Steven Universe, Fusion Magic, and the Queer Cartoon Carnivalesque

Abstract

Steven Universe is radically revolutionizing trans representation in media by being willing to give voice to less often represented gender identities. It provides us with a framework with which to investigate how agender and genderqueer identities and experiences can not only function but thrive within the genre boundaries of the fantasy cartoon. This genre, and here Steven Universe serves as an exemplar, tends to embrace a particular reliance on “magic” to define its set of narrative rules, images, and possibilities. An emphasis on magic in the fantasy cartoon makes for an intriguingly complicated and layered pathway to trans representation, and the unique magical constructs within Steven Universe become the key narrative techniques which open the possibilities of what can be called a queer cartoon carnivalesque space. Trans bodies in Steven Universe are malleable, unfixed, ever-changing and able to combine at will. Therein lies their power. The genre of the fantasy children’s cartoon and its incarnation in Steven Universe is thus able to magically lift the material constraints that often serve to block genderqueer and agender representation in realist media. In doing so, the show offers us a glimpse into how we can move beyond the magic realm that lends such power to Steven Universe’s gender nonconforming characters, and into a more ubiquitous media representation of a variety of trans identities.