Why is Big Macintosh always the center of feminine stuff?

[Spikey-Wikey 378]

First the Smarty Pants thing. I'm okay with that the most, as it didn't start off as a meme. But then it started to get annoying when it became popular in the fandom. But it isn't the most popular, so I'll leave this one alone for now.

 

Then the Alicorn Princess thing, this is the mane thing, It's seriously annoying, and I mean really freaking annoying when they call him a Princess. And guess what? It became canon. In Do Princessess Dream Of Magic Sheep?. Yes, I know it was in a dream, but still.

 

I'm mostly okay with him dressing up as a female. But again, it carries on this Big Mac being the centre of feminine stuff.

 

Why always Big Mac...?

 

The Alicorn Princess things annoys me most, because:

 

1.Using a term for the opposite gender solely for humour.

 

2.Why is it fine for a character to be an Alicorn in fanon, but then when Alicorn Twilight becomes canon, World War 8 happens,

 

3.Why would is he even portrayed like that? Don't use that "It's funny" cliche. Random does not mean funny. I could basically say Human Fluttershy is a commander in the North Korean army and it would be the same thing.

 

So what are youe thoughts on it?

Edited October 4, 2015 by Little Riolu 2

[Truffles 2,033]

The drive to portray Big Mac as feminine simply comes from the fact that he's the manliest pony in the series. So playing him off something that is totally opposite how he looks and acts is humorous. It is also somewhat true for Bulk Biceps - wasn't he wearing a tutu in an episode once?

[Draxon 214]

I'm not convinced that this portrayal of Big Mac is entirely for the sake of comedy.  Rather, maybe he's the closest we'll ever get to a transgender character in the show, which I think is pretty cool.  He actually reminds me a lot of myself.  He loves stuffed animals/dolls but is afraid of anyone else finding out, in his dreams he likes taking on a feminine role, and from what I saw of the preview of Brotherhooves Social (haven't watched the full episode, yet), isn't averse to dressing like a lady.  If he were constantly embarrassed by these events, I'd say it might just be comic relief, but he looked damned proud when he became Princess Big Mac.

[Mothra 640]

I agree with the previous replies, it's for the comedic element. Maybe a little reference to the brony fandom too (Big mac and smartypants just seemed too much of a coincidence) but I'm probably stretching with that, still, it's probably for the comedy

[Cloud Strife 928]

@OP;

 

What's wrong with Big Mac being feminine? Why is it annoying to you that he likes feminine things? If anything, it rounds his character out well.

 

Plus, it's kind of funny having a character subvert your expectations.

 

I'm not convinced that this portrayal of Big Mac is entirely for the sake of comedy.  Rather, maybe he's the closest we'll ever get to a transgender character in the show, which I think is pretty cool.  He actually reminds me a lot of myself.  He loves stuffed animals/dolls but is afraid of anyone else finding out, in his dreams he likes taking on a feminine role, and from what I saw of the preview of Brotherhooves Social (haven't watched the full episode, yet), isn't averse to dressing like a lady.  If he were constantly embarrassed by these events, I'd say it might just be comic relief, but he looked damned proud when he became Princess Big Mac.

 

A guy liking girly things does not make that guy transgender. That is a gross oversimplification of what transgender means.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,984]

Initially, him acting so flamboyant while dressed like that was initially made me cringe but quickly the entire scenario became more humourous to me. And for those who say that Big Mac is a transgender, I'm thinking that's looking too deep into this.

 

I'm not convinced that this portrayal of Big Mac is entirely for the sake of comedy.  Rather, maybe he's the closest we'll ever get to a transgender character in the show, which I think is pretty cool.  He actually reminds me a lot of myself.  He loves stuffed animals/dolls but is afraid of anyone else finding out, in his dreams he likes taking on a feminine role, and from what I saw of the preview of Brotherhooves Social (haven't watched the full episode, yet), isn't averse to dressing like a lady.  If he were constantly embarrassed by these events, I'd say it might just be comic relief, but he looked damned proud when he became Princess Big Mac.

By that logic, wouldn't Rainbow Dash also be a transgender for having more "male oriented" interests?

 

As for Princess Big Mac, I think of it like this. In case of Equestria, position of princess would be most strongly associated with power for Celestia and Luna, powerful alicorns, ruled Equestria for millenniums. Do we know of any powerful male princes of Equestria? Blueblood? Please. It reminds me of Hatshepsut who was a female Egyptian pharaoh; despite being female, she was still portrayed much in the same way as male pharaohs with what was worn and even portrayed with a beard.

