Disability in Rock People

[malymin]

You know, it's really weird to me that "Amethyst is developmentally disabled" was never something people discussed much in regards to Steven Universe.

'Is Pearl autistic? Is Peridot autistic?' I don't mind these perspectives, but... Amethyst. Is it just because she's not nerdy? Is it just because she's visibly coded as nonwhite? Or because the disability she displays kind of defies specific labels designed for humans within our specific cultural moment, such as "autism?" All three?

Probably all three.

I mean. We're told that she was "overcooked", emerging from the Kindergarden thousands of years later than her peers, with the implication that it's why she's smaller than other Quartz gems, including other Amethysts specifically. She has gem dwarfism. She can shapeshift to the size of a regular quartz easily, but when she tried to regenerate with a permanent form that was closer to a typical quartz, the results were unstable and ended badly.

It's worth remembering that the Gems in the show are strongly implied to be digital lifeforms, sort of akin to sentient computers: the only truly physical parts of their bodies are the literal gemstones, and the humanoid shape formed around it is just a hard-light hologram of sorts. This is why both damage to the gemstone itself, and severe psychological pain, can causes changes in a Gem's physical form. One is like brain damage from physical force, or like damage to a computer's physical hardware; the other is like psychological trauma, or corruption of a computer's software. Their bodies are just extensions of their minds.

Still, I wouldn't consider Amethyst having gem-dwarfism to necessarily be a neurodivergence in and of itself, but a fantasy analog to human dwarfism: a physical disability, especially within the context of a society that does not accommodate "nonstandard" bodies. Amethyst's developmental disability being cognitive as well as physical was something made more explicit in the movie.

The thing is, this is where we get into territory that I find fascinating, but that doesn't lend itself to relatable labels - the question of what counts as a disability or neurodivergence within the context of a nonhuman character.

See, by the standards of humans, SU's gem aliens are superprecocial. When freshly hatched out of the cliffs, or reset to "factory settings" by a Rejuvinator, they have adult bodies, standard-issue uniforms, and already know everything they'll need to begin filling their pre-ordained roles in Homeworld society. They don't just know how to walk and talk, but who the Diamonds (effectively the reproductive ant queens of the eusocial structure that is gem society, since their liquid essences are what generate more gems) are and what other gems are and all the basic tasks needed to begin performing their jobs. Or, as computers: they're pre-programmed. Where humans are indoctrinated into our societies over the course of childhood, gems are born indoctrinated. Gems can grow past this programming (otherwise the Crystal Gems as a faction would not exist), but it takes accumulation of life experiences for them to start asking questions like "is society awful" and "would society be better without the Diamonds?"

Amethyst hatched different. When we see a freshly-born or freshly-reset Amethyst, she's... incomplete. Her body seems to lack the pre-programming to allow it to properly "render" right out the gate - no homeworld uniform, and her joints are visibly doll-like. (Just like a gem that's only partway through "rendering" her body upon re-emerging from her gemstone.) More importantly, while the other reset Crystal Gems immediately begin trying to fill their predetermined roles... baby!Amethyst seems to 'mindlessly' mimic whatever she sees. She only verbalizes through echolalia - copying the speech of people in her environment, without much regard for the meaning. She copies the poses of people, as well as their physical shapes - because gems shapeshift. (But none of them do it as much, or as habitually, as her. Homeworld Amethysts do not show the same love of form-changing that Amethyst the Crystal Gem does.) You get the idea that she's kind of a pure information sponge. With no preprogrammed knowledge about the world or how to operate in it. She stumbles through things naively, via observation and mimicry.

She, implicitly, had to be taught how to use language in a similar fashion to how a human has to be taught. This makes her much more similar to a human infant (although still kind of robot-y and uncanny) than other newly-born gems are. It... also would be a severe cognitive disability within the context of Gem society. She would not have been allowed the time and space she needed to learn how to function at the same level as her peers; most likely, upon seeing her to be defective, they would have killed her. But instead, Amethyst's first exposure to gemkind was Rose Quartz. And for all of her many, many crimes, we can say one thing about Rose: She was definitely predisposed to see a gem like Amethyst as someone special and worth nurturing, rather than a burden.

*chuckles* When a Gem is made, it's for a reason. They burst out of the ground already knowing what they're supposed to be, and then... that's what they are. Forever. But you, you're supposed to change. You're never the same even moment to moment; you're allowed and expected to invent who you are. What an incredible power, the ability to "grow up."

Amethyst is disabled! But it's not a disability that maps perfectly onto a specific human disability label. We see elements of human disability in Amethyst's disability, but also elements of typical humans that would become disabling in the context of a nonhuman species and its cultural expectations. We also see things that feel, potentially, like nonhuman manifestations of things a neurodivergent human might relate to. No gem in the entire show does as much shapeshifting as Amethyst does, even though we're told all gems can shapeshift. She does it in combat, to gain a unique edge, but also for pure pleasure and self-expression: turning into people she knows to tease them, moonlighting as a he/him professional wrestler with chest hair, lounging around as a cat for the hell of it. I think about the things that can bring autistic people joy - like stimming, or organizing your toys instead of playing with them "correctly" - that reflect the shapes of our minds but aren't socially acceptable. I wouldn't say Amethyst is autism coded, specifically - but also I think about how many autistic furries and therians there are, or the apparent higher rates of LGBTQ identies among autistic people compared to the broader population. In any case. Amethyst was born underformed and amorphous, relative to Quartzes who developed typically - and I can't help but suspect her disability and her talents are fundamentally intertwined.

