{"id":6497,"date":"2019-12-01T22:05:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T03:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aderack.com\/journal\/?p=6497"},"modified":"2020-12-12T22:09:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T03:09:58","slug":"garnet-is-trans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aderack.com\/journal\/2019\/12\/garnet-is-trans\/","title":{"rendered":"Garnet is Trans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This being the Internet, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been getting some pushback in the wake of Unleash the Light<\/em>, and my reference to Demantoid and Pyrope as cis-Garnets, much like Hessonite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I mean. Look. I get it, cisters. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not used to looking at anything except through a binary cishet lens. But this is a show substantially by non-straight, trans, or gender-diverse creators\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfrom the top on down. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got layers and layers of metaphor that it can use in different situations to talk about different things. And one of the things it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always gone out of its way to talk about is diverse identities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fusion is there to talk about a million and six subjects; some of them broad and universal, some extremely specific and delicate. From a human perspective Stevonnie really should be anyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first hint that a fusion of two different people is going to create some existential issues around identity and presentation, but it goes much deeper than them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gems don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have sex or gender the way humans do; they have type. For the purpose of storytelling, Gem type stands in for all manner of social structures: class, race, sex, gender. The dynamics are different\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddue to different biology (if that term even applies to a Gem) and systems of power\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyet familiar. How the metaphor applies, to talk about real-life issues, depends on what the story wants to address at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cross-Gem fusion is undeniably queer; Ruby and Sapphire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship makes that as clear as possible. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re queer in human terms because to us they both present female; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re queer in Gem terms because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re crossing type boundaries. To be homogeneous is to be straight\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfollowing the plan of society and their created intention\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand to be heterogenous is to stray from the path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way more to unpack just in that parallel, but again the metaphor is multifaceted. When two Gems fuse cross-type, they create a new person\u00e2\u20ac\u201da person who is not defined by a designation or role on emergence, but who finds their own name and identity. As it happens, Gem names and identities are hard to extract from types. So, they pick a new type. We see the thought process in action when Steven and Amethyst first fuse, and the Gem who would be Smoky first comes into being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When Ruby and Sapphire chose to permanently fuse, they decided they were a Garnet. Which is totally their choice, and is great and all. The thing is, there are other Garnets<\/em>. More to the point, there are assigned-at-emergence<\/em> Garnets, like Hessonites, Pyropes, Demantoids: Garnets who were made to be Garnets from the start. As it happens, our Garnet\u00e2\u20ac\u201dCG Garnet\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlooks a heck of a lot like a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153natural\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Garnet. She has a similar build, the same general hair. Garnet is a Garnet <\/em>because she has decided that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what and who she is, not because she was told that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what she was. Which is to say, Garnet is trans<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Up until the Homeworld appendix to season five, the point is fairly subtle. Unless the question of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153natural\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Garnets leaps into your mind, or you dwell really hard on the implications of Stevonnie, you may not think too hard about what it means to create a whole new gender-of-sorts. You may not even clock different Gem types as partially a matter of gender. You may overlook the color scheme of Cotton Candy Garnet, which in hindsight is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 potentially the least subtle symbolism in the entire goddamned show. But I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible to watch \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Together Alone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and miss this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By the end of the show, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even subtext anymore. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just text. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the show, explicitly telling you, Garnet is trans and that makes Homeworld Gems uncomfortable. The point is so on-the-nose that it would be hilarious if it weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t horrific. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yet, in that, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also amazing. After five seasons of general tolerance on Earth, our first official visit to Homeworld comes wrapped in scoffing at Garnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s identity and consistently misgendering Steven. It comes with a story of conversion therapy, centering around Pink Diamond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original Pearl with whom she so inappropriately dabbled. Even the most irredeemable human, Kevin, stopped short of misgendering Stevonnie, because come on, what kind of a monster would do that? Well, a monster like a Diamond, as it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That is the threat of Homeworld. The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gone!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d segment is, like everything in the show, a complicated and imperfect metaphor, but the surface-level trans allegory is clear enough to have launched a thousand articles, in the mainstream as well as the queer press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialing back, though, we have Garnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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