Breeding Toxicity to Protect Safe Spaces: Exploring the Phenomenon Within the Steven Universe Fandom Isabella Scappaticci ABSTRACT This essay seeks to understand why toxic fandoms are conceived and how severe their consequences can be for younger generations through an analysis of the Steven Universe fandom. Steven Universe, an American cartoon targeted toward young children, is a show that teaches empathy, love, and acceptance with an emphasis on LGBTQIA+ themes, garnering a passionate adult following as well. Beginning in 2014, the fandom's presence within various social media platforms has turned sour in its attempt to police people's self-expression in the name of social justice, eventually devolving into death-threats and cyber-bullying. An analysis of the devastating consequences the victims dealt with for their participation in fandom-centered internet culture begs readers to question how such good-natured content could spark such hateful words and actions. The ultimate purpose of this analysis is to explore the nuanced psychological concepts at play within a toxic fandom and shed light upon the insidious issues brewing underneath the surface of popular culture.
Originally coined in 1903 to specific piece of media, usually describe a group of sports fans that leading to abusive behavior. The rise follow one specific team,1 “fandom” of online toxicity surrounding popular has recently become associated with television shows is a phenomenon negativity, referring to fans who take that many journalists and academics a fictional series very seriously, have sought to understand because it sparking Internet fights among online spirals out of control so frequently communities. In fact, the term “toxic that cyber bullying, death threats, and fandom” is one commonly used to gatekeeping among fans is now describe a fanbase that becomes expected. While many adult increasingly possessive about a animated series, such as Rick and
1 “Fandom,” Merriam-Webster, accessed on October 25, 2019, https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/fandom-adventure- time-universe- 2513303789.html/culture/culture- features/steven-universe-how-rebecca-sugar- turned-tvs-most-empathetic-cartoon-into-an- empire-205732/.
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Morty2 or South Park3, have been at standing of why and how they the center of this problematic operate. behavior, children’s cartoons have Steven Universe tells the story of joined the titles within toxic a half-alien, half-human boy named communities. Among the millennial Steven who goes on extraordinary generation, watching children’s adventures in and around his animated series has become widely hometown, Beach City. Because his accepted due to the shows’ ability to mother gave up her physical form to package dark adult themes into light- create him, he is raised by her three hearted, fun stories. The message at best friends — Pearl, Garnet, and the center of most of these shows is Amethyst — along with his father, “it's okay to feel not okay,” a Greg. The show chronicles his sentiment that appeals to viewers of experiences of learning and teaching 4 all ages. To gain a better others how to love, forgive, and understanding of how a cartoon accept change. What really sets this centered around family and empathy show apart though is its fluid leads fans into severe bullying, this depictions of gender and sexuality, as paper will focus on the Steven it boldly depicts lesbian romances Universe (SU) fandom and the and non-binary characters. Queer controversies it has started. The themes are highlighted through its ultimate purpose of this analysis is to emphasis placed on chosen family, explore the nuanced psychological identity, and self-acceptance while concepts at play within a toxic also incorporating mature content fandom to gain a better under- such as domestic abuse, emotional trauma, and anxiety. These are the
2 Sebastian Murial, “Rick and Morty Toxic 3 “The Fandom Police - South Park,” Amino, Fandom Explained,” Medium (blog), October accessed October 23, 2019, 23, 2019, https://aminoapps.com/c/cartoon/page/blog/t https://medium.com/@sebastianmuriel/rick- he-fandom-police-south- and-morty-toxic-fandom-explained- park/42MC_Yu211NdV86ZRz2RXEMw65lX4lQ eedc3716b868. .
4 Scully, Thomas Burns. “Why Do Cartoons Resonate So Well With Millenials?,” Last modified November 29, 2017. https://www.popdust.com/millennial-cartoons- reonate.
