'Sadie's Song': Steven Universe Review

There's a lot of things to like about Steven Universe - the story, the art, the music - but the biggest reason why I love Steven Universe is the characters and the diversity of expression amongst them. In Thursday's 'Sadie's Song', Steven Universe continued to champion individuality and free gender expression in a delightful way.

Among the cartoons I watched when I was younger were those that some might describe as "boys' cartoons", like Dragonball Z and M.A.S.K., and "girls' cartoons", like Sailor Moon and Totally Spies. They're imaginary labels, of course, but growing up you're often made painfully aware of them and, although I still enjoyed the same diversity of cartoons, as I got older I found myself hiding my interest in what might be perceived as "girls' cartoons".

I remember often watching shows like Totally Spies with my finger on the remote control, ready to change channels to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe or pretend I was channel surfing at a moment's notice should my parents walk into the room. It was stupid and I see that now, but as a child it is easy to be acutely aware of what shows are "for you" and what shows are "not for you".

Steven Universe is a breath of fresh air in this respect, and so are a growing number of today's cartoons, shows you'll find reviewed on this site like Gravity Falls and Star vs the Forces of Evil, with their developed cast of male and female characters and variety of stories.

Steven Universe refuses to walk the line of either "boys' cartoons" or "girls' cartoons". The lead, titular character is a boy called Steven? It must be for boys. But most of the characters are girls? Maybe it's for girls then. But there's explosions and fights and monsters? It has to be for boys then. But it features a pastel palette and a lot of exploration of the characters' feelings?

Of course the answer is it is for anyone, and the same is true for all cartoons in reality, but Steven Universe always tries its best to subvert every trope it can. Spoiler warning: don't read ahead if you don't want 'Sadie's Song' spoiled for you.

In 'Sadies's Song', Steven discovers his friend Sadie can sing and dance (and her singing and dancing in the first scene, when she thinks no one is watching, IS fantastic) and encourages her to perform in "Beacha-Palooza". But it quickly gets out of hand as Sadie's overenthusiastic mother Barb gets involved.

I admittedly found it troubling to see Steven and Barb push Sadie into something she clearly wasn't comfortable with, which came to a peak when Mr Smiley tells Sadie that "a little smile never hurt anybody". Super creepy. So I was relieved to see them tackle this issue before it got any worse. It would have been very easy to have had Sadie go on stage and potentially embarass herself, which would have been the wrong tone entirely. Equally, the story could very easily have had Sadie go on stage and everybody love her, but that would send a completely wrong message, that Sadie was wrong to be introverted and should be more outgoing.

Instead, the message I took away from Sadie's story was that it's okay to be more comfortable by yourself or with only one or two friends, and that's is okay to have fun and not always be striving to BE THE BEST.

Steven's excitement at helping Sadie is typically adorable as he proves pretty adept at breaking down gender stereotypes, helping with Sadie's make-up, clothes, and routine and stepping into her role when it is called for. I was relieved to see that Steven's outfit and make-up were not played for laughs, with everybody instead celebrating Steven. It's a tricky topic to portray right, but I think Team Steven Universe just about pulled it off.

The last thing to mention is the emphasis on the relationship between Sadie and Barb (who has her own gender-liberal moment as she and the other characters refer to her as the mailMAN). Hot off the tail of last week's 'Nightmare Hospital', it's easy to see a theme emerging of mothers and daughters, or at the very least mothers and children. Is this building up to something between Steven and his mother Rose Quartz? I certainly hope so.