My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

It's very pink… and it's also OK, lads. You're allowed to like the cute ponies.

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My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is an American cartoon TV series launched by the Hasbro toy company in 2010 to promote toys; it broadcasted on the Discovery Family channel (known as The Hub from October 10 2010 to October 13 2014). The show takes place in the magical land of Equestria and focuses on Twilight Sparkle, a studious and science-minded unicorn pony who is sent to the town of Ponyville to learn how to make friends, among them the very young dragon Spike.

Although originally written for young girls, Friendship Is Magic developed a large and unexpected cult following among men in their 20s and 30s, nicknamed "bronies". This demographic has become a controversial cultural phenomenon, generating debate about what this instance of fandom says about gender neutrality and tolerance. The show has also attracted discussion and controversy about other topics of interest to rationalists and skeptics.

"But it's a show for little girls!"

Friendship Is Magic's cult following originated on 4chan where a group of posters decided to watch the show in response to an alarmist editorial claiming that programming produced by an advertiser (in this case, Hasbro) signaled the end of "creator-driven" entertainment and quality children's television. Although this was originally meant to be ironic and tongue-in-cheek, many who watched the show genuinely enjoyed it. Explanations for this included the show's high-quality animation, the presence of strong female characters who defy conventional gender stereotypes, and moral lessons that are typically in line with a modern inclusive worldview as opposed to "family values" (although these do show up from time to time).

Bronycon 2012

The overly colorful and feminine nature of the series has led to widespread mocking and derision of its fans, who are at times accused of being gay, furries, pedophiles, or zoophiles. While some use homophobic language to mock bronies, some LGBT activists have criticized them for appropriating their terminology, such as "coming out of the stable," a phrase describing when a fan makes it publicly known they enjoy the show. Series creator Lauren Faust has expressed disapproval for those who are critical of bronies, explaining that she feels it is important for adult men "to be encouraged to be caring, emotional people." Likewise, a large majority of those who have a problem with bronies as a culture seem to have a problem with examples of them being the exact opposite of that, e.g. how easily anyone critical of them can be targeted with a hate mob, or how the culture's 4chan roots still have a large foundation upon how some members of the brony fandom behave (including, but not exclusive to, mountains of porn of characters of dubious age), and some of the fandom's ties to the MRA anti-feminist culture, despite the show creator's feminist leanings. Some of the exasperation felt seems to be due to the over-defensive nature of parts of the fanbase, and those members' readiness to say "Not all bronies! You're just a hater!" when any controversy has occurred rather than condemning said controversy.

There have been several documentaries produced about the show and its fan following, including: Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony (2012); Ballad of the Brony (2013); The Brony Chronicles - A Documentary on My Little Pony and Bronies (2014); and A Brony Tale (2014). The films explore various issues experienced by bronies, such as an instance of homophobic persecution and the difficulties they face in telling friends and family members about their hobby. Some bronies have complained that these documentaries ignore the majority of the fanbase who keep their fandom as only a facet of their life and do not feel persecuted for being bronies, and by focusing on the 'martyrs', it makes them all look like losers. The films typically only highlight the male portion of the fan base as well, which prompts complaints from the pegasisters. The documentaries contain little criticism of the fandom and tend to avoid or ignore major issues in the brony community such as bullying and harassment, death threats, transphobia, and the cloppers which aggressively sexualize the show and proudly display their "plush ponies with makeshift orifices" on brony forums. For example, Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony was widely criticized for its portrayal of bronies (with one critic flabbergasted that it seemed to portray bronies as "on par with civil or gay rights movements") and has been called "borderline propaganda" and "a puff-piece" by various reviews due to its lack of any negative coverage at all. This is not surprising given that these films are produced by bronies themselves, as opposed to any third party, which is understandable, to a point. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an aggregate score of 42%, which makes it comparable to Ted 2 or Charlie's Angels Full Throttle. Why anyone cares about the merits of a low-rent documentary into the Brony sub-culture cannot be answered by Rotten Tomatoes, or any other agency on Earth, so feel free to jump onto the talk page and add your two cents like every other person that reads this section of the article.

