A Look at the Empowering Character Design in "Steven Universe"

Written by Shae

The Crystal Gems are always going to save the day, and as a  whole, this cartoon is perhaps one of the best I have seen in a while. We've talked before on this show and even eluded to characters and what makes them great. Today, I'm here to expand on that. Even if you're not a fan of Steven Universe, it's a show worth at least looking at. The character designs alone are different from most cartoons, mostly how the women are drawn. In comic books and comic style animations, we see women to be strong, curvy, and definitely a particular hourglass figure. In other shows, like Totally Spies, and even Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, women are drawn in specific ways. Let's face it, women have curves, yes, but we're all not size 2's with tiny waists and large chests. We come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, heights, and so on. I'm not dogging on those who are a size 2 with large chests and tiny waists, I'm simply saying that we all have to embrace our body shapes as they are, and not what we think they should be.

Steven Universe, while just a simple kid's cartoon proves that other types of bodies exist in the world of women, Pearl is tall, flat chested, and lanky, but she is elegant and strong. Plus, I mean, her nose isn't tiny. Is she ashamed of her lack of curves and tiny nose? No! Gem's choose their physical forms. Pearl purposefully chose to look like that. And you know what? She looks good. Pearl is a strong woman that doesn't need to look perfect, she chose her perfect form. Along the same lines, so did Amethyst. In fact, we have an episode dedicated to Amethyst picking her form. She tries for bigger, stronger, and buffer, and so on. Eventually, our little spitfire chooses to be short, and really curvy. Unlike her fellow Gems, Amethyst is short and rather not stick thin. She doesn't have to be. Amethyst proves that a girl can have a larger chest and hips, and maybe not that tiny flat tummy, but she still kicks butt.

That leads me to Garnet, of which I will not go into her defused forms. Garnet may be a fusion, but she is tall, has big hips and a big chest. She's also got some really awesome style. Perhaps that is what I like best about this show, it's not about being a cookie cutter form of women heroes, its about breaking social norms. I may be reading too much into that, but hear me out for a moment. You have three strong women protagonists that don't fit the idea shape of what we are used to seeing women portrayed as in cartoons. Look at Rose, she was a large woman, in every sense of the word, and she was not only a great leader, but a loving, attractive woman. Her size is even commented on in the show, having a side character sneer at her sheer size and that someone loves one big woman when they could instead love several little ones. On that note, good for you Greg, you love Rose as she is!

Later in the series we see Lapis who somewhat fits the normal build, Jasper who is big and muscular, and Paradot, who....just really annoys me. Beyond that we see Stevonnie, the fusion of Steven and Connie, who is a tall, curvy, woman, but relatively taller than the normal teenager. And to contrast, we have Sadie, who is short....very short. That's what makes this show so great, you have women of all shapes and sizes portrayed as accurate representations, instead of ideal concepts. You even have women of all colors on the show. Amethyst is purple for crying out loud! I wont even touch on Jasper.  While the show is fictional, it is a really good one. Especially for kids to watch and see that people are, well, people shaped!

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