Are black women not allowed to be feminine? | #stevenuniverse #cartoon — Transcript

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1. 0:00Are black women not allowed to be
2. 0:01feminine? Let's talk about skin color.
3. 0:02Now, some fans argue that Steven
4. 0:03Universe relies a lot on harmful racial
5. 0:05tropes by associating black-coded
6. 0:07characters like Garnet, Amethyst,
7. 0:08Bismuth, or fusions like Sugilite as
8. 0:10aggressive or lazy, the likes of which
9. 0:11all lack what some would call
10. 0:12traditional femininity. Primarily
11. 0:14because the fusion dances that involve
12. 0:15black-coded characters generally results
13. 0:17in the black-coded character being the
14. 0:18one that's in the position of a
15. 0:19masculine role. Contrasting this with
16. 0:20white-coded characters in fusions like
17. 0:22Sardonyx or Beryl, two of whom are
18. 0:23characters that are framed around their
19. 0:24intellect or being refined. A lot of
20. 0:26people argue that this reinforces
21. 0:27harmful gender and racial stereotypes.
22. 0:28[music] Essentially arguing that Pearl,
23. 0:30the presumably Caucasian representing
24. 0:31gem, is the key ingredient to making
25. 0:33characters not aggressive or more
26. 0:34elegant. This is also representative of
27. 0:36the fact that when Garnet and Amethyst
28. 0:37fuse, the narrator treats them like a
29. 0:38loud, aggressive, and unstable fusion
30. 0:40that's also voiced by Nicki Minaj.
31. 0:41Opposed to that, many fans argue that
32. 0:42because these characters are canonically
33. 0:44aliens, projecting standards that are
34. 0:45exclusive to humans can [music] come
35. 0:46across like they're grossly over
36. 0:47simplifying the plot, the likes of which
37. 0:49that otherwise celebrate diverse body
38. 0:50types, emotional nuance, as well as
39. 0:52positive loving leadership, which is
40. 0:53objectively fair. But, I feel like it's
41. 0:55important to remember that the
42. 0:55characters were essentially created
43. 0:57representative [music] of specific races
44. 0:58and ethnicities. These are nuances that
45. 1:00are factored into the way that they're
46. 1:01designed. So, whether it's canonical or
47. 1:02not, if a character's representative of
48. 1:04a kind of ethnicity or skin color, and
49. 1:05then they're also depicted with tropes
50. 1:06and harmful stereotypes that fall into
51. 1:08those specific races and ethnicities, it
52. 1:09is relatively fair to argue that it was
53. 1:11done intentionally or at the very least
54. 1:12done on accident. Nevertheless, I feel
55. 1:14like there's a lot of nuance to the
56. 1:15conversation itself, but it does
57. 1:16inadvertently villainize Pearl in the
58. 1:17process. Obviously, any fusion that has
59. 1:19Pearl in it is going to have a softer
60. 1:20and more feminine depiction. But, when
61. 1:22you compare those to fusions that Pearl
62. 1:23isn't a part of, it does leave some to
63. 1:24believe that it perpetuates [music]
64. 1:25harmful stereotypes.