Steven Universe storyboard artist Lauren Zuke has left Twitter and deleted her account after days of harassment from an aggressive subsection of Steven Universe fans.
“I decided I don’t want to be accessible to thousands of people who think because I work on a TV show that I owe them myself all the time,” Zuke wrote in a now-deleted tweet.
According to a Reddit forum, the harassment started right around when the episode “Beta” aired earlier this month. News of a possible relationship between characters Lapis and Peridot (or “Lapidot”) had been hinted at months before, after leaked footage (something Zuke was also upset about) showed the two characters had moved in together. Photo credit: Lauren Zuke/Tumblr
While the relationship isn’t canon, Zuke shared some art that appeared to show support for the ship, which pissed off select fans of Peridot and Amethyst (or “Amedot”), saying she was showing favortism for one ship over another.
They also accused her, a gay woman, of “queer baiting.” In some circles that means teasing queer fans with a possible ship that never comes to fruition, in others it’s bringing up a character’s sexual orientation to encourage homophobic attacks against them. (Note: Steven Universe is a show with one of the most diverse and inclusive cast of characters on television and consistently includes gay themes).
Zuke wrote on Twitter that she’s okay with criticism, but was upset that some fans thought she owed them something, whether it was time, attention, or the ship that they wanted.
“Remember you’re tweeting at a literal human being (that’s what I am btw) and life exists outside of Steven Universe,” Zuke wrote in a now-deleted tweet.
While most of the Steven Universe fandom is supportive and welcoming, there is a small subsection that’s known for being extreme and hostile under the guise of inclusiveness. Last year, the Steven Universe Tumblr community made headlines after a fan artist attempted suicide because some people were harassing her for the body proportions in her art.
Many fans in the Steven Universe community have been speaking out in support of Zuke after she quit Twitter, saying that too much of the fandom is becoming “toxic.” They’re asking anyone involved in the backlash to stop harassing fellow Steven Universe fans— especially ones who are actually responsible for making the show itself.
We reached out to Zuke for comment, and we’ll keep you updated should we hear back.
>Pander to progressives with lots of lesbian overtones >Get surprised when they turn on you for not being progressive enough
Gavin King
>mfw tumblr is reponsible for the first SU dev suicide and not us
Austin Clark
It was progressive enough. This time she got harrassed for shipping wars.
Alexander Kelly
We masturbate to rocks and watch leak episodes, nothing else.
Wyatt Harris
Progressives always eat each other for not being progressive enough or ideologically pure enough.
Brayden Kelly
Why? Why the fuck would anyone get this anal about a pairing?
Andrew Mitchell
>Lauren Zuke wrote beach city drift >the one about acknowledging that you just got to ignore trolls >deletes her Twitter because of spammers
Pottery
she used to be by far my favorite......
Adrian Lewis
Does this mean that Peridot is going to become disillusioned with social media in series?
Jackson Butler
Seems an okay move. Imo I'd rather have artist quit social media instead of being drama queens and blocking everyone while proudly exclaiming how s/he blocks everyone.
Michael Brown
Dunno but I hope it mocks it in some level.
Daniel Robinson
>That "note" Puked in my mouth just a bit.
Joseph White
She's still my favorite and honestly, getting off of social media is the smartest fucking thing you can do. People shouldn't know what the fuck you're doing ever goddamn second.
Chase Williams
Dude. Teen girls (and no so teens) sent death threats to Freemans' (The guy that played Watson in Sherlock) wife because she was 'on the way' of their pain Sherlock/Watson
Jackson Peterson
She also did the Amedot episode and is the best at drawing Amethyst.
Also she's taking her own advice. She's ignoring the trolls, she's leaving twitter, she don't need none of that shit.
Xavier Barnes
But it's so diverse. It's got the fat boy, the purple girl, the white girl, the magenta girl, the green girl, the blue girl and the orange girl.
Carson Thomas
But, she IS ignoring trolls. No twitter means she won't see the trolls.
Angel Garcia
"Some people don't understand the dangers of indiscriminate surveillance."
David Green
Shippers are a cancer on every fandom.
It's just that Steven Universe's are especially caustic.