36 Spring 2020 Vol 1.1 Breeding Toxicity to Protect Safe Spaces very reasons that the show has behavior is justified due to the way garnered the attention of children, that series’ creator, Rebecca Sugar, adults, and critics alike. has approached the show as a human Given the show’s progressive rights campaign. In her interview with messages of self-love and the Rolling Stone, she describes SU as 5 overwhelming amount of positive “gender expansive,” which is a term attention it has received, where, then, that “classif[ies] youth who [do] not does the series’ toxic following fit in? identify with traditional gender roles For this, we have to begin by but [are] otherwise not confined to understanding the values of the SU one gender narrative or ex- fandom, namely representation and perience…[allowing] us to talk about acceptance. On blogging platforms youth who don’t meet our ‘traditional’ such as Tumblr, the importance of understandings of gender without 6 “calling out” problematic behavior putting their identity in a box.” One within mass media and among fellow primary example of this is Stevonnie, Tumblr users is commonplace. a non-binary, intersex character that is However, this escalated when SU frequently featured throughout the started becoming popular within the series. Though they present feminine mainstream, bringing many Tumblr qualities, the series makes a point to users to claim the show as something show them shaving facial hair and that can only be enjoyed by minority alternating between the pronouns individuals: “Hey men. Steven “we” and “I” in reference to Universe? This show belongs to the themselves. In an interview with women + trans + nonbinary comm- Entertainment Weekly, Sugar spoke unities. We will drag you to the to the importance of telling queer bottom of the sea to defend it. It. Is. stories: “We need to let children Ours” (John Guth 2016, Odyssey know that they belong in this world... Online). You have to tell them while they’re still children that they deserve love While this gatekeeping is and that they deserve support and alarming, the fandom believes this
5 Eric Thrum. “‘Steven Universe’: How 6 “Resources on Gender Expansive Children Rebecca Sugar Turned TV’s Most Empathetic and Youth,” Human Rights Campaign, Cartoon Into an Empire,” Last modified June accessed October 25, 2019, 7, 2017. https://www.rollingstone.com. https://www.hrc.org/resources/resources-on- gender-expansive-children-and-youth.
Screen Studies Quarterly 37 Scappaticci that people will be excited to hear posted a second drawing (Fig. 2), their story.”7 This approach allows depicting Greg, Steven, and Rose fans of all ages to find validation in embracing in a family group hug. This their selfhood by prioritizing time she was accused of fat-shaming acceptance and love above all else. because the Rose she drew looked Despite the show’s fight for much skinnier than the original inclusivity, the possessive behavior cartoon. only worsened online as fans began The thin version of Rose was “the policing each other’s artwork in the straw that broke the camel’s back,” so name of social justice, claiming that to say, unleashing the worst of the certain depictions of main characters bullying due to the fact that the were oppressive and unacceptable. In fandom’s sense of inclusivity felt 2015, Paige Paz, a nineteen-year-old threatened. Body positivity is very fan artist, operating under the Tumblr important to the fandom, and each of username Zamii070, created two the main characters of SU are drawings that brought about designed to look and feel unique immense amounts of bullying. The both in their physicality and their first of these drawings (Fig. 1) personality. Characters such as depicted Sardonyx, a very tall gem Garnet, Amethyst, Jasper, and known for having brown skin and Bismuth all present as female while blonde, afro-like hair. Paz’s version of still having less traditionally feminine this character, however, had thinner, physical qualities due to their less curly hair, making it look like a muscular torsos and wide frames. This wavy bob. Fans on Tumblr accused diversity was so clearly prioritized her of “race-lifting,” a term used to among the show and its viewers that describe the act of removing Dove took notice and partnered with someone’s racial identity in a SU for the Dove Self Esteem Project derivative work, motivating fans to in an attempt to “ensure that the next begin meticulously examining her generation grows up enjoying a posts. A few days later, Zamii070 positive relationship with the way they
7 Nick Romano, “Steven Universe Creator Has Done More for LGBTQ Visibility Than You Might Know,” Last modified August 13, 2018, https://ew.com/tv/2018/08/13/steven- universe-rebecca-sugar-lgbtq-cartoons/.
