Teaching Female Representation in Young Adult Fiction

In our seemingly progressive world, we still suffer from a lack of representation for many groups of people. One of these groups is women, and while there have been more and more well represented roles for women seen in our media, there are still some issues that we will need to overcome. Issues that are demonstrated in Young Adult fiction, one of the most popular places to discuss these ideas of Gender, Politics, and Representation to the youngest generation. As future teachers, it is therefore our job to take advantage of this popular genre in order to properly demonstrate these issues of Gender inequality found in our society.

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What 'Earthbound Beginnings' Means for Nintendo

E3 has barely started and Nintendo has already brought out a very big announcement, the prequel to their classic RPG Earthbound, originally titled Mother and now titled Earthbound Beginnings to be ported to the Wii U virtual console and is available today. Here's the reveal trailer if you haven't seen it already:

Upon examination it looks like another RPG from the NES, albeit with fewer dragons and more hippies. Why would so many fans of Nintendo, RPGs, and obscure games in general be clamoring for its release? First a bit of context:

Steven Universe: The Modern 90s Cartoon

In this new renaissance of televisions we are experiencing today, one genre of television that has been experiencing some of the most creative, funny, off beat brilliance is Animation. From shows like Adventure Time kicking off this new style of cartoons, Regular Show proving that literally anything can be made into a good cartoon if there's a lot a creativity and humor placed into it, Gravity Falls bringing out a show that is both serious and funny while never talking down to their audience. This has given kids an even greater variety of shows they can watch and enjoy than ever before; and yes, I am making the distinction that these shows are still being marketed to and intended for children, and it needs to stay this way. Though while these shows still retain simple premises and humor, they contain a level of complexity and heart to them that can be appreciated by older viewers; being interesting to all age groups while remaining focused on children, as it should be for the medium.In recent memory, one of the best examples to this change occurring to cartoons is the already classic Steven Universe.

Written and created by former Adventure Time writer Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe follows the life and adventures of Steven, a young boy who is half human/half alien being known as a Gem. Together with his guardians Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl form a team called the Crystal Gems, the sworn protectors of the earth and humanity. Every episode focus's on Steven's relationship with the other characters, where a lot of character development occurs before a monster shows up sometimes and they have to save the world. The whole show seems to be playing out like a genre of anime filed under "magical girl anime," with some famous examples being the Sailor Moon franchise and by extension The Powerpuff Girls. Shows that would usually have a primarily female cast with just as much character development as there was fighting, which became very popular in America during the late 80s and early 90s, which would end up becoming staples to cartoons in the era.

Pictured: Steven and the Crystal Gems (Amethyst, Garnet, Pearl)

Alongside the similarly structured plots, Steven Universe draws many elements from not only the magical girl genre, but from other staples of the era; Including Future Boy Conan, Revolutionary Girl Utena, The Simpsons, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Dragon Ball Z and many others (you can find an ongoing list of references here).

One of the key distinctions that while other shows like Adventure Time and Gravity Falls hold a lot of similar references to the 90s, Steven Universe uses the material not just as references for humor (it certainly does that), it also uses it as a piece of inspiration to build off of the original material. 
This has made Steven Universe very unique amongst other TV shows is that is seems to play out like a love letter to these shows by mirroring the best elements of these shows while remaining very unique and original by itself. Which makes a lot of sense because Rebecca Sugar was a big fan of these shows when she was a kid. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything, Rebecca said,

I always loved cartoons and took them very personally! Read into them too much, wanted them to be real. So I want to make cartoons that are meant to be read that way, overanalyzed, and taken personally because they really are meaningful, that's my dream!

One of the unique aspects of the recent boom in cartoons recently is that for the first time, the creators were raised on cartoons and anime, thus gaining an appreciation for animation and a desire to make shows like the ones that inspired them from their youths once they entered the business. This meant that a lot of creative individuals were putting a lot of effort into shows like these because they wanted to not only recreate their favorite shows, but excel beyond what those shows offered. There are many factors put into Steven Universe that make it one of my favorite shows put out in a long time, but I feel that the biggest factor to its success is the large amounts of love and dedication being put into this show out of a love for its source material.

There's a lot more to talk about this show and it will defiantly be revisited in the future so stay tuned!


If you want to find out more about Steven Universe you can watch the series on Itunes, Google Play, and Amazon.