Steven Universe and the Importance of Representation in Children's Media

(l2r: Garnet, Amethyst, Steven, Pearl)

It seems like it's harder to find original programming, wether it's television or film. Though there's a lot of great television out right now, it's pretty standard and many of the situations are predictable. Cartoon Network, though, produces a lot of media that's innovative, creative, and fun. One of their newer shows that really impressed me was Steven Universe.

The show follows Steven Universe, a boy who is half human and half "gem" ; a type of supernatural person with powers. The supporting characters are all admirable female characters. (I dislike the term "strong female character" just because it's somewhat vague.) There are three Gems; Pearl is knowledgeable but worrisome, Amethyst is carefree but impulsive, and Garnet is level-headed but fierce. All of the characters range in body type, demographic, and of course, personality. 

The minor characters are rather developed as well, and there is a diversity in terms of personality, body types, race, sex and gender. One of the best parts of the show is that the Steven, a male character, looks up to Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet, all female (or at least they identify as female.) It's really important to see a boy character look up to three female characters; that's usually not the case.

I think representation is important, more so for children's media. When children see people similar to them in the media, it has a positive impact. I know when I was little, I felt empowerment from girl characters like the Powerpuff Girls or Numbah 5 from Kids Next Door. I feel like Rebecca Sugar, the creator of the show and also the first woman to have a show on Cartoon Network, is conscious of this.

There is also the topic of the characters and how queer the show's characters are. Though a lot of people have found different instances in the subtext, there was one scene where two characters who identified at female were reunited and they showed affection with each other. It was confirmed by someone on the show's crew that it was romantic. This is one of the most important representations on the show, because LGBT characters are so scarce in children's media; they're almost non existent. The queer characters represented in the show help children who might feel different, and it tells them, "You are not alone."

Twilight and Adored Sexism

Though the phenomenon of the Twilight Saga is over, for the most part, it still left an impact on our pop culture and also showed that yes, you can invest into a female-centered movie and make a lot of money. Though I like that there was a female director behind the first film, and that the film made a good box office, this film and book series is very problematic.

Most people know the story of Twilight, or have an idea about what it is about, so I'll just dive into the issues in the film that are problematic. In the first film, Edward watches Bella as she sleeps, and he endangers her life because he wants to be with her. Those two things are admired by the young female audience, when they should be repulsed instead.

The series gets worse. There are other things that are seen as romantic or dramatic but are actually rather creepy, violent and/or sexist. The examples of this are 1) Jacob force-ably kissing Bella. She breaks her hand trying to get away from him. 2) Jacob imprinting on her child, both in and out of context this is very creepy. 3) Edward controls Bella's life. 4) Bella is fully dependent on Edward, and when he leaves she spirals into a depression and is very anti-social.

The sexism in Twilight is more so based on religious and traditional roles and not the sexism that we see today; looking at women like they are objects. Bella's role in the films and books are very akin to fundamental religious roles, such as a man being in control of a woman's life, and being dependent on a man.

Had this been a book that mustered average sales and was not a world wide phenomenon, I would have passed up writing on it. Twilight, though, went on to not only be a bestseller, but influence other writers. Most Paranormal Romance novels today feature a similar Bella characters... the archetype of the weak whiny woman and they also feature a similar Edward character. Twilight's success turned to fan-fiction, and then that Twilight fanfiction turned to Fifty Shades of Gray, which is a whole other discussion.

Diner and Old-Fashioned Sexism

            “Diner” is a film directed and written by Barry Levinson, and was noticed by the Academy for it's writing; this film is considered a “sleeper” classic amongst many film enthusiasts. It has because one of my favorites, mainly because of the young actors who would later become big and the location of a retro Baltimore… but the more I watch it, the more I start liking it less. Though the film is mostly just young men out of high school just “bullshitting” their nights away at a Diner, it has casual sexism laced within it’s plot.

            It’s misogynistic from its start. Steve Guttenberg’s character Eddie is about to get married but before he does he tasks his mother to make him a sandwich. While not exactly sexist, the way he treats her is like a servant. Later, they go to a film and to summarize what happens, Mickey Rourke’s character Boogie sexually harasses his date in the theatre and his friends laugh at this incident. This is done after a bet with his friends; the characters constantly make bets about “getting with women” like having sex with them is nothing but a goal to achieve.

            Daniel Stern’s Shreevie is one of the more irritating characters. He complains that he doesn’t have anything to talk about with his wife, but doesn’t take the time to talk to her, trying to ignore her when she tags along with the main male characters. When Shreevie notices that his records are out of order, being the music geek he is, he values the organization of his records over his wife’s feelings.

