AppleGearRising

I won't lie, this hadn't come to my attention at the time of my creating this topic and I had no idea that such characters were not only a part of the fan base but that they were also partly responsible for the misrepresentation of our community back when it all started. I haven't been a part of this place or this fandom for very long and I've still got an incredible amount to learn about it, it doesn't surprise me that even in a fandom such as this; that there are still bad people but to discover that there were/are such vile individuals among us sickens me to the very core of my being and makes me feel deeply ashamed that they would be associated with us and that we should be branded with such a disgusting face is exactly the reason as to why I feel the way I do. I have to apologise to people like Tinker Tunes for being blind to the true nature of our reality and for not having even considered the possibility of such individuals even existing within this fan base purely because the idea was something I did not want to face, however even in light of this new information I still stand by what I said before; I still firmly believe that the people within THIS community are far finer people than the ones that have tainted our image in the past and I still believe that the fact that we are targeted as a whole for what others have done is not something we should take lightly. To reiterate what I said previously; I haven't been here for very long, but already I love this community, I love the people that are here and I love the brilliance of these people and how MLP has helped to better their lives now this may sound like a blind love and maybe it is, maybe I am even going so far as to defend some of the characters that have been responsible for placing us in the predicament we are in now but even so I don't believe for a second that everyone should be condemned for the actions of a minority, whether or not these people are a minority remains to be seen but for now I am branding them as such for the sake of everyone here. Now I know this doesn't concern me specifically but; for our own race to reach the point where someone is discriminated against in the 21st century simply for liking something that may be considered to be out of the ordinary saddens me greatly, to learn that Bronies are afraid to express themselves publicly because such prejudice exists in our world makes me livid beyond my own comprehension. I realise that this comes back to the whole 'Bronies being too overt and sticking pony stuff over everything' side of things but make no mistake; that is NOT what I am trying to defend here, expression of oneself of one's opinion is a basic human right, a basic human right that many people would deny us even in this day and age and you expect me, no, expect US to simply ignore and accept this?? I cannot and will not condone this, I do not believe that we should allow ourselves to be treated differently purely based on the things we like much less allow ourselves to be told that we are all going to be put to death based solely on this. This is far more significant than some people seem to realise and we cannot continue to allow for this kind of behaviour any longer. In closing, I feel like I must apologise again; I've always been pre-disposed to stand up for what I care about and if any of what I've said sounds a little bit biased or if It sounds as though I'm proposing that we take forceful action then I'm sorry, I don't ever want any further harm to come to you lot and I don't want anyone feeling bad for what they are simply because we've been tarred with the same brush as the idiotic scum that, hopefully, preceded us. Furthermore; I don't want anyone to start a war over what I've said nor do I want anyone to start marching out there and preaching about our cause because lets face it, it's not worth it and probably won't do us any real good short or long term, all I want is to help alleviate the ignorance on both sides of the fence; theirs AND ours because it DOES exist on both sides and it DOES need to be noticed by everyone. I may be a fool in saying this but; I have faith in everyone, Brony and non-Brony alike, I've never been a cynical kind of person and I've always believed that we as a whole are capable of so much more when we are together. It may be naught but a childish wish but I dream of a world where we needn't fear prejudice, where we needn't fear each other and where we can all work together to help build a future that goes even beyond our own dreams. We are capable of being so much more than we are now, I'll probably die long before my wish comes even remotely close to being fulfilled but the fact that I can believe in such a future gives me hope for us all, a hope that I hope you will allow me to share with all of you.

That's one awesome theory! Probably not the ones that the creators are going to roll with but oh well.

I would quite honestly chalk it all up to general ignorance. The haters seem to be the ones who have absolutely no clue what the fandom is about or why it even exists, they only see the immense glorification of a TV show with a target demographic of little girls and for one reason or another find that fact weird. The effect this perception has on people is twofold; it alienates them from us when they learn about our affiliations with the show which automatically puts them in a position to perceive us as being weird in a bad way, secondly - left unchecked this myopic way of thinking leads to unnecessary bouts of hate and abuse being thrust in our direction which in turn do little more than spread misery and inspire negative feelings towards others. That's not to say that we are completely undeserving of criticism as to quote *StarGazer* bronies get a lot of stick from "trying to insert pony stuff into everything, even where it doesn't make sense to do so" which I do agree to an extent is unnecessary and in some cases even annoying, however the misconceptions that have come with the spreading of pony material on the internet are far more significant and are, in my opinion, little more than hateful and are completely unjustified.

This... this isn't something I expected so many people to be honest about or even openly discussing, I honestly find the whole thing a little strange myself even though I have spent many years "getting to know" hentai in all its forms and I don't really believe that it's something we should overexert ourselves trying to comprehend. Sexual attractions vary from person to person and trying to declare what's right and what's wrong in such a grey area is not worth the time that's spent on it now.

I reckon that given how obvious it is that each person thinks and feels differently about this that being a brony is whatever you want it to be really, it goes without saying that it really means someone who enjoys MLP but it's more of the way in which MLP has managed to make an impact on you that makes it special. For me being a brony means; enjoying MLP and being a part of this grand community, plain and simple, if you were to ask me what does MLP mean to me? then I would give a very long and very different kind of response XD