spoiler My Little Pony: Breaking Boundaries is Magic

[Batbrony 16,087]

In my time in this fandom, I've made a couple of things no secret about myself: (1) I largely identify as a conservative, albeit very open-minded and genial, Christian, and (2) I've always been impressed by the large pool of people that MLP has been able to attract to its fandom.  We're really one of the most diverse fandoms out there, and I've always attributed this very much to the nature of the show itself.  As we saw so much last week in the Season 5 opener, a major theme from the very beginning of the show is that friends come in all shapes and sizes, and people can still love each other no matter how different they are.

 

Well, lo and behold, I have a perfect example of this manifesting in the real world to share with you all today.  One of my old college friends who knows I'm a brony shared with me on Facebook an article from thefederalist.com, a site that we're both quite familiar with and which, as the name may imply, slants conservatively (don't worry, it's not like Fox or anything, they actually have really good writers there).  Anyways, what was this article about, you may ask?  Why the Season 5 opener, of course! 

 

It's a fantastic read, really, and basically just a review and recap of the episode. The writer's very honest about the fact that he's not a brony, though he knows about them, and this is the first episode he's really ever watched.  And ya know what, he loves it!  He loves the themes especially, since it's something he's not used to seeing in mass media, but he loved a lot of other stuff about the show and walked away thinking he might check more of it out.  This, to me, is a perfect example of the show doing what it does best, reaching out to all corners, bringing in all sorts of fans, and creating great dialogue where you'd never expect it.  I'll post the link to the article below, but also feel free to either discuss the article or share stories or examples that you've stumbled across since joining the brony fandom of, let's call it, "boundary breaking" as a result of the show. 

 

My Little Pony To Children: Marxism Is Not Magic

 

(yes, that's actually the title of the article; trust me, speaking as a conservative myself, I can tell you without a doubt that that title is not surprising in the slightest  )

[EquestriaGuy 1,074]

He doesn't love the themes. He doesn't love the genuine goodheartedness, or the openness, or anything about what the show actually is, nor would he have said anything positive about bronies before this. He's only interested seeing this episode through the hyper partisan lense of those who divide the country into right vs left. Before today he would have accused you of being gay or a pedophile, or somehow not a man, and definitely someone you should protect your children around. Don't let his political opportunism and shared ideology cloud your vision of who his guy and his ilk really are.

[Batbrony 16,087]

He doesn't love the themes. He doesn't love the genuine goodheartedness, or the openness, or anything about what the show actually is, nor would he have said anything positive about bronies before this. He's only interested seeing this episode through the hyper partisan lense of those who divide the country into right vs left. Before today he would have accused you of being gay or a pedophile, or somehow not a man, and definitely someone you should protect your children around. Don't let his political opportunism and shared ideology cloud your vision of who his guy and his ilk really are.

 

Now hold on, don't be so quick to judge yourself.  Like I said, the guy was very honest that he wouldn't have been inclined to give the show a chance were it not for this episode, but he came out of it saying he might just watch the rest.  Dialogue and trying to reach understanding with one another is about baby steps and not making assumptions about one another; I can't say whether or not he would have said the things about bronies that you think he would have, but for you to assume he would just because he's conservative is awfully disingenuous.  If someone doesn't get bronies, that's fine, I get that, it's not for everyone, but the guy was open-minded enough to give it a shot, and happy to find that there was something he liked and agreed with in a show he really didn't expect to find it.  "His ilk" are the type of people I've grown up my whole life around, and I love 'em warts and all.  Did he make it awfully political, sure, but it's a political website so that's to be expected, and as far as I could tell he didn't misinterpret the message.  Most brony reviews I've seen of it have pretty much broken it down the same way, just maybe with less bits about the "Hollywood liberal media".

 

Now please, I started this thread with the hope that some bronies might share some positive examples of the show breaking down barriers, not to rag on a guy because his first brony experience happened to come about out of political curiosity. 

[EquestriaGuy 1,074]

I'm sorry, but the dude is BS, and will only be interested if it continues serving his narrative. If it never did, he never would have touched the show. I'm sorry you can't see the partisanship for what it is. And how many times is he going to drop the SJW moniker? SJW's hate me, but I'm not about to go on a rant about them by twisting the intent of an episode, so as to act as an example for my agenda. I will however, step out of this, and not derail your thread, if you see this as heading in a direction other than what you intended.

[Batbrony 16,087]

I'm sorry, but the dude is BS, and will only be interested if it continues serving his narrative. If it never did, he never would have touched the show. I'm sorry you can't see the partisanship for what it is. And how many times is he going to drop the SJW moniker? SJW's hate me, but I'm not about to go on a rant about them by twisting the intent of an episode, so as to act as an example for my agenda. I will however, step out of this, and not derail your thread, if you see this as heading in a direction other than what you intended.

 

Nah, it's cool, I get that some people might just see partisanship in that article, though I personally think that's just him talking to his audience (I mean, it is mostly conservatives who frequent that site).  I guess I'm hopeful for the guy myself since I started out very much as he did; I was super unsure of MLP when I first started watching it, though obviously I started a lot longer ago than he did.  It was very much outside of my comfort zone, to be sure.  But, at the same time, I'm a sucker for great media and entertainment, and it was one of the first times I was hearing about a trend of good children's shows in a long while (2005 - 2010 was kind of an awful period for them), so I took a shot, now here I am.  I doubt he'll write about it again since most episodes probably wouldn't make for material on that site, but hey, ya never know, and maybe he'll eventually join the herd.  I'll keep hoping for the guy, at least, but if he doesn't like the rest, that's cool too, again, I get people not getting the show.  Thanks for being civil and understanding, friend. 

[Grepper 3,193]

While I disagree with some of the things said in this article, I find it interesting that an article about MLP was published on a conservative website.

Edited April 9, 2015 by MysteriousGrepper

[Batbrony 16,087]

While I disagree with some of the things said in this article, I find it interesting that an article about MLP was published on a conservative website.

 

Like I said in the OP, it just goes to show that that's what happens when you're as welcoming and open-armed as MLP is; the more people you invite in to check out your show, the more are going to talk about it, and dialogue like that usually leads to good things, like better understanding of one another.