I have recently begun watching My Little Pony, which is clearly BEST SHOW. But, unfortunately, I began watching it when I was at home with my parents for the holidays. My parents, while lovely people, carry around giant bags of kyriarchal assumptions all the time, and are also rather prone to superfluous geek-punching.
Nevertheless, I was caught up in the fluffy pink stupids of fan-love, and therefore decided to explain to them my newfound love.
Ozy: So I’m watching this new show, My Little Pony–
Parents: Isn’t that a kids’ show?
Ozy: Yes. But lots of people my age watch it. In fact, it’s really popular among geeky college-age men.
Parents: Are they all gay?
Ozy: …no. In fact, they’re mostly straight men.
Parents: I dunno, any guy who’s into My Little Pony seems like he must be a pedophile.
Ozy: š”
My parents aren’t the only ones who seem to be under the impression that My Little Pony fans are pedophiles. Entering “my little pony pedophile” into Google gets you FarkĀ informing us that the Internet loves MLP because of its fondness for pedophilia, Gothamist calling MLP fans “men who don’t appear to be pedophiles,” and a Steam groupĀ that I really, really, really hope is a parody which explains that the only reason for an adult male to like My Little Pony is to reach out to young females.
If you Google “deadliest catch pedophile,” though, all you get is a bunch of people talking about To Catch A Predator.
Ā 
Stop it, you guys are making Fluttershy cry!
However, all this has enlightened me and brought me to a deeper understanding of gender norms! Men are naturally masculine, and hence like manly things like Deadliest Catch and Transformers and Batman movies. In addition, being masculine is way cooler than being feminine, so if a woman likes Deadliest Catch it’s cool because Deadliest Catch is cool. If a lot of men like watching a feminine thing like My Little Pony +++OUT OF CHEESE ERROR REDO FROM START+++
All right, our systems are back online, except for that one guy whose head exploded from sheer confusion.
So a lot of men like My Little Pony! Of course, it being a cute, funny, well-written show is completely out of the question as an explanation. Men don’t like things that are cute, funny, and well-written! Men like things that are manly! Like Transformers!
Not that kind of Transformers!
However! As we know from EVOLUTION! and also SCIENCE! men are always horny and will have sex with anything. So therefore it is simple enough to explain this bizarre behavior. The men just get off on little girls! And so instead of having sex with little girls they watch a TV show that is directed at little girls! It all makes perfect sense!
The best part is that now that we’ve developed this AWESOME THEORY, we can apply it to all sorts of things people who were born with penises do that confuse or scare us because they don’t fit in our tiny model of how the world works. For instance, crossdressers!
Matt Smith in drag looks so confused. “Why am I wearing a dress? Why are there pearls? WHAT’S GOING ON?”
Clearly, it is never just that men might want to wear skirts. No, crossdressing is always always always a fetish, in much the same way that every time someone wears leather pants it’s a sign that they have a deep-seated leather kink. In fact, it is such a fetish that we can put Transvestic Fetishism in the DSM! Because not only is wanting to wear some kinds of clothing we don’t want you to wear a fetish, but it’s a mental illness.
Not only that, but men who crossdress are clearly weird and creepy and otherwise squicky! All our discomfort with men who break down the gender binary that we think is important is clearly not our own bigotry, it’s a reaction to the simple fact that if you like the way silk panties feel on your cock you are clearly a sexual predator and probably a serial killer.
And what about those bizarre people who are born with penises and think, just because they identify as women, that they’re really chicks? Well, that’s a sexual fetish too: they’re clearly just sexually aroused by the idea of being women. I mean, duh! Women think with their brains, men think with their cocks (because, clearly, all men have cocks!). Men would do any kind of bizarre behavior if it turns them on! Of course!
Fabulous Sir Ian McKellen does not have time for this shit.
So that is how thinking My Little Pony fans are pedophiles links in to transphobia, kinkphobia, and gender-role enforcement, along with probably another thousand cases of pathologization of male gender deviance I can’t think of off the top of my head. So don’t do that shit.
Here, have a picture of Muslim Fluttershy.
aliarasthedaydreamer
Ami Angelwings
Hershele Ostropoler
Cheradenine
jlandrith
kaija24
2020
noahbrand
Cliff Pervocracy
ozymandias
Shora
sirgabe
figleaf
John Hawkins
No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz? 
“Isnāt that a kidsā show?”
It’s not a show only for kids. There’s a big difference.
Hmmm… I assumed My Little Pony was a kids show and therefore not worth watching. That’s kind of illogical of me to do that, because other shows like Adventure Time and Batman: The Animated Series have adult appeal too, as well as Spongebob and probably a whole lot of other shows I’ve forgotten about or don’t know about.
I think I’ll go watch some My Little Pony.
This article opened my mind! Well done!
Prepare for an influx of needless arguments about who is Best Pony. They’re needless because Rarity is clearly best pony.
debaser71:
I think the difference between “kids’ show” and “show only for kids” is best illustrated as the difference between Animaniacs and Barney the Dinosaur. I am not a Bronie, but it seems to me that MLP falls much closer to the Animaniacs side of that spectrum.
You meant Fluttershy, right?
I love you for the Discworld reference. That is all.
Also, MLP:FIM rules. (I guess that wasn’t all.)
(and I’d actually make the case that many of the 1980s kids’ action shows designed to sell crappy toys to boys fall closer to the Barney the Dinosaur end of the spectrum. They might be targeted at children in a higher age group, and they are certainly more “classically manly”, but many of them are difficult for adults to enjoy for anything but silly “so bad it’s good” value. In contrast, many adults genuinely enjoy Animaniacs and MLP.)