Kevin Morgan
>forgetting the brown girl
Jason Cook
Well she is a shitty character
Jonathan Thompson
The problem was bragging about diversity and progressiveness. As if these are important features of television now. The less TV I watch and voluntary media I consume, the better to be honest.
Thomas Cooper
She should have considered making a decent program
Tyler Brown
>Shippers are a cancer in every fandom.
I find it hard to agree more with a post than this.
oh wow gee who would have seen this happening gosh
Juan Thomas
Yeah, I don't mind diverse characters, but they have to be fun as characters first. Putting them in for the sake of being progressive is dumb and leads to shitty characters.
Thomas Clark
...Then why are you on a cartoon and comics imageboard in the first place.
Austin Myers
He just told you it wasn't about progressives dumbass, it's about shipping. This thing has happened all the time with shippers.
Asher Perry
Because I still watch cartoons. I like em but it's still more media than I should be consuming.
Nathaniel Turner
Leave him alone, he's famicom levels of dense
Joshua Morgan
I'd argue that it's pretty important that these things are becoming more prevalent in children's media.
The note is pretty dumb however if only because nobody's gonna read those paragraphs of dumbass drama without already being familiar with SU.
Jackson Bailey
This didn't need a separate thread from the general. Having /sug/'s retarded peanut gallery is already bad enough. Having the majority of Sup Forums put their retarded two cents in is even worse.
Connor Collins
Didn't the article mention they accused her of "queer baiting"?
Caleb Flores
>relation >It's just peridot using lapis as a pet monki and she aggrees after admitting missing being raped and abused like an object. sugar has a fucked view of romance.
Ethan Cook
So what do you make of the whole "queer baiting", because that's usually associated with sjws who think that you can oppress people by how you write their character.
James Scott
I don't think it's important. Not in children's media. Not in any. No purpose for it. Does nothing.
Ethan Jackson
>So what do you make of the whole "queer baiting" They used it as a buzzword. Peridot is getting close to amethyst is the same as she's getting close to lapis The use of the word in this context didn't make any sense
Blake Wilson
Thinly veiled reason for people being mad their favorite ship isn't 100% canon forever.
Nicholas White
It does though. Just because you are comfortable with yourself doesn't mean other people are. And that's the whole point of the diversity stuff. But I bet you whine when they remove your favorite white straight character
Parker Brown
It doesn't make sense in any context. You make inferences about the relationship of two fictional characters that's on you. Nobody told you and it isn't owed to you.
Levi Thompson
You make a show like this and you expose yourself to autism
Bentley Ross
This. It's just being boosted by the gender politics merry go round that is Twitter.
Sebastian Smith
>SU "fans" are rabid assholes >the crew knew this >this event is somehow news even though everyone could've seen it coming
David Bennett
How comfortable other people are with themselves is unrelated to what gets shown on TV. Unless they're dysfunctional.
I'm comfortable with myself regardless of your shitposting or what is or isn't on TV. Again. Because I'm dysfunctional. Well. Not in that regard. But that's my business.
Hudson Parker
>Working on something popular and getting a Twitter account in this day and age Lauren did this to Lauren.
William Hill
>showing support for any ship >ever
She was basically asking for it
Elijah Miller
...
Josiah Jackson
>Steven Universe storyboard
a Diamond is a fucking huge thousands if not millions of gems fusion. when they talk about rose killing the pink diamond it means that the personality of pink diamond got divided. And Rose was the one, who brought the self doubts to the mind of pink diamond. the Rose doubts got shared with other gems inside of pink diamond mind, which brought its dissolve and then the shit hit the fan: the pink diamond literally felt apart into thousands of gems back. who started to blame each other and began the citizen war. Pearl saw it all and feels the quilt and despair because of that. she supports the Rose. Garnet is literally a fusion of blue Diamond emissary Sapphire, who was send to investigate and instead to figure out what happened went rouge and felt in love with Ruby.
Scared by shit going on on the Earth and not seeing other options (see scene with Sapphire leaving for earth) other 3 diamonds panicked, that the destruction of pink diamond will also come to them as an "self-doubt infection" and triggered the gems mass destruction ray weapon, which destroyed the consciousness of gems on the earth. turning them all into feeling driven monsters without personalities.
