This might be a bit disjointed and not make sense, but this is something that has bothered me for a while, so here goes…..
I am a Brony. The original meaning of this was a combination of two words. “Bro” and “Pony” It was a term used to describe an adult male viewer of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. That’s it. It quickly expanded to being a term to describe any adult fan of the show, regardless of gender. Children were also free to refer to themselves in this way. Females also on occasion would refer to themselves as a Pegasister. I am female, but that term didn’t sound as nice to me, so I stuck with Brony.
I started off not wanting to watch this show. Like many people I grew up with, I was only aware of the original generations of MLP, which fell into the girly stereotypes that I was tired of seeing in every show. There was nothing wrong with being feminine, and liking tea parties, romance, and fashion, but these were pretty much the only “girl” shows offered to me as a child. But at one point in my senior year of high school, I decided to give the show a shot. I quickly fell in love with the characters, animation, songs, and plot. This was a franchise created solely for the purpose of selling toys, and yet the creators of generation 4 of MLP decided that they wanted to be more than that, and to create a show that any person of any age or gender could sit down and watch without wanting to blow out their brains. There was something in each of the main characters for everyone, and even those that fell more towards feminine interests were deep characters that didn’t stop at those tropes. These characters captured my heart and made me laugh. Like laugh out loud. Which I hadn’t been doing for a while. There were moments in the show where I cried because I was so moved by the words or songs. This show helped lift me from the dark place I had found myself in. I slowly started looking at more fan content and found a community full of funny, talented, intelligent people who came from every walk of life.
When I started school, I reunited with a friend from my childhood, and introduced him to the show. He fell in love with it. And he and I, along with two of our friends, started a Brony Club at our school. There was a demand for it. And we felt we could create a club that not only gathered to enjoy the show together and play games, but we could make a difference in our community. We have raised over 400$ dollars for charities like our local homeless shelter, and for a little boy who attempted suicide due to merciless bullying because he liked My Little Pony.
I had a group of friends at this school that I truly love. We have fun doing good and we are the only ALL inclusive club at our school.
But people think we are freaks.
People think we are all jerking off to My Little Pony porn in our basements. People act like just because we are a group of adults watching this show, that we are deviants. Or that we are “Neckbeard, fedora tipping, m'ladying, "good guys”“ They assume that there is something wrong with us. Or that we are less then them somehow.
And on tumblr, I am sick of it. There are people in every fandom that do horribly disgusting things. No matter what the content. And for some reason, this website has decided to make it’s purpose to portray Bronies as something inherently bad. If you are a Brony, there is something wrong with you. Forget the fact that this is a genuinely good show, forget that this show has saved people’s lives, and that as a community we have raised millions of dollars for charity. If you watch MLP, you are a disgusting creature. Why is it that people can write fanfictions about Harry Potter being raped by his teachers and liking it, and that people don’t associate the whole fandom with shit like that? Because the whole fandom ISN"T like that. Just like Bronies. It is a show about talking ponies, and I don’t subscribe to the interests of the darker side of this fandom. But for some reason, because I am a Brony, I am automatically filed under this label of "horse fucker"
I have been made to feel guilty for liking this show, for being a Brony, because people for some unknown idea, can’t fathom the idea that someone can be in fandom where there is a small percentage of people like that and not be like that.
This is a group of adults who decided that gender barriers were a bad reason to not watch a good show. And we are hated for that.
There are people I follow who will occasionally post a negative post about Bronies, and every time I see it, it brings me down and makes me question what is wrong with me? Why would I watch this show and be in a fandom with people like this? But there is nothing wrong with me. The problem is not with me, the problem is with the douchebags who can’t just accept that men can watch a show about pastel colored ponies and that is okay! Sure there is a negative part of this fandom. But if they would actually look at this fandom they would see how inaccurate it is to assume that we are all like that.
The thing I guess I am trying to say is that everyone has the right to their own opinion. But opinions should be formed from an education place. Not a rumor of taboo things. Or formed from people who want to force this negativity. You don’t have to like My Little Pony. You don’t even have to like Bronies. But when you assume that an entire subculture of people are one way because it makes you feel better about yourself, you are continuing a problem in the world. Unless you have been attacked personally by one of these people who you assume all Bronies are a clone of, then don’t blanket judge us and make us feel like worthless human beings for watching a show that is supposed to make us feel good about ourselves and teach us how to be better people, and better friends.
I am a Brony. I love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
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