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Welcome to the Herd: A Feminist Watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

I admit it, I was skeptical when I first the buzz about the new My Little Pony show. I like a My Little Pony as much as the next fully grown woman–usually if it’s been modded to look like Star Trek’s Borg or something–but the offerings sold to young girls these days are fairly uninspiring at best, horrible at worst. It’s hard to walk through the girl’s department of a toy store without getting an eye-strain from all the pink, and even harder to imagine a spinoff shilling Hasbro’s evergreen toy series being particularly engrossing for a five year-old – let alone an adult viewer.

But at the prompting of Aishwarya Subramanian, Global Comment’s resident expert on children’s literature and matters wondrous, eventually I managed to sit down to watch an episode. And what I found was a delightful, well-written, funny show with strong characters, helmed by a woman (Lauren Faust) to boot. So then I watched another episode. And then I forced my partner to watch one with me, and another, until we were finished with the first season quoting the characters (Pinkie Pie’s hissed “foreverrrr” is a particular favourite) and scanning Equestria Daily searching for fan-created works to get us through the long wait until the next season. Welcome to the herd.

There’s a lot going on with MLP:FiM, including a sizable adult male viewership (of which, more later), but the most important thing to me about the show is this: it presents a world in which the normative position is female. The five main characters of the show are female, as is the ruler of the show’s setting in the kingdom of Equestria, Princess Celestia. In fact, so many of the show’s characters are female that among the show’s fans the assumption is generally that even non-speaking characters are female–an interesting change from the default male setting that still dominates most areas of culture (try mentioning your doctor and see how many times you get a “she” assumption… not many, in my experience).

The show offers a wide range of types of female characters–from the conscientious scholar Twilight Sparkle, the fashion-conscious Rarity, the farmhand Applejack, the brash Rainbow Dash, the softly-spoken animal-loving Fluttershy and the hyperactive, frequently nonsensical Pinkie Pie. Each has her own talents, desires, and personally quirks. They’re active, not passive. Even better, many episodes demonstrate a layered, even wise, approach to character; appearances are never quite what they seem to be. In “Swarm of the Century,” Pinkie Pie’s decidedly uncommon sense is dismissed by the other characters, right until she saves the day with a one-pony polka.

And the action doesn’t centre on girl’s relation to men and boys, it primarily focuses on their friendships, their relationships with one another. Conflicts arise naturally, from misperception, selfishness, arrogance, thoughtlessness… but not by the horizontal pitting of girls against each other in kyriarchical narrative fighting for male approval. There’s only two minor plotlines centreing on romance – Spike the dragon’s crush on Rarity, and Rarity’s Prince Blueblood at the Grand Galloping Gala in “The Best Night Ever.” Neither is a very central storyline, and in the case of Rarity, the Prince is shown to be selfish and rude, a poor substitute for a night with her friends. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of romance in children’s stories (though I suppose it’s too much to ask a mainstream show to have canonical queer children), but there is often a disproportionate emphasis on it. In contrast, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic doesn’t just pass the Bechdel test, it shatters it.

There is only one male regular character on the show, the aforementioned baby dragon Spike, and he’s relegated to a marginal sidekick kind of role. This is a clever reversal of what feminist essayist Katha Pollitt two decades ago called “the Smurfette Principle,” the way in which male characters dominate, with a lone female character rounding out the cast.

Pollitt argues that:

The message is clear. Boys are the norm, girls the variation; boys are central, girls peripheral; boys are individuals, girls types. Boys define the group, its story and its code of values. Girls exist only in relation to boys.

Sadly, this remains as true now as it is then. For adults as well as children, texts in which men dominate are still largely considered “neutral,” whereas those which feature a similar female predominance are relegated to the chick-flick bin, watched only by women. The logic goes: men won’t watch shows or films about women, they can only identify with other men.

Yet MLP:FiM, of all shows, puts the lie to this well-worn, if nonsensical, cultural dogma. To the surprise of all concerned, MLP:FiM has managed to attract a huge adult male fanbase dubbed “bronies” (adult female fans are called pegasisters), who’ve become figures of fascination and derision in equal measures. Despite this, the number of bronies seem to be growing by the day, shrugging off the disdain for their culturally inappropriate fandom with their trademark “I’m going to tolerate and love the shit out you” rebuttal.

Ironically, of course, the bronies’ own behaviour en masse in the fandom reinforces the same old male-centre/female-margin dynamic, as does much of the media coverage. Female fans are squeezed from the frame as objects worthy of consideration of their own. Some have proposed the male-centric term “brony” be applied to applied to all adult MLP fans, an unreflexive marking of the male as universal. This is indicative of a broader claiming of the text as normatively the domain of men, a far from unique dynamic in fandom – just one of a million reasons why a feminist narrative like MLP:FiM is still so sorely needed by girls and women.

Still, that there are large numbers of male fans of a traditionally “feminine” text is significant and important in its own right, and should be taken as a challenge to parents. As we saw recently with the overblown furore over J. Crew’s boy-wearing-pink-toenails “toemaggedon” advertisement, there are serious kinds of anxiety directed at assumed-male children, afraid of any sign of femininity, so much so that some parents will attempt to beat it out of their children. It’s hard to see many parents letting their boys embrace My Little Pony like their older brony brothers.

But they should, because boys would learn a lot from being allowed to identify with female characters, to see more than just the princess stereotype. For as our own Arwyn Daemyir has said:

The point of gender-diverse parenting, and the goal we can keep in mind when evaluating each choice before us, is not our children’s coercion into uniform unisex-ness, but freedom to figure out gender for themselves: what gender they are, what being that gender means to their society, and how, and to what extent, to perform it.

My Little Pony gives children of all sexes–and adults too–a broad range of meanings to draw from on what it means to be a girl, what it means to be an individual, and what it means to be friends. And for that, I love it. Foreverrrrrr.

Front page photo: Showrunner Lauren Faust at Comic Con in 2008, by Ewan Roberts, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

91 thoughts on “Welcome to the Herd: A Feminist Watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

  1. “Some have proposed the male-centric term “brony” be applied to applied to all adult MLP fans, an unreflexive marking of the male as universal.”

    If adult female MLP fans were given a separate name someone would complain they are being singled out, since ‘brony’ is such a thrown around term among the adult viewers. If Adult female viewers were simply called ‘adult MLP fans’ someone will be equally offended, if not more so. You cannot possibly win in this situation.

