🐱 Cartoon Network Tried to Downplay The Queerness of Steven Universe

Cartoon Network Tried to Downplay The Queerness of Steven Universe

Rebecca Sugar says that Cartoon network encouraged her not to talk about the queerness of her series Steven Universe.

www.themarysue.com

Few shows have changed the landscape of animation like Steven Universe has. The series, which premiered on Cartoon Network in 2013, followed the adventures of young boy Steven Universe, who lives with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, magical aliens known as the Crystal Gems. Created by Adventure Time alum Rebecca Sugar, the series quickly drew raves for its expansive and compassionate portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters and gender fluidity. Steven Universe was the first animated series to win the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids & Family Program in 2019, and took home a Peabody Award the same year.

But while the series reaped critical acclaim and a devoted queer fanbase, Sugar describes a very different attitude from Cartoon Network behind the scenes. In a joint interview with She-Ra and the Princesses of Powershowrunner Noelle Stevenson for Paper Magazine, Sugar described the pushback she received from the network.

Sugar said, “We strategized the concept of fusion to be able to explore relationships and include queer relationships. Central to that, one of the things we were excited about was to have the character of Garnet have a ton of screen time and be a main character.” In season 2 episode “The Answer”, the series revealed that Garnet was a fusion of two queer gems, Ruby and Sapphire. According to Sugar, the network was less than supportive.

“They told us point-blank, ‘you can’t have these characters be in a romantic relationship,’ but at that point Garnet was so established that audiences could instantly understand what the relationship was, the song had already been written, the episode had already been boarded so we were already in full production. I’m really proud of the patience we had and the time that we took to fully explore these characters at a time when that was not necessarily possible.
Back in 2014, 2015, 2016 I was told that I couldn’t discuss it publicly. They basically brought me in and said ‘we want to support that you’re doing this but you have to understand that internationally if you speak about this publicly, the show will be pulled from a lot of countries and that may mean the end of the show.’ They actually gave me the choice to speak about it or not, to tell the truth about it or not, around 2015/ 2016, by then I was honestly really mentally ill and I dissociated at Comic Con.
I would privately do drawings of these characters kissing and hugging that I was not allowed to share. I couldn’t reconcile how simple this felt to me and how impossible it was to do, so I talked about it. The show survived in a large part because of the support from fans. I’m really proud of the choice we made and what we were able to accomplish together. I’m so proud of my team who supported me through all of this, crafted the show and navigated this with me.
The way they put their mental health on the line to tell stories that were personal to them. It seems absurd to think that only a few years ago and really now, that a person’s job, their ability to make cartoons, could hinge on their sexual orientation, it’s profoundly unfair and ridiculous but true. That really needs to shift and is still in the process of shifting. I only understand what I saw from inside the framework of Cartoon Network and Turner, so Noelle, if you’d like to speak about this I completely respect and understand the difficulty of talking about going through something like this so definitely only share what makes you comfortable.”
Stevenson said she faced similar pushback from Netflix, even after She-Rapremiered in a post-Steven Universe world. She described support waning after the 2016 election saying, “At first it seemed like we were going to get this from the company, we were really excited about that and so we were setting things up in season one, we had the “Princess Prom” episode, then the election in 2016 happened and everybody got really scared. It was immediately, like Rebecca said, the same kind of pushback where we were told point-blank we would not be able to do this. Across the board, no romance. That was how broad it got! Let’s just be extra-safe, no romance whatsoever.”
Both series, which still boast a massive fan base, are proof that queer stories have a massive fan base, not just in animation, but across pop culture. The interview is a fascinating look at the creative process for both shows, and the determination of queer creators to make sure they get to tell their own stories.
(via Paper Magazine, image: Cartoon Network)

 

[Antipathy]

I have relatives with young kids and it’s noticeable how few kids programs dont have some kind of woke angle these days. It’s pretty grim.

Go fishing for the older shit, and cut off the shitty media from your life. Most of the books I own, the vidya I play, the music I listen to, it's old. In the books and music avenue, a good chunk of it is older than I am. There's no shame at all in taking the older, cheaper, better media and rejecting the idea of modernity in favor of taste.

I can hardly read any book made after 2010. It's either left wing soapboxing or right wing soapboxing. Making apolitical art has, at least in my experience, been lost, or the politics in the art that I apply doesn't exist anymore and so isn't irritating to me.

 

[Kulee Baba]

From my experience, the people do this to only the selectively approved anime that they watched growing up (DBZ, Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, etc.)