           

 (Don't Touch My Records scene)

            The scene that stands out the most and made me kind of angry at how subtly sexist it was is the scene where Eddie gives his fiancée a football test before he marries her. If she doesn’t pass, they don’t marry. Does his fiancée give him a test on something she is passionate about? No, she doesn’t. It doesn’t go both ways. 

The sexism is romanticized in the film, as everything seems resolved by the end in the wedding. It’s just how young men acted back then… like the phrase says “boys will be boys.” I think this problematic because it normalizes sexism and negative attitudes toward women, especially wives and mothers. It's kind of subtle, because although the film portrays the female characters in a respectful way in terms of their writing and character, how they are treated by men is "Mad Men" sexist. A reflection of the time, sure, but it’s just as sexist as it is today.

(Football Test scene)

The Makeover Movies

With the announcement of a remake in the works of the 1999 film She's All That, I thought it would be appropriate to further explore one of the concepts discussed in my John Hughes movie. This is the makeover movie, in which the female character has to change her appearance to get the man.

This is seen in a litany of teen movies. She's All That, a teen romance comedy about a popular boy making a bet with his friends to take a nerdy girl to prom, is one of the most notable movies to use this trope. The female character has to change for the jock, trading in her eye glasses and smock for a short dress and a new haircut.

This trope even seems to sneak into children's movies as well, like Scooby Doo 2; Monsters Unleashed. Velma, a character iconic for being smart, has to change into a skin tight body suit to impress a male colleague. This is also evident in the film, The Princess Diaries. While the female character's objective is not to get a man, the makeover from frumpy to fancy takes center stage... not her learning how to run a country. Who needs a history lesson and training in politics when you have a nice pedicure?

Does the conventionally unattractive male character have to change for an attractive female character? No. In the film Just Friends, the main male character changes for himself over a ten year period, and not for the girl he was interested in when he was unnattrctive in high school.

In I Love You, Beth Cooper, the male character is nerdy and unattractive and wants to impress the beautiful female character, Beth Cooper. Does he change for her to win her affection? No.

My overall conclusion is that male characters can stay static and still get the girl, but female characters have to be dynamic and change themselves in order to get a date or be taken seriously.

Frozen and Pseudo-Feminism

            When the film Frozen came out in late 2013, many people over the Internet were calling it a feminist film. While you could argue that point, especially in the case of Elsa, I think the film is trying to appear feminist without really skewing from the path of a traditional Disney Princess film.

            The original idea for Frozen was based on the story of the Snow Queen by Has Christian Anderson. In the advertising, Frozen was said to be based on the story, but the film as we know is far from it. The Snow Queen, in an abridged summary, is about a girl traveling up to a mountain to save her friend from the clutches of an evil Snow Queen. Along the way, she meets various  characters – almost all of them are female. Looking at this story the way it is, this would be a good opportunity to adapt this into a film, right?

            Well, Disney went another direction. Frozen tells of Elsa and Anna. When Elsa’s powers are found out at her ball, she flees to isolation in the mountains. Anna goes of to find her and get her back home. While I like Elsa and what little of character we are shown of her, my main issue is with Anna.

            Anna was written as a likeable character, and through her naivety and quirks show an new and interesting Princess character. She isn’t perfect, and she also isn’t proper all of the times. It was refreshing. When she goes off to look for her sister, she doesn’t go alone; she needs to the help of a man, her love interest. 

            In the beginning of the film, she falls in love with someone within a couple of hours. Though I think Disney was trying to get across the message “you can’t marry a man you just met” (Why are they giving relationship advice to their young audience?) Anna stills ends up with a man at the end. My question to Disney; does your box office depend on the princess being with a prince at the end? Is it going to somehow effect your merchandise sales if Anna and Kristoff aren’t together?

I am not anti-romance, not at all, but when you see the same constant trend of Disney movies – a man can have any goal, but a woman’s goal only needs to be to get with a man – it’s taxing. There are at least three songs in the film that talk about Anna and her quest for romantic love. It’s like her motivation from the beginning and until the end is to find true love, not to get her sister down from the mountain.

Another thing that I noticed, and it distracted me from the film itself, are the women’s character designs. Elsa, Anna, and their dead mother all have the same face and body, just with different colored attributes and hairstyles. Their eyes are very large, but their noses and lips small. Their body shapes, too, look like sticks. If they were standing next to male characters who looked as cartoonish as they did, it would have gone unnoticed, but when you see the variety of male characters and the stiffness in design of the female characters, you know they thought of making a doll first before they thought of making a character.