“Barney the Dinosaur” has the awesome word “Dinosaur” in its title! How can it not be awesomely rocking?
*cries with the realization that they fluffified a fucking Tyrannosaurus Rex*
Awesome article, by the way! There are really some intimidating bouncers trying to make sure no Grown Men enter Little Girly-Girly Land, and actually, it’s great that there’s a subculture going “we politely ask you to be less judgmental and presumptious about the relationship between entertainment we enjoy and the contents of our characters, thank you very much” (because, as far as I have heard, Bronies would be far too polite to simply say “fuck you, you judgmental pervy-minded anusses”).
“There are really some intimidating bouncers trying to make sure no Grown Men enter Little Girly-Girly Land”
In fact anyone with a penis, not just grown men.
Just ask any little boy who wanted Hello Kitty stuff and was turned away from that Sanrio shop (they are the Hello Kitty brand) by their parents, because it’s “not appropriate”.
By the way, here is an interesting review of MLP:FIM – the reviewer was originally baffled that his viewer base (consisting mostly of science fiction nerds) suggested “a little girls’ cartoon”, and wrote it off as people wanting him to take mean-spirited stabs at something clearly not meant for his particular demographic.
Then he watched it, liked it, and made the following review: http://blip.tv/sf-debris-opinionated-reviews/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-review-5658418
(yes. He does narrate bits of slightly modified Rorschach dialogue from Watchmen as things Sparkle Twilight might say….)
To be fair to Matt Smith, that’s pretty much just his face.
Totally agreeing with everything in this article, Ozy. I’m a brony myself, though the term is a bit too gendered. It works, and is generally meant in either a playful or at least neutral way, so I don’t really take offense at it, but the fact that men are specifically called out, while adult women are not, speaks to the culture’s messed-up attitudes, to be sure. I typically watch the show with my 15 year old brother (who is also totally not a pedophile), and we both enjoy it for exactly the reasons you outlined, as well as for the surprisingly good animation. Heck, I’ve even written an MLP fanfic which casts the ponies as the larval stage of a greater, technological meta-species.
There’s really a cartoon renaissance happening right now with the likes of Adventure Time, Regular Show, Thundercats, etc. I’m a huge fan of animation in general, and it’s nice to see shows in the hand-drawn style that aren’t coming out of Japan. Don’t get me wrong, CG and anime are both great, but this new crop really is a cut above. Sorry to get off topic a little, but these shows succeed precisely because they appeal both to adults and children. At the very least they make watching cartoons with the kids in your life a tolerable experience. That’s a good thing, hair-trigger pedophile accusations or not.
Those few people who really take issue with the MLP fandom seem to be in the minority, from my perspective, and frequent only the seedier internet locales. As far as the pedophile thing goes, I don’t think the “deadliest catch predator” search is the best example, because it’s so close to the title of “To catch a predator.” Then again, “Gold Rush pedophile” doesn’t yield any more results.
Also, I love the fact that MLP shows all sorts of girls doing different things, and sends the message that it’s acceptable to be both a girl AND to work with your hands, or to love learning, or even to be evil! It’s so, so rare. The question “which pony do you like the best” results in positively heated arguments between my nieces, which is just so great.
dancingbojangles: I Googled for “manly TV show” and then used the first result that came up. š It just happened to work out that way.
Also, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are clearly Best Pony.
Ah, that makes sense š
WHAAAAAT I Disagree! Applejack for the win!
All this reminds me of a conversation I had with my mum once. We were watching an ad in which a 30-odd (but still conventionally good-looking, of course) woman was playing a first person shooter. My mum was quite happy at the greater representation of people who play games – both in that she was a woman and that she was in her 30s. I mentioned off-handedly that it is great, but it’s sad that it doesn’t go the other way – guys who play games for girls are considered weird. My mum gave me a very doubtful, strange look and said that, indeed, she would think it was very weird if a guy was buying something like My Little Pony unless they were getting it for their daughter or whatever. Quite apart from the fact that ‘girls’ game’ suddenly equals My Little Pony now (I was thinking more along the lines of The Sims, honestly): an adult woman who plays My Little Pony is okay, but a man ‘weird’ and, as she implied, a pedophile?
And My Little Pony is one of the best shows on right now. Hands down. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than Adventure Time, but there you go. Apart from it being extremely well-written, the extremely catchy songs, the amazing animation, etc., it’s great from a feminist point of view because it portrays six different main female characters, all with very distinct personalities that range from extremely feminine to extremely masculine without ever implying that one is better than the other. Lauren Faust said that one of the things she wanted to do with it was teach kids that there is more than one way to be a girl (because she was sick of shows giving male characters lots of different characterisations and girls just one generic Girl personality) and it SHOWS.
Also Fluttershy is best pony, everyone knows that!
I remember discovering MLP:FiM when I ran out of decent Lets Plays and Long-form Internet Review videos. The sentiments in the blogpost are pretty common. One thing that I find helps deflect some criticism from me is to say that Lauren Faust (of PowerPuff Girls fame) is heavily involved with the show, and for me it is a giant nostalgia trip. Everyone understands nostalgia and nobody questions it.
My favorite is Pinky Pie. She won me over in Party of One – a great episode overall because it shows what happens when that all important aspect of a pony’s character is suppressed/taken away. I also like that sometimes it seems that she is borderline self-aware about being a pony in a magical land, and I can’t help but think to myself that if I were in the same position, choosing to just party 24/7 would NOT be my first choice.