They would never do this to, say, the likes of Kaiji, Angel Cop, To-Love-Ru! or anything that goes against the grain

You're right that non US Broadcast anime is going to make you look dorkier to other people. But I still don't think there's a stigma against anime like there was in the 2000s.

I really think it was all due to Japan's boom in the 80s, Baby Boomers became legitimately concerned that Japan would take America. It was satirized by South Park in "Chinpokomon." Now the Xenophobia toward yellow people is focused on China. Again if you're in your late 30s you've likely enjoyed some anime. It's a totally different beast.

 

[-4ZURE-]

I agree with most of your points, but Sonic grabbed kids when they were young, so now there is plenty of nostalgia around it. I really dont know how popular it was with kids. It has a really stong adult fanbase, but adults will move on to the next hip thing, or most will, kids are they the key, if kids really liked it, then in some years it will have a resurgance and there will be always a market for it. Otherwise i think it will fade to a very niche fanbase.
I really wish more shows would take cues to the show in regards to the music.

Steven fluctuated in a weird area. I think the demographic is younger than people realize, but it is not quite the 7 year old range. I would say middle school is likely the start of Steven’s fanbase. Me and a few others that still cared about animation used to watch it at that time and were fans. Then again, the early 2010s was a very different era to the 2015 portion when I stopped watching the show, not only did the views for the animation community change, but the show itself did as well. I gave up as after this moment...

It really says an lot that this is the best scene of the entire show.

The show pretty much stagnated before taking a nose dive. Had the show kept up the momentum from the invasion, it could have been good, but instead it pivoted into ultra lesbian Pearl thirsting over Steven’s dead mom and wanting a three way with Garnet. I watched for a little while, but once 2016 rolled around and the Steven fanbase drama came out at the beginning of the new year, I was done. The show just killed off any good will, which sucks as like I said before, it easily could have been another Adventure Time.

As for the fanbase it will last. Steven is Tumblr fodder, and as the CW has shown, awful shows can be held up for years thanks to fan girls on sites like it.

It’s just about age appropriate content. A show for little kids shouldnt have ANY sexuality in it, straight or gay or whatever. Inappropriate exposure of young kids to sexual shit is abuse and grooming.

I disagree. Relationships are perfectly appropriate to depict in children’s entertainment, but moderation is the key. The problem with Steven is that they take it way too far. Now we have writers trying to depict fusion as some form of sex and there is just an overuse of weird sexual undertones. Adventure Time also got into weird territory at one point, key example being the episode where Finn goes chad mode and sleeps with numerous women to end his depression.

In contrast, DC comics animation has always done relationships well. Maybe a kiss or two, but it is usually just two people together which is perfect for children. Place in a few innuendoes for the adult audience like old-school Justice League did, and I think we have a perfect middle ground.

Except Steven Universe toys didn't sell. There were few play sets made for this show but that's kinda it. If they sold there would have made more. I have seen plenty of Adventure Time and BareBears products, toys and otherwise, but not much SU. Only things have been adult collectibles like funco pops and mini figs. There has been multiple series of them so they probably sold reasonably well. This honestly indicates that SU doesn't interest kids but does appeal to teens and twenty something women.

There were rumors that Steven as a show did not sell. The reason for the Steven bomb format was so Cartoon Network can place all the episodes in a time period where nothing else on tv was on. Without very strategic planning, the show would have died. They likely did this because Rebecca was the first female show runner, so she had to be a success.

Ed, Edd, n Eddy was the last bastion of entertainment for CN. Everything after it was either CalArts or poorly written.

Samurai Jack, Generator Rex, Chowder, Flapjack, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Kids Next Door, Billy & Mandy, Megan XLR, Ben 10, Camp Lazlo, etc.. None of those were good?

You're right that non US Broadcast anime is going to make you look dorkier to other people. But I still don't think there's a stigma against anime like there was in the 2000s.

I really think it was all due to Japan's boom in the 80s, Baby Boomers became legitimately concerned that Japan would take America. It was satirized by South Park in "Chinpokomon." Now the Xenophobia toward yellow people is focused on China.

Anime became popular in the 2000s thanks to Toonami, Naruto, DBZ, and Hot Topic. While it died out in the 2010s, the fact is, anime became mainstream enough for at-least Millennials and Gen Z to not look down on it. Not to mention the impact of Teen Titans and Avatar as they took the style.

 

[waffle]

Watched the first couple seasons, was drawn in by the anime vibe, art style, and general air of mystery that lead to it feeling like it was going to be an interesting story. It crashed hard and went nowhere. The fact that the main gems started to feel just as bad/detached from humanity as the bad guys didn't help, that could have been it's own interesting storyline but they didn't do that either.

