Guys Who Watch My Little Pony

Frederick 1

Guys Who Watch My Little Pony

Alexandra Frederick

English 205

November 20, 2014

The six colorful ponies shown above are the main characters of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (MLP:FiM); each represents one of the six elements of friendship. Their names are Rarity (who represents generosity), Fluttershy (kindness), Pinkie Pie (laughter), Twilight Sparkle (magic), Rainbow Dash (loyalty), and Applejack (honesty). MLP:FiM is aired on Discovery Family Channel (formerly known as the Hub Channel) and is aimed toward young girls. MLP has attracted an unusual group of fans, called Bronies. What makes these fans of the show so unusual? The majority of these fans are college aged males.

My Little Pony has been around since the ‘80s, but the Brony fandom has only been around since the fourth generation of the show aired in 2010. Amid Amidi, a TV show critic wrote a review of MLP: FiM, saying it was “a sign of ‘the end of the creator-driven era in TV animation.’” Basically he was saying that the show was created just to sell the toys. This review sparked the interest of some people on a forum called 4chan, and pretty much like everything else on the internet, it went viral. Patrick Edwards, a Psychologist from the University of Georgia has been studying Bronies since the fandom started. Much of the research has been in the form of surveys that were posted to Equestria Daily, the most popular website Bronies go to for anything My Little Pony related, with almost 555 million pageviews as of November 2014. According to Edwards’ research, about 85% of Bronies are male, and the average age is about 21 years old. (Edwards, n.d.)

As the visual to the left shows, society tries to shed a negative light on Bronies.Some claims that people unfamiliar with the fandom make, as shown by the top row of images in the visual from left to right, are that Bronies are into bestiality, they are mentally immature and childlike, and they are pedophiles. (The bear is a meme that has been dubbed “Pedobear” by the internet community, and is used to depict pedophilia.) Other rumors made are that all Bronies are gay, sexual deviants, and unmasculine. Every Brony has a different reason as to why they joined the fandom, and for the most part it had nothing to do with the reasons listed above. Some started out as internet trolls who started watching it ironically, and then realized they actually enjoyed it. Some gave it a chance because they were fans of some of the writers or voice actors. Others were more reluctant but ended up liking it anyway. I decided to join the community after watching a few episodes of the show and after seeing a video of Bronies reacting to criticism.

One man who despises Bronies is Chuck D. Finley; a church minister and an author on the website christwire.org. He believes that all men who watch the show My Little Pony are homosexual and sexual deviants, and has written several articles on the subject. In one article he stated:

On first view you would think that the cartoon “My Little Pony” is a girls cartoon trying to teach them how to dress pretty and interact with others. But you would be so wrong. The sad fact is that many fathers today wish to spend time with their children, they will sit down to watch the cartoon with their daughters. Andthat is when they have got you. Soon the men are drawn more and more to this cartoon. These men proudlycall themselves Bronies(Brony singular). A play of words on the combination of “Bro” and “Pony”. They soon become fanatical about watching it and will even dress up like their favorite characters. This soon leads to downloading “On Demand” Male gay porn from the cable box, and then to My Little Pony Furry sex play. (Finley, 2011)

This article has religious bias. One argument that Finley makes in his article is that the show My Little Pony (MLP) should be pulled off the air because it is causing men to become gay. This is an example of a slippery slope. First of all, people can’t get brainwashed into changing their sexual orientation. According to the American Psychological Association, “the core attractions that form the basis for adult sexual orientation typically emerge between middle childhood and early adolescence.” Many factors come into play including genetics and hormones. Secondly, the show MLP was not created to brainwash men. The intended audience of MLP is little girls. Hasbro, a children’s toy company, owns the My Little Pony franchise. The most recent tv show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, was created in 2010 by Lauren Faust to help modernize the MLP brand to help sell more toys to young girls. Also, most of the men who watch MLP are heterosexual. According to a study of the Brony fandom conducted by Patrick Edwards, Ph.D, 84 percent of Bronies are straight, while about 10 percent are bisexual, and less than 2 percent are homosexual. Finley’s article also mentioned that watching MLP would lead to “My Little Pony Furry sex play”. Furries are a separate subculture that are interested in anthropomorphic animals. According to a Brony census by James Turner, only 17 percent of Bronies identify as a Furry.

This unusual fandom has not gone unnoticed by the staff of MLP:FiM. They were all surprised at first, but have grown to love the Bronies. Voice actors, writers, animators, and song writers of the show become involved in the Brony community. The MLP staff members communicate with Bronies a lot through social media. The image to the left is a tweet from a voice actor of a small character in the show named Maud Pie. Many of the MLP:FiM members attend Brony conventions where they appear on panels, sign autographs, and meet their fans. The animators and writers sometimes add special nods to the Brony community into the show. In the first episode of MLP:FiM a pony in the background had a computer glitch that made her eyes go in different directions. Bronies noticed, and started drawing fan art and making songs about this pony, which they decided to name Derpy Hooves, shown to the right. After a while, the animators of the show started purposefully hiding Derpy in the background of the show, so Bronies could search for her like Where’s Waldo.Bronies came up with a whole persona for Derpy, including that she loved muffins and that she was the mailman of her town, Ponyville. Shortly after, Derpy was seen walking across the screen in episodes with a satchel decorated with a muffin patch, delivering packages. Hasbro has even taken note, and has added Derpy to the line of My Little Pony toys. (Though muffin symbol is in the place of Derpy’s name, because there was controversy.)

A common misconception made by people outside of the fandom is that Bronies are unmasculine and have no other enjoyments in life. A large majority of Bronies are avid gamers, participate in other fandoms, and enjoy other activities that are considered normal for males in society.

There are also Bronies in the military. To the right is an image of a man in uniform with a custom patch of a cutie mark, which is a symbol on the flank of a pony representing their special talent. A Facebook page dedicated to military Bronies had over 1,500 likes back in 2012. (Winter, 2012)As of November 2014, the page has over 11,700 likes.

Dusty Rhoades, who goes by the name dustykatt online, is known in the Brony community as The World’s Manliest Brony. He is shown in the image to the left holding a figure of his favorite pony, Fluttershy, and standing in front of a shelf that holds more pony figures, a motorcycle model, and a trophy. Dusty became famous in the MLP fandom after creating a YouTube video in which he was the world’s manliest Brony. (Busis, 2014) The video, a parody of the “Most Interesting Man in the World” Dos Equis commercials, became a hit among Bronies and helped show that liking a show aimed towards little girls does not take away or masculinity. Dusty is the host of a web show called “Stay Brony, My Friends”, has been part of two Brony documentaries, and is known to attend Brony conventions around the country. Outside of the fandom, Dusty works at a motorcycle parts store and is a husband. In the past he has been a wrestler, a bodyguard, and a medieval martial artist. When interviewed via email, Dusty stated:

Where is it written that men have to be the stereotype that modern culture tells us we have to be? If you listen to that stuff, I'm supposed to be swilling beer; watching football on Sundays; ignoring my girlfriend/wife/kids so that I can go play another game of golf or poker with my friends; or shooting guns randomly in the air. Why is it a bad thing for men to have feelings and to show them? Why is it a bad thing for boys and men to learn that there can be strong female characters, and not feel threatened in their masculinity because they exist? (Voger, 2014)

Works Cited

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Winter, Jana. "Warhorse: The Military's 'My Little Pony' Fan Club."Fox News. FOX News Network, 18 July 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.