In the thirty-second episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe<\/i>, THIS EPISODE IS A LOT. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of child abuse, homophobia, racial stereotypes.<\/b><\/p>\n
Well, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to discuss, so let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get into this.<\/p>\n
Garnet<\/b><\/p>\n
I might have to keep a list of funniest moments in this show, mostly so that Garnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversation with Mrs. Maheswaran can be right at the top. Just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so indicative of who Garnet is, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a hilarious joke. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re bleeding. Oh no, they are dead. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t call again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
SHE IS PERFECT.<\/p>\n
A Lie<\/b><\/p>\n
So, there are probably a million ways to interpret this episode, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna focus on two of them. I thought it seemed\u00c2\u00a0too<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0deliberate that the writers had Connie use the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nuclear.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such an interested choice for how Connie lied to her parents regarding Steven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family. While we all know that Steven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family is about as non-traditional as humanly possible, it had never been an issue. Until now, that is. The fact that Connie was able to recognize that her parents would freak because Steven was being raised by three people who appear to be women set off alarms in my head. Not only could this easily be a story about a kid who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have both parents, but it could\u00c2\u00a0also<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0help kids who have LGBT parents talk about this specific phenomenon.<\/p>\n
I know that my own personal experience is part of the reason why I thought this. Connie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fears felt familiar to me, but only because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to worry about myself. In my previous relationship, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even allowed to be out to my partner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents. They just thought I was a best friend. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a fun thing to experience, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the only context where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to worry about my sexuality or how I would be perceived. This doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to be explicitly explored in the show itself for me to get this kind of meaning, of course, but it also feels intentional sometimes.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Maheswaran<\/b><\/p>\n
Admittedly, though, I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an intentional thing because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m biased in another way. Connie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother reminds me way too much of my own, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why my instinctual reaction was to dislike her. And I know I have complicated feelings on that! I am always going to dislike mothers who use fear to parent their children. On top of that, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wary of how close this might come to the tiger mom stereotype that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often given to Asian mothers. Granted, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a term rooted in Chinese culture initially, but Mrs. Maheswaran is the\u00c2\u00a0first<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0negative motherly figure on this show, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suspicious that she also happens to be non-white\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>, based on her last name, of South Asian or South East Asian descent.<\/p>\n
In a more general sense, Mrs. Maheswaran simply does not feel funny, not like Alexandrite does. The fusion of all three of the Crystal Gems is an utter disaster, but I did not get the same sense of cruelty from her. Alexandrite might be strict with Steven after Steven runs away, but her behavior is\u00c2\u00a0drastically<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0different when compared to Connie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother. Take that phone conversation in the beginning of the episode. Connie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s formal way of speaking might seem funny, but to me, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a huge red flag. Who forces their child to talk to them like that at such a young age? Throughout this episode, I was left feeling deeply uneasy about how Mrs. Maheswaran spoke to her daughter. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no kindness in her voice. Everything sounds like a judgment. And as someone whose mother criticized them at every turn, who used fear to raise her children, who created the kind of paranoid environment that Connie lives in here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awful. I did not turn out fine, it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make me a better person, and I would trade that experience in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n
Even when Mrs. Maheswaran accepts Steven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re good people or because you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a judgmental jerk. No, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because she admires their ridiculous punishment of Steven. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only thing that impresses them!!! Nothing else! Like fusing together to help their son, or speaking to him respectfully, or being affectionate with him. Just discipline.<\/p>\n
I hope Connie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stay like this, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. She was even too afraid to tell her parents that her eyesight was healed! THAT IS NOT A GOOD ENVIRONMENT.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fusion Cuisine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b> In the thirty-second episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe, THIS EPISODE IS A LOT. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[665],"tags":[666],"class_list":["post-5971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-steven-universe","tag-mark-watches-steven-universe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"