mpandainsilk

marty: *is sort of shitty and materialistic dad*

damn if marty had just cried a little bit steven would’ve made him father of the year

but in all seriousness, this redemption is flawed in concept and in execution. white diamond was a breath of fresh air when she was introduced because she was shown to be a genuinely intimating villain. a lot of people compared white to glados or mother gothel, both well-written antagonists specifically because they were manipulative and lacking compassion in a despicable, but cool way. and this is much deserved. white diamond (and the other diamonds, but white especially) is rooted at the core of the problems with gem society. i was excited to see her fighting against the protagonists.

however, this is exactly why redemption shouldn’t have been an option for her. all the homophobia (sapphire/ruby being barred from mixed fusing) class segregation (pearls being objectified slaves) and colonialism (the uh, colonies) allegories are at best meaningless and at worst terrible if the ONE PERSON WHO REPRESENTS ALL THAT is able to cross over to the good side on a ‘forgive everyone, especially the ones who are family’ basis.

now, if white diamond was built up as a ruler who struggled to maintain perfection, highlighting her awful actions while illustrating the mental turmoil behind the scenes, then i would at least understand the sympathetic angle. there have been well-written villains who’ve had good/understandable motives or reasons why they’re the way they are (azula from atla rings a bell), but even then they have to face consequences and work to gain acceptance from others. white did absolutely nothing except show a little humanity when the show needed her to and get a slap on the wrist. this isn’t an issue of white’s behavior as a character but of her as a product made by real people. you can’t pull a villain redemption by giving a genuinely terrible person so many second chances they eventually change their mind. it’s bad writing and, more importantly, a really bad message for kids.

steven universe’s prevailing attitude of ‘everyone’s dealing with their own tragic issues and self-worth so we need to think of THEIR feelings’ isn’t fundamentally a bad message, but you can’t apply it to established tyrannical regimes and expect it to work without nuance. you’d think that the show that told people with abusive/bad parents that it’s best to drop them and move on (marty in drop beat dad) wouldn’t push the ‘we’re family so you’re going to be good now’ narrative.

straight hair–even teased, even crimped–is a white supremacist ideal that never ceases to exert a controlling force in the mainstream. a white women who has temporarily made her straight hair bigger is not comparable to a woman of color or a jewish woman who has kinky hair–no matter what the aesthetic of moment, those latter groups are not meeting its standard. they can’t; these standards exist as white supremacist tools of domination.

thick eyebrows, tanner skin, certain body shapes, hair volume… these things cycle in fashion for white women. they are never a condoning of non-white or othered bodies, and they change nothing for the people who experience the material consequences of white supremacy.