    I am a huge fan of MLP: FiM and I am indeed a ‘brony’. I am also male and find it incredibly insulting that someone associates the term with some sort of subtle display of male dominance. While there isn’t equality in this world among men and women and that I fully support feminism and would gladly stand by women and fight for their right for equality, the word ‘brony’ and its meaning when including both genders has been looked into with far too much detail. I don’t think a single male viewer would care if the term was something feminine.

    Perhaps I have take what the second half of this article had to say a little too much to heart.

  2. Two minor corrections:

    Female fans are not called “pegasister.” Whoever told you that was pullin’ yer leg. “Bronie” is the term for fans of all ages, genders, and orientations. Despite having “bro” in the word, the term’s actual origins are a portmanteau of /b/ (the name of a forum on 4chan) and pony.

    The -re verb, centre, cannot be used in these ways: “…the action doesn’t centre on girl’s relation to men…” and “only two minor plotlines centreing on romance.” The -re form of this verb means to move something to the middle. You want the -re form of this verb, center.

  3. I’ve heard Pegasisters proposed by various bronies, but I’ve never been happy with it. Nor ‘fillies’ or ‘bronettes’ or any of the other ‘girl brony’ terms thrown around. I’m a woman, and I’m a brony. I think the herd could be moving in the direction where gender just isn’t that important an issue, where men and women and others can be fans together in one all-inclusive role.

    Though frankly, I like the show despite *disliking* most ‘girly’ things, so any hint of ‘bro’ doesn’t really bother me . . so I might not be the best mare to ask. . .

  4. Now I feel silly – I was so caught up in reacting to what you said about bronydom, I completely forgot to respond to what you said about the show!

    I think you’re spot-on in everything you’ve said about FiM. Female characters who are ‘whole’ in their personality, not needing to focus on males to have value, and so on . .

    I really enjoy it, but at the same time it worries me just a tiny bit. I’ve read a few fanfictions where stallions are assumed to be weaker, unable to control their passions, needing a mare to build their life around . . . sound familiar?

    Of course usually this is mentioned through Twilight or some other mare thinking how unfair or unbalanced this is, so it’s a good way for an author to use MLP to address issues of gender equity. But still, I’m a little frightened at how easily mares can be depicted as the ‘good’ gender and stallions the ‘bad’ gender in fanfic . . without deviating from what we’ve seen in the show.

    Is it horrible that I wish we had a few boys’ night out episodes where we see men as being cool too? I know the world doesn’t need more positive reinforcement for males, *really*, but personally I wish that such a great show as this could be more whole and balanced all in itself, showing everything great about everypony. A foal’s dream, I know. No one show can be everything. I’ll just sit back, relax, and enjoy the great show <3

  5. Nice analysis of the show, but you’re a bit hard on the bronies.

    Brony is pretty widely accepted as the universal term for ‘fan that is not an eight to twelve year old girl.’ It was coined (on 4chan’s /co/ board, although /b/ soon latched on to it) as an ironic reference to Bro culture (imagine a Bro watching MLP.) Female-specific terms have been proposed, but never gain traction (I’ve never even heard ‘pegasister.’) The obvious equivalent would be ‘Hony’ which nobody likes. When pressed to make the distinction, most go with ‘female bronies’ or sometimes ‘fillies.’

    The hardcore fandom *is* largely male (about 75% according to surveys,) but that’s likely due to the fact that a woman who likes the show isn’t perceived as negatively as a man is, and is less likely to feel the need to identify with others over it. I’m sure there’s plenty of women who like the show and don’t think twice about it, while there’s plenty of men (and boys) who are still in the closet about it and turn to the internet to find like-minded fans.

  6. All right, as a male brony who absolutely hates gender roles and is a regular crossdresser etc, I have to say that the way this article was written is highly unprofessional and biased. I guess you’re going for a slant, here, even calling yourself a feminist, but honestly, this was absolutely too extreme.

    You are just as bad as an extreme chauvinist who thinks women should stay in the kitchen. Bronyism and the lessons learned in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are supposed to teach you to LOVE AND TOLERATE, not scrutinize and stereotype. Obviously, you didn’t take much from the show. You just watched it to reinforce your own gender stereotypes and disregard the fact that perhaps, maybe, there are guys who like this show who like it because it throws away gender roles. “Brony” is the term for ALL adult fans in the Internet-based fandom. I’ve never even heard of “Pegasisters” and I’ve been all over the brony scene.

    You love gender roles, really, if you keep talking about them. Stop it, please. I may be a pretty pony, but I can smell a parasprite a mile away. Of course, I’d be a hypocrite if I left it at that, so I’ll just say this:

    Welcome to the herd, BRONY. I hope you’ll join us in a spirit of friendship and peacefulness. If you want to alienate yourself by pushing gender roles hypocritically as you are doing, I heard there’s some prime real estate in the Everfree Forest for you.

  7. I’m surprised that there’s very little feminist analysis of the show. MLP:FIM is pretty much a dream come true for anyone looking for a cartoon with great female characters.

    Just so we’re clear, Lauren Faust is no longer on the show (she left early in the production of second season). Jayson Thiessen, who directs the show in Canada, took over as the show-runner.

  8. I was going to link to Jeremy’s article!

    There’s also not one, but two articles by sociologists, and one by me that’s not academic at all.

    This post on /r/mylittlepony might give some context to what I was saying above about men and MLP fandom.

  9. CAB – she’s still on, just not as exec producer.

    As a female adult pony-lover, screw this ‘pegasister’ nonsense! BRONY 4 LYFE

  10. I think that you might be reading too much into the whole “brony being male default” thing.

    in this case, it seems like one of those situations where making a big deal about it would cause the problems claimed to manifest even if they didn’t exist before.

    the term brony was almost always considered gender neutral in the fandom, it’s the media and outside the fandom that considers it a primarily male term.

    that and the term brony has more than one pun involved, as it is tied to one of the roots of the fandom (a pun on one of the major message boards that served as a cradle for the early fandom). so there’s more than just association with males at work there

  11. It’s rather insulting to be accused of something as a whole we are not guilty of in such a manner because of an ill researched assumption.

    I would call myself a feminist, but I will admit that nothing annoys me more than idealists who read too much into things and draw incorrect conclusions as a result. nitpicking the minor details that might not actually exist rather than actually seeing what the big picture is.

    the pic picture of bronies is plenty of males who have changed from seeing femininity as a quality (femininity = lesser or weaker) to a property. what’s more, they have seen it as less than a package deal, where one can be masculine while having plenty of feminine traits, or vice versa.

    you’d think that dynamic would have grabbed your attention far more than some porrly researched semantics.

    that being said aside from that little quip near the end, the article was good perspective.

