Is Equestria egalitarian?

[ggg-2 3,550]

It seems to be a matriarchal society, but is Equestria actually egalitarian?

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

Compelled to say no by the fact that male characters are less likely to hold any kind of authority on their own (Big Mac shared with his sister, Shining Armor with his wife), and that there aren't any male alicorns. I won't hold that against the show, though. It was meant to have a female empowerment message and I respect that. Only when males are actively insulted in the show does it become a problem.

[pony.colin 156]

No.

 

There is some social hierarchy in Equestria, it's just not made that greatly obvious, or put up front.  Or as I like to borrow from Carbon Maestro, it's liberal paradise

 

I can't even really say if there is any egalitarian societies that are really existing to this day.  Maybe the oldest groups of people who are still hunter and gathers (IIRC there are a few indigenous groups that are still doing that, but they are in really remote areas in like Asia or South America perhaps, relatively untouched in globalization except for the few anthropologists that ended up studying them).  Perhaps the few egalitarian societies that might have existed were of the older indigenous groups, from centuries ago (some perhaps, not all). 

 

The thing also comes down to, what is an Egalitarian society really? The philosophy behind that question has such a wide debate.

Edited July 25, 2014 by pony.colin

[Vixor 80]

Yes, I believe so, as we've seen ponies of both genders in just about every position imaginable, and no indication that either gender is any less capable or respected than the other. Perfectly egalitarian is  impossible, but it's not a matriarchy, and it seems to be leaning more towards equality than we are at the least. A matriarchal government could be argued for due to technicalities in definition, but a matriarchal society is a no-go. Of course, there is a decent basis to headcanon that it is matriarchal if you wanted to, so it could be said that it's a matter of perspective as to whether or not someone believes it's matriarchal or egalitarian, but nothing is actually canon here. 

 

Compelled to say no by the fact that male characters are less likely to hold any kind of authority on their own (Big Mac shared with his sister, Shining Armor with his wife), and that there aren't any male alicorns. I won't hold that against the show, though. It was meant to have a female empowerment message and I respect that. Only when males are actively insulted in the show does it become a problem.

The genders sharing authority is indicative of egalitarianism though. Applejack and Big Mac both run the farm, Shining Armor and Cadence both run the Crystal Empire. Equality, at least at the highest level that can be reasonably achieved without having to force it.

 

Lack of male alicorns may or may not mean anything, but I see no reason to believe that a stallion couldn't ascend just because they are male, so personally I'm going with the explanation that there are only four currently and none happen to be male. And as far as we know, the two princes we have haven't really gone through whatever it takes to earn it either, so it's not a surprise that they aren't alicorns.

 

And the show is here to promote female role models, yes, but it can very easily do that and portray a fictional egalitarian society at the same time, and I feel that it's doing just that. The show can do it's empowerment job and give us fun and interesting female characters that achieve great things without the matriarchy part.

Edited July 26, 2014 by Vixor

[Jammo 986]

Filthy rich, Fancy Pants, Hoity Toity, Starswirl the Bearded. All very successful stallions with a lot of power and influence. I think the idea of Equestria being Matriarchal is do to the writers being pinned into a wall by their franchise. Similar to how Celestia was changed from a Queen to a Princess by Hasbro, I think they are reluctant to have a king or prince calling the shots this far into to series run.

Edited July 26, 2014 by Jammo

[Jeric 46,834]

If human historians today studied a civilization like Equestria the word egalitarian would be used in discussion and analysis, and a primary school text would cleanly define it as such. However no society or civilization past or present can ever be defined as completely one thing. Just like the USA is not completely Capitalist or China is completely Communist.

 

Does that sufficiently muddy the waters?

[Vixor 80]

If human historians today studied a civilization like Equestria the word egalitarian would be used in discussion and analysis, and a primary school text would cleanly define it as such. However no society or civilization past or present can ever be defined as completely one thing. Just like the USA is not completely Capitalist or China is completely Communist.

 

Does that sufficiently muddy the waters?

I think that's a pretty fair statement. Societies are extremely complex, after all, so it's difficult to universally put every aspect of one under a single definition. I don't word it as well as you do though, haha.

Edited July 26, 2014 by Vixor

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,151]

I think it's fair to say that there is no clear answer. I mean yeah it's easy to throw around labels like egalitarian, matriarchal, and the like, but that tends to ignore societal & geographical trends in Equestria; and it doesn't help that we haven't seen all of Equestria so it's hard to say how gender trends are like in day...Fillydelphia or Los Pegasus.

 

It's one thing to say that females are essentially the royalty, but as someone mentioned plenty of stallions hold a lot of wealth, power, and influence of their own. Heck, Filthy Rich wasn't above using his money to try and get what he wanted; not to mention the Flim Flam Brothers charm & charisma certainly won over entire populations.

 

So yeah, one could say it's egalitarian...just not 100% so.