38 Spring 2020 Vol 1.1 Breeding Toxicity to Protect Safe Spaces look.”8 As Sugar explains, “I think it’s insensitive, to unfollow her, or to really basic: Steven Universe is remain silent if they disagreed with designed to help kids with body their arguments. As the fighting confidence and body image by just escalated, these comments turned showing characters with different into threats of death or rape primarily bodies experiencing happiness.”9 towards Paz. In early 2015, Paz While the many criticisms posted a brief suicide note on Tumblr Zamii070 received were valid, the before attempting to take her own comments and messages became life, stating “I’m going to sleep increasingly abusive. They began by forever. I’m sorry everyone, I’m just pointing out Paz’s insensitivity super tired. This will be the last you’ll towards plus-size bodies, which hear from me. I’m going to be at divided the fandom in half, with some peace now. I’m sorry” (John Guth supporting Zamii070’s right to draw 2016, Odyssey Online). fanart however she pleases and Thankfully, a fan who read the others claiming that her artwork was message found a way to contact her offensive and had no business being parents about it and Paz was rushed on the Internet. This first round of to the hospital to receive physical and aggressive comments mostly con- mental treatment. The online abuse sisted of angry fans demanding didn’t stop there. 10 When she was Zamii070’s supporters take time to released from the hospital, Paz understand why her drawings were uploaded a series of videos
8 “Dove and Cartoon Network: Our 10 Clinton Nguyen, “An Attempted Suicide Episodes,” Dove, accessed November 5, Forced the Tumblr Community to Open Its 2019, Eyes About Bullying,” last modified https://www.dove.com/us/en/stories/campaig November 6, 2015, ns/help-a-girl-you-know-be-a-confident- https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3da838/a girl/dove-and-steven-universe-our- n-attempted-suicide-forced-a-tumblr- episodes.html. community-to-open-its-eyes-about-bullying.
9 Cartoon Network, Dove Self-Esteem Project x Steven Universe: We Deserve to Shine Music Video | Behind the Scenes, Dove, YouTube, July 19, 2018, video, 2:05 duration, https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=cuza_ivea 9M&list=PLg6KfZlgBuDWzY4- AnktLOkt8JGSz47dJ&index=7.
Screen Studies Quarterly 39 Scappaticci explaining what happened and between the two characters that reassuring her fan base that she was many fans were excited about given receiving the attention she needed. that they are frequently “shipped,” or Bullies continued to post abusive romantically envisioned together in comments, claiming that she faked fan art.11 While many were excited to her suicide or that it was a publicity see the sketches, an overwhelming stunt. Eventually, some of the SU staff amount of fans began to attack Zuke members, known to the fandom as for presumed favoritism among the the “crewniverse,” stepped in when fan “ships” and for “queer-baiting” Ian Jones-Quarty posted on twitter, her following. According to fans on a “Fanartists can create whatever art SU Reddit thread, many accused Zuke they want & everyone has the of depicting Lapis and Peridot as an freedom to criticize it for any reason. “old married couple,” creating a joke However, bullying is not criticism.” at the expense of queer folks, though This had followers attacking the she has made it abundantly clear in “crewniverse” for failing to support her responses to fans that it was not the fans who claimed to be fighting her intention. She replied on Twitter for social justice in their attack on multiple times to the harassment she Zamii070. was receiving, but eventually deleted This attack on the creators isn’t a her account completely and has not unique experience given the cyber appeared on the platform since. bullying that storyboard artist Lauren These two instances are merely a Zuke experienced when sketches for couple of the most extreme examples the episode “Beta” were leaked in within a long series of SU-related 2016. This particular episode revolves bullying cases. “Toxic fandom” around the life that characters Peridot occurs when fans that have identified and Lapis have made for themselves with a particular piece of media for so on earth. The leaked sketches long begin to feel as though the story demonstrate a sort of flirtation belongs to them. Their “ownership”
11 Beth Elderkin, “Steven Universe Artist Quits Twitter Over Fan Harassment,” last modified August 13, 2016, https://io9.gizmodo.com/steven-universe- artist-quits-twitter-over-fan-harassmen- 1785242762.