  12. “Bronies” did not originally imply maleness; it developed from the labels on 4chan. The original term, /b/ronies (and /co/lts besides), initially was used to mean MLP:FIM fans from /b/, 4chan’s random board (and /co/, the comics board). I guess the idea that bronies tend to be males also came from 4chan, but that would be from a derivative of “rule 30” of the rules of the internet, and not from the term “bronies”

  13. While this article was fascinating and well written on the whole I always find myself irked by things making men out to attempt to exclude women. I always hear WOMEN calling themselves bronies, and as others have demonstrated there are various definitions for the term.

    Even if you consider the term ‘bro’ in this issue ‘male’ it is worthy of note that many terms of this sort are also used in a gender neutral way. Language simply uses male for neutral often. Firemen isn’t a slight, it’s a simplification. You do this- we call you this, rather than you do this and have these genitals we call you this- those genitals we call you that.

    When you start insistently saying things like ‘firewoman’ every time someone says fireman and such you just sound immature and insecure. The case is the same here.

    However I have heard in multiple places and do like the term pegasister, it’s clever. I have no issue with the distinction if that’s the way you want it. It is just shoving people into gender roles all over again in a way though, really.

    Moving along, I also find the reversal of the standards MLP sets forth fascinating.

    At first I sort of thought “you’d think they’d have made Fluttershy or Applejack male or something as a token of gender equality.”

    But then I realized there aren’t really any entirely female character centric shows out there aside from talk shows men don’t want to watch generally, like The View and Oprah. So in a way it’s more equal as is and even more interesting when you consider how many men like it.

  14. I was afraid I would see something like this. I do like that they are fully developed female role models. They do not center themselves around the need for males. But your missing that they are centering themselves around the need for friends in every day things. The idea that they are not centering themselves around ether male or female love interests should not be seen as feminist but as a gender neutral thing. It is not about who you want to climb in bed with but who you want to go watch a movie with. I would like to see some GOOD male role models like Big Mac who is an honest and caring big brother to Applejack. Maybe one or two more good male Role models in the show as secondary characters would help. I was shocked at the portrayal of Snips and Snails. Being fifty percent of the male secondary cast and having all the personality of bill and ted(Of the time traveling phone booth fame). I would like more good examples or to see more of Mr. Cake and Big Mac. Friendship should not be about gender in any context or your just as bad as your counterpart on the other side of the same scale. If all you do is hate on males then your just as bad as the guy who hates on all females. Stop the hating or take it to the moon.

  15. The low visibility of female fans in the MLPFIM fandom (to avoid the use of the word “brony”) is most likely really a numbers game. The whole memetic spread of the phenomenon is centered on the Internet, and the majority of fans online seem to be male. I would generally assume the show’s fans in total are equal parts male and female, but the women and girls stay offline and don’t make as big a deal about it. I don’t think the fandom is doing anything to exclude female fans. Probably the two most well-known and prolific Friendship Is Magic fan artists, for instance, are both female.

    Futhermore, due to the general social unacceptability of liking a cartoon for girls, male fans would be more inclined to put more weight in the community of like-minded and similar people.

  16. Rather than jump into the gender role argument, I thought I’d instead point out an error I’m suprised no one remarked on yet.

    Folks don’t assume the “non-speaking roles” to be female by default. Except for some odities like Snips and Snails, the heads of male ponies are visually very distinctive from the females. Female ponies have round heads with smaller protruding muzzles with a slightly upturned nose, while the males have a more egg-shapped head with a gradual slope out to a flat-nosed muzzle.

  17. This is… well, it’s been said already but this isn’t really a proper depiction of the community. The term “brony” has been gender-neutral all along, though nobody’s certain whether it originated from “/b/rony” or “bro pony.” However, “bro” is used simply as a term of friendly affection in many groups, rather than an identifying gender term. You understand the show well enough; you just don’t understand the people who watch it. Hopefully we can fix that.

  18. The only place I have seen pegasis is on the question boards on my little ponies facebook page and its still a relatively new term. Brony still stands for a fan of the show outside of its targeted audience. Brony for me at least will always be for anyone willing to call themselves a brony.

  19. Identifying myself as a brony comes from the necessity from a lack of good fan-association puns, and not because I want to associate with males. “Pegasister” just sounds ridiculous, “Filly” is okay, but it’s basically the equine equivalent of “Chick”, and “Equestria Girl” (named after the parody of Katy Perry’s California Gurlz) is not only a mouthful, it’s a little annoying in that I feel mature enough now to call myself a woman and not a girl. I don’t mind calling myself a “brony”, especially since there are MANY things I can do as a fan of the series that true male “bronies” either can’t or don’t want to do. Namely, I can cosplay any of the main characters in a realistic way (well, as realistic as a humanized pony can be). When I see a guy “cross-play” a pony, it just irritates me. They have so many other shows and characters they can choose from, let us females have this one. Please. Another way I feel I have an upper hand over the guys is that in fan-made audio plays, my voice is already show accurate. A guy could never do a good impression of Fluttershy’s “Yay!” or Pinkie Pie’s goofy phrases and songs.

    So I guess my point it, in light of the fact that a good female name for a fan doesn’t yet exist, I have no problems being called a brony, mainly because I have the upper hand on so many traditional fan activities that most guys can’t do (at least not believably).

  20. Very nice article, and nice thoughts there.

    Anyways don’t get too harsh on the “brony” thing… fact is that, somehow, only a 30% of the show fans are females… yet I’m just happy to have learnt the “pegasister” word that fits purrfectly!! 😀 Thanks!

  21. Very nice article. I agree with what you say about the brony thing. Even if it’s meant to be gender neutral within the fandom, it kind of paints it as male-centric to outsiders and those who don’t know it’s origins (and I don’t think there’s one version everyone agrees with).

    What I don’t agree with, is that Spike is a clever reversal of the Smurfette Principle. First, there’s nothing clever in a simple inversion. Second, two wrongs don’t make a right. I’m not saying they should add more male characters. There’s nothing wrong with female-dominated show, in fact we need more of those as you say. But I’ve never thought I’d see praise given to (reversed, but still) tokenism.

  22. Regardless of the origin, to actually think that “brony” is meant to be anything BUT coded male is total naivete and foolishness. That “accidental” R is not an accident. Regardless of where the /b/ part came from, the r part came from the fact that dudes liking a show about little girls is novel enough to be noted. There’s a reason there’s no equivalent term (that I’m aware of) for a grown up male fan of Power Rangers or many other children’s shows and it’s because it’s not surprising and not worth acknowledging.

