TopQuark

I never tried to deny that sexism was not pevalent in history, I was just saying that its not really the only contributing factor to the lack of professional and specialist women. Actually, I'm more concerned about this school of yours. When I took music in highschool, we had a older female teacher who was trained by nuns, was an excellent pianist, and was extremely knowledgeable about all the standard ensemble instruments. There was none of this talk of "what women couldn't do a few decades ago". My friend was the star of the show; the best sax player in the school. She even got accepted into a local orchestra as an extra-curricular. She never even mentioned the issue. Because it's not an issue, it's a thing of the past. Your passion is music, and mine is science. No one can deny the proportional lack of women in science, mosly due to the high degree of difficult education. If I were to wager, I'd bet that women have a higher chance of completeing a science post-grad degree, but comparitively few sign up in the first place. It just seems to not be a typically feminine interest. Don't ask me why; I'd love to see more women in science. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that social rules mean little to someone who is dedicated. Everyone knows the story of Marie Curie. She, too, wasn't allowed into standard higher education. If she had let that discourage her, she likely would have accomplished very little. Instead, she essentially said "screw the system" and went into science anyway, raising her own money and educating herself. Now, she is one of the most accomplished scientists in history. My point is, if you see something blocking your way to achieving something you care about, you don't just sit there and moan about it, you get up and actually try to do it anyway. So now, in 2016, you are doing what you love, learning music. You have your cake, and you didn't even have to break any laws to get it. Are you going to waste energy that could be going into studying getting worked up over an injustice from the past that doesn't affect you, or will you be greatful to live in a time where you can do what you want, and focus on using your talent to make the world even better? I know I'm happy not being forced to drudge away in some filthy field for a living.

Is everyone forgetting that there is a gender-neutral term? Many times have I heard the use of the term "pony fan" or "MLP fan". Pardon-moi? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_composers_by_birth_date As can be read in the intro, there is no doubt that women's compsitions were marginalized, but to say that they were out-right prohibited from the profession is simply erroneous. The same is true with just about every other profession. It would be easy to see a distinct lack of females in a profession's history and conclude "misogyny", but you would have to ignore many facts. Feminism seems to have decried the steriotypical position of "house-wife", but none of them seem to realize that house-keeping and child-raiseing is an extremely important occupation, and without it, society would have collapsed before civilization could even get started. Women need to suckle the child for the first few months, and men biologically have the muscle strength to work fields or mines (what 90% of men did until relatively recently in history). It's just a matter of convenience; nothing "misogynistic" about it. When farming got good enough to support specialists like artists and scientists (both of which have certainly never been male-exclusive), men were just in a better position to take those jobs. Now, technology has gotten to the point where caring for children and homes is much easier (vacuums, dish-washers, frozen breast milk/formula, kid's TV shows, etc.), that the parents actually have a choice which one stays home and which works, or if both work, or both stay home. We live in a wonderful age of opportunities, and it bothers me whenever someone points to the past and tries to use it as evidence for discrimination in the present.

I don't know about the rest of the fandom, but I'm not exactly sure what I expect of this. As long as they don't do something stupid and marry Twilight and Flash (*shudder*), and generally just stay as far away from Equestria Girls as possible, I'll be glad.

Lack of growth is not indicative of nearing termination. Humans stop major growth sometime in their 'teens, but that doesn't mean they're anywhere close to dying. I'm no statistician, but I'd say that the fandom has been around long enough that it has already attracted most of the people predisposed to joining it. What Hasbro will make of the situation is yet to be seen, but even if they cancel the show and primary toy market, I don't see that having too much of an effect on the 'core bronies', as much of our content is third-party anyway (PMVs, fanfics, etc.). If anything, Hasbro cutting the MLP line might actually help brony creators, since the corporation wouldn't be so desparate to keep the brand in its iron fists, thus less likely to bother dishing out C&Ds left and right. Is there any word on why they did that, exactly? It was almost enough to keep me from going again this year.

Could we just not? The show is fine with its current dynamic. Nopony needs to have their sexuality revealed. When has romance ever worked out in the show? The only reason Cadance and Shining Armor did is because they were sort of contrived to fill that roll. The Cakes were already together, and Cheerilee/Big Mac didn't go anywhere. And we all know how Flash Sentry went down. The way I see it, this could only go poorly. Just leave it to the fan fiction, and everyone can be happy. Oh, and you expect us TwiDashers to just sit here and be marginalized? I see how it is. /s