40 Spring 2020 Vol 1.1 Breeding Toxicity to Protect Safe Spaces over the content leads them to In her book The Cultural Politics believe they can dictate what can be of Emotion, Sarah Amhed (2004) done with the story by other fans and expands upon this idea and explains creators. Many journalists have that fear is born of an anticipation of tackled this topic on a variety of pain, a feeling that is held and mainstream media websites such as remembered by the body so that, The New Yorker, Gizmodo, and Reel when one anticipates pain, the body Rundown, and while each has a becomes restricted within its physical theory about how this phenomenon space. This dynamic is frequently occurs, they agree that the cause seen between institutions and the boils down to the fanbase’s extreme people they oppress as it is a way to sense of identification with the subconsciously control the mental content. There is plenty of debate and physical spaces minorities over how this over-identification occupy: happens; some argue it is because of It is no accident that in political identity marketing employed by large rhetoric, freedom and fear are brands or apathetic creators giving increasingly opposed: the new freedom is posited as freedom from into the desires of their fandom out of fear, and as the freedom to move. fear, but journalist Rachel Lefler But which bodies are granted such (2018), treads closest to the source freedom to move? And which bodies when she argues that a “persecution become read as the origin of fear as threatening “our” freedom? (70) complex” spreads among the fandom’s most vulnerable members: In toxic online spaces, fandoms invert this concept by cultivating a Out of fear of being bullied, some people end up preemptively bullying space in which die-hard fans make up others. Or doing disproportionate the majority while everyone else is a things in retaliation. The conflict minority unless they meet the criteria creates a sense of self and of being part of the “in group.” This community that is tied to the in- group, the 'safe haven' of the fan allows a small group of self-identified community...People get addicted to misfits to have a form of power they the attention and validation these are not able to employ in other online niches can give them, spaces. In fact, Amhed argues that especially if the outside world is less friendly. That leads them to extreme “solidarity is based on ‘insecurity’ in-group loyalty and extreme out- rather than ‘need’ in the new group hatred. modernity: it is through the per- ception of shared risk that com-
Screen Studies Quarterly 41 Scappaticci munities become a ‘binding force’” profoundly negative impact upon (72). many of its own members, the way SU Online bullying as a result of a has positively impacted viewers of all collective fear response might seem ages through its representation and as though it would quickly resolve messages of empathy leads me to itself considering the temporality of believe that the good far outweighs other fear responses, such as fight or the bad. For example, utilizing a flight; however, what makes a fandom moment from the episode “Alone truly toxic is the continual Together,” in which Stevonnie flips compounded negativity that festers their hair when they are first until social media platforms are introduced to some Beach City forced to take action. Though residents, a meme was created in bullying usually divides a fandom’s 2016 by adding the caption: “are you members into a typical “us” vs a boy or a girl? I’m an experience.” “them” scenario, the fighting actually This circulated across multiple social bonds each faction of the group in media platforms and frequently solidarity. Not only are the fans closer popped up within online discussions to each other, but they also become about correct pronoun usage and closer to the content they are arguing trans rights. about. According to Amhed: Though online discourse has The turning away from the object of been frequently written off as a poor fear also involves turning towards the form of activism, or lack thereof, object of love, who becomes a scholars such as Henry Jenkins (2016) defense against the death that is apparently threatened by the object have argued otherwise, claiming that of fear....Rather than fear getting in this type of participatory politics is the way of love, we can see that fear what “democracy looks like in the allows the subject to get closer to the 21st century” (1). In fact, Jenkins loved object, though the distance is never quite abolished, and the describes this process as a point object of love as well as fear may yet “where political change is promoted pass by. (68) through social and cultural Considering the toxic relation- mechanisms rather than through ships that can form in any given established political institutions, and fandom, scholars frequently dismiss where citizens can see themselves as obsessive fan culture assuming it capable of expressing their political lacks nuance, however, I argue concerns — often through the otherwise. Despite its toxic fandom’s production and circulation of media”
