created short in height and related to herself as small and weak. Amethyst shows hatred in her own self-appearance and she wishes from time to time to have been created tall and sturdy like her siblings. As the show progresses, however, she learns to love herself inside and out, and that know matter someones physical appearance, everyone should learn to love themselves because everyone is beautiful, and everyone else is already taken.
2. Gender Equality
This show is really good on educating viewers about gender equality, and gender stereotypes are completely non-existent in this show. In one episode titled “Sworn to the Sword”, Steven’s human friend, Connie, is being taught by Pearl on sword fighting and defense. While Steven is watching Connie train with Pearl, Connie shows a moment of realization that she wants to protect Steven from evil forces by learning how to sword fight and defend in battle. Pearl tells Connie that she can be a great swords-woman and that she can also be Steven’s knight in shining armor. This episode showed viewers that a girl can be anyone’s knight in shining armor, and that men are not the only one’s that can take the spot of the heroic savior.
3. Gender and Sexuality
Steven Universe is definitely known to be the best show to watch when it comes to understanding and explaining sexuality and gender to young viewers. Since the first episode, the show established that all gems so far take shape of only becoming female. The show also explains through different episodes that gems can have a very strong bond between other gems and have strong love connections. One of the Crystal Gems named Garnet looks and acts like one gem, but she is really a fusion of two gems. Two gems can fuse together to create a bigger and stronger gem, but usually fusion is used only during battle or to deal with a problem. Garnet is a fusion of two gems that has decided to stay together forever, because of their unconditional love for each other. Now let me just remind you that all gems so far are female, so yes, Garnet’s two gems are a lesbian couple. The two fusions that make up Garnet are named Sapphire and Ruby; they have been together as Garnet for many years and plan to stay that way for as long as they can. Although they are not human, Ruby and Sapphire have been put down in history as to being one of the very few lesbian couples on a kids television show, and a cute couple to that.
Garnet is not the only example of homosexuality in Steven Universe. Pearl has shown her affections towards another gem in some episodes. Before Steven was born, the Crystal Gem leader at the time and Steven’s mother named Rose Quartz was a great and kind leader to Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl. Pearl grew up along side Rose and fell in love with her. Pearl loved Rose immensely, and when Rose passed away from childbirth(or in gem term: gave her gem up for her offspring, Steven), Pearl could not handle her pain and jealousy from the man that Rose decided to have a life with. She takes care of Steven so carefully because it is Rose’s child, and her love for Rose now is with Steven to protect.
The two examples of gay couples in the show is very important to explain sexuality to young viewers because it shows them that love is love, and a person’s sexuality shouldn’t be treated differently from another’s.
Other important things that came from Steven Universe related to gender is the gender of some of the gem fusions. In an episode titled “Alone Together”, Steven and Connie have fun dancing on the beach together. Steven and Connie accidentally fuse together to create Stevonnie, a fusion of both of them. Although in the show Stevonnie takes the traits of looking mostly female, Stevonnie uses the pronoun “they”, since Stevonnie is a combination of Steven and Connie. This might seem simple to understand but Stevonnie was an important message for viewers and for people who prefer different pronouns. In the LGBTQA community, many people prefer to use different pronouns that matches their gender, such as “she”, “he” or “they”. The writer of Steven Universe, Rebecca Sugar, has been the first writer to introduce a cartoon character that uses “they” as a pronoun and identifies themselves as both male and female. In a recent episode called “Earthlings”, Steven and Amethyst accidentally fuse together as a gem called Smoky Quartz. Smoky Quartz is the second gem that uses “they” as a pronoun.
4. The difference between an unhealthy and healthy relationship
Relationships are seen everywhere on television, but in my opinion, one of the best indications of how to view a relationship can be from Steven Universe. Garnet is the perfect representation for a healthy stable relationship. Garnet shows viewers that Sapphire and Ruby love each other so much that they are both equally involved in their fused relationship together. They both understand each other and their love is shown in the form of Garnet.
On the other hand, the show also focuses on what an unhealthy relationship looks like. In a few episodes, a gem named Lapis Lazuli gets forced into fusion with a strong gem named Jasper, creating a fusion named Malachite. Malachite is dangerous and big, only wanting to destroy and cause harm. Since Jasper physically forced Lapis into fusing with her, it created an unhealthy fusion between them both. Malachite was the face of an unhealthy relationship. Although Jasper and Lapis never took romantic interests at all with each other, Jasper still forced Lapis into doing something she was not comfortable with, which is why this is a good example to show young viewers on what unhealthy relationships and friendships can be like, without consent and agreement. Lapis later got free from Jasper after being stuck as Malachite for a long time, and tried to forget about Jasper. Unfortunately in one episode, Jasper finds Lapis and talks her into fusing with her again because it felt good and they were powerful as Malachite. This can be a mirrored example of an unhealthy relationship with forced consent. This teaches viewers that a relationship should never be forceful and a partner never should feel forced into doing something they are not comfortable with, which in the shows case is Lapis being talked into fusing with Jasper again. Steven Universe is good at depicting what a good healthy relationship should be like, and what is not a healthy one towards a young crowd.
5. Girl power!
The Crystal Gems are one of the most badass groups I have seen depicted on television, and guess what… All the gems are female!! In the show, gems are the most powerful aliens that live in the galaxy, and out strengthen any human on Earth by a lot, which shows that a woman's power and strength is awesome, and it does not matter which gender a person is when they can be strong both physically and mentally.
7. Bodies come in all shapes and sizes
Many movies and television shows are showing more and more body positivity, and Steven Universe is one of them. Every gem is different, and that means gems come in all shapes and sizes(literally shapes). Amethyst was not created the way she was meant to be created, but she turns out to be the best Amethyst in the whole galaxy, despite her small height and her busty body. Rose Quartz was a very tall and big gem, who was about a whole foot taller than her husband, Greg Universe. Rose Quartz was also big and strong, and she could carry Greg easily. Rose defied the stereotypes of big and tall women not being beautiful enough, and that size does not define who someone is as a person and who they end up loving. Steven Universe himself is not the tall, lean protagonist that society sees in films, but instead is short, chubby, and loves eating food. Steven Universe shows viewers, especially young children, that any body type is beautiful and how someone looks should not limit them from what they want to become.
8. Choose to be you
The most inspiring lesson I have heard comes from Steven Universe himself; “It doesn’t matter where you came from, it’s who you choose to be.” Steven tells Amethyst this because he knows that Amethyst was created as a working gem, and that Amethyst herself came out different than the other Amethyst’s. Amethyst realizes that it does not matter where she came from or how she came out, but who she choses to be. For others it does not matter where someone’s upbringing was or how negative it was, but who they chose to become and how to make the most out of themselves.
9. Kindness is the most powerful weapon
Steven Universe’s personality is just a ball of goofy and kindness. No matter how mean someone is being towards Steven, he always forgives their actions or tries to help them. Even an enemy needs help sometimes. Steven shows kids that kindness is the best way to deal with a situation, no matter how negative a person is being
Steven Universe has reshaped young viewer’s minds about the world and how to perceive certain topics. I hope anyone who watches this show can get some information and moral life lessons from Steven Universe.