Though I think Frozen has some good messages about family and sisterly love, I don’t think there was any real progress made. Films like Brave and The Princess and the Frog helped; Merida didn’t end up with a prince, and saved her mother, and Tiana opened up her own restaurant and saved herself and her man, and was also the first Black princess. I give Frozen credit where credit is due, but I think it was also a missed opportunity for Disney.

Autobots and the Women That Lean Over Their Engines - Female Representation in the 'Transformers' Franchise

(Pictured Above: Arcee, the most famous female Transformer)

When the Transformers franchise came about in the 1980’s, feminist groups brought up the issue that there were no female Transformers. Although Transformers, at the time, were sexless (though their gender was male) the creators added many female Transformers. Though they were stereotypically girly in terms of how they looked, just like the male Transformers were stereotypically manly looking, they were just as competent and skilled like their male counterparts. Throughout it’s thirty year history, the television shows of the Transformers franchise has treated it’s female characters, both robot and human, with respect.

            Then Transformers came to theatres in 2007. Though there were no female Transformers, there was Megan Fox’s character Mikaela Banes. With the character’s knowledge of automobiles and her helping during the final battle of the film, she could have been the main character over Shia LaBeouf’s character Sam, who is only the main character because he is 1) male and a teenager, the film’s targeted audience, and 2) because he owns an object because of the film’s plot. Though Mikaela has many abilities, what she is most remembered for in the film is being objectified while leaning over Bumblebee’s hood. This particular scene has garnered so much attention that it's been used in multiple documentaries about gender and media because of it's disrespectful nature and "male gaze."

In the second film, she isn’t much different. Shia LeBeouf told the news website Gawker in 2011 that Fox was too feminist to continue on.

For the third film, Megan Fox was replaced by model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who is objectified much more than Megan Fox was in the first two films. A scene opens with Carly’s butt and legs being the center of a shot, she is compared to an object, a car, by her boss, small robots look up her skirt, and she is threatened with sexualize violence with one of the characters. This is probably one of the most disturbing ways a character has been treated, and when women watching this film (they make up 55% of movie-goers according to Caroline Heldman of thesocietypages.org) see how Carly, the main female character is objectified, women see themselves as objects.

            Carly’s representation in the film is completely different than how she was represented in the original television series. She attended MIT and has a gift for chemistry and electronics. It’s particularly sad, because Carly in the film could have these characteristics and it would make no change to the box office whatsoever, but because of blatant sexism, Carly in the film is just an object.

             Carly - circa 1980's                                                                               Carly - circa 2010's 

The Female Characters in Kill Bill

Quentin Tarantino is known for his male-centric roles like Reservoir Dogs and the highly-regarded Pulp Fiction. When I found the Kill Bill movies on Netflix, I didn’t know if it was going sexualize it’s female protagonist like other female-centric action movies. Suffice it to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does this film treat it’s female characters with as much respect as any male character, the movie has mostly female characters in regards to highest billing.

Though these characters are nothing to look up to, since most of them are trained assassins and brutal at that, the female characters are complex and respected. This contrasts to the other female-led action movies at the time, like the Charlie’s Angels films. While Charlie’s Angels objectify and degrade the main characters, Kill Bill does not. The women do not wear anything degrading, do not depend on men, and act toward their own goals that do not concern being in a relationship with a man.

How the female characters appear in Kill Bill was also very noticeable. Many films that have female characters, regardless of gender, will try to keep the women looking at beautiful as possible. Not in Kill Bill, where various characters are seen with bloody face, torn limbs, and bruises, no matter the gender.

“The Bride” is known to be the deadliest woman in the world, and the other female characters hold different occupations. Elle Driver is an assassin, O-Ren Ishii is a mob boss, and Vernita Green is a homemaker and mother. All women have different personalities and goals, making them well rounded characters.

Kill Bill tells the story of a woman (called “The Bride” in the first volume) wronged by a man and his assassins after she leaves the assassin group when she finds out she is pregnant. While viewing the film, most of the plot and action dynamics makes the viewer suspend their disbelief, the main character of the film is realistic. Not only does she use physical strength to get out of a sticky situation, but she also used mental strength. Her character is not only a great example of a strong female character, with her own flaws and strengths, but a great example of a strong, dynamic character, regardless of sex.