Most of the globohomo stuff was even ok but the Steven/Conny fusion shit had a bunch of really uncomfortable implications because of the bizarre way where they handled fusion.

 

[Irrational Exuberance]

“They told us point-blank, ‘you can’t have these characters be in a romantic relationship,’ but at that point Garnet was so established that audiences could instantly understand what the relationship was, the song had already been written, the episode had already been boarded so we were already in full production. I’m really proud of the patience we had and the time that we took to fully explore these characters at a time when that was not necessarily possible."

It's incredibly easy to re-contextualize that into "little by little, we want to introduce the idea of homosexual relationships being completely normal, no matter what the network says".

 

[potato fan]

The fact that the main gems started to feel just as bad/detached from humanity as the bad guys didn't help, that could have been it's own interesting storyline but they didn't do that either.

this, it could have been the most interesting point in the story, with gems protecting earth only because Rose wanted to, and her liking the earth mostly for novelty of it, and not because of any serious sympathy towards other intelligent living beings
it could have made a great grey-morality kind of story arc
but instead Steven cried again and everyone just shrugged and went "ok, we'll spare this planet and destroy some other ones who cares"

 

[Iron Hamster]

It can be overwhelming with all the screaming yeah, but there are some stand out bits where they shit on the Chinese for shamelessly copying the show, the anime episode, or any of the numerous really dark gags. Also wasn't trying to push some lefty agenda and actually shit on them more often than not.

'The Bet' - best episode ever. They voice change episode 'The Kids' was pretty well done because the original VAs voices changed so they got noob VAs to continue

 

[Neil]

I don't fucking know why I kept watching on after the space ship episode. It fucking nose dived to shit after they started "redeeming" everyone.

You had a good thing running with Peridot being the recurring antagonist trying to fuck up the Gem's plans, but then you turn it to shit by making her "uwu little angry green lesbian space dorito" who lives in a barn with Lapis, who was flanderized from "traumatized civilian casualty" to "lul manic depressive snarky sarcastic lesbo aunt sister who hates everything except steven and is now fanfic lesbians with peridot in a barn and making lul meta art".

Them redeeming the villains at the end was fucking stupid. Spend the entire series hyping them up as Galactic Hitlersatan only to have them turn into crying, doting aunts after Steven uses his powers to literally make them cry and let their feelings out and make everything better. Yeah, let's forget about the massive galactic war they started and the billions of lives they've taken in the quest for conquest, it's okay because they just miss having Pink Diamond around. They were just sad on the inside! It was all a big misunderstanding! The worst thing they did here was crash Garnet's big gay wedding!

No lasting consequences, either! No, just make magical rock liquid and everyone is healed and back to normal! The only lasting consequence is that Steven's mentally traumatized and has PTSD from always being in danger as a kid! But that's okay, even though he turns into a giant monster, he can solve all his problems by crying and hugging literally everyone he's met. No great final battle, nothing about Steven becoming the villain due to his trauma, zip.

I began watching the series with my kid brother, I think around when Bismuth showed up, he basically gave up on the series and didn't care. He just ran off to watch things like Spongebob and the new Teen Titans show instead.

 

[The Unbecoming]

I think the last cartoon I watched was Primal on adult swim, which was fucking excellent and has zero dialogue spoken the entire series.

I tried watching some of their other shit during the daytime and it was just absolute garbage by comparison to their early 2000s/late 90s stuff.

 

[FAQnews Correspondent]

Go fishing for the older shit, and cut off the shitty media from your life. Most of the books I own, the vidya I play, the music I listen to, it's old. In the books and music avenue, a good chunk of it is older than I am. There's no shame at all in taking the older, cheaper, better media and rejecting the idea of modernity in favor of taste.

I can hardly read any book made after 2010. It's either left wing soapboxing or right wing soapboxing. Making apolitical art has, at least in my experience, been lost, or the politics in the art that I apply doesn't exist anymore and so isn't irritating to me.

Political art can work, but it has to address political within the context of the book/show/movie, and not just jam contemporary political issues with your opposition as a strawman.

 

[Fluoxetine Man]

I remember a short-lived cartoon called Flapjack which was surprisingly fun to watch over again. I recommend it for those who actually give a shit to watch old shows again.

'You might have @BerriesArnold and the other Kiwi's under your spell, but it's gonna take more than that to impress WWOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHHH! '

 

[Penis]

Steven Trooniverse

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

I think the show....if it helps at least one person figure out who they are, then that's fine. Same with comics.