Please don’t hurt me, but I don’t get the point of MLP. If there’s a cartoon that speaks to where I’m at as a man, it’s The Venture Bros. God, I feel for all those characters so much.
But I can attest to the “crossdressers are perverts” meme. I think this ties in with the Men Are Not Hot thing, because Johnny Depp or Cillian Murphy in “drag” is not seen in the same way as, say, John Travolta in “drag.”
@monkey: Well, venture brothers is great, but it isn’t really in the same category. It’s produced pretty much specifically for adults, so it doesn’t have that dual appeal that’s been driving cartoon innovation for the past couple years. Of course not liking MLP is your prerogative, nobody’s gonna hurt you for that. I mean, the part of your brain which detects awesomeness is obviously underdeveloped, but whatever š
Speaking of Venture Brothers though and on topic for masculism, how amazing is Shore Leave? A flamboyantly gay hacker commando? Come on!
Itās a great show for boys and girls thatās really well written and animated the fact that it involveās talking ponies is of no real problem in my opinion.
Although some people beg to differ.
The other day in college we were having a discussion about animated shows we like when the topic of MLP came up. One of the guys I was talking to said he would watch it but was afraid of because itās a girls show.
At this I immediately piped up and declared my enjoyment of the show and proceeded to sing the theme tune in full.
His exact words were “well if a guy like you can enjoy MLP then itās ok for me to enjoy it”
Iāve been an anime/manga fan my whole life so liking stuff that steps outside the borders of what is for boys and what is for girls kind of comes naturally to me but he didnāt know this. I was happy for him yet also very saddened, he shouldnāt need anyoneās permission to enjoy a good TV show least of all a loser like me. Fucking gender norms.
Hereās my favourite internet reviewer critiquing the first episode
http://blip.tv/sf-debris-opinionated-reviews/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-review-5658418
Flutter Shy forever.
@Monkey
No worries! All us bronies will still love and tolerate you all the same :).
It is a bit of an acquired taste, and the show is by no means for everybody (or everypony :p). The most important thing is the ability to respect the likes of others, even if they seem non-gender normative, which, it would appear, you have in spades.
EDIT: The last sentence of my previous post should read, “…choosing to party 24/7 would NOT be such a bad choice.”
I gotta admit I enjoyed the episode I watched, Luna Eclipsed, but it was a bit predictable. As to the whole subculture business, I’m grateful there’s more people at least using the language of tolerance and love, who knows maybe some social justice good can come out of it.
Wait, you started with Luna Eclipsed?
How’d you manage to pick one of the few episodes that depends on continuity? Tsktsktsk. š
@marc2020: You know, that’s the funny thing to me about MLP:FiM; I’ve been watching anime since I graduated high school in 2002, and so when I first started hearing about the brony thing, I was just like “huh, people are catching on to what anime fans have been doing for a while now”. So it’s been pretty heartening to see little pockets of subcultural resistance start to become more and more noticeable (less ignorable?).
The flip side, of course, is that now I’m watching people turn the same or similar flavor of insults anime fans get onto MLP fans, which I think were mostly the same or similar flavor of insults that used to be doled out to anyone who was into furry, because GOTTA MAINTAIN THE GEEK HIERARCHY. Which is really really depressing, but consequently makes the Friendship Arsenal thing even better.
I really do need to watch more–I’m currently shored up at Winter Wrap-Up for some ungodly reason. I really do not know why. Also now I feel old for some inexplicable reason.
Oh damn you all for getting me hooked on this. Now I have something else I have to watch.
Both my husband and I are hooked, were from the very beginning, although he is by far the bigger brony of us. Your parents remarks sounds just like something I imagine my mom would say (she has said similar about mostly-for-kids shows/activities etc. in the past) and she is a carer at closed mental health facilities. Not that that should automatically mean she would know better, but you’d think it was more likely.
It makes getting him things for Christmas and birthdays easy š
I’m ashamed to say that when my friend first recommended MLP: FIM to me just under a year ago, I remembered back to when I was a kid when I thought My Little Pony was the lamest, girliest crap ever, and therefore immediately dismissed the new show. And I am a girl, so it would have been ok for me to like My Little Pony when I was a kid, but I was very into hating things that were too girly. I was one of those ‘cool’ girls. Anyway, I made a huge snap judgement, which was clearly not to do with it being a kids show but with it being a girl’s show.
Finally checked it out very recently, and wished I had done so before, the rumours were true: it is awesome. My favourite thing about it is the fact that it has 6 female main characters which gives them ample opportunity to show that different girls like different things, both things typically gendered female like giving makeovers, but also things gendered male like being active. And it never tries to show that one is better than the other. I can imagine that when you have a show that only has one token female character, as so many do, it would be hard to get something like this across.
I agree with Ozy; Fluttershy is best pony.
(the rest of the post was good too)
“Speaking of Venture Brothers though and on topic for masculism, how amazing is Shore Leave? A flamboyantly gay hacker commando? Come on!”
Shore Leave is a hacker?
I was actually a little disappointed when he and The Alchemist hooked up – their logic seemed to be “they’re the only gay characters, so OF COURSE they have to date”. Despite seeming to have almost nothing in common.
“@marc2020: You know, thatās the funny thing to me about MLP:FiM; Iāve been watching anime since I graduated high school in 2002, and so when I first started hearing about the brony thing, I was just like āhuh, people are catching on to what anime fans have been doing for a while nowā”
I’ll go you one better. I’ve been watching The Simpsons since I graduated primary school in 1991, and when I started hearing about people getting excited about a kids show also being enjoyed by adults, I was like “huh, people are catching on to what the Simpsons have been doing for a while now”.
