Netflxi’s She-Ra is an excellent example of how you do a show without heteronormativity or cisnormativity.
It’s just… not there. No one assumes that since Glimmer is jealous of Bo and Perfuma when they got to the ball together, it must be because she has a crush on Bo. It goes without question that Glimmer is legitimately jealous just because Bo’s been her only friend for years. No one bats an eyelash at two girls simmering with tension cutting up a dance floor. During the prom episode there was zero drama over ‘finding dates’, and the ‘make-over’ sequence was played for fun dress-ups and laughs, with no protests over Catra just opting to wear a suit, or ‘jokes’ about a muscular woman like Scorpia wearing a gown (which she looked amazing in). No one has said a SINGLE WORD about girls trying to get boyfriends, or vice versa. Characters get starry-eyed (for a variety of reasons, and often just ambiguously) over other characters regardless of gender, and no one finds it the least bit inappropriate or even noteworthy.
There is zero reference to anyone needing to uphold some kind of pretense of masculinity or femininity. Zero time is spent exploring anyone’s insecurity over their looks or styling or how ‘attractive’ they are, either. There isn’t even an awkward sideways glance when Sea Hawk announces, via song ‘some say I’m a man, what I know for certain is that I’m Sea Hawk’, when most shows would take the opening to offer up some sort of dig on assumption that he was ‘accidentally’ discrediting his masculinity. The awkwardness in the sequence is reserved for the fact that he keeps trying to sing his self-styled ‘shanties’ in the first place.
I mean just look at some of this stuff:
(Sea Hawk flirting with Mermista)
(Adora and Glimmer, chilling in a hot tub, no feet apart because no one cares who’s gay)
(Mermista blushing because She-Ra thanked her)
(Catra’s ball outfit)
(Scorpia’s)
(Bo fanboying over Sea Hawk)
And there’s WAY more than just that (but most of it would be too spoiler-y). So yeah it’s wonderfully relaxed and wholesome.
