I've seen several people were making a fuss about the lack of male gems on Twitter, so if I see one of those posts on my dash again I'll link you guys. That said, it's not like it actually matters a whole lot, I just thought since most people here had only heard of it happening and all. But yeah everyone should just do what they want re: gemsonas and stuff, I think that's a totally different thing than people writing to Ian asking for the millionth time asking about male gems in the show.
Oh yeah, fan stuff is on a whole nother level. I got no beef with anyone who sees a lack of something and decides to fill that void for themself. I've seen some really cool dude gemsonas and interpretations of male characters, and that's awesome. I'm just being silly about this whole thing, didn't mean to upset anyone, sorry.
Spoiler: i have judgey do-not-want feels about dudegems because I have spent time in shitty fandoms who judged girls harshly for wanting female representation in a 95% male cast, Spoiler: and my heart conflates that and wonders why the guys suddenly deserve uncensured freedom when it's an all-girl species I actually usually feel kind of peeved about fangems using male pronouns, partially because I've spent so long in a fandom where I've been repeatedly told that the tiny amount of female protagonist-aliens we're given is FAR TOO MANY and wanting more is greedy and awful and if you do you're not REALLY a fan (transformers fandom can be so bad you guys) so I find it really satisfying to have an all-girl species and I want to jump on it and ban everyone else and yell MINE MINE MINE YOU CAN'T HAVE DUDES HERE. NO DUDE GEMS EVER. I FINALLY HAVE MY AWESOME POWERFUL LADY ALIENS AND YOU CAN'T TOUCH THEM. Which is maybe an overreaction but oh my god guys you have no idea how bad Transformers fandom can be. It's so bad. (Link CW: homo/transphobia, slurs, misogyny) But yeah after years and years of "our super monogendered and nonsexual alien species just HAPPENS to universally use male pronouns and have masculine appearances, and the ones that don't shouldn't even exist and were a mistake and CERTAINLY shouldn't be added to," it makes me bristle to see people trying to excuse how they happen to have masculine-presenting male-pronoun-using members of a monogendered species and that's okay and there should be more. I know in my head that they probably aren't the same people and so I shouldn't hold one group's argument against the other group's, but it fills my heart with how dare you. The other part is that it feels like breaking the rules of the universe to me, like people making pink-blooded trolls with blue eyes or something. "NO, YOU ARE DOING FANDOM WRONG," i howl to myself, because I know that it's super irrational and based in my own peeves more than actually being a bad thing. So yeah even when I make fangems of male characters I use feminine pronouns because of my feels about dudepronouns as applied to an all-chickpronouns-using species.
Spoiler: personal response to the above Yeah I get where you're coming from there, and all those reasons are why I was kind of scared to make my gemsona a dude... but then I kind of came up with an in-universe reason to explain it that kind of fits canon, I think? And also mirrors my own experience. .. Basically he started out using female pronouns like everyone else, and didn't even know there was a possibility of being anything else until he came to Earth and fought in the war on Rose Quartz's side and then stumbled upon the theory of being Transgender from the humans and then decided HEY I LIKE BEING "MALE" BECAUSE IT FEELS RIGHT FOR ME I tried to make my gemsona female, I really did, and it just triggered a lot of dysphoria :c so. .. yeah.
I can honestly understand both sides but as my personal reading of gems is as nonbinary-but-using-female-pronouns-for-convenience I will gleefully make all my future gemsonas use female pronouns no matter how much or how little ladyshaped they end up being :P Because feminine-presenting-enby-aliens is also important to me.
Also, honest question, how do you guys think Peridot's facial area works? Is she wearign like glasses or is she wearing a weirdly translucent thing over her lower facial area or what? Because I cannot for the life of me figure out her face, mostly because her gem somehow sits ON the light part of her face? so it couldn't be covered? why I just.... ?????? Peridot how does your face work?
I figured it's some kind of visor, and there's a hole for her gem in it in case she needs access to it? Now that you mention it though, I don't think she was ever seen summoning a weapon from her gem, was she? Probably because she got a whole lot of high-tech gadgets at her disposal already. Maybe we will see her gem weapon one day!