The term “brony” squicks me out a bit from a gender-equality standpoint. On the one hand, it’s more or less explicitly defined as “an adult fan of either gender,” but it includes the syllable “bro,” and has led to the development of a couple of specifically female terms. It’s… it’s not optimal, is what I’m getting at.
Aside from that, I love pretty much everything about being a brony. The fandom is incredibly creative and prolific* and tends towards tolerance and inclusiveness more than any fandom I’ve ever been a part of,** and that makes me happy.
P.S. Twilight Sparkle is best pony, because I gotta stick by my nerdfolk.
P.P.S. When you’re ready to dive beneath the surface of your newly fledged pony addiction and you go looking for fanfiction (of which there are many hundreds, because bronies), I recommend starting off with one of the best: “It’s a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door” ( http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/its-dangerous-business-going-out-your.html ), a Tolkien-flavored epic adventure featuring Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.
* A prominent pony podcast recently compiled their Top 100 list of pony songs from 2011. and in their post about the process, they note: “What we did was to get every single pony song of 2011. While this was no mean feat, and we are likely to have missed some, despite our best efforts of multiple communities. However, we ended up with 4,826 songs to go through, which is a far greater amount than previously thought.”
** I use YouTube for virtually all of my music listening, and most videos I watch and songs I listen to are pony-related in some fashion (see previous footnote), and on the occasions when I watch a non-pony video, encountering the normal, hateful YouTube comment culture never fails to be tremendously jarring.
Let’s see if I remember how to do block quotes correctly in comments.
The Simpsons was designed to fill the same niche as The Flintstones, which was the first cartoon to be aimed at an adult audience and shown in prime time. The Simpsons was the opposite case from Friendship is Magic–it was an adult show also being enjoyed by kids.
I remember an ex-boyfriend of mine retelling how (back when one of the early 90s renditions of MLP was on the air) that while hospitalized as a little child he was still not allowed to watch it, because “that’s a girl show! You’re a boy!” Yup, apparently even as one’s child is hospitalized it is important to forbid him to cross any clearly delineated gender line boundaries – such as watching MLP.
Maybe just perhaps the current crop of ‘bronies’ will go on to think twice about those rigid lines.
@dancinbojangles:
“Of course not liking MLP is your prerogative, nobodyās gonna hurt you for that. I mean, the part of your brain which detects awesomeness is obviously underdeveloped, but whatever ”
No, it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I don’t understand it. As well, I’m wary of all big internet trends, in the sense that “you MUST like this, OR ELSE!” I feel the same way about Joss Whedon and Fringe. There *occasionally* tends to be some conformity in terms of what’s popular on the net.
I don’t recall Shore Leave being a hacker. But I do agree that the show has an interesting take on gender relations. Brock has some issues with transphobia, and Hank is clueless about what gay means, but in general it’s a pretty tolerant show. I love that the Monarch is the passionate, emotional one to Dr. Girlfriend’s logical one (and I love her voice, sue me).
@Hugh:
“I was actually a little disappointed when he and The Alchemist hooked up ā their logic seemed to be ātheyāre the only gay characters, so OF COURSE they have to dateā. Despite seeming to have almost nothing in common.”
I can see your point, but remember that EVERYONE on the show knows everyone else somehow.
Anyway, sorry for taking everybody off topic here.
@debaser71: It’s a family show. See, there’s a difference between childrens’ entertainment and family entertainment, at least in my mind. Childrens’ entertainment is stuff that generally, only kids will like (think Candy Land, Care Bears, Cootie). Family entertainment is something adults can actually enjoy, but doesn’t contain too many plot twists or controversial content to be generally considered safe for kids (think checkers, Star Wars, old television shows, and Scrabble).
There is a lot of overlap between the two categories, simply because different adults have different things they do or don’t like, and different adults have different ideas of what is appropriate for kids.
@Alex: I’m at the next level of making unpleasant assumptions that I need to get past. I’m well into the show, and the fanart, and the fanmusic, and the fanfics. But I can’t bring myself to buy the Twilight Sparkle figurine I desperately want, because “what if someone I know sees me buying a plastic kids’ toy?”
@ASCII: You mean Twilight Sparkle. š
@elementary_watson: Indeed. The best thing about the MLP fandom is the tendency to make images like this:
@Schala: I always was of the opinion that Badz-Maru, at the very least, was unisex. But then, I grew up with Spottie Dottie and Keroppi, both of which were marketed almost exclusively towards girls. (Hello Kitty goes without saying–that’s pretty much the only Sanrio character to be marketed over the company’s entire cutesy lifespan.)
@dancinbojangles: Female bronies are occasionally referred to as “pegasisters,” but it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
@Ted: Yeah, the plots can be somewhat predictable, but I kind of expect that in a show originally aimed at kids. Besides, the character interaction and development is what really drives the show, not plot. (Although, some fans would argue that the other kind of “plot” is a good reason to watch the show. Those fans are almost exclusively furries of the “fetish” variety.)
My point is that the OP let her parents think it was a show only for kids. Hence, their reaction. If the OP explained that the show is made not only for kids but so that adults can enjoy it then maybe the OP’s parents would have responded better. And note the anti-man sentiment of being a pedophile…You young ladies probably have no idea what it’s like to be thought of doing some “naughty” with children. Where fathers, especially very involved fathers, go through this crap everyday. “Why is he so involved? There must be something wrong. Now he’s hugging her! Call the police!”