Dylan Walker
lapidot is shit so who cares
but real talk it was inevitable this would happen. it isn't news that SU's tumblr fandom is fuckin crazy.
Jordan Jones
If you need to be validated by fictional media you have a larger issue. Media has no obligation to soothe personal inadequacy nor should it. If you feel uncomfortable with yourself, that is not coming from anything you are doing but engaging in voluntarily or your personal issues.
The long and short of it is, you will be happier and feel better about yourself if you watch less TV. Not more. Demanding it cater to you personally isn't unreasonable. It's impossible.
David Stewart
Just getting off twitter is probably the smartest move if it really upsets you, but SU's fandom just seems to be trying to out-autism fucking sonic right now. This shouldn't really be shocking or news to anyone.
Gabriel Baker
Tl;dr Media cannot reasonably accommodate everyone personally.
Daniel Rivera
Why are you posting this shit?
this isn't /sug so fuck off back over there and post your shitty fan theory
Hudson Rivera
It's what she gets for being a fat lesbian with no talent
Austin Gomez
>fan theory
a Diamond is a fucking huge thousands if not millions of gems fusion. when they talk about rose killing the pink diamond it means that the personality of pink diamond got divided. And Rose was the one, who brought the self doubts to the mind of pink diamond. the Rose doubts got shared with other gems inside of pink diamond mind, which brought its dissolve and then the shit hit the fan: the pink diamond literally felt apart into thousands of gems back. who started to blame each other and began the citizen war. Pearl saw it all and feels the quilt and despair because of that. she supports the Rose. Garnet is literally a fusion of blue Diamond emissary Sapphire, who was send to investigate and instead to figure out what happened went rouge and felt in love with Ruby.
Scared by shit going on on the Earth and not seeing other options (see scene with Sapphire leaving for earth) other 3 diamonds panicked, that the destruction of pink diamond will also come to them as an "self-doubt infection" and triggered the gems mass destruction ray weapon, which destroyed the consciousness of gems on the earth. turning them all into feeling driven monsters without personalities.
Jordan Harris
hahaha you coont
>>>/sug
Isaiah Cruz
>Just because you are comfortable with yourself doesn't mean other people are you are an adult, suck it up or kill yourself cause you are defective
Angel Moore
Important only for people's fragile self-esteem
Grayson Clark
I really like how every single bit of drama regarding this show, spamming a real hotel with negative reviews, driving a fan to attempted suicide, and now driving Based Zuke off Twitter had literally nothing to do with us at all.
I love that we have yet another fucking example that we're not the scum of the internet, they are. Maybe well eventually get some fucking creators back here if this keeps up.
Probably not though. Not after we killed that Korra leaker...
Jacob Howard
lol he posted it again!!!!
Henry Williams
Wow. This generation has gotten SO fucking thin skinned and sensitive that they're attacking each other about not being the right kind of special snowflake.
Hey, maybe there should just be special DVD editions of every show ever, all edited to specifically fit into every possible pairing. Gay, straight, hell, let's even include bestiality in it too. Why the fuck not!?
My point here is this: It's a fictional show, it was basically fan-art made by some behind the scenes she-schmuck and fabois (more likely fangrrrlz) got all huffy about it and harassed someone because their own special vision wasn't catered to.
You know, back in my day (AKA, 5-6 years ago) we just watched shows, drew our own gay porn (hey, what can I say...) and just fantasized. Nope. Not now. Now fans rant and rave and make demands and genuinely think they're owed something. And that's sickening to me. The creators of the various things I like don't owe me jack shit. And I owe them even less. They just made something that I like, and that's that.
This generation seriously needs to collectively get ass fucked into submission (probably by niggers). But then again, they'd probably like it....
Chase Sullivan
I'm not him. And while I think media is not what should be catering to you, I think it lacks compassion to say people shouldn't feel comfortable. Just that looking for it from TV isn't healthy. Lasting, real self esteem comes from genuine personal growth and success. This requires serious commitment. TV is fun. But it can never substitute what's important. Nor should it. It would be hollow, impersonal back patting with no sincerity. And that's the problem with TV diversity. It can't and won't ever be sincere. Because it can't, won't, and shouldn't be personal.