  23. Love the article. Honestly, I never before would think to myself, 5 months ago, that I would spend as much time as I have engrossed in a children’s show about magical pastel colored candy equines in the cartoon equivalent of the estrogen vortex. But I love it, and just can’t stop! It is nice that the femininity in the show does create something new and endearing and INTERESTING when recently cartoons have been… lacking. MLP shines as a beacon of creativity. I pray to god season 2 doesn’t somehow, against all odds, screw it up. Which it would be hard pressed to do…

    And to shout out to Tibberly above, I share your dream! Seriously, I just want one well developed stallion character! just one! Even if they just flesh out Big Mac for an episode or two! Seriously, the gender balance in MLP is 80% female, 20% male, and I would love an episode where the girls can make a guy friend, and maybe parody that imbalance. Friendship doesn’t recognize gender! and it would be nice to see how the guys in mlp react to the mostly pink and filly world of equestria.

  24. I loved this article.

    I love this show. I never realized what I was missing in female characters in other shows until I saw this. With every one of the mane 6 I can take a situation and have a credible idea of how each would react and act in that circumstance. How ironic is it that stylized ponies are more real people than actual female live action characters.

    It also bothers me, that implicit assumption of males and their importance. Most media coverage makes light of or focuses on the older male fans and makes nearly no mention of women.

    And on the internet as well there is almost always an implicit assumption that someone is male unless there is proof otherwise. Rule #30 at work.

    (Matter of fact the implicit assumption is that everyone else on the ‘net is a sad, fat, white, nerdy, loser who lives in his parents basement or is still in his childhood room)

    I wish women got fairly represented/lampooned along with the men, I wish brony could be used properly by everyone to refer to the fandom as a group that sprung from /b/ (the right term for the male bronies is Colts, or originally /co/lts and the females mares/fillies, though I like pegasisters, hopefully that catches on), I wish every writer for every format took notice and lessons on “how to write a good female character” from this show and I wish more people, male and female, could get around the stigma of a “girly show” and give this a chance.

    But that ain’t the world we’re in, but shows and fans like this bring us closer.

  25. Oh, my. The “brony” issue… You know, I used to try and distinguish between who in this fandom was male and who was female. But I’ve been wrong enough times (Strawberry Spice? Egophiliac?) that I’ve given up and just call everyone “brony”.

    Besides, if the point is gender equality, why should we put an emphasis on who is what? It seems like the distinction is only important if you are going to treat people differently. Why not just let everyone be bronies?

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  27. I just finished reading this and I really wanna be angry with your opinion but hey it’s your right to say this so all I really should do is LOVE AND TOLERATE THE SHIT OUT OF YOU! just a side note you really have to look hard before rule #34 applies to MLP: FiM

    Please have a pleasant day and stay positive

  28. “Ironically, of course, the bronies’ own behaviour en masse in the fandom reinforces the same old male-centre/female-margin dynamic, as does much of the media coverage. Female fans are squeezed from the frame as objects worthy of consideration of their own. Some have proposed the male-centric term ‘brony’ be applied to applied to all adult MLP fans, an unreflexive marking of the male as universal. This is indicative of a broader claiming of the text as normatively the domain of men, a far from unique dynamic in fandom – just one of a million reasons why a feminist narrative like MLP:FiM is still so sorely needed by girls and women.”

    Oh god. What the hell. She assumes this much from a single word? Some of us are divided ourselves what female bronies want to call themselves, and as far as I’m concerned, they can call themselves whatever they want to. Does it really make a difference what gender you are?

    I’ll admit, some of this is true, but it ain’t something worth ranting and overanalyzing about. Isn’t simple love and tolerance enough?

  29. What’s ironic is that she doesn’t consider what actually happens in the show to be a boon to feminism as a whole: sure, she mentions it, but she’s too negative to say what this could possibly do to the feminism movement as a whole in media. She just considers the actions of bronies to overgeneralize and call women ‘bronies’ to be a dreadful sin.

    Somepony needs more friendship, love, and tolerance.

  30. If Bronies can be female, then that means that Pegasisters can be male too! The Internet Love Machine always wins. I’m afraid the approach of dividing people into sex groups has yet again failed.

  31. Personally, I don’t call myself a “brony” because I’m not part of the /b/ culture it stems from. Nor do I call myself a “filly” or a “pegasister” or any of the other names that have been floated for female fans. I’m just a FiM fan who enjoys squeeing with her friends over awesome ponies, and that’s enough for me.

    @Supersaw Hoover: Seriously? The author isn’t reinforcing gender stereotypes or pushing gender roles; she’s acknowledging their existence in Western society and media and showing how the show goes against them, and why that is good. There is nothing wrong with looking at something critically (from a feminist perspective or any other perspective) and analyzing it.

    Thanks for the thoughtful post, Ms. Manuel! Only another month til new episodes 🙂

  32. You were doing so well until you started claiming that female fans still being known as bronies implied “male dominance”. To me that makes you sound awfully sexist for someone that feels the need to bring up the fact they’re a feminist so much.

    The reason there isn’t a regular term for female fans is because we have yet to find one that is commonly accepted and rolls off the tongue the same way Brony does. Also there is no need to, people say “guys” and “bro” to refer to people regardless of gender all the time.

    Plus it tends to be the girls who will call themselves bronies rather than having the label handed to them.

  33. Dear fellow male fans:

    We aren’t allowed to get our man-panties in a twist when a woman takes issue with being labeled by a masculine prefix. Plenty of women have a problem with “guys” being slapped across all genders because it reinforces a masculine normative (in case you hadn’t realized, we really do have the upper hand pretty much all the time, hence the abundance of masculine normatives), and anyone is well within right to call out “bro”nie. It might have stemmed from /b/, but not all the herd knows that, nevermind how the term is viewed by society as a whole. So knock off calling her sexist for objecting to the male prefix being applied to her as a female fan, especially since it is one of the few cartoons for girls that’s worth a toss. So, if the female fans came up with a better term (“one of the herd” is fine with me, honestly), I’d follow their lead.

    tl;dr If you’re in the privileged group, don’t whinge when someone calls BS.

  34. Thank you, Thomas.

    I find it really telling that so many people on this thread are taking one short paragraph and having a fit over it, when the majority of this article is heaping praise on the show. Also, that it looks like most of the people who have a problem with this are male. (Looks that way, since who knows what anyone is on the internet.)

    But…I’ll take ’em at their word. If they insist that brony is gender neutral, they won’t mind if we start referring to ALL fans as pegasis, right? I mean, if ‘bro’ has no gender, then ‘sis’ shouldn’t either.