I have three daughters. I know what they watch on tv. They don’t like the new MLP for the same reasons why they never liked the PowerPuff Girls. Where I think the style is good in both shows my girls think the opposite.
And afaik from interviews with the cast and writers Sesame Street is/was made such that adults could watch too. There’s references and such that kids won’t get, mainly nostalgic stuff. This is not new. What’s maybe new is the internet forum groups and such that amplify it.
And lastly there have been many kid shows or kid movies that have been a lot deeper than I would have expected. MLP is not new in this respect either. I also want to know, where has everyone been?
(And look, I’ve seen a little bit of the new MLP and I think it’s better than most similar shows, so I am not a hater or anything like that. Shit, I fully admit to enjoying The Wiggles and other full on kid show stuff.)
What if the vendor doesn’t care and/or you don’t care what the vendor thinks?
It’s not as if the vendor is your best friend you see every day and he/she is going to grill you about it until you die. It’s probably some stranger you’ve never talked to beyond “Have our store card? No. Here’s your change. Thanks”.
Typically vendors don’t care what their clients buy, they got other things to do and think about, you’re definitely not on their radar. If you look scared out of your wits they might notice more, *because* you’re scared. If you look nonplussed, they won’t even think of investigating your stuff. Even if it was something like adult diapers. KY lube. Or condoms with a cock ring.
Try it: Act like there’s nothing special at all about what you’re buying. Act like you’re buying a carton of milk, and if someone looks weird at you, it’s on them.
@The_L:
I used to work at a major toy retailer, and trust me, nobody there bats an eye at grownups buying kids’ toys. We had people who would memorize when we were getting our new shipments of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings action figures, and call us to make sure to reserve something specific they were looking for. Pretty much, I think I used to get at least one adult buying an action figure or doll for themselves, every time I worked. But it’s actually really hard to tell – I mean, nobody at the store will know if you’re buying it for your niece’s birthday party or to put on your own bookshelf. There’s no reason to feel ashamed! š
Was anyone else unaware that there was an MLP resurgence under way, and who found that occasional references to “Twilight Sparkle” evoked thoughts of vampires and glitter lube ?
@monkey: Yeah, I seem to remember him and Brock being on a mission where Brock had to handle the guards while he hacked some alarm system or something. Maybe I’m wrong, it’s been a while. Still, flamboyantly gay commando isn’t too shabby.
I liked the original MLP as a boy and I think Friendship is Magic is even better. I don’t get to watch it that often, though; no one in my family is seriously into TV except for my daughter (6) and she prefers even younger shows like Care Bears and Dora the Explorer. When she does watch ‘family’ cartoons, she’s more likely to suggest we watch Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Spectacular Spiderman, or Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. She and one of her bothers (8) will join her mother and I for MLP:FiM if we put it on, but she never asks for it. My wife loves horses and MLP (she likes the G1 series better than FiM but she likes FiM too, especially for its Powerpuff Girls-esque feel). She’s tried really hard to seduce my daughter with MLP, so she has an excuse to buy lots of MLP toys, but as far as toys go my daughter has stayed resolutely into Littlest Petshop.
Kids!
@ The_L
I feel your pain. I even wrote a blog post about how embarassing it was when I had to buy She-Ra action figures as a boy (here) , and I had a store clerk at my BX who knew me, so I couldn’t use New Millenium Consumerist Apathy as a shield. In hindsight, I think she was trying to get me to relax about it.
These days I have so buy so many tiaras, wands, freakishly big-eyed purple puppies, sherbet orange kittens, and suspiciously gleeful baby turtles (you can’t convince me these little creeps aren’t plotting something!) that I have developed a hard lack-of-give-a-crap shell around a shiny, glittery, sparkly center. Like a reverse pearl.
Jay Generally:
Actually, that would be exactly like a pearl, given what a pearl grows inside of.
Speaking as someone who has worked as a cashier in a number of retail outlets… trust me, we don’t give a crap what you buy. At all. The only thing that ever made me raise an eyebrow was someone buying cigarettes and nicorette gum at the same time.
My favorite thing about MLP: Some of the Mane Six are more masculine, and some are more feminine, and NEITHER IS IMPLIED TO BE BETTER. I can’t think of another instance of that in the entire history of TV.
My least favorite thing about MLP: The writer that wrote the Pinky Sense and buffalo episodes.
@dancinbojangles: The show ain’t perfect. Like I said, Brock has some transphobia ( although his reaction to Hunter Gathers is probably typical of people who know trans people who transition), and the whole Hunter Gathers bit was problematic. But I thought it was cool that they had a character like The Alchemist who is a)gay b)religious and c) funny as hell. God, I loved the episode with the ORB.
(Note: this is a tad repetitive)
“@monkey: Yeah, I seem to remember him and Brock being on a mission where Brock had to handle the guards while he hacked some alarm system or something”
Series Four Episode Eight. He used a severed head and hand to bypass the door’s biometric identification. Pretty badarse, but not really hacking.
MLP is awesome. Fluttershy makes me very happy and smilie and I want to give her hugs. Rainbow Dash mostly makes me want to pound my head against a wall… as does Rarity. I can see where AppleJack is coming from.
If I had to pick a main pony who I think I’d be most compatible with, it’d be Twilight.
I first heard of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as something that grown men like. Although I know better, I have a hard time believing that anyone else watches it. I can’t imagine pedophiles trying to groom girls by talking about My Little Pony; that’s some ’80s thing that girls today have never heard of, like Jem.