In the end, love and compassion is valueless when it's obligatory.
Eli Long
When did Sup Forums kill a Korra leaker?
Aaron Wood
It's a meme. They just shitposted at him until he left.
Grayson Watson
I like seeing seeing fandoms turn things to shit quick. The more cancerous a community the better. I want to have creators cringe at what they have created.
Bentley James
>attempting to assign morality to a website
You're just as dumb as the people who say Sup Forums is a hate group. There are stupid individuals who use a variety of social media outlets to say stupid things. Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and especially Sup Forums all have gigantic, dumb as hell userbases with poor impulse control and social filters. You're attempting to feel good about belonging to one social platform and not the other which is just petty tribalism not based in reality.
Also I wouldn't count on any creators coming back here as long as Sup Forums keeps racebaiting regularly without consequence.
Logan Hill
Admittedly, i just did petty tribalism myself by insinuating it's all Sup Forums's fault that creators won't come to Sup Forums anymore. It's a hard habit to shake.
Henry Bell
does connie poo in the loo?
Hunter Cook
...
Ryan Lewis
The Zuke's been juked?
Brandon Martinez
Who cares
Jeremiah Lopez
>I decided I don’t want to be accessible to thousands of people
You mean like people who don't publicly put themselves out there for the world to see?
I don't feel bad for her, if she didn't know what the fuck she was getting herself into, then she deserves to be sad and upset.
Ryan Perry
>Implying the SU fandom is good >At all
Blake Powell
>one of the most diverse and inclusive cast of characters on television and consistently includes gay themes
More like all women and ONLY gay themes.
Elijah Myers
That post and image is toxic AND problematic, delete it right now.
Jackson Torres
(Note: Steven Universe is a show with one of the most diverse and inclusive cast of characters on television and consistently includes gay themes).
Whatever happened to "it doesn't count because the rocks don't have a gender?"
Jacob Ward
Rip in pepperoni Žukauskaite.
It was a good decision, though. Twitter is literally useless.
Carson Ramirez
In-universe they don't, but as far as analising the show IRL they pretty much do. You have a similar situation with fusion.
Nathan Jenkins
>the Steven Universe Tumblr community made headlines after a fan artist attempted suicide because some people were harassing her for the body proportions in her art. that fanartist got harrassed by multiple fandoms at once, especially for drawing a humanized pony in native american clothing and just for having a terrible art style and still being successful
Xavier Martin
Oh fuck off, no artist goes on Twitter and expects as huge a response as that. They're fucking artists.
Fat-shaming art is one thing, but this is just posting a art that could be considered ship bait. It's going to get to a point where an artist will get shit on for not drawing one character more than another. Not for quality, but frequency.
Carter King
>Queer baiting It's real in this show though.
Benjamin Jones
This fanbase is getting more and more toxic.
Connor Jackson
>he forgot about the asian
Brody Garcia
Come to Sup Forums Zuke we are all faggots and niggers here.
Ethan Morris
>Oh fuck off, no artist goes on Twitter and expects as huge a response as that. They should.
Joshua Harris
Beach City is in Gemerica, so probably.
Alexander Campbell
>Connie wearing Steven's shirt which is oversized for her This. Oh my.....
Elijah Lopez
>they juked the zuke
Jaxson Thompson
Stupid goobergators harrasing women and gay people, I really hope Hillary wins so she can throw them all in jail.
Logan James
Shillaries are here.
Ian Jackson
Miss me yet, assholes?
Jacob Torres
This. People really seem to miss that the same old retarded shippers as ever use new moral language to attack people.
Levi Ortiz
Why on earth would you think that?
Nathan Perez
Fuck I'm now a #CruzMissle...
Matthew Foster
why is everyone working on SU so FUCKING UGLY??
Christopher Gutierrez
Because when you post your art on the internet, or if you're an artist on the internet, there's always the off chance you will get popular. Moreso if you post on a popular venue like twitter or tumblr. Even moreso if it's for a series with a big fanbase. Even MORESO if they're an official artist.
Anthony Moore
The SU fanbase does something retarded, news at 11.