    Except that ‘bro’ DOES have gender. I’ve never met an actual person who uses bro to mean anything other than male friends. I can’t imagine going up to my female friends and asking “What’s up, bro.” No. It’s clearly gendered. It doesn’t matter where that ‘br’ came from, in the real world it translates as male, period.

    And yes, language uses male as the default. That’s part of the problem. Male is NOT gender neutral. It’s just not.

    There’s nothing wrong with women not wanting their gender erased by supposedly neutral wording. I mean, seriously, that’s what this fuss is about. A female fan saying she has a problem with the fact that such a pervasive term for MLP Fan is clearly masculine (and again, it does not matter where the term originated. To those of us who weren’t there, who came late to the party? It’s gendered. And since I’m willing to bet most of the fanbase wasn’t around when the term was originated, that’s a whole lot of people.)

    So, she says, at one point in an otherwise incredibly positive article, that this is a problem and seems at odds with the show. And THAT is what you take away? Seriously? Do you have any idea how messed up that is? How at odds with the entire message of the show? Cause I can totally see the ponies insisting that she’s wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong and not even trying to see where she’s coming from. (And then something happens and they realize, HEY she’s not wrong after all. Still waiting on that moment.)

    Bad ponies. No apples for you!

  35. I’m a male fan of MLP:FiM, or brony, or pegasis (hey, why not?), or any other lable that fits.

    I don’t think everyone who’s commenting on that one paragraph got nothing else out of this article (some seemed to though). It’s just that when one agrees to the rest of the article there’s not much else to comment on. I guess you can call it nit-picking. So for the record: Great article, lot’s of good insight!

    I really couldn’t care less what people choose to call this. Lables are just lables, what’s behind the label is much more important. However I will say that from my own experience brony does frequently trigger an implied male person when I speak to people (particularely since a lot of people need to be explained it’s origin). MLP fan would be a better lable since it’s gender neutral and adds the benefit of being self explanatory. However brony is what’s most widely used, and therefore more practical to adopt (it really does sound silly though). I’d also agree with pegasis (never even heard the term before this). But it’s not up to me what people choose to call themselves (probably for the better since I would likely name them AAAA, AAAB, AAAC etc). Most people seem to prefer if I call them brony, so that’s what I’ll use. If anyone asks to be called something else I’ll use that instead.

    Your faithf
    π

  36. I think another thing can be said about the show’s adult fandom is that alot of the artists that works on the show embraces it.

    Derpy Hooves is a good example. Derpy is a nameless background character that was shown crosseyed in the background of the first episode. The people at /co/ noticed this and went wild with it, eventually deciding that she’s a mailmare who loves muffins. And that she has a daughter named Dinky Hooves.

    The show’s supervising director found the internet reaction hilarious and decided that whenever they find Derpy in any episodes that was being worked on at the time, they would go back and change her eyes. In addition, they confirmed that, starting season 2, she will become a (very) minor character of her own, appearing in backgrounds more often and what not.

    So yeah, the show’s staff are just as big as MLP nerds as the viewers are.

  37. >>just a side note you really have to look hard >>before rule #34 applies to MLP: FiM…
    on /b/?
    I find it freaking hilarious that we’re actually talking about a children’s show, and /b/, and people are actually approving of /b/.
    Do the initials CP mean anything to folks?

  38. … god. I am an idiot. Last comment is with regards to a fellow blogger on a different site, not the actual OP. It still bespeaks poorly of the OP for being on a site with Sady Doyle, but “I Am Sorry, I Am Dumb”

  39. I haven’t looked through all of the emails but I’m already noticing a trend.

    Commenter who argue that brony is a perfectly acceptable term for all adult fans…. are male.

    Who calls a female fan bro? I’ve never heard *any* one do that. It’s silly. I’ve heard pega’sis a couple of times but I thought that was equally silly. Why isn’t it just “fan”? We don’t have gendered terms for Trekkers. Why should we have them for MLP?

    I’m a fan, a fanatic, a pinkie pie enthusiast.

  40. In regard to the opposition to the use of “brony” to refer to female fans…. personally, I’ve never heard the term “pegasister”, even though I am one myself.

    Additionally, the term “brony” isn’t just based on the idea that a lot of these adult fans are males. It’s actually related to the way this fad originated. The whole pony craze started in 4chan’s notorious board, /b/, where regulars are often called /b/ros or, alternatively, /b/tards. The term “brony” is actually derived from this nickname.

    So the use of “bro” doesn’t really speak to the exclusion of women in the MLP adult fanbase, rather, it speaks to the exclusion of women in the internet userbase. In just about any generic internet population, unless otherwise indicated, your identity is assumed to be male. There is even this erroneous, sexist idea that “There are NO girls on the internet” that literally exists as a rule of the internet.

    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rules%20of%20the%20internet

    http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet#.Tl02QvvgVYE

  41. And for the record, yes, I’m fine being called a brony. Pegasis just sounds dumb.

    I would, however, prefer being called a fiLLy (and the male members of my herd, staLLions), as this nickname relates to the particular internet community I am involved with. I’ve never been a /b/tard.

  42. A few little notes. The term Brony isn’t derived from the name visitors of 4chan/s /b/ have, since that is /b/tard. Never been /b/ro or any of the sort. Some commenters above do mention /b/ro as a valid term, but I have been a 4channer since very early in it’s existence, and I have never heard ‘/b/ro’ up till now as an alternative to /b/tard.

    Secondly, I would not tout around 4chan’s /b/ as origin for the MLP fandom too proudly. It is also the origin of among others Pedobear, and the prank that made a certain world famous talkshow host warn her audience about ‘9000 penises and they’re raping your children’. The /b/ boar on 4 chan is all the worst in human nature and the internet put together.

    Tirdly, there is a very gender neutral term for all die hard fans of these anthropomorphised equines. Namely ‘furry’. This term, meaning ‘anthropomorphic animals or fans thereof’ has been around since the early 80’s. Of course the term usually describes fans of anything ‘furry’ in the sense that it includes other species/shows/media, for instance fans of Lion King or Bugs Bunny, but it certainly applies to MLP fans, and doesn’t indicate any gender whatsoever.

    Lastly, I heard someone mention that it’s hard to find rule 34 of MLP. I dont know where and if you’re actively looking for it, but MLP porn shows it’s ugly face more then a few times while I’m actively avoiding it at all cost.

    Thank you, Internet. For both the fantastic fanbase for MLP, but also for ruining yet another thing with your depravity.

  43. I’ve never heard ‘pegasister’ before, so maybe I’m out of the loop. I’ve always heard females bronies referred to as ‘bronies’. Although I admit than when you hear ‘brony’ you immediately think of a man.

