Dr. Mechano

I think it needs to be emphasized that "the fandom" and "the fans" - while related - are not the same concept. When referring to the fans, I refer to individual people, with their own behaviors, choices, and actions. The "fandom," on the other hand, refers more to a loosely-organized group, along with a set of norms and trends that the group displays. In many ways, my critiques of brony culture could really be considered a critique of nerd culture in general; Gamers, anime fans, comic fans... there's a ton of elitism, sexism, and self-entitlement in all of these groups. I say this as an unabashed nerd myself, not to put down my fellow fans, but to lament the climate of the community I'm a small part of. When most people refer to the fandom, they are - for better or worse - referring more to overarching group trends than to individual people. I love MLP fans, and I'm unashamedly one myself, but I do not love the fandom culture for the reasons I've already mentioned. I agree that "nobody should be hated for the actions of somebody else," but I want you to understand that criticizing the fandom and its norms isn't the same thing as generalizing or criticizing the fans themselves as a collective group.

So, Friends Forever #1 was released yesterday, and it stars Applejack and Pinkie Pie (these two have had a lot of screentime together recently)! The story is a lot of fun, but feels... unfocused. In a very short period of time, Pinkie enters a cooking contest, Applejack accidentally gets dragged into the same contest (replacing the chef who was supposed to be there), a subplot about a poor restaurant owner comes up, prompting Pinkie and Applejack to let her win before changing their minds and deciding not to patronize her, and then... the real chef shows up with a weaponized frosting blaster and tries to freeze everyone in revenge before being defeated by the other contestants and frozen herself. And then the poor restaurant owner wins the 50,000 bit prize and the comic ends. Okay, Friends Forever #1. Okay. With that said, I did enjoy this comic. It's funny, the character interactions are nice, and the art - with the exception of the occasional odd facial expression, or the fact that the surprise villain is essentially a Fluttershy recolor - is pretty solid. More than the comic itself, though, I love the concept of Friends Forever; The "friendship" episodes of FiM, which focus on two characters and their interactions (rather than focusing on either all six or one central character) are among my favorites in the entire show, and to see a comic that revolves entirely around these kinds of stories is incredibly promising. Character interaction is, to me, the biggest appeal of this series; So I'm definitely hyped to see what the rest of Friends Forever has to offer! As always, I'll leave you with a preview panel, along with my usual endorsement of the IDW comics for anyone who isn't on board yet: This comic was about a cooking contest.

Of course not. No one is discounting those things. The MLP fandom has tons of great people who do great things, and I've never denied that. But that's faulty reasoning, regarding this topic. It's kinda like saying, "C'mon, Doc! Quit nay-saying my health by calling my arm infected! Have you seen how well my legs work?" One part being fine doesn't mean we get to conveniently ignore the parts that are troubling. Just because many parts of the fandom are good and productive doesn't mean that we need to ignore (and thereby do nothing to fix) the problems the fandom has. Incidentally, Oliver is right about one thing in the quote you posted: If you want to be part of the solution, then be vocal about not being okay with the bad things some subsets of the fandom do. Be open and enthusiastic about the show, absolutely, but don't get swept up in "herd mentality" and forget to be your own person. You wanna make the fandom a better place? Great! Then you reject and denounce bad brony behavior while exemplifying positive behavior of your own. And you very well already might do that, but this post is really directed people generally, not just you.

Speaking as an active fan of the show myself, I honestly don't feel this "hateful" or "insulting" tone from her that you're talking about. Like, before this huge fiasco of an argument broke out, all she really said was that the fandom - collectively, not singling out any individuals - often fails to call out its problem members and has trouble admitting to problematic behavior, as well as hypocrisy. I never read into that, "I hate bronies as individual people" so much as "I dislike the organized group that is the MLP fandom." The two sentiments aren't the same, and I think fans being needlessly defensive about the fandom is one of the major reasons it does get a lot of flak. Like I said, if you don't do the things someone's complaining about when they vent about the fandom, then that means they aren't mad at (or referring) to you. Keep being a good fan if you don't fit the description of their complaints. If you do? Some self-examination may be in order, but otherwise, don't assume all complaints about the fandom at large apply to you, especially if those complaints don't describe your actions.

