Things We Saw Today: Steven Universe’s Rebecca Sugar Comes Out as Non-binary, Explains the Importance of NB Identity Within the World of the Show

We’re in love with Steven Universe for a lot of reasons, not the least of which has long been the show’s empathetic depiction of queer love and identity. In a recent interview with NPR, the show’s creator, Rebecca Sugar, came out as a non-binary woman. She explained how important it was to be able to express her sense of identity through the show, as well as to present a depiction of gender identity that we rarely, if ever, get to see on television, let alone in children’s show.

“One of the things that’s really important to me about the show is that the Gems are all non-binary women. They’re very specific and they’re coming from a world where they don’t really have the frame of reference. They’re coded female which is very important. I was really excited because I felt like I had not seen this. To make a show about a young boy who was looking up to these female-coded characters—they appear to be female, but they’re a little more representative of nonbinary women.

They wouldn’t think of themselves as women, but they’re fine with being interpreted that way amongst humans. And I am also a non-binary woman which is been really great to express myself through these characters because it’s very much how I have felt throughout my life.”

(via i09)

• Another white person called the police on a black person for the most mundane activity. This time: trying to use a coupon. Seriously. Fellow white people, please, for the love of everything mayonnaise, STOP IT. If you do shit like this, you are an embarrassment. If you see it happening and do nothing, you are also an embarrassment. (To make this whole story even worse, the white guy in question–dubbed Coupon Carl–tried to bust this woman for coupon forgery, despite he himself has a history of forging coupons. You cannot make this stuff up, and also why would you want to? It’s terrible.) (via The Root)
• I’d been wondering if I was going to check out Sacha Baron Cohen’s new show Who Is America? But it turns out that Kurt Metzger, lover of rape jokes and harasser of women, is a writer on the show. So that makes that decision an easy one. (via The Muse)
• This posthumously published interview with Anthony Bourdain is beautiful and heartbreaking. It also includes his detailed fantasy imagining the death of Harvey Weinstein. (via Popula)
• Celebrate Amazon Prime Day with these great sci-fi movies available on Prime Video. (via The Portalist)
• (Pssst, maybe also celebrate Amazon Prime Day by reading up on why employees and others are protesting the company.) (via Forbes)
• Here’s our first look at Olivia Colman in The Crown. We cannot wait for season three! (via BBC)
• Finally, the first trailer for On the Basis of Sex, the RBG biopic starring Felicity Jones, left the Mary Sue staff with some mixed feelings. On the one hand, Jones seems like odd casting to most of us. On the other hand, the trailer stirred up more emotions in me than I was expecting. On the third hand, it’s one of those trailers that leaves you feeling like you’ve just watched the entire movie. What do you all think? (via YouTube)

Whew, that was a lot of links for one day. And we didn’t even talk about how the world is burning down all around us, politically speaking! Anyway, hope your week is off to a great start!

(image: Cartoon Network)

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