A clearly possibly much more accurate documentary on Bronies entitled "The Last Bronycon: A fandom autopsy" was released by YouTuber Jenny Nicholson, co-creator of the MLP parody series Friendship is Witchcraft. The video provides a detailed exploration from a female fan perspective of both the positive and negative aspects of Brony culture, including its origins on 4chan, as well as its expansion, lifespan, and eventual death following the final BronyCon. In her video, Nicholson singles out and strongly criticizes actor and Brony documentary producer John de Lancie for whitewashing Brony culture to ensure a favorable (and thus more profitable) reception among Bronies. The video also criticizes Hasbro/DHX Media for its blantantly obvious apparent decision to pander to pivot the shows content to cater to Bronies, since they were where the most money could be made — thus leaving the originally intended audience all but forgotten. However, Nicholson also blames the Brony fandom for causing Hasbro to do things like make toys of only the main cast and making more (small) blind bag toys with plastic hair, which Hasbro had already been doing with the earlier "Generation 3" toyline, so it's best to take her opinion with a pinch of salt.

Political controversies

My Little Pony: Liberalism is Satanic

See the main article on this topic: Moral panic

Some of the crazier conservative groups have targeted Friendship Is Magic as being part of the omnipresent liberal conspiracy to indoctrinate children through entertainment. Their evidence includes the idea that the show's core tenets, such as loving and accepting people who are different from oneself, are obviously proof of an evil liberal conspiracy.

Fox News, ever on the ball, declared that bronies are grown adults that have become so obsessed with the show that they "stay home from work" and "are filing for disability". Some even wingnuttier right-wing crazies have accused the series of promoting the wicked gay agenda, and of being satanic and generally evil. At least one person even discovered an Illuminati connection.

Particular focus has been placed on Rainbow Dash, one of the main characters, whose macho behavior, rainbow-themed appearance, and rejection of feminine social norms has been widely suggested to be proof that she is a representation of butch lesbianism. Although most fans reject this, and the show's creator, Lauren Faust, has rejected wholesale the idea that Rainbow Dash is supposed to be a "stealth lesbian," the rumors and myths have persisted (the series finale did imply that she is in a relationship with Applejack, but it was kept ambiguous enough that they could just be living together without having any attraction to each other ). Accusations that one or more of the characters are "secretly" lesbians and are trying to convince America's children to be gay are reminiscent of the conspiracy theories that conservative groups have leveled against other children's shows like SpongeBob SquarePants.

The fact that the series portrays positive female characters that fall under a variety of archetypes, and promotes these lifestyles as being equally valid, has led to it being accused of being a nefarious feminist plot.

This was not the first time My Little Pony faced such accusations, as Phil Phillips attacked the original cartoon in the 1980s and claimed that My Little Pony heralds the coming of the Anti-Christ, based on a reading of Daniel 8:4-5. This verse actually describes flying unicorn goats, not horses, but close enough, eh? For some reason, the "Four Horsemen" in Revelation 6:1-8 are not used, even though this does actually describe four multicoloured horses (white, red, black, pale) and is arguably a more "accurate" My Little Pony analogy.

My Little Aryan: The White Race is Magic

Conversely, My Little Pony has also attracted a brony fan base from a variety of nationalistic types, who view the show as a metaphor for an ethno-state and make fan art of the ponies with Hitler. This is despite the fact that the show includes several ponies who are clearly representative of other various ethnicities throughout its nine-season run. Adding to the irony, Tara Strong, the voice actor for the main character Twilight Sparkle, is Jewish. Perhaps to disassociate the franchise from these groups, the cast of the fifth generation would include various POC in major roles.

And then, it fades away

The last episode of the television show was aired in 2019 and a a short-lived spinoff, My Little Pony: Pony Life, aired from late 2020 to early 2021. Since then, the fan community has substantially declined since peaking in the mid-2010s. Hasbro released a new film in 2021, followed by new series on YouTube and Netflix in 2022. However, these didn't get as much interest as Friendship Is Magic once did, and older fans were divided over the quality over the new "Generation Five" phase of the franchise. On 17 October 2024, My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale came to an end, seemingly signifying the end of Generation 5.

See also

• American Girl - a doll line and media franchise, also with a significant adult collector following
• Barbie: The Movie - inspired by another toy franchise originally aimed at little girls

External links

• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Wiki (hosted on Fandom}
• Know Your Meme article, a more in-depth look at the fandom.
• Equestria Daily, a blog reporting on various aspects of the fandom