I think the critique of a disillusioned former fan is perfect for this topic. The topic asks why people dislike most of the fanbase, and I feel that even if someone isn't involved in the fandom anymore, their experiences are actually really valid and can provide insight into why people get put off by the community. Honestly, I believe we should welcome replies like this and take their criticisms for what they are. Obviously, she left the fandom for a reason, and this topic invited her to tell us why - which she did. What's the problem here?

Not necessarily. One can be a fan without being "part of the fandom." Like, someone who just watches the show without really getting involved in the online community. Admittedly that doesn't explain him still posting here, but yeah, it's possible to be a fan and not identify with the fandom at large.

The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have a problem. I think this is true of both individuals and organized groups, including fandoms. Rather than get defensive about criticism and say "Hey, we're not all like that," look at yourself. Closely. And ask yourself, "Am I like that? Do I do that?" If you don't contribute to the fandom's abundance of misogyny, racism, homophobia, or other prejudices, good! If you aren't treating the show like a religion, treating the fanbase like some sort of secret elite society, or acting like you deserve a medal for watching a show outside of your demographic, awesome. If you aren't publicly discussing your masturbation habits in general, non-porn MLP communities, please continue to not do that! By all means carry on, but if you do display some of the irksome behaviors that put so many people off in this community, take the criticism to heart and look at what you can do to improve yourself instead of dismissing any critic as a "hater." Even if they are indiscriminately hating the show or the fanbase, should we really be so invested in this cartoon that we feel obligated to rush to a bunch of fictional horses' defense? Let them hate the show, and continue liking it without taking their distaste so personally. I say this with love, guys. Because I believe this fanbase can and should be better. Enjoy your fandom, but don't let your fandom utterly dominate your life (and this goes for any hobby, not just MLP).

Rarity's my favorite and all, but I think the lack of Rarity merchandise has less to do with the vendors' personal preferences and more to do with what sells. Rarity just doesn't bring in the numbers like Rainbow Dash does, which is why she gets less merchandise. She regularly competes with Applejack for the least popular of the main six, so from a pure marketing perspective, I can kind of see why both characters would get less products, when such products aren't as guaranteed to turn a big profit. It's lame, yeah, but I can't really fault them for their business sense.

It's not for liking a kids' show. It's not for liking a girls' show either. Bronies are disliked for making an unnecessarily huge deal about liking a show for kids/girls, and for acting like this huge world-changing counterculture instead of just a bunch of people who like a TV show. It's a good show, but it's just a show. You don't need to "come out" or make a big to-do out of liking the show. Your personal identity as a human being should not revolve around your fandom, whatever that fandom may be. It goes without saying that if you don't act like this, then I'm obviously not talking about you specifically, but this is a pretty widespread behavior in this fandom. This fandom is disliked because so many MLP fans make this cartoon into more than it is. Just enjoy the show, talk about it with other fans, even make fan content if you're so inclined. Enthusiasm is fine, zealotry is the reason people (often justifiably) are put off by this fanbase.

Since we're posting desktops: Here's mine, complete with my neatly-organized Rarity folder, containing a modest collection of content featuring my favorite character..

I'm okay with this. I disliked Molestia for its unfunny rape jokes, and won't miss it after permanently closing its doors. I like Joseco's other fanart, though, so I have no objections to what essentially looks like "Molestia minus Molestia." We'll see what he does with it, anyway. If the rape jokes come back, count me out.

