With the rise of sci-fi shows that promote the LGBTQ+ community in recent years, like Steven Universe and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, more audiences have been educated on characters -- and, in extension, real-life people -- who don't fit the stereotypical cisgender heterosexual mold. These shows have given younger audiences their first positive representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. While this is definitely something that should be celebrated, these new sci-fi shows have been following a problematic trope with their non-binary characters.
The non-binary alien trope is problematic towards real-life non-binary people because it dehumanizes them and suggests that the only way a person could be non-binary is if they are non-human. This is often shown in sci-fi TV shows and movies through characters from planets with vastly different cultures to Western audiences: aliens who have shapeshifting abilities and robots who physically have no sex and don't understand the concept of gender. While there isn't anything inherently wrong with including these types of characters in sci-fi media, if they're the only non-binary representation in the entire show or movie, then they aren't representing the non-binary community correctly and are playing into the non-human non-binary trope.
Steven Universe is the first modern sci-fi show that has been accused of this. Although Steven Universe is a great show and definitely deserves all the praise it has received over the past few years, its representation of the non-binary community isn't the best. The first non-binary character audiences saw in Steven Universe was Stevonnie, a fusion of Steven and Connie. Because Stevonnie is a fusion of a male child and a female child, the other characters in the show use they/them pronouns for them. A PSA released on Cartoon Network's Instagram account in 2019 also briefly shows that the character identifies as non-binary and intersex.
However, Stevonnie isn't human. Steven is half-gem, because he is the child of Greg Universe -- a human -- and Pink Diamond. This means that Stevonnie is technically one-quarter-gem, because Connie is fully human. Stevonnie also couldn't exist if Steven wasn't half-gem, because the humans in Steven Universe don't have the fusing powers that the gems do. The gems in Steven Universe are from Homeworld, a different planet ruled by the four Diamonds, who essentially act as galactic dictators. Therefore, it's safe to say that the gems are aliens.
Stevonnie definitely isn't the only example of this trope in Steven Universe. Any gem fusion with Steven is considered to be non-binary, because all of the single gems identify as female. This means that the majority of the non-binary characters that are in Steven Universe fall into the non-human non-binary trope. The only non-binary Steven Universe character who doesn't fall into this trope is Shep, Sadie's partner from Steven Universe Future. However, a lot of fans didn't watch Steven Universe Future because it was mostly created to address concerns that audiences had about the original five seasons of Steven Universe, and Steven Universe Season 5 Episode 29, "Change Your Mind" felt like a more fitting ending to the show.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power also falls into this trope. The only canonically non-binary character in She-Ra is Double Trouble, a shapeshifting alien. None of the characters in She-Ra are human, as the main troupe comes from Etheria, which is a fictional alien planet. While Double Trouble's species and homeworld is unknown, it is safe to say that they fall into the non-binary alien trope because all of the characters in She-Ra are technically aliens. It could be argued that this is better representation than Steven Universe's non-binary characters because Double Trouble could theoretically also be from Etheria and there aren't any human characters in She-Ra anyway -- however, it is still clear that Double Trouble falls into this trope.
The non-human non-binary trope even goes as far back as the 1990s in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In Season 5, Episode 2, "The Outcast," Riker finds a member of the J'nali race who identifies as female. This is considered a crime in her society because the J'nali are an androgynous race. While this does provide interesting commentary on gender identity and coming out, it still falls into the non-human non-binary trope because the J'nali race are aliens.
However, it is worth noting that Star Trek has taken steps to include better non-binary representation in Star Trek: Discovery. Adira Tal is a non-binary character played by a non-binary actor. Even though they obtain a symbiont from their Trill boyfriend Gray, they are still canonically human. Adira may be the first example of a human non-binary character in a well-known modern sci-fi TV show.
These examples show that the sci-fi genre still has a long way to go when it comes to non-binary representation. While the amount of non-human non-binary characters in comparison to human non-binary characters in the genre is disheartening, there definitely is still a light at the end of the tunnel. The inclusion of human non-binary characters like Adira and Shep shows that sci-fi showrunners are aware of the problematic trope and are taking actions to counteract it. As long as there are more human non-binary characters in upcoming sci-fi media, the future of non-binary representation appears to be bright.