But.....purposely shoving it down throats with no purpose other than trying to be woke is nagl

 

[Atatata]

Back in 2014, 2015, 2016 I was told that I couldn’t discuss it publicly. They basically brought me in and said ‘we want to support that you’re doing this but you have to understand that internationally if you speak about this publicly, the show will be pulled from a lot of countries and that may mean the end of the show.’

Can't really see how CN was in the wrong here, its a fact that international and even some domestic audiences aren't going to be as kind as your lefty buddies. If you feel like its in your artistic soul to do this, you can't just hide away in your bubble.

 

[Gar For Archer]

Steven fluctuated in a weird area. I think the demographic is younger than people realize, but it is not quite the 7 year old range. I would say middle school is likely the start of Steven’s fanbase. Me and a few others that still cared about animation used to watch it at that time and were fans. Then again, the early 2010s was a very different era to the 2015 portion when I stopped watching the show, not only did the views for the animation community change, but the show itself did as well. I gave up as after this moment...

The show pretty much stagnated before taking a nose dive. Had the show kept up the momentum from the invasion, it could have been good, but instead it pivoted into ultra lesbian Pearl thirsting over Steven’s dead mom and wanting a three way with Garnet. I watched for a little while, but once 2016 rolled around and the Steven fanbase drama came out at the beginning of the new year, I was done. The show just killed off any good will, which sucks as like I said before, it easily could have been another Adventure Time.

As for the fanbase it will last. Steven is Tumblr fodder, and as the CW has shown, awful shows can be held up for years thanks to fan girls on sites like it.


I disagree. Relationships are perfectly appropriate to depict in children’s entertainment, but moderation is the key. The problem with Steven is that they take it way too far. Now we have writers trying to depict fusion as some form of sex and there is just an overuse of weird sexual undertones. Adventure Time also got into weird territory at one point, key example being the episode where Finn goes chad mode and sleeps with numerous women to end his depression.

In contrast, DC comics animation has always done relationships well. Maybe a kiss or two, but it is usually just two people together which is perfect for children. Place in a few innuendoes for the adult audience like old-school Justice League did, and I think we have a perfect middle ground.


There were rumors that Steven as a show did not sell. The reason for the Steven bomb format was so Cartoon Network can place all the episodes in a time period where nothing else on tv was on. Without very strategic planning, the show would have died. They likely did this because Rebecca was the first female show runner, so she had to be a success.


Samurai Jack, Generator Rex, Chowder, Flapjack, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Kids Next Door, Billy & Mandy, Megan XLR, Ben 10, Camp Lazlo, etc.. None of those were good?


Anime became popular in the 2000s thanks to Toonami, Naruto, DBZ, and Hot Topic. While it died out in the 2010s, the fact is, anime became mainstream enough for at-least Millennials and Gen Z to not look down on it. Not to mention the impact of Teen Titans and Avatar as they took the style.

The main thing holding back Western animation is just a sheer lack of variety. Lack of variety in demographics, lack of variety in content, lack of variety in format.

Western animation is, by and large, split into two categories: "13 and under episodic action/comedy" and "raunchy adult episodic comedy" with a couple exceptions here and there. There's a distinct lack of cartoons aimed at an older teen audience, a distinct lack of longer, story-driven shows, and a distinct lack of shows that deal with more serious topics - and, putting these all together, an almost complete non-existence of "serious", story-driven shows aimed at older teen/adult audience. I'm not even that into anime and I can name at least 10 shows that fall into that category off the top of my head.

I've said the same thing about comic books before - for some inexplicable reason, comic books pretty much don't exist in the public consciousness outside the superhero genre. What exactly happened with American media that pigeonholed comics and cartoons into these incredibly specific demographics?

 

[Otterly]

Go fishing for the older shit, and cut off the shitty media from your life.

Yeah definitely. The British cartoons from the 80s are fantastic - original count duckula/danger mouse etc. There were some great kids animations and stop motion from 80s-early 2000s. Really funny and stand the test of time. All the old Cosgrove-Hall stuff is ace.
The mind blowing irony is that really wholesome stuff like pippi longstocking got cancelled due to some outdated language (her dad was king of the niggers, which got changed to king of the south seas and fair enough, but it still wasn’t enough) but it’s much ‘nicer’ and more wholesome for kids.
It’s easy to demonise parents as being ‘prudes’ but I’m beginning to think Mary Whitehorse might actually have had a point. It’s disturbing to see other parents cheering the woke juggernaut on.

 

[Ashen One]

I don't fucking know why I kept watching on after the space ship episode. It fucking nose dived to shit after they started "redeeming" everyone.