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(2). This is especially true for the through adversities. For those that young target demographic of SU, as became overwhelmed with emotion it allows young children and teens to and struggled to say what they politically engage with peers before wished to say, panelists always being able to access a ballot box. responded with words of encourage- According to a fan poll from ment like “you’ve got this” or “you’re 2015, the average age of SU viewers doing great,” a sentiment that would 13 is 22, with the youngest participant then echo through the crowd. reporting they were about 11 years At the heart of every fandom is a old and the oldest participant desire for connection. While that reporting they were 50.12 While this desire manifests in various ways, it may seem surprising to those outside provides a truly powerful momentum the fandom, a trip to any of the yearly among fans to enact change and conventions demonstrates this reality. action. As Vivian Lilan Nguyen (2013) As evidenced by footage from 2018’s puts it: San Diego Comic Con, the Q&A There is a desire in individual fan[s] to session with Sugar and the cast create a collective vulnerability with demonstrates the profound impact and among others — a collective catharsis of feelings and emotions, the show has had on the lives of fans: particularly after important, dra- parents of children with special matic, or highly anticipated story- needs; young inspired animators; lines. Viewers in this fandom (and genderqueer individuals; and viewers perhaps any fandom) are at the core fans that wish to feel moved, and to struggling with mental health all have emotional connections to the approached the microphone with content they consume. (64) shaky voices, holding back tears, Considering that their emotional unable to fully feel as though they attachment is their driving force, it could thank the cast and crew enough would be an understatement to say for the way the show has helped them that the SU fandom is emotionally
12 Rae Binstock, “Steven Universe is ‘Purple 13 Cartoon Network, Steven Universe | Live Lesbians from Space.’ It’s Also Love, Pain, Panel From SDCC 2018 | Cartoon Network, Support, and Struggle,” last modified May 8, San Diego Comic Con, YouTube, July 22, 2017, https://slate.com/human- 2018, video, 40:21 duration, interest/2017/05/steven-universe-on-cartoon- https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=YzitaVZZ network-is-about-love-and-all-its- OPM. complications.html.
Screen Studies Quarterly 43 Scappaticci connected to the content. As the entirety of the fandom by the desire for connection is accompanied behavior exhibited by a minority. with a need to be heard and Rather, I focus on this online bullying validated, problems inevitably arise epidemic in order to validate it as a when those who have felt voiceless subject worthy of attention as its realize their ability to affect others in consequences have proven to be virtual spaces. Though toxic fatal. The severity and frequency in engagements will never cease to exist which it occurs throughout most, if within any fandom, it is important not not all, fandoms beg us to question to let the fandom’s potential be how we can learn to teach media eclipsed by bullying. I side with literacy and emotional intelligence Jenkins (1992) in his argument that among the youth navigating the fandom provides a freeing ex- current Internet landscape. The perience allowing members to ultimate irony of this analysis is that engage with textual materials in a Steven Universe attempts to teach more playful manner and in a way that these very lessons. How, then, can we challenges narrow assumptions of begin to address this problem? academic criticism.14 Maybe, entering it into the current While my examination of toxic discourse might be enough to fandom acknowledges it as a serious motivate society to rethink the way problem, I do not wish to define the we incorporate and educate children about media and technology.
BIO Isabella Scappaticci is a second-year Screen Studies student at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in Brooklyn, NY. As a Latina scholar, her studies in film school primarily focus on the representation of minorities within children's cartoons. With a Master of Arts in Teaching degree, her perspective as an educator allows her to approach each topic she addresses with a unique take on how the medium, message, and distribution of media affects children and students. Her goal as an educator and a film scholar is to emphasize the importance of media literacy and equitable technological practices among all students despite their ethnic or socio-economic background.
14 Henry Jenkins, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (New York: Routledge), 7.
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Appendix
Fig. 1, Paz, Paige, Untitled, 2015, (www.tumblr.com), https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-am-no-longer-steven-universe-fan
Fig. 2, Paz, Paige, Untitled, Drawing, 2015 (www.tumblr.com), https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-am-no-longer-steven-universe-fan
Screen Studies Quarterly 45