bellsingur:

From Movie Pilot, by Eleanor Tremeer.

It’s about providing people, and in this case children, the chance to understand themselves. When it comes to the development of identity, studies have proven that fiction helps us learn who we are by finding characters who chime with how we feel. If you take that away from a certain group of people, that group will feel isolated and wrong from the very start of their development as a person. Which seems rather cruel.

This is why Steven Universe is so important. The slow build from subtle framing of certain moments as romantic, to the oblique use of words like “love” and “flirting” to describe Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship, is really very clever. Instead of barreling straight in with the facts — that these two characters are in love — Steven Universe concentrates on the fact that this relationship is healthy and loving, and then moves on to making it clear that it’s undeniably romantic.

Wonderful, utterly important article. Go read!