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| Ruby and Sapphire in 'Steven Universe' Lesbian Couple |
The reason why I've chosen to focus on LGBT representation within animation, within researching Social Responsibility because personal it's hugely important to me, both as an creative and a individual. For the past two years within my studies I've researched the representation of gender and sexualization within animation - which I've spoke about previously in regards to advertisment and media. However I've never focused on sexuality. Recently the censorship of a popular cartoon 'Steven Universe' has caused quite the stir in the LGBT world as well as animation world, in which a lesbian relationship between two main characters is implied within a dance. This isn't the only example of censorship on this show, scenes implying romance between female character have been censored by reworking the screen or moving scenes entirely. The same happened with two characters in 'Adventure Time' where two female characters implied romance, became censored in order to not offend.
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| Other examples of censorship of LGBT culture in animation is another Cartoon Network show. 'Clarence' features a scene of a gay couple exchanging a greetings kiss, this scene was storyboarded and animated; however animators had to rework the scene to the couple kissing each other on the cheek - in order to not offend. |
As a queer woman, I want to represent the identities that in the part have been under represented. When I was growing up, I was only made aware of my own identity as 'normal' after I discovered the internet. Up until then I hadn't seen same sex couples anywhere, that I was aware of. I remember not feeling like it was something people did and yet at the same time I felt confused about my own feelings towards people the same gender as me. The absence of LGBT representation in media, including media aimed at a younger audience comes across as if LGBT culture isn't worth representing or that it isn't a part of the world. There are LGBT children right now, unaware of sexuality but still very much their own identity. To imply that LGBT culture is only a conversation between adults, denies children their right to have their identity represented. And to argue that children aren't exposed to sexuality, the number of cartoons that focus on heterosexual relationships in episodes or characters is near constant.
