Initial Research 11

Kids cartoons lately have been pretty good for LGBT inclusivity, especially cartoons such as Steven Universe- which has a whole host of main characters that are, or can be seen as LGBT. One of the shows main relationships is Ruby and Sapphire, who fuse to make Garnet. Peal is also shown to have very deep feelings for Rose Quartz. Stevonnie is shown as being attractive to both genders and there are quite a few characters that Rebecca Sugar has said don't identify with either gender and present in a certain way. Clarence is another good one, as it has a Lesbian couple raising one of the main characters. These positive examples of the LGBT+ community help battle the stigmas the world creates about the community and the people involved. This has caused some backlash, with a petition being started to stop the showing of Ruby and Sapphires relationship as they don't deem it appropriate for a young audience. Gravity Falls has had its sponsors censor LGBT elements out, such as the transgender symbol and a lesbian couple, changing it for just the symbol for male and female and turning it into a heterosexual couple. Adventure Time has a suggestive relationship between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum, and there are at least 2 bisexual main characters in Avatar: Legend of Korra.


Adult Cartoons have a far more negative reflection on the community. Both Family Guy and South Park include LGBT characters- particularly transgender characters as jokes and comic devices, and the majority of the jokes made against them are incredibly offensive and hurtful, playing off the negative stereotypes that a lot of adult viewers have experienced and seen before. This is also seen to some extent in the Simpsons, who show a lot of gay characters as conforming to the feminine stereotype. These misrepresentations prove damaging to the LGBT+ community, as it furthers the views that it's all a joke and something to be laughed at and hurt people. This contributes to violence and hate crimes as it plays to the demographics views of reinforcing negative stereotypes which in turn leads people to believe their actions against LGBT+ people are fully justified.


I need to look more into ways of presenting characters and coming up with my own designs and how I'm going to stylise it.





Ruby and Sapphire in Steven Universe

The top image shows the initial design for cupid's necklace, in the episode, this was edited to only show the symbols for binary male and female, rather than including the trans symbol as well as the others.