  44. It’s not like there haven’t been male fandoms for franchises with all non-sexualized (in canon) female characters, this isn’t new in the anime fandom. The other most notable example that comes to mind is the doujin game series Touhou.

  45. I happen to be a girl who watches My Little Pony: FIM, and everybody online almost always assume I’m a guy. XD
    But in fact, my five year old brother, who loves cars, dinosaurs, and wrestling with our father- love My Little Pony.

  46. I love this article. 🙂 I feel like everything you said was spot-on (except for the pegasister thing, see below), and as a fellow feminist, I’m so glad to see someone making an article that ISN’T all about “WOW MEN LOVE MY LITTLE PONY, HOW FUNNY AND QUIRKY, LET’S WRITE MORE ARTICLES ABOUT MEN OKAY?” Because heaven knows we need MORE discussion about men, and less about women – about a woman-dominated and created show/product, no less!! It feels like My Little Pony should be the one venue that is absolutely intended for women, and men have somehow managed to appropriate that, too. (Which is not to say that men shouldn’t be allowed to like girl-based properties; I just feel that a lot of the publicity/articles/attention given to the show has been based around the adult male contingent, completely ignoring the long-standing adult female fandom.)

    My only dislike of the pegasister thing is that by denying girls the right to be called ‘Brony,’ it sets us apart, and in a certain sense, places us as ‘lesser.’ Brony is the nickname everyone uses, everywhere; the female equivalent will never be as popular, unless it is also Brony. (For example, have you ever seen mock-up images of “My Little Filly” or “My Little Pegasister”? Nope. Everything is Brony-based.) That said, I also agree with what you said about using the masculine name as a catchall for all genders – it definitely sucks, especially since it automatically makes everyone assume you are male, if you identify as a brony, as well as placing an unspoken emphasis on the male part of the fandom. Not to mention all of the gender policing that comes if you dare to admit you’re a woman – “You’re not a brony, you’re a pegasister” and the like. It’s a catch-21; if you’re a Brony, you’re being masculinized in order to fit in. But if you’re a Pegasister, you’re essentially ‘outside’ the fandom.

    Hell, my own name says more about the dynamics of the founding days of the fandom than anything else – 4chan, obviously, is a den of iniquity and hate, as well as a pit of misogyny. I originally chose this name so that every comment I made wouldn’t be immediately responded to with “TITS OR GTFO.” Only by posing as a man was I able to feel completely safe in contributing to the fandom. How sad is that? I feel like any fandom that is originally founded on/in 4chan has a long way to go regarding gender sensitivity and misogynistic tendencies, and the Bronies are no different. I still receive comments that are misogynistic, even today, with the fandom now well away from 4chan. Take from that what you may.

    Thank you again for a lovely, well-written article. 🙂 I hope you enjoy your time in the fandom, misogynistic idiots aside.

  47. Hey, a man here.

    I watch the show because it’s probably one of the better shows on TV. I like it because it has references to D&D, and other nerdy things that normal people probably wouldn’t pick up on. If anything, the message behind the show isn’t about woman empowerment, or any sort of empowerment. It’s the exact opposite. Love and tolerate your neighbor, you don’t need a religious book to do this. You don’t even need ponies, but sometimes ponies help the message shine a bit more.

  48. I’m just a little bit new to all of this and didn’t realize the term “brony” could be so controversial. I’ve been running all around the interwebs to get more information on the term when I stumbled across this article. This is the first I’ve heard the term “pegasister” (which I think is very cute by the way). One of the things I found on another website was that the word “brony” was a blanket term for all fans outside of the original target audience, and that if you wanted to specify gender (whether for yourself or others) you would use terms like “filly” or “gentlecolt.” In one of the comments I see something about how “filly” is the ponified equivalent of “chick” which I don’t believe. I am of the opinion that it’s more the equivalent of “lady.” I also saw a comment about why there needs to be a gender specific term for fans of the show, and why can’t we all just be called “fans.” While I do agree to this point to an extent, I have to say that I like the idea of a term that feels more special and less generic than “fan.” Personally, I like the term “brony” because it rolls off the tongue, and it’s very easy to modify into other words and phrases that fit the fandom. I also like the idea of, when the person feels it to be necessary, specifying what gender you are by using terms like “filly” and “gentlecolt.”

    I am a filly.

    Aside from the nitpicking about the term “brony,” I enjoyed reading the article. It was nice to see an article about the show from a feminist point of view and see that it was researched a bit more thoroughly than another that Ive seen.

  49. WOOOOOOOOOW. Really? Bronys are evil male centric girl haters? Im gay and couldnt give two shits, it’s just better than everything else on tv these days

  50. You’re looking at this from the point of view that men watching a girl’s cartoon is nothing out of the ordinary, and that’s why you’re disgruntled about the male fanbase receiving so much publicity. By refusing to acknowledge how this deviation from the cultural norm accords with the feminist ideal you’re only reinforcing the perspective that there’s no pleasing you woman folk. There’s more to this show than a contrived ego massage if you can open your eyes long enough to look for it. I’m not angry with you, but I am disappointed.

  51. I loved your article until the pegasisters part. Most female fans seem to not even be aware of the term and many of those who do don’t like it. Some female fans call themselves pegasisters, but it is not the norm. 🙁

    Otherwise, I really loved reading this. Thank you.

  52. I am personally a pegasister and i do feel like an outsider around all my bronys. I love bronys to death but i feel like its odd for a girl to love mlpfim as much as a guy and im sad because i live in a small town where i have yet to find a single freaking brony or pegasister! Id even settle for sumone who hates mlp!

  53. Lol just to add to my last comment i dont mind being called a brony cuz its really not that bad and it is pretty gender free i mean i call all my gal pals bros so honestly people chill but i prefer pegasis because i want to be known as a girl who loves mlp fim yet with everyone being called brony everyone trolling on the bronies on the internet will know its not just ” gay guys and creepy old men” who like mlp maybe theyll get the picture its a show for everyone i mean me my little sister and brother calll eachother bronys! And all my mlp fim fan galpals! Yay bronies!

  54. Mmm i love commenting so heres another one my fellow bronies and pegasisters we must stretch our grasp to every corner of the world but remember our moto is love and tolerate not yell and call vulgar names(ive seen alot of it on youtube) so rememver every time your on the internet or commeting add something mlp! Oh and btw you are an amazing person this article is sooo right but i dont see males as giant overpowering jerks as long as ther nice and are a fan accept them! All mlpfim fans are amazing lets agree on that!