I saw a theory on the wikia page that her current body is entirely robotic and uses a similar interface as Lapis' gem beign plugged into the mirror, except granting Peridot full control of the device. So maybe this isn't even her final form
Honestly, the whole "look femme but not actually women and just using girl pronouns for convience" thing is possibly my favorite bit of Steven Universe cause HEY HEY LOOK CHARACTERS LIKE ME HEY HEY CHECK THIS OUT GUYS I EXIST I may have gotten into a fight with my moirail about this and only narrowly prevented myself from crying and capslocking I JUST WANT CHARACTERS LIKE ME. (and this is why my gemsona spent half of the little rp I did with my friend R like, wtf is 'girls'? wtf? wtf is happening? wait, are sisters the older ones or the younger ones? wait, you mean that isn't a system based on age and is actually based on gender? what's gender? no seriously, explain? what do you mean, "go on wikipedia?")
Eh, I honestly just think of the gems as female, even though technically they're not quite? Probably genderless in the most technical sense, but I don't really see them as genderless by human standards. I suppose male gems could exist, and don't have an issue with male fangems, but yeah. I'm probably bad for that though. :( (Also, it bugs me when people insist Ruby and Jasper are male or what have you. Especially Ruby, since it seems like a cheap Hide Your Lesbians thing to me...)
I read them as female as well, honestly. The idea of male gems just kind of seems off to me, but so long as you're not being a huge fucking dickhole about it then whatever. Go for it. I myself probably wouldn't make any male gems though because lookit me. I finally have a group that is comprised entirely of females/genderless beings who are very obviously feminine by our standards. WHAT FUCKING NOW NERDS. CRY SOME MORE. I do like viewing them as lacking certain very female bits though. Like no breasts. Just flat man chest. All flat man chest all day. We're not barbie dolls entirely given what Pearl's said about eating and her issues with it. So if we have other bits I want those to be SLUG GENITALS. Complete with darts. Because I am a bad person and this is what I think of first with my alien headcanons. But still in my head viewed as female. This is pleasing to me because WEIRD GENDER THINGS YO.
I saw a guy very calmly insisting that they saw Jasper and Ruby as men because they're more aggressive than other gems, and I mean, they weren't being a dick about it, but by that logic shouldn't Steven's complete lack of aggression make him a chick? What about Peridot, is she too cowardly to be a dude even if she's one of the more androgynous gems?
I saw a guy argue the other day that Jasper was 'trying so hard to be male' or something, which was rather annoying. I mean, it seems like the logic goes "guys are aggressive and girls are not" + "guys are large and buff" -> "jasper is aggressive" + "jasper is large and buff" -> "jasper is male." Which is really annoying to me because I actually really like how SU doesn't stick to gender roles like that.
I like the idea that a shapeshifter has to try at all to be male. Well, I suppose it takes a little effort to shift, but it seems to come pretty naturally to Amethyst at least. For me it's not even that it's a stereotype so much as I can't see where it ends or who it applies to. Is it only gems whose gender is determined primarily by personality, or is, say, Sadie too tough to be a girl? Is Lapis's violent retaliation against the Crystal Gems and Jasper enough to make her a dude, or is the fact that she was passive during the ride to earth enough to secure her a place at the ladyshape table? Is Greg too supportive and involved in his kid's life to be a dude, or does he get man points for playing guitar and dating a chick? How many dude points do you subtract for perfect eyeliner?????
Started watching Steven Universe again. In Arabic. This is fun. I will admit that I haven't the foggiest of what was said through much of the first episode but eh. This takes time and practice and I have honestly been slacking on my practice. I did pick up a few new words though and I did make out some things. Which is important practice wise because I am not really used to listening to people speak Arabic at a natural pace. Because I have been slacking. i am filled with wonder and joy at 3alam stefen.
They have an Arabic version? I should probably watch that. Though, which dialect is it in? Or is it in fusHa?
It's not in fusHa, no. I am not sure what dialect it is though. I do know that it isn't musri given that its jiim and not giim in the show. Here's Strong in the Real Way in Arabic. I really like Pearl's Arabic VA. The episodes I've found meanwhile are here.
I learned fusHa and shaami, and a teeny bit of musri. Though I'm really shaky on most things, I think...
I don't think you're bad for that at all. It's been my consistent impression that the Crewniverse have been intentionally vague with regards to gems being female versus female-presenting nonbinary, so they can have their representation cake and eat it too.
Yeah. In my class the dialect we learned was shami because well...Professor is Syrian so yeah. I've also heard bits of Jordanian and Palestianian Arabic but not very much? I am super bad at dialects! Unless it is the musri. Musri is very, very easy to pick out for me. Because most Disney movies are in it and I listen to Disney music in Arabic a lot...
