Comments on: Found Feminism: My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic

By: Drew

Drew — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:25:02 +0000

I’m so glad you came into this with an open mind towards the show and bronies, Cook.

By: wererogue

wererogue — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:15:09 +0000

I really quite enjoyed FIM, in no small part because it was refreshing to have a “girl show” that is basically enjoyable regardless of who is watching. I feel like most media “for girls” seems to aim to be “appealing to girls” and forgets to aim to just be good media at it’s base. FIM proves that if your show is good and stars girls (without making them boy-fantasies) then it’s going to be appealing to girls! I’m not part of the bronie community, nor do I make fanart or movies for the show, but I do recommend it to any of my friends who enjoy shows that are strongly child-targeted but fun regardless (a few internet in-jokes aside, it’s not really one of those shows with content aimed at keeping the adults happy, preferring instead to just make strong content for the target audience).

My wife and I have been catching up on Adventure Time, which is clearly a show “for boys”, but has sort of transformed along the way. It’s still clearly targeted at boys, with the main characters being a boy hero and his dog friend, but there’s more and more content to show that girls are welcome.

The boys have plenty of female friends and enemies, all of whom are perfectly happy to be who they are, and are never derided for being too feminine. At least two of their female friends are significantly more powerful/important than the main characters. Some of the messaging is pretty strongly inclusive, and certain episodes are outright feminist – my favourite is an episode in the current season (Season 3) called Memory of a Memory. The episode’s is totally a traditional “boy saves girl” plot, but… well, no spoilers.

The show has drawn fanart from some pretty strongly feminist cartoonists, like Kate Beaton and Jess Fink.

Plus, it has the catchiest little throwaway songs (mostly written by Rebecca Sugar, one of their screenwriters). We’ve been watching for about 3 weeks and I’ve pretty much had all of their 30 second songs on rotation in my head since then.

By: AnilG

AnilG — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:56:25 +0000

Wondered if the new MLP would turn up here.

Just thought I’d mention there’s a significant brony population on the White Wolf roleplaying forums too and the Exalted sub-forum has a specific thread at the moment, with many regulars having pony related avatars: http://forums.white-wolf.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=51458

By: Stephen B

Stephen B — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:49:44 +0000

The Brony thing is just amazing.

That particular board in 4chan is a pit of messy death unlike anywhere else on the internet, and those guys just kept at it until they won. (Readers: this is where the tag for our post “I’m gonna love and tolerate the shit outta you” comes from!) I’m always interested in feminism which connects with men in environments where they need to keep a hard-man image, and this seems to be a case of the anonymity the internet provides working FOR love and tolerance. Possibly for the first time ever.