So, did anyone else get issue #15 today? It's pretty fantastic if I do say so myself. Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie magically transport into various books (similar to Power Ponies) to stop a bookworm from eating - and thus destroying - the books' stories. However, to repair the damaged stories, they must reenact the missing segments, and they all proceed to do this incorrectly, leading to hilarious results. Each pony ends up taking the group to a different story; From Pinkie's whacked-out fairy tale (combining everything from Robin Hood to Rapunzel to Cinderella all in the same story) to Rainbow Dash's reenactment of a Daring Do novel. My favorite bit is Rarity's story, which is a sappy romance novel: This stuff is gold. Eventually, the bookworm devours almost everything from these stories, and the comic ends on a cliffhanger as the books' erased characters start sprouting from pods and appearing in the real world, where Applejack, Spike, and Fluttershy are still waiting. One minor issue with continuity is that Daring Do is treated as a fictional character, and even emerges from her book into the "real" world along with other characters. Weirder still is that this comic clearly takes place after Power Ponies, since it references that episode's enchanted comic, so I find it odd that Daring Do is back to being a fictional character. (One explanation, though, is that real-life Daring Do exaggerates her own adventures, and that the Daring Do of the books is a separate character from the real-life A.K. Yearling? I'll go with that to save myself a headache, I guess). Other than that relatively small issue, though, this comic is fantastic! I can't wait to see what happens next month in issue 16. Seriously, if you aren't reading the IDW comics, you should. They're great. One more preview image for the road! Hairity returns.

I haven't been this hyped since the last Rarity episode. This sounds like a lot of fun. I can't wait to hear Tabitha St. Germain voicing a southern accent while already voicing a Mid-Atlantic accent. This is going to be good.

I'm not exactly keen on the abrasive nature of anonymous imageboard culture, so the "/b/rony" etymology does nothing to endear the term to me. Reardless of the term's origins from /b/ - something I wouldn't wear as a badge anyway - calling myself a "brony" still feels like I'm drawing needless attention to my gender. I'm not saying all self-described bronies do this, but that it would feel that way to me if I did. To me, "MLP fan" feels more neutral and carries less baggage.

Aside from my issues with its dubious gender-neutrality, I've simply never been too fond of fandom nicknames in general, as a matter of personal preference. I like Star Trek, for example, but don't refer to myself as a "Trekkie." I don't have any contention with fans who do, but it's just not for me.

I disagree on this point. While many female fans do refer to themselves as "bronies," the "bro" prefix is still masculine and has association with maleness, which can make many female fans uncomfortable with the label. Even though many masculine terms ("you guys" for example) can be used to refer to mixed groups of all genders, not everyone necessarily likes referring to themselves using these terms and those preferences should be respected. To "segregate from the fandom?" I genuinely have no idea how you came to that conclusion. Could you elaborate on what you mean by this? It's gender-neutral in certain contexts, but not others. You said it yourself: "patches of urban culture," not all culture at large. Many women don't like to think of themselves as "bros," and for that matter, some men don't necessarily like to refer to themselves that way either. My stance is that the terms "brony" and "pegasister" are both equally valid fandom labels, and that fans should choose the one that they feel best identifies them. I myself simply consider myself an "MLP fan" rather than a "brony," which is also fine. So apply whatever label you want to yourself! We're united by our shared hobby, not what we call ourselves, after all.

Certainly. And never once have I advocated forcing someone to be tolerant of anything; And I don't advocate that because it's not possible to force someone to be tolerant of anything. People are beings of free will, and I obviously realize that. I can, however, vocally advocate tolerance in the community because I like to think of said community as a safe space in which all kinds of fans are welcome. I call out bad behavior when I see it because I want to, on my own terms, as well. Remember that calling out troubling trends in the fandom isn't violating anyone's rights. It's saying "that's a problem, here's why, and you should stop," but it never takes anyone by the hand and makes them stop. It's dissent, and I feel that if certain segments of the fandom can wear their prejudices like a badge, then I (as well as a number of other fans) can and should speak out against those prejudices just as freely. Otherwise, those prejudices become the "face of the fandom" by virtue of going unchallenged, which among other things repels people from the community.