Steven Universe is a show that currently runs on Cartoon Network and is in its fourth season. Let me tell you right now. THIS. SHOW. IS. PERFECT. There are so many things about this show that are so incredibly important for children to be exposed to. You may be thinking, oh this is a kid’s show why should I care? I’m twenty-one years old and let me tell you that this show is so incredibly relevant to my life.
So, the basic premise of this show is these aliens take on anthropomorphic forms and posses superhuman strength and abilities and are called the “Crystal Gems.” Steven, the title character, is the first half human/half gem. The show chronicles his life and adventures with his Crystal Gem guardians, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. The rest of this article will contain minor spoilers for some of the show so if you want to take the basic info I just gave you and watch this show without any spoilers, do so NOW.
There are many elements of this show that I want to cover and truly I could talk about this show for days without running out of topics. So what’s really great about this show and what I really think is important is how it defines and informs the audience on what a healthy relationship is. The Gems have the ability to fuse with other Gems to form a personified relationship by becoming what they call a “fusion.” One of the main characters, Garnet, is actually a fusion of the Gems Ruby and Sapphire. Their relationship is so strong that they cannot stand to be apart. Throughout the show, Garnet preaches all about how a healthy relationship should work. The show has created this incredible, unique way to display and teach children how to recognize and understand a healthy relationship. I cannot stress how crucial this is to learn this at a young age. If you grow up without being exposed to an example of a healthy relationship then you run the risk of not being able to recognize a destructive relationship. So many people are stuck in a relationship in which they are abused physically or emotionally because they don’t know that it isn’t supposed to be that way or they think that it’s the best they can get in a relationship. They even show an example of a destructive relationship with Malachite, a fusion of the gems Lapis Lazuli and Jasper. With something that is so difficult and uncomfortable to discuss at times, Steven Universe covers this topic with ease.
The next thing I want to talk about is the way the show incorporates LGBTQ themes without causing the show to become so overcome by the fact that there are gay themes. All of the Gems in the show are female and so all their fusions are basically representations of lesbian relationships. The Gems also brush on the topic of gender queerness and expose children to the idea that this is totally normal and ok. Showing children that there’s nothing abnormal about being gay or queer allows children to grow up without believing that having these differences is wrong. Communicating this to children and raising them to respect these characteristics in themselves and others is absolutely necessary to move the world closer to not seeing the LGBTQ community as weird, different, or not normal.
The last thing I really want to mention on this show is the music. This show has some of the most simple, cute, and heartfelt music on any TV show. If you want an example of some gorgeous heart wrenching music, go look up Pearl’s song “It’s Over Isn’t It.” The song is a part of an episode that was literally written as a small 15 minute musical and it is all about Pearl trying to cope with the fact that the Gem, Rose Quarts, fell in love with a human man instead of her and I cannot stop singing it in my head. That’s only one example. The show has numerous musical numbers where the characters burst into gorgeous and fun songs. The latest episode that was release this past thursday was mostly a musical number about how a person’s bottled up anxieties and struggles can destroy their relationship with other people. How could anyone not just love something so incredibly powerful? What a feat to incorporate something so intimate and beautiful as music into a show that already breaks down so many other barriers. I’m so passionate about this show and its importance as mainstream media for children. I could keep talking about this all day but my best advice is to go watch this gorgeous piece of work so you can truly understand how fantastic it really is.
