Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26208943-20150224183255/@comment-24023896-20150430202115

Kass McK wrote: Dear lord all of these baseless assumptions from both sides of the argument

RE: Lion's gender:

Some lionesses have manes. Sexual dichotomy is not the perfect binary y'all would like it to be. Nature is messy. Aside from that, Lion is a magical animal, and earthly/human notions about gender and sex simply can't be assumed to apply here. The gems' usage of 'male' pronouns for Lion means nothing, because 'female' pronouns are used for the gems who are known to be genderless, despite taking on what most would consider female gender roles. Similarly, some humans IRL -- myself included -- use binary pronouns for simplicity. I have a beard, 'male' genetalia, and a 'male' name. I do not identify as a man. I use, and instruct others to use, male pronouns for myself because it is what I've always been referred to as, because I don't want to make a big deal out of it, and because they're the closest pronouns to how I identify without using weird non-standard pronouns.

TL;DR: Lion could be male, female, genderless, genderqueer, whatever. Lion could be anything. Lion probably doesn't even have a concept of gender. Making any assumptions about Lion's gender/sex is ridiculous, because Lion is a magical creature and doesn't care about your arbitrary gender rules.

RE: Rose == Lion

Alright, next thing. Rose became half of Steven. Let's take a look at that. Rose. People keep making this more complicated than it needs to be. "Oh, it's half of Rose!" "No, it's 100% of Rose!" "No, it's Rose's soul!"

Nah, bro. It's Rose. Just Rose. Specifically, Rose Quartz. Take it at face value. So, what does that mean? Rose Quartz, the Gem, the person, her self, became half of Steven, and gave up her physical form to do so. This only means that in order for Rose to become a constituent of Steven, she could no longer posess her own physical form -- this does not necessarily mean that her physical form became a part of Steven. We know for a fact that all that the Gems essentially are is... well, their gems. Similarly, are you, the conscious, thinking person, your body? Or do you exist inside of your body? I dunno man, that stuff's complicated, ask a neuroscientist or a philosopher. Gems are simple though. Gems are their gems. Steven has Rose Quartz's gem. Rose Quartz is a part of Steven. This is undeniable. (at least without some serious mental gymnastics)

It is entirely possible, though, that Rose created Lion out of the physical mass of her body upon birthing Steven. She was shown to be a lover and a student of Life in many forms. She studied it, knew how it worked, how to guide and shape it, and she may have figured out a way to create independent life out of her own Gem-flesh. If this were the case, does this mean that Lion would be Rose? No. Lion would be of Rose. It's a subtle but important distinction.

To conclude:

Rose Quartz, the Gem Person, she, herself, is half of Steven. Half. Of. Steven. Do you see anywhere that it says "half of Rose?" No. Glad we're on the same page.

This does not exclude Lion from somehow being made from what was once her physical body.

What this does mean is that Rose Quartz herself is not Lion. If I lose a part of my body, that part is no longer me. It's just biomass now. I am still me, and I am not less of me for having lost it. The bodies of Gems are basically like their limbs. They're just parts. Who they really are is contained within their gem. Lion's body could have once belonged to Rose, but now it belongs to Lion.

side note: As for why I put quotes around 'male' and 'female' in the first paragraph, I'll just quote notable comedian and ignore-er of the gender binary, Eddie Izzard: “They’re not women’s clothes. They’re my clothes. I bought them.” Similarly, when I say my pronouns are he/him, they're not men's pronouns. They're just my pronouns. Because I'm not a man. Also conflating gender and sex -- male to man, female to woman -- is super problematic. Like I mentioned above, nature is messy. There's not just two sexes and two genders. Intersex people exist. Transgender people exist. Lionesses with manes exist. Hens that crow and have big wattles like a rooster exist! I had one! It laid eggs! But it's the common usage of the vocabulary in this case, so I figured I'd just use it and explain down here.

\*drops mic* Quite possibly one of the more hilarious, if not insane, posts i've seen in this long, long chain. It kind of plays into my own theory about Lion being friendly to Steven because he recognizes his Gem. He was first introduced when Steven's gem was showing.

On a side note, can we possbly find a way to equate A gem's Gem with it's genitalia kthanksbai.