even after dozens of queer media has been made and queerness in fiction is getting more normalized, i feel like nothing has come close to Steven Universe.
while other media representation consisted mostly of mlm or wlw couples and the occassional trans character, SU dared to explore beyond what cishets would find acceptable. it was not afraid of being weird, it wasn't afraid of being "too much".
the whole concept of a genderless alien race who were mostly fem-presenting was already a brand new thing for many people, some of who are still confused to this day.
there were polyamorous fusions. there was an intersex character who went by they/them pronouns.
it had non-binary characters, fluid characters, aroace characters, characters inspired by drag queens.
and it's not just queer representation. there was also amazing representation of various body types.
the main character as well as his dead mother who played an extremely important role in the story were both plus-size. additionally, Rose chose to have a bigger body. she was skinnier as Pink Diamond but her bigger body is a sign of healing and redemption.
Greg was also on the chubbier side, and none of these characters were treated as a joke. Steven loved to eat but that wasn't a punchline or a reason for people to make fun of him. same goes for Amethyst.
there were tall muscular women. there were short skinny men. there were men who weren't afraid of being seen as feminine and women who were unabashedly masculine. one of the canon ships was literally a tall woman and a short man, and it's never treated as a joke.
i saw someone talk about how Goat (2024) had a male character who looked up to a female character and wanted to be like her, and how new that was. and while that's true and it's still new in the grand scheme of media, SU did it first. Steven was a little boy who respected and admired the gems and his mother, and wanted to be like them.
if you take a look at all the other queer media we've got — The Owl House, Arcane, SPOP, TDP — the difference is that these shows were afraid of being "too much".
TOH had wlw couples, a couple (exactly ONE couple — 2) of non-binary characters, and an aroace character whose identity was only confirmed post-canon.
Arcane has wlw couples and maybe hinted at a mlm couple, and that's about it. i think one of the side characters were trans? but it's like a character who appeared for exactly one (1) scene.
SPOP, again, has mostly wlw couples and one non-binary character. all other identities and orientations are either confirmed offscreen or headcanons.
TDP has a few wlw and mlm couples and a trans character.
all these shows only portray the LGBT part of the community. sometimes, there's an aro/ace character. that's the extent of queerness they go to.
and you can't use the restrictions excuse because guess what, SU had restrictions too. they had to jump through so many hoops and figure out so many loopholes to do what they did. but the creators were ambitious and didn't let the general public or the shitty executives convince them that only certain queer identities are acceptable while others are too weird or too much.
when it comes to queer media, SU wore its heart on its sleeve. it's why the large majority of people think it's too cringe, and why a lot of pick-me queers try to distance themselves from it. because SU embodies the true meaning of "queer". it doesn't sanitize itself or try to appeal to the bigger crowd.