I know this makes me a bad person, but I also doubt that a woman on the Internet is a real woman if she professes to like MLP: FIM. I think it’s a man acting out his fantasy of women as they ought to be, as A Gay Girl In Damascus presumably was.
Perfect example of why MLP is awesome: in the episode where Pinkie Pie babysits, two Earth Ponies have a Pegasus and a Unicorn child. When asked how that’s possible, the father rattles off some very obscure relatives and then says, “… that makes sense, right?” I fucking busted out laughing and I bet most kids would see that joke fly right over their heads.
“tis a strange world indeed when a show about brightly colored talking ponies, is seen as less girly than vampires and werewolves.”
“I know this makes me a bad person, but I also doubt that a woman on the Internet is a real woman if she professes to like MLP: FIM. I think itās a man acting out his fantasy of women as they ought to be, as A Gay Girl In Damascus presumably was.”
Those have been accusations leveled at trans women, simply for being trans women. That by identifying as female, they are acting out their fantasy of what they think women are or ought to be, and nothing more.
I find that thought itself to be troubling when thinking about trans people, but I find it a lot more irrelevant when it’s about ponies.
What does the man’s fantasy of a woman or how she ought to be manifest in a game like say, Final Fantasy XIV: Online, and a male player roleplays a female character in-game and likes doing so, but his portrayal is not stereotypical in any kind of way?
The answer to this question is why I find it utterly implausible.
People roleplay people they’re not for escapism, or in the case of trans people, sometimes as practice (before coming out and/or socially transitioning physically). Genderqueer people might do it for variety’s sake simply enough. It funnily enough rarily has to do with the stereotypicalness of their interests.
I was definitely a woman on Kingdom of Loathing for a while. It was nice… and felt really comfortable and easy. I got to be really cuddly and affectionate without seeming creepy and really got to just be myself. It was really, really cool. I was no more “stereotypically” female than anyone else… hell, half the time I was talking about Football or video games!
I don’t get the “must be a pedophile!” thing. I sort of get the conflation of pedophilia and child molestation – obviously you can’t be attracted to anyone without immediately raping them, because nobody has a conscience. I sort of get that if someone exists near a child then they must be planning to rape them. Existing near their victim is something a rapist would want to do. But why would a pedophile be more likely to enjoy things children enjoy too? Do people think that pedophiles emit mind-waves at cartoons to absorb the souls of children who watch same at the same time?
Actually, the “pedophilia = child molestation” is really something that annoys me. At least in my home country, terms like “convicted of pedophilia” and “suspected of pedophilia” are often used in the media. But pedophilia is not, in fact, a crime. Child molestation is. Not all child molesters are pedophiles, and not all pedophiles are child molesters (for a famous example: Lewis Carroll is believed to have been a pedophile who, due to his conscience, lived his entire life in celibacy and never actually molested children). The use of “pedophile” as more or less synonymous with “monstrous child rapist” is shaming and attacking people for something they did not choose. As long as such people do not actually molest children, I think they deserve compassion more than they deserve hatred.
To give credit where credit is due, the final picture is by [Shaburdies](http://shaburdies.tumblr.com/post/15261219095/if-you-can-guess-which-episode-this-is-from-then).
Jade: Thank you! I found it on Tumblr and didn’t recall who did it. š I will include a credit.
@jnakabb: They make sparkly Twilight-inspired dildos, actually. >.>
@scrapemind: If I had a few minutes with a webcam and a couple MLP action figures, I think I could convince you that I’m a female MLP:FiM fan. ;P
Also…I have a filthy mind, and Carrot Cake’s “that makes sense, right?” flew right over my head. But then, I wasn’t paying much attention during that part of the episode.
@RocketFrog: Indeed. It must be rough to be a pedophile, knowing you can’t act on your attraction without causing harm to innocent children. (Note in case this isn’t clear: I do not believe that RocketFrog is a pedophile. I am using the general “you” here.)
@scrapemind
Well, that’s pretty offensive.
It’s entirely possible someone likes it *because it’s a good show*. I mean, seriously, neither men nor women are allowed to like a show that’s more or less marketed towards girls, in your mind?
I mean, seriously, your “I doubt a woman is a real woman if….” statement is offensive on so many levels. To women who like the show (and are still women!), to men who like the show (and aren’t trying to pretend to be women, since you apparently view that as an offense…). What the hell?
@The_L: I know that female fans of MLP:FiM exist, but my stereotype of such a fan is a male geek. It raises my eyebrow a little for a woman to be a fan, like if a woman professed her love for Captain Beefheart or Godzilla.
@Paul: It’s hard to explain why I can’t think of MLP:FiM as girly. Maybe it’s that when I first heard of it, I thought it was some kind of obscure web show. It’s easy to explain why vampires and werewolves have gone girly: They’re no longer horror but paranormal romance.
@tovyasagain: My problem with men posing as women online is that it makes me feel like women don’t exist. I know intellectually that women are people, but I feel like women are unicorns. I know intellectually that women exist, but the Internet makes me feel like women are as mythical as the creatures that otherkin use as online identities.
I’d think you’d be more angry about the “grown men trying to hijack a show aimed at little girls” angle, at the very least.
Also the creepy. And there’s a lot of creepy.
“@tovyasagain: My problem with men posing as women online is that it makes me feel like women donāt exist. I know intellectually that women are people, but I feel like women are unicorns. I know intellectually that women exist, but the Internet makes me feel like women are as mythical as the creatures that otherkin use as online identities.”
