Let me take you back to the summer of 2020. Not only was the world still struggling with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but I was struggling with the personal crisis of realizing I was gay. In some ways, I had already known (e.g., openly admitting to myself that I had a crush on a girl on my fifth-grade basketball team but not wanting to actually date her because THAT would be what was gay), but during this summer, I was ready to learn more about my sexuality and accept myself. So, like most gay people in their coming out adventures, I turned to queer media – books, TV shows, movies…basically anything I could get my hands on. However, the one show that single-handedly impacted me more than any other was a literal children’s cartoon.
A gif of Adora’s transformation into She-Ra
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2020) is entirely based on the hit cartoon from the 1980s, but some aspects have been changed to essentially make it the queerest show ever. The main character is Adora, the lovable blonde lesbian himbo hero who is a little too hard on herself, cares passionately for her friends, and is willing to do anything to take down the Horde, the evil army she grew up in. In the first episode, we see Adora become She-Ra, the myth of a hero who has existed in their fantastical land for centuries, but in accepting her fate, she must leave the Horde and her childhood best friend (and eventual lover) Catra (who yes, is essentially a cat…I don’t want to talk about it). After leaving the Horde, she is adopted into Bright Moon, one of the kingdoms of Etheria (their planet), by her new friends, Glimmer, the tiny teenage princess of Bright Moon, and Bow, the sweetest archer who always has on a crop top with a heart on it. With her new “best friend squad” and a multitude of other lovable, hilarious, and queer characters who are introduced along the way, they try to save their universe and each other.
The “Best Friend Squad” + Catra (left)
At this point in the post, you may be thinking I am crazy, but stick with me just a little longer. In this She-Ra podcast that I adore, they describe the universe as “homonormative” which assumes queerness as the normal state of society in comparison to our “heteronormative society” that expects heterosexuality and cisgenderism. However, the amount of explicitly queer content in the show is still limited as it is a “kids” (TV-7) show produced by Netflix and DreamWorks. While there certainly is material that queer people understand as implicitly gay, the most explicit gay content is 2-3 same-sex married couples, a character who uses they/them pronouns, and, most importantly, the kiss between Catra and Adora in the final episode of the series that quite literally saves the universe. However, in the world of TV, that amount of queer content is a lot, especially considering that the last episode of the “Legend of Korra” series was not allowed to air on Nickelodeon because Korra and Asami literally held hands.
And so, who do we have to thank for all the queerness in She-Ra? Queer writers. Specifically, I throw a big thank you to one of my personal heroes, Noelle Stevenson (all pronouns). Between She-Ra and a few of his other works (i.e., The Lumberjanes), they have single-handedly wrapped me in the acceptance of myself. She-Ra is not alone in its cartoon world of queer acceptance; in my experience, the media category that showcases the most diverse range of identities, experiences, and stories in the LGBTQ+ community is the realm of comics, cartoons, and graphic novels. Some of my personal favorites are:
Heartsopper by Alice Oseman – a ridiculously cute story of two teen boys in England
The Girl from the Sea by Molly Ostertag (Stevenson’s Wife!) – a sapphic retelling of The Little Mermaid
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang – a genderqueer, royal love story
However, I can name numerous other pieces that break bounds by sharing and celebrating LGBTQ+ stories. The reason why comics are so groundbreaking? Because queer people are given more of a platform to write and create compared to other media channels. And when you give LGBTQ+ authors the ground to share queer stories, magic surrounds us all and queer love saves the universe.
A picture posted by Stevenson for the 1-year anniversary of the She-Ra finale – “A Bright Future”! (One of my favorite pictures ever to the point where a copy is on my wall at home.)