Nathan Durfee
​Definition Essay
​September 12, 2012
Bronies
There are men who love their food, there are men who love
their cars, there are men who love their sports, and then there are
those brave souls who love My Little Pony: Friendship is
Magic (MLP: FiM) and are not afraid to announce it to the entire
world. These men who watch this show for little girls are known
as “Bronies.” Bronies just so happen to be men who are
anywhere from 14 to 57 in age (Edwards), and they enjoy a
show that originally had a target demographic of four-year-old
girls. Many people find it a bit strange that a grown man would
enjoy watching a show about magic ponies and those people
who say that would also label Bronies as pedophiles or
homosexual, which is not the case. And although Bronies try to
explain their love of the show to those who don't watch it so
they can be accepted better, they still get a lot of backlash from
the very people they want to be accepted by, from peers, to
friends, and even their families. Even though many people shun
Bronies, they have to realize that they are just people, too, with
different things that they like. But, in the end, it seems that they
are still different enough to some people just because they watch
a certain show, and they are having a hard time being accepted
like so many other groups have been in the past, just because
they have misconceptions that surround them, but, the fact of the
matter remains that they are just another social group that has an
interesting culture all their own, even if it is centered around a
little girls' show.
And now, you might ask, what exactly is a Brony? Well,
the fans of MLP: FiM “made up the term themselves: bro +
pony = brony” (Angel). The word Brony is a blanket term,
encompassing everyone who is not a young child but is still a
fan of MLP: FiM. There are both males and females in this
group, the males being the Bronies and the females getting the
name Pegasisters. Most Bronies are around the average age of
21, but they can land anywhere in the age range from 14 to 57
(Edwards). The members of this sub-culture enjoy getting
together and using different terms usually ones that they have
together and using different terms usually ones that they have
gotten from the show that they like to use in everyday
conversations, such as “everypony” instead of “everyone” and
“herd” instead of “group.” The usual mentality of your average
Brony is kind, because one of the main sayings that they follow
is “love and tolerate.” They try to accept other people for who
they really are, and they are not afraid to show their love of a
show for little girls. Lauren Faust, the creator of this generation
of My Little Pony, has said this about Bronies: “As a group, they
have not succumbed to society's pressure that young men must
hold contempt for anything feminine, no matter what. They've
been able to see beyond the preconceived that they were most
likely raised with to judge something on its merits. And on top
of that, they're brave enough to embrace it openly despite the
ridicule they're undoubtedly subject to” (Angel). Many Bronies
are open with their love of the show, and most people see that as
strange.
You may be wondering why I have chosen to write about
such a strange topic. Well, to me, the topic is not strange at all,
because I myself am a Brony, and I do enjoy watching MLP:
FiM from time to time, although it did not start out that way. In
the very beginning, it was one of my high school friends who
introduced me to the concept of Bronies. When I had first heard
from him about grown men watching a reboot of a show for
little girls from the 1980s, I laughed at him. When he stated that
he himself was a Brony, I had to ask him why. He told me that,
yeah, even though the show was originally intended to be for
little girls, he found out that a lot of guys had been watching it
recently, so he checked it out, and, to his surprise, it was much
different than the 1980s version, and that it was now fun and
interesting to watch. At the time, I thought the idea was rather
stupid, so I ignored anything Brony-related for a while after that,
while I still hung out with my Brony friend. But after a year or
so of trying to ignore Bronies, I began to see a lot of Brony
memes popping up on a website called Memebase, which is a
well-known site for collecting and sharing funny internet
pictures called memes. I then looked at the list of sub-sites that
they have and was surprised to see a listing called My Little
Brony. I clicked on it, only expecting to see a few pages of
Brony. I clicked on it, only expecting to see a few pages of
memes. Instead, I saw over 300 pages in total, which totally
amazed me. For some reason or another, from that day forward,
I frequented the site. Eventually, I began to wonder why so
many people would make so much cool stuff about a silly little
show for girls. I reluctantly decided to watch an episode. I do
not remember which episode it was, but I do remember being
very entertained, and I became hooked. It was at that very
moment, when I watched my very first episode that I had
officially become a Brony. Now, I have even more in common
with my one friend than I ever did, and it makes me feel good
that there are many other people who watch the show out there,
too.
You may now understand what a “Brony” is but still not
understand the fascination around the show. Well, what MLP:
FiM exactly is is a remake of a 1980s animated TV show for
preadolescent girls featuring plucky, candy-colored equines. The
show centers on the ponies and their adventures. There are at
least four different types of ponies; unicorn ponies, who use
their horns to perform magic, pegasus ponies, who have wings
and can fly, earth ponies, which are ponies who have no wings
or horns and alicorns, which have both wings and horns and are
very important beings seeing as there are only four known
alicorns in the world of MLP: FiM, and they are all either
princesses or queens. All ponies have special talents that are
shown through the Cutie Mark symbols that are on each pony's
flank. Examples could be balloons to show that they throw great
parties or butterflies to show that they are experts at
communicating and taking care of animals. These special
abilities help the ponies out in their everyday lives in the two
main cities of the show, Ponyville and Canterlot, which are
located in the land of Equestria. The show centers around six
“mane” ponies that live in Ponyville. They are Twilight Sparkle,
who is a purple unicorn pony with a large purple star surrounded
by tiny white stars as her Cutie Mark which represents magic,
Applejack, an orange earth pony with apples for a Cutie Mark to
show she is good at growing apples, and Rainbow Dash, a blue
pegasus pony with a rainbow mane and a Cutie Mark of a cloud
with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it which represents
with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it which represents
that she can control the weather and make rainbows, not to
mention sonic rainbooms. The other three main ponies include
Rarity, who is another unicorn pony who is white with a purple
mane and gems for her Cutie Mark to show she is fashionable
and creates clothing for the ponies, Pinkie Pie, an all-pink earth
pony with balloons for a Cutie Mark which means she throws
the most awesome parties, and Fluttershy, a yellow with a pink
mane pegasus with butterflies as her Cutie Mark to let others see
that she is an expert at caring for animals. All six of the main
ponies report to Princess Celestia, an alicorn goddess who rules
over Equestria and has a sun for her Cutie Mark, which
represents that she has control over the sun. The main six ponies
go on all kinds of adventures all throughout Equestria, reporting
their findings on friendship to Princess Celestia.
