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Water, gender, and modern science in the Steven Universe animation

ABSTRACT This essay analyses the relationships between the characters Peridot and Lapis Lazuli, who symbolize the scientist and the waters, respectively, in the animated series Steven Universe. Steven Universe is a fantasy/science fiction animated series produced by Cartoon Network, which has been drawing attention by challenging various normative gender patterns through main characters who possess queer characteristics. This essay suggests that the adventures and misadventures of Peridot and Lapis Lazuli, given their respective gender stereotypes, are a metaphor for the history of relations between scientists and waters, culminating in a critique of the culture-nature dichotomy that permeates modern thinking. This critique occurs through the existential mismatch between the two characters and is maintained in the narrative through three distinct phases. In these phases, Peridot—with her desire to control and order the world—is confronted by Lapis Lazuli’s aquatic essence, which is perpetually transient, dissolutive, and contingent.