In games I play, it really does seem that women are unicorns. If the games (which are all East Asia MMORPGs, at least online) I play are not called Sims or Second Life, chances are women represent less than 25% of the presence there. And trans people are overrepresented as compared to their demographic size (which is 0.2%). I’m not a fan of sandbox stuff, wether it’s called Sims or Grand Theft Auto – I’ll get bored fast enough.
I need structure, a goal, a motivation. Tell me that there’s none and I’ll just sit and get bored. I can invent my own motivation, provided there are measurable scales, ways to “get better”, leveling systems, skill-based systems, anything like that. If the goal is “to have the prettiest farm/house in Hello Kitty Online”, I won’t even try. To have the most money-efficient farm is a good goal though. Provided there’s actually something I can spend the money gained therein on.
As much as my style might be interpreted as competitive, I abhor pvp combat in general. Immaturity seems to be the number 1 rule of pvp, and my motor control skills suck a lot more than my strategist skills. This is also why I’m not attracted one bit towards FPS genres.
I saw this today and it bothered me. Not because it was MLP but the reactions from the teenagers watching it. basically about 80% of the reactions from both boys and girls were negative responses to the idea of men and boys watching this showā¦
of particular note, when asked about what the boys thought of their gender watching MLP:
āitās like a slap in the face to usā¦ā
āif youāre a guy and watch MLP you shouldnāt be allowed to be called a man.ā
āthey just need a girlfriendā¦ā
When the girls are asked if they would want to date a āBronyā:
āHell, no!ā
ā NO! I want a boy whoās like, āIām Tough.ā
If you were the creator of MLP and you made this for little girls and then all this happened, how would you feel?
āI would feel itās kind a threatā Girl
I posted this in another thread but asked that it be deleted. I reposted it here…
scrapemind: what about women posing as men online, though? There seems to be a huge obvious asymmetry between how the two groups are treated…
When I first heard of MLP:FiM, I thought it was a 4chan thing. I deleted that from my previous comment to spare the feelings of the readers of this blog. I thought, you guys hate that cesspool of misogyny, reddit, so you must REALLY hate 4chan, and I don’t want to taint your love of MLP:FiM by associating it with something you hate. Maybe that’s why I’m so messed up about MLP:FiM: It’s a 4chan thing; it can’t be for little girls.
@makomk: I understand why women would pose as men online: They want to be treated like people not unicorns. However, it also reinforces my perception that the default person is male. I guess it wouldn’t do so if the woman did something that outed herself as a woman, but I can’t imagine how. I know it’s supposed to be the other way round, that masculinity is fragile and requires constant policing for fear of man card revocation, but I can’t think of an interest a man would have that would make me suspect he’s female in real life. My Little Pony doesn’t count. Yaoi? No, some men like it. Maybe knitting? I don’t know any men who are into that.
I know the double standard with tomboys and sissies. I know that women can wear pants, but men can’t wear dresses. In spite of that, my perception is that masculinity is broader than femininity. Sure, football fans are mostly male, but watching football isn’t the only way to be typically male. Dungeons & Dragons players are mostly male. Transvestic fetishists are mostly male. It’s well-known that there are men who get off on wearing pantyhose, but I find it hard to picture a woman becoming aroused by wearing a jockstrap. Male paraphiliacs outnumber female paraphiliacs in much the same way that geek guys outnumber geek girls. Men are people, so they can be interested in almost anything, but women are unicorns, so they have unicorn interests, and have a disappointing lack of interest in cool stuff that’s nerdy or obscure.
One of my best crochet technique books was written by a man. Don’t have it on hand to check the name, unfortunately.
And, I had meant to say earlier, y no love for Rainbow Dash? She is clearly made of awesome.
“Sure, football fans are mostly male, but watching football isnāt the only way to be typically male. Dungeons & Dragons players are mostly male. Transvestic fetishists are mostly male. Itās well-known that there are men who get off on wearing pantyhose, but I find it hard to picture a woman becoming aroused by wearing a jockstrap.”
Transvestic fetishists, if you use the DSM’s definition, CANNOT be assigned female at birth, by definition. Because they have more options. By definition they need to wear something taboo for their sex, AND be sexually aroused by it. Given there’s no male garment that is uniquely male in Western society (jockstraps technically protect the crotch, not the penis/balls – assigned-female-at-birth persons also have crotches, and would probably scream if they received a puck or baseball there), it’s simply impossible.
“Male paraphiliacs outnumber female paraphiliacs in much the same way that geek guys outnumber geek girls. ”
Maybe this goes to some shrinks who work on that (Ray Blanchard for example) defining paraphilia as something that can only happen to male-assigned persons. Because women don’t have that, it’s just common sense, no need to study it. Pedophilic women are unicorns, don’t exist, are not women, have been forced to be pedophile by some male in their life, anything to deny they exist.
“Men are people, so they can be interested in almost anything, but women are unicorns, so they have unicorn interests, and have a disappointing lack of interest in cool stuff thatās nerdy or obscure.”
Women can be interested in general interests AND unicorn interests.
Men interested in unicorn interests risk their professional and social reputation, health, physical integrity, as while as get the disdain of others if found out.
How many women do you think stay married to transvestites? They leave them over this unicorn deal. So yeah. More choices my ass.
scrapemind:
My father was very fond of knitting, and did not care in the slightest what other people thought about that. Apart from knitting at home, he would often sit and knit while waiting for a bus, or when on a train, or in other situations where he would have some time sitting down and not much to do.