Although our group has been around for a few years, it has
still not been fully accepted. Many other social groups that
seemed strange or different at one time or another have been
accepted, but we Bronies are still having a hard time getting
others to accept us, and it is just because we watch MLP: FiM.
People who watch anime, or Japanese cartoons, and dress up in
costumes and go to conventions have been accepted fairly fell,
correct? And how about the people who collect comic books and
go to Comicon each year? They have been accepted into society
to some extent, but people think that men watching MLP: FiM is
creepy. Why is that? Do people who read Superman comics and
watch Naruto not enjoy cartoons, also? Rebecca Angel, a writer
forWired's GeekMoms and the author of the article “In Defense
of Bronies,” is shocked by statements that say Bronies are
creepy because she is “currently writing with a group of adult
women who regularly partake in culture aimed at young boys.”
She does not think that it is creepy for her to enjoy Avatar: The
Last Airbender (Angel), even though it is a show aimed at young
boys. And what about Disney films? I still enjoy
watching Bambi and Toy Story, and I am 19 years old. I do not
find it strange or odd that I still enjoy these movies, and I know
plenty of people who are older than me who would agree.
Many people who dislike us Bronies are called “Haters,”
and they enjoy annoying us or trying to hurt our feelings so that
and they enjoy annoying us or trying to hurt our feelings so that
they can get a rise out of us. People do not see us as normal.
Instead, they see creepy grown men watching MLP: FiM and
label us as pedophiles or homosexual in our sexual orientations.
Angel states that “Pedophiles are mostly men who have been
sexually abused as children and become predators themselves.”
She then goes on to state that “A group of young men openly
hanging out in a dorm doom watching a cartoon is NOT
pedophilia” (Angel). But, even after disproving the pedophile
problem, we are still left with the homosexuality accusations.
Jessica Blank, who is an organizer for BroNYCon, a convention
for Bronies located in New York City, says people continuously
ask her if Bronies are gay, and she replies “Actually, the
overwhelming majority are straight.” This statement can be
backed up by the research that professor Patrick Edwards, who
has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and Professor Marsha H.
Redden, a member of the American Psychological Association,
have done on the matters of the Brony community. One of their
major finds in their study was that the minority of the Brony
participants in the study are homosexual, while a majority the of
Brony participants were heterosexual (Edwards), or, in other
words, totally straight. Although most people think that “The
pink and sparkly factor” of the show is emasculating, it has been
shown that that is not true at all. While some Bronies are what
you would call “Secret Bronies,” Bronies who are afraid to tell
their family and friends that they enjoy MLP: FiM for fear of
ridicule, we find that there is a larger percentage of “Social
Bronies,” a large group of Bronies who share their love of MLP:
FiM and they do not find it emasculating at all. But still, many
protective parents of the younger Brony population have many
“problems” that they like to worry about.
Speaking of Brony culture, people who think that we just
watch the show need to look deeper into it. While there may be a
tiny bit that you want to worry about here or there (such as clopfictions and rule 34 pictures), there is plenty of other stuff to
show why Brony culture is so great. We also have a plethora
of MLP: FiM-related music and artists, such as Discord by
Eurobeat Brony, which is about one of the show's main villains,
and Stuck in Time by Bronyfied, which is about the background
and Stuck in Time by Bronyfied, which is about the background
pony Dr. Whooves. We have named some of the background
characters in the show we all love so much because they appear
quite a bit and it is rather fun. A few that come to mind are Dr.
Whooves, a brown earth pony with an hourglass for a Cutie
Mark and reminds everyone of the famous Dr. Who, DJ Pon-3
(aka Vinyl Scratch), a white unicorn pony with a blue mane and
a music note as her Cutie mark to denote the fact that she is a
DJ, and, of course, Derpy Hooves, a gray pegasus pony with a
blond mane and bubbles for a Cutie Mark and messes everything
up a lot, has what we call “derp eyes,” which are eyes that point
different directions, and is loved by pretty much every Brony on
the planet. There was even a whole issue surrounding her, which
we Bronies call “Derpygate,” where all of the Bronies came
together in protest, for they were planning on changing our
Derpy just because some parent or something thought she was
made to make fun of the mentally challenged, which is not true.
Rainbow dash actually addresses this pony as Derpy so her
name is officially confirmed.
In conclusion, you have now read that Bronies are not
strange or weird, they are just regular people with specific
interests. We are not pedophiles, and most of us are actually
heterosexual. We may be shunned as a sub-culture for the time
being, but our culture is interesting enough without being
integrated into the regular culture for right now. Hopefully, I
have enticed your interests in Bronies and perhaps made you
think about watching an episode or two of My Little Pony:
Friendship is Magic. You will not regret it if you do, believe
me. This essay was just to get the word about Bronies to the
unknowing populace, and, hopefully, those of you that have read
this have gained some awareness and have become more
accepting of our ways and our culture. That is all we Bronies
really want, to be loved and tolerated, just like everyone else.
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