(Steven Universe) Why Do Gems Identify As Female?

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Gems are canonically genderless. They reproduce asexually so there's no need for more than one gender. Yet every gem identifies as female. Why is that? Why decide to be female rather than male, or no gender at all, or genderfluid? I guess the meta reason is to get away with showing homosexual relationships, but is there an in-universe reason or does anyone have a theory?

This is one of the most confusing things about the series to me, but my idea is maybe the Gems didn't used to know about gender until they started colonizing other planets, then they saw women wearing jewelry with gemstones, and decided to be female because they associated gems with femininity.

I don't know if the show creators have ever really addressed that, to be honest. I've always assumed (and have heard others assume) that it's just because the physical forms that gems take tend to look like human females, and so humans sort of assumed that gems were female based on the way they look, and started referring to them using "she/her" pronouns accordingly. Then I suppose the gems that were on Earth and interacting with humans just sort of went along with it? I would assume the native "gem language" (whatever it is) doesn't have gendered pronouns, or really any concept of gender at all, since you don't really need that when everyone's the same gender.

That would imply that prior to invading Earth/having contact with humans, gems didn't refer to one another as "she". . . I don't know. It's weird to think about. I wonder if the creators will ever provide an actual reason for it being that way.

It's a cartoon. Not everything will have a full explanation. I don't get it myself, but I'm not complaining.

"It's a cartoon" is not an excuse. Steven Universe is a very well thought out cartoon. There's very little unimportant details.

I like your idea, vegam. A lot more coherent than mine.

I'm aware of the continuity and details and I love it, I just mean that it's mainly aimed at younger audiences who may not be mature enough to understand

From what little I've seem of the show, it glorifies the LGBQT lifestyle, which I abhor. If I had kids, or grandkids, this show would be prohibited.

It doesn't glorify it. It shows that gay people exist. And there's more to the characters than just "gay" so it's not promoting a specific lifestyle. Actually, the show promotes forgiveness, mercy, and empathy, which are good values no matter who you are. It doesn't draw attention to the fact that the romantic relationships are gay, it's more about seeing the characters interact, and how their personalities play off each other. Personalities that do not depend on gender or sexuality. There are a lot of gay relationships in the show because there's very few well-represented gay people in media right now.

If it were reality, there would be a biological explanation for it. Species that reproduce asexually are all-female. Female is actually the "neutral" gender.

And may I mention: it was probably hard enough to get a show onto TV screens witha largely "female" cast (except, of course, the hero. Girls will watch boys' shows, but boys won't watch girls' shows. Marketing "truth").
I can't imagine an executive signing off on a " gay" kid's show.
Tv's ready for it, creators are, society will be able to deal with it, but there's probably a whole generation of execs who'll have to retire first.

I like the show, btw, it's smarter and the characters are deeper than average.

In biology class you study miosis, and mitosis. All that stuff about cells reproducing by dividing.

And what term do they use?

"Mother cells" and "daughter cells". So the creators of the show probably go by analogy to that.

There are species of one gender only lizards in deserts. They reproduce by laying unfertilized eggs which hatch into the next generation of lizards. Since the only gender they have is the gender that lays eggs they are thought of as "all female"(which makes perfect sense to me).

So these "gems" in this cartoon thing I never heard of that you watch probably- you know-offstage- get pregnant and gestate the next generation of baby gems in an analogous way to these lizards. So they would have to be females as well.

Actually, gems are built and incubated underground. Technically reproduction, but they don't have parents.
I think the biological analogy makes the most sense though. I didn't know that female was the "default" gender. I should research more about that. It's very interesting.