In my part of the world knitting was done by both men and women but for different reasons. the women generally did it to make clothing, the men to repair fishing nets (and to make clothing).
My high school had a pretty impressive turnout for knitting, and an approximate 50/50 split along the sexes. So more anecdotal evidence for that, I suppose.
I think my post was eaten or deleted but I commented how full fledged adults are often able to overcome hang ups about hobbies and such things. For example, my friend was really into knitting and I really like my flowers. If this were 20 years ago (when we were young and really cared about other people’s perceptions) we’d probably to afraid to even consider these as things men can enjoy. Now it’s completely a non-issue.
That’s offensive! We’ve successfully hijacked a show aimed at little girls.
I keed, I keed. There are two non-intersecting fandoms for the show: the primary target audience, and bronies. Never the twain shall meet, nor do they need to. It is, as has been previously mentioned, a damn good show that is written to appeal to both demographics simultaneously. So there’s no hijacking going on–the show is functioning as intended (albeit much more successfully than the creators anticipated).
Creepy is in every fandom ever. Rule 34 is a true story, yo. However, it’s a trivial matter to avoid being exposed to the creepy content in whatever fandoms you happen to be a part of, so I have little sympathy for the people who piss and moan about how X is ruining their Y.
It’s good of you to not let your preconceptions color your views forever. Feel free to read that with whatever level of sarcasm or sincerity is appropriate.
That view is damn near incomprehensible to me. The tip of the iceberg of my problems with it is that 4chan is not monolithic–it’s /b/ that generates (and earns) the bad press. Many parts of 4chan are practically civilized, and the brony thing arguably started in /co/, which, you’ll note, is not /b/.
More importantly, the origins of the brony culture are moot. Even if it had started on /b/, or Reddit, or YouTube, or whatever other site you can name with a horrific user culture, the simple fact that it has become a tremendously positive force in so many places across the internet and in so many peoples’ lives is the relevant and important part of the story.
There’s a tumblr called Pony Confessions, where anonymous users write in and make “confessions” related to My Little Pony. And for every confession complaining about drama within the fandom, there is one that talks about how being part of the fandom led to finding new friends, or finding the inspiration to create art, or deciding not to commit suicide because this cartoon about marshmallow ponies restored their sense of hope. There are quite a few confessions about not committing suicide, actually, which seems to me to be reason enough by itself to support, or at least not to fight against, the spread of this weird outbreak of love and tolerance on the internet.
Society is warped and tries to set standards for men and women. Girls should wear pink and boys blue. Girls should play with dolls and teddy bears and boys with guns, and trucks. To bad
As a child a little girl I hated dolls and stuffed toys, I loved nothing better than playing with toy trucks and cars and climbing trees. I have a grandson who loves his stuffed elephant and he plays with dolls, he plays with trucks and cars too and he has a sister who plays with trucks and cars and likes outdoor things.
My husband wears pink shirts and he is all man. Nothing feminine about him, he is not bi or gay. In fact I know gay men who are very very masculine and unless you knew them would have no clue they are gay so what. They would not likely even watch my little pony. It just is not their thing to do.
In my generation “The Hippie Era” Men grew long long hair and wore beads and flowers in their hair but they were not feminine or gay. Some might have been and if they were so why should that be your problem.
I have a 15 year old grandson he likes My little boy, he is not gay, he is not bi he is not feminine and does not wear feminine clothing. He likes computer games,He likes going hunting with his dad, he loves to go fishing, so do I and I am not masculine I just like fishing it is fun and relaxing. I am a mother, grandmother and love wearing pretty clothes and my hair long and looking pretty for my husband too.
I am not particularly fond of My Little Pony, yes I have seen it. I am not much of a cartoon fan of any sort period. Why is it okay for girls to watch Batman or Spiderman and they are not considered homosexual or unfeminine but a guy watches a show originally geared toward little girls and they are suddenly thought to be gay or feminine??? Spiderman was geared toward boys and no one had a big hurrah over girls watching that.
Some people are just overly judgemental and bigots and that is really sad. Being a bronie might be a passing fad or phase like wearing flowers in your hair or wearing pink. But even if it is not so what. It is certainly a better thing than using drugs, or being a drunk or looking at porn. This 62 year old granny says go for it. I endorse it, the rest of you need to grow up, chill out and be groovy. Because being a Bronie is cool. It makes them better dads for one. And any girl who has a problem with it is looking at things in a wrong light. Get over your egotistical self.
My husband knits, and he does all the sewing, I hate sewing and knitting. love to chop wood and get out in nature. He hates to fish, I love it. O cook, my dad said once that about the only thing a man cannot do is become pregnant and have a baby. But he should be able to do ANYTHING a woman can do. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. I love to read Westerns Louis La Amour, Max Brand, E.T Edison, Zane Grey, John Johnstone, that is considered mostly a man thing but I read and love them . I also butcher out chickens, my husband doesn’t like to do that. I was raised on a farm and in the country. As to girls wanting boys to be tough I would seriously re-think that. Tuff to me means abusive, bullying, beating. Not at all manly. Men can cook and clean and sew and knit and it makes them no less a man. I love when my husband gives me a foot massage or back rub, When he picks flowers to give me and walks with me. He made our daughter when she was little rag dolls. But he was a logger and later a school teacher. Plus we had livestock and animals and he fixes our cars and machines, Get over yourselves, God made men and women and he made them male and female and equal. It is Okay for men to like pink, like dolls and sew or knit or cook if they feel like it and to like flowers or watch a cute cartoon show with little ponies in it.