  55. The five main characters? You mean the Mane Six?

    Also, Celestia is coruler of Equestria alongside Luna.

  56. MLPFiM is a very good show, everything in this article matters, except for the feminist comments which were obscure. I believe that women do matter in shows, movies, etc. It is just that romance flicks and love movies are very boring and lack creativity, I can’t sit through a movie that makes me fall asleep, (Godzilla 2000 is a good example) me being a male, constantly want there to be a female protagonist because playing as a male in a video game or watching a male hero in a movie gets rather old. Ms. Faust made each pony a great character with a rest of the girly nature of the previous show and made it funny. That’s really what guys want in a show. We want creative writing, creativity, and a bit of humor. You do that and you pretty much got us figured out. As for feminist, can’t you be promoting something important, like a the petition to go against ACTA? I don’t like feminists, and I think they should be abolished like racism and slavery in the South. Ou do not sound smart or inspiring, you do not do anything good for the world. More than 3 quarters of us men worldwide are not against women, seriously WTH started this?

  57. In the third paragraph you put “The five main characters of the show are female, as is the ruler of the show’s setting in the kingdom of Equestria, Princess Celestia.” I would like to point out that their are six main characters. Including: (1) Rainbow Dash, (2) Pinkie Pie,(3) Twilight Sparkle, (4) Rarity, (5) Fluttershy, and (6) Applejack

  58. My female friend told me about the term Pegasister after I put on Facebook that I finally got around to watching MLP:FiM and loved it. (I had no idea there was this huge following, or about the term ‘brony’). After finding this out and becoming obsessed with the show (and watching the first 40 episodes in 4 days XD) I took a tour around Google and found out about the Brony community/ BroNYCon, etc. It was my understanding that brony was bro + pony. Bro being short for brother, which is a male family member. Pegasister = pegasus + sister. Sister always being a female. I do not understand why a female would be offended by being called a female. I feel that a female saying that they are a brony is saying “Hey, I want to go by the male equivalent name to be more accepted.” (I feel the same way about waitor/ waitress or steward/ stewardess. Though I am also for having a completely gender neutral word like server or flight attendant respectively as long as the “general” term is not presumably male.) And I feel that the general term for any adult fan should NOT be brony, because it implies that men are the norm, and females are the underlings.

  59. Feminism has never been about more than equality to me. Women still don’t have equal rights in some things, as men don’t in others. To me this is not right. As a feminist I only want to be treated as an equal.

    That said, I don’t watch Friendship is Magic because it breaks all the rules, I watch it because it’s excellently written, animated, funny as hell and makes me laugh. The fact that it features female characters who aren’t just love interests is the extra shiny, rainbow coloured icing on the cake! 😀

  60. Look, the REAL reason ppl want Brony to be a gender-neutral term is that “Brony” is a *clever* neologism, while “Pegasister” is a painful, forced neologism.

  61. I call myself a pony fan.

    I dont see why gendered terms are necessary in fandom, especially in a fandom for a show that flouts gendered tropes so consistently in the way MLP:FiM does.

    Anything so divisive seems to run contrary to the spirit of the show — and lets not forget that as adult fans, we have a responsibility to create a space for and support the intended audience of MLP: children, especially girl children, who benefit most from the messages carried in the storytelling.

  62. …. Hmmm…. Yet the washing continues, cursed show.

    Glad to see pegisisters startin to make a stand and stuff, not much needs to be said on my end though: as both an outsider, an dude, and also an hater.

    Keep up the good fight and all of that, or loving?…. Tollerating? ….. Love and….. Nevermind, I’m out.

  63. I think ‘brony’ is a male-specific term because it was meant to refer to an unlikely periphery demographic for the show (teenage and adult males). It’s deviation for a male to like a show about ponies and friendship so they coined ‘BROny’ to refer to themselves.
    Because ‘brony’ was originally used to refer to these deviant MALES, ‘pegasister’ was coined to include females in their own cutesy way, keeping in theme with the horse puns used in the show and among the fans.

  64. Hey. 🙂

    I liked reading your article very much. I myself haven’t been a Pony fan for very long, but I was hooked after the first episode of FiM. Like you, I love the strong characters and the storyline. And I very much like the fact that it indeed doesn’t have any leading male characters.
    I’ve come so far in my fandom that I have a huge big Pinkie Pie sticker on my wall, and I collect the little figures from the blind bags. So far I have 3 of the main characters: Pinkie Pie, Glow-in-the-dark Rarity and Applejack. 😀

    You also mentioned Star Trek. If you haven’t watched it yet, I recommend Star Trek Voyager. I’m not fond of Star Trek in general myself, but Voyager has a female captain. 😀

    Girl power! 😉

  65. 6 main! You stated “The five main characters” in the 3rd paragraph, then named the 6 main in the fourth.

  66. I have to say I’m a little disappointed. You started out well in the terms of bronies, but then you lost me. The entire idea behind the majority of the movement is to tolerate everyone, regardless of race, nationality, and least of all sex. And the way the term ‘Brony’ is used in a male centered way is not entirely our fault. Its the fault of the countless people who hate on and bash the male fans, calling them various things to numerous to list. In all honesty, be glad your not part of the ‘Brony part’. You won’t get attacked nearly as much as we do.

  67. I cast resurrect on ye dead and forgotten blurb!
    The feminem up in this here article sounds like she looked for textbook uninspired interpretations that can be found in any 1st year 3rd rate college humanities and women’s studies students notebook. PLEASE for the love of actual feminism try to have a original thought and convey it so that it is of actual benefit.. NO OFFENSE of course but you are the reason that real women with women’s needs at heart throw up collective facepalms when purported feminists like without even the time or effort involved to know what they are talking about decide to make their voice heard, so to speak.
    -with love and regard
    =NAME REDACTED=

  68. Leave it to a feminist to make it a sex issue. If I’m not mistaken children are a little too young to pick up on such subtleties even if they were present to begin with. This isn’t about empowering the fairer sex ladies, it’s a cartoon and it needs to be treated as such. I’m a man and I watch it because it’s about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, period end of discussion. But just because I watch the show doesn’t mean I support feminism or any of this new age gender bending garbage that society tries to stuff down our throats. People like you are part of the problem.

  69. I wasn’t aware of bronies until last year, when I discovered one of my friends was a brony. I wasn;t aware of the term pegasister until about a month ago.