I just think it's neat, I guess. Amethyst is neat. I like her.

Comments

[bedes]

I think Amethyst definitely counts as what I would call a "fantasy disability", which is a disability that only is able to exist in fiction. Like, a person who is born powerless in a world where everyone has supernatural powers -- that would be a fantasy disability.

Amethyst's situation does not neatly match up with something us humans understand as a disability, which is why I suspect that it's not talked about as much. However, I think that she is 100% disabled within the context of the world that she lives in.

I find analyzing her through the lens of disability fascinating. I love your comparison between her shapeshifting and stimming! That's a unique perspective I hadn't considered, and I'm totally adopting it as my headcanon now. (Now if only MY disability could give me shapeshifting powers...)

[bedes]

As a child, I projected myself onto her hard -- especially my ADHD diagnosis. I saw a lot of myself in her behaviors, and the way she presented herself compared to other gems. She was my favorite in the early episodes of the show for this reason. Everyone around me seemed so uptight for no reason, and I often couldn't find the motivation to do things others expected me to do, but I didn't want to. So, I came across as lazy. A "trouble child", loud, obnoxious. So, you can imagine why I related to Amethyst -- especially because she was the first time I'd seen a body like mine portrayed in a non-negative way!

Neurodivergence and disability in Steven Universe is a topic very dear to me. Especially because it was Steven Universe that quite literally led to my autism diagnosis, lol.

[malymin]

Man... I was already an adult when Steven Universe started airing, but I think I already knew it was gonna be something special and important, both for the children watching and for the future of children's animation. The body diversity and queerness, of course, but also the unflinching emotional complexity that was already apparent in season 1a. I wish something similar had existed in the 90's and 00's, when I was growing up... but then, of course it didn't. Major fat characters existing as something more than a cruel joke or a one-note gag about food - much less one getting framed as ethereal and beautiful like Rose Quartz was - was rare at best when I was growing up.

I've been interested in "fantasy disability" for a while, I think; I always projected onto non-human characters as a kid, so I was interested in the question of how something that might be normal for one species would be considered debilitating for another, as well as using non-human existence as an analogy for trying to exist in a world not built for oneself. (Such as being the only cat in a world of dogs, or vice-versa...)

The thing about Amethyst is that it's not really brought up, but - I feel like humans in-universe would also potentially read young!Amethyst as disabled. (She might even be assumed to be entirely non-sapient... which I feel like a lot of nonverbal and intellectually disabled people get assumed to be by our own ableist society.) Not for the same reasons that gems would, but - she "acts weird." Her repeating phrases and copying motions, and blank-faced observing before doing so, are things that read as non-neurotypical even in a human context. (Her "under-rendered" body at the time would also make her visually worse at passing for human at the time.)

After thousands of years with the Crystal Gems, she doesn't really repeat people's words or motions anymore. Yet the shapeshifting strikes me: we're told "all gems shapeshift," but Gems who aren't Amethyst rarely do so, and definitely not with the range Amethyst displays. It's uncommon enough that Homeworld gems rarely ever think to suspect shapeshifting as a viable weapon of the Crystal Gem rebels. We're never really told why. Is freely shapeshifting for no purpose considered socially unacceptable by Homeworld's rigidly purpose-oriented culture, just as much as stimming and echolalia are in the real world by neurotypical humans? There's a lot of parallels between Amethyst and Steven to talk about, too...

(I don't feel informed to write up the read myself, but I think a lot about Amethyst as a sympathetic character for audience members who get told they're "bad kids" or feel like they have something fundamentally wrong with them for various reasons, between her conflicts with Pearl in the early show, her tendency to "act out" and play the clown... and the reveal that she was from an Earth Kindergarden, and her feeling tainted and worthless because of how she was born.)

...Sorry I took a long time to respond! I just... it's been a zillion years since I rewatched, but it turns out I have a lot of thoughts and wasn't sure how to put them down. ^_^;

[fictitiouswhimsigot]

This is a really thoughtful analysis. I've been coming to terms with how my own neurodivergence has affected my life for better and for worse, so your closing thoughts really resonated with me.

[malymin]

Thank you!

I'm glad my thoughts and feelings were able to resonate. I've spent a lot of time thinking about Amethyst, and about my own childhood... feeling like a confused animal instead of a person of the same species as everyone else.

[lb_lee]

Garnet was our favorite! And this was a super interesting, insightful thought about Amethyst, thanks for writing it!

All the Crystal Gems are "imperfect" or forbidden by Homeworld standard! It's why we love them!

[malymin]

Thank you!

I think a lot about how early in the fandom people assumed Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Rose all basically resembled the baseline norm for their "types" on homeworld, and how all those assumptions got shot down the more we learned about the Crystal Gems, and about Homeworld. (Ex - I remember people assumed pearls were an engineer/technician caste like peridots because our Pearl can fix cars and build rockets. It was very satisfying to learn that our Pearl simply pursued the skill despite not being "made for" it, and that what an individual gem is good at and loves goes far beyond what she's "meant for" despite what Homeworld would say.)