Season 1 wasn't that good but everything after the Finale was the show going downhill. The solution to every "conflict" in the series I can think of was a cop out.

Massive monster buried inside the planet that could destroy it if it "hatches"? Hug it in it's mind to solve the problem.

Mega Space Hitler trio who have spent thousands of years destroying planets and performed inhuman experiments on their enemies? They're soooo sad u guise, they just need a hug to let it out.

Lars fucking dies and gets revived as a pink zombie? Nobody ever mentions it and nothing comes out of it other than anime references XD see fellow kids, we're cool too.

The show just dropped hints that something very important is going to happen? Here, have 5 fucking episodes where we get to see Sadie having the sad, or the Mayor thirsting over Pearl, or other irrelevant character being retarded on Beach City that has nothing to do with the Gem shit.

Every interesting plot point the show had either went nowhere, or ended as "Steven cries, everything is good now".

By the way, one of the few characters the show didn't try to "redeem"? Kevin, whose horrendous crime was being a normal guy who is kind of a jerk. Clearly worse than the space mega Hitlers.

The show was a clusterfuck even for Cartoon Network despite being "successful". The lack of focus and frequent long-ass hiatuses also made kids easily stop caring about it, so it didn't have much staying power with the target audience despite the loud online fanbase. There was also almost no interest in merchandising from Cartoon Network's target audience, actual kids, so it barely got licensed products as others already mentioned in the thread and CN didn't make much money out of products from the show.

Bonus fun fact I assume most people here won't know: A character named "Concrete" was revealed in a sketch in a Steven Universe artbook and caused a bit of a controversy. Why is that, you ask?

Spoiler: Meet Concrete.

 

[Fluoxetine Man]

Bonus fun fact I assume most people here won't know: A character named "Concrete" was revealed in a sketch in a Steven Universe artbook and caused a bit of a controversy. Why is that, you ask?

Spoiler: Meet Concrete.

Ah Concrete, that was fun seeing the Crewniverse sweat when this was posted on 4chin and certain comparisons were made.

 

[breadandcircuses]

Is there any chance we’re ever gonna get a whole Korgoth of Barbaria show, or is saccharine-sweet faggotry like Steven Universe the only thing the networks air these days?

We'll never get more Korgoth. There's two theories why.

Theory 1, and most likely correct: It was too expensive to produce and [as] at the time hated spending money. One episode of Korgoth covered Saul of the Molemen, Fatguy Stuck in the Internet, and whatever other awful live action skits they were doing.

Theory 2, of which there is no evidence save rumor on /co/: The creator of Korgoth became a born again Christian and denounced their own show.

 

[-4ZURE-]

Western animation is, by and large, split into two categories: "13 and under episodic action/comedy" and "raunchy adult episodic comedy" with a couple exceptions here and there. There's a distinct lack of cartoons aimed at an older teen audience, a distinct lack of longer, story-driven shows, and a distinct lack of shows that deal with more serious topics - and, putting these all together, an almost complete non-existence of "serious", story-driven shows aimed at older teen/adult audience. I'm not even that into anime and I can name at least 10 shows that fall into that category off the top of my head.

I felt like the 2000s and early 2010s were really good about this, it just sucks that most of the shows went unrecognized or were hated.
The 2010s had kid-teen comedy with a level of story in Adventure Time and Regular Show. We had Total Drama which was a cartoon in the style of a survivor-type tv show. We had episodic action series like Batman The Brave and the Bold, but no one liked it till it was gone. Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated was a great mystery series with an overarching plot, but again, no one cared. The Looney Tunes show was a pretty good slice of life, that was also hated. Gumball fit that 13 and under comedy. Then we had the story driven action shows like Young Justice, Green Lantern, Ben 10, Symbiotic Titan, and Generator Rex. The problem is that many lacked support, so by 2013, all cartoons were either trying to be Steven or were trying to be Teen Titans Go.

I've said the same thing about comic books before - for some inexplicable reason, comic books pretty much don't exist in the public consciousness outside the superhero genre. What exactly happened with American media that pigeonholed comics and cartoons into these incredibly specific demographics?

The internet and consoomers did. The internet cut off a bulk of the audience as they get entertainment from online smaller creators now, so what is left is screeching 20-30 year olds who want nothing but Marvel or 90s properties. The internet also makes consoomers easier to see, which in turn cuts off interest from outsiders. Animation got hit hard as Pan was the only stable creator while the rest were autism-excuse-ridden and threw huge temper tantrums at SpongeBob or TTG.