  70. I so agree with all of this.

    And it’s a shame how men are still not “allowed” to get involved in “girly” things. Because, you know: men getting interested in feminine things will clearly lead to them not wanting to be with a woman later… [/sarcasm]

    And I think the reason “bronies” get so much coverage is because girls getting interested in musculine stuff is accepted by now, but not the opposite. So when this becomes an internet phenomenon, displaying something society still hasn’t come to accept, of course they’re going to focus on the male viewers, because they’re “strange”. nobody wants to hear about the female fans of a show for girls on the news, you need something “outragious” for that.

    But either way, I hope this trend will be another step towards equalism and tearing down the wall between genders.

  71. I’m a 23 yr old grown woman & I love my little pony but it’s stupid that themale fans think they have their own subculture .Female fans are called Ponies not Bronies cause bro is for men.I call myself a pony not a (shudder ) Brony .

  72. “Some have proposed the male-centric term “brony” be applied to applied to all adult MLP fans, an unreflexive marking of the male as universal. This is indicative of a broader claiming of the text as normatively the domain of men”

    Huh? I think you’re taking things a bit ridiculously there. It’s because we’re all bros. Brother shortens to a monosyllabic form which can be pluralized more asthetically.

    Sure sister shortens to “sis”, but when you pluralize it (and you kinda have to, since “pegasis” doesn’t sound very different from pegasus), it’s like sis’s or sisses or something weird like that which is just frustrating.

    Brony is also less racist. Everyone knows there are 3 central breeds of ponies: earth ponies, pegasus ponies and unicorn ponies. Then some other weird breeds got added later like crystal ponies, and pegasus/unicorn crossbreeds finally got the official ‘alicorn stamp’…

    But basically “pegasister” just sucks because it only refers to 1 of 3 breeds. You’re only getting Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy out of the Mane 6. It’s discriminatory against the earths (Pinkie and Apple) and the unis (Rarity and Twilight).

    I’m all for approaching more gender neutral terms, but only if it works aesthetically.

    Ignoring the species problem, “pegasus” is already 3 syllables, more than pony/brony. Since you can’t even shorten it to “sis”, you make it 4 syllables as “pegasister”.

    That’s just not efficient, which is why it’s better to just call girl MLP fans bronies too. I don’t even view bro as a male-centered term these days, everyone is a bro.

    I mean if we track back the etymological roots I don’t even think they were male exclusive anyway. Consider:

    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%86%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%81#Ancient_Greek

    Merely meant a community member, and that’s what it is here.

    I suppose if there was some way we could merge some more neutral modern term (sibling? friend?) into ‘pony’ or a related term in an aesthetic way that’d be fine but I’m not sure how…

  73. Interesting read, I have been a Brony for one and a half years now and my life did a complete 180, in a good way ofcourse. With the whole “Brony” “Pegasister” thing, most Bronies that are female get a tad annoyed at being called a Pegasister but some prefere it. I personally would just like the term “Brony” meant universally for any Brony no matter the gender.

  74. mlp was one of my favorite movies (the shmooooooze) when i was a little kid having to deal with everybody thinking i was a boy. i was heart broken that i couldn’t have a flutterpony toy……. and the only time i ever got to pick one out was as a present for a friend…. so now i have gone crazy and have soo many mlp:fim toys it’s awesome.

    i’ve always been frustrated and sad that bros have hijacked the fandom the way they have. and it’s especially sad when they refer back to their 4chan roots when you call out any problematic behavior/content on their part. as if 4chan is a bastion of “love and tolerate” or whatever their brony battle cry is.

    and i was already mistaken for a boy for long enough. and have to deal with transphobic violence and harrasment based on people assuming i’m a boy…. so i will never under any conditions ever call myself a brony. why can’t we all just be ponies? and not have to make it all about the boys… again… ugh i fucking hate cis guys so much! they ruin everything. can’t we all just agree to ignore them for a while? maybe they’ll get bored and just go away.

  75. I am one of the male fans of the show, who got sucked in despite initially ridiculing it:

    http://files.sharenator.com/memes_it_has_begun_brony_memebase_10-s500x1022-152558.jpg

    Hasbro’s marketing staff aren’t stupid, and clearly crafted a program that appeals to adults, including the big brothers and dads who are compelled to watch children’s programming. There are male-friendly storylines (action sequences, references to movies like The Big Lebowski, etc.). And this includes making the characters appealing to men, on an emotional as well as physical level. The Mane Six are archetypes of the most desirable female personalities: intense intellectual, zany party girl, tomboy country gal, haughty independent business woman, sweet animal lover and gamine athlete. And, without condoning clopping, one has to admit that Ms Faust and her team of animators knew what unconscious buttons to push with straight men (a hilariously serious anthropological analysis follows):

    http://pastebin.com/rYKSXGAT

    This is why one sees so many straight males fantasizing about having adventures with the characters, like these clips:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km1YqjzIsJE

    And if one peeks at the various firearms fore, you will find gun nut bronies galore, some of whom are into customizing firearms and creating fan art:

    http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4876/bronyak.png

    http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2012/06/daniel-zimmerman/obscure-object-of-desire-my-little-pony-iwb-holster/

    http://th04.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/050/b/2/aac_honey_badger_rifle___fluttershy_edition_by_thebadpanda2-d4qbtnp.jpg

    I where can I get the StareMaster reflex sight…?

  76. As a brony myself, I’m just glad MLP:FiM came out when I was an adult rather than a kid. I would have NEVER given the show a chance when I was younger. I was resistant to giving it a chance even as an adult. But I’m sure glad I did. I don’t mind the female-centric nature of the show. In fact, I see the show as neutral because they don’t fem it up too much. It still has it’s girly parts including makeovers, spas, tea parties, etc. And it sounds really bad (for an adult guy that is). But the show doesn’t make that the main focus. They focus on problems that could happen to anypony….mare or stallion. And the girly stuff is kind of funny the way they portray it. Especially Applejack’s and Rainbow Dash’s aversion to it and Rarity’s obsession with it. LOL.

  77. Pingback: Birth of a 'Brony': A Queer Man Watches <i>My Little Pony</i> | Pride & Equality Post
  78. Pingback: Birth of a ‘Brony’: A Queer Man Watches <i>My Little Pony</i> - Moby Dok
  79. I attended BronyCon this year, and there was a psychology panel saying that a study was done in the last year asking what both genders thought female fans should be called. On average, male fans were indifferent on what to call females. Bronies, pegasisters, either was fine. But the girls thought very differently. Most of them wanted to be called bronies and *not* pegasisters.

    So it’s kind of unfair to call the term brony male-centric. Bro was originally a male word, but isn’t it okay if it becomes gender neutral?

  80. Y’know it’s astounding to me that this show could become one of the greatest rallying points for feminism and vehicles for change in media if more people would just give it the time of day and take it seriously!

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