Edited October 4, 2015 by Luna the Great

[Wonderbolt 68]

Mostly for laughs, Hopefully they will stop it if they overdo it I don't think it would work.

[Ecntrix 86]

Big Mac could always be a crossdresser. We don't see him much. You never know what he does. Anyways, they use Big Mac because

• He is the most prominent side character that is male.
• He's very manly which makes it more of a joke.
• Using Spike wouldn't be as funny because he already has a bit of a feminine touch to him.

[Draxon 214]

A guy liking girly things does not make that guy transgender. That is a gross oversimplification of what transgender means.

 

I meant no offense, and I did say that it's probably the closest example the show would ever get.  The main point of my post was to say that having Big Mac like feminine things is not necessarily just for the sake of comedy, but could be construed as questioning the validity of gender norms.  I apologize if my post was poorly conceived, as that certainly wasn't my intention.

[One-Punch Man 316]

I think the writers like to take their characters, and their personalities and flip them on their head. Have an episode where Fluttershy sees something scary, then she has to overcome it. An episode where Twilight goes banana's because she hasn't solved a friendship problem...ya know, that kind of stuff. They put the audience in a familiar or uncomfortable situation, and set up many jokes surrounding it. In Big Mac's case, he wanted to be with Applebloom more, and the only way he really could have done that was to throw him into women's clothes. Uncomfortable scenario? Check. The familiarity with the audience comes from Applebloom's reactions to it all...honestly, if my brother was doing something like that to gain my affection and respect, I would feel pretty uncomfortable too. xD

The reason Big Mac became an Alicorn  was merely for comedy, I wouldn't think too much of it.

 

The writers are smart, and know their audience well enough to put them in funny and familiar territory; that is all it is. 

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

I'm also it's in the "just for the laughs crowed" I do have some more to say though.

 

To be fair when he turned into an Alicorn in Magic Sheep, that didn't necessarily canonize Princess Big Mac. For all we know, that's a fantasy of him being an Alicorn Prince. Take that as you will. That one's pretty ambiguous.

 

As for the rest of the feminine stuff, there's a possibility that he's like a lot of us. You know the type who you'd think would be very masculine but in reality doesn't really care about the very concept. Look at us, a lot of us are guys watching a show about Pastel Colored Ponies and some of us own merch. Criticizing Big Mac for being feminine would pretty much be like the crow calling the raven black!

 

But then again, what can you really say? Really when it comes to the feminine thing, there's only the Smarty Pants doll and the cross dressing. With the Alicorn thing, we really don't know if he wants to be a Prince or Princess. This really isn't a major thing.

Edited October 4, 2015 by The Coffee Pony

[Cloud Strife 928]

I meant no offense, and I did say that it's probably the closest example the show would ever get.  The main point of my post was to say that having Big Mac like feminine things is not necessarily just for the sake of comedy, but could be construed as questioning the validity of gender norms.  I apologize if my post was poorly conceived, as that certainly wasn't my intention.

 

I understand. I'm fine with him being gender non-conforming, I'm just concerned about equating that to being transgender, because the two are not the same. As far as transgender representation goes, I'd rather have actual representation rather than a metaphor that simplifies it to transgender people simply not conforming to the gender they're designated, because the two simply aren't equivalent.

[Sectus 246]

It is not very hard to understand. It is amusing because he is a strong, silent character who is commonly depicted as a rough and tough type - contrasting that by revealing that he has feminine qualities equals humor because it is unexpected.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,478]

As others have stated, Big Mac is very....well, manly. Stallionly? Basically that. Since we do not see much of him, originally all we ever knew of him was that he was a farm pony that had a deep voice and he seemed standard. Then they do these little things that go so against what his character seemed like before and it creates a massive contrast, to good effect too I think. I don't think the writers are intending on implying any kind of transgenderism or anything, it seems far more for comedic relief, but if say he actually really liked these things, that is also cool. Nothing wrong with that. 

[Yoshi89 5,293]

Wasn't Big Macintosh brainwashed with the whole Smarty Pants thing? Other than that, Big Macintosh liking girly things didn't really come about until "Do Princesses Dream of Magical Sheep?". The last episode, though, showed he wanted to devote time with Apple Bloom regardless of his gender.

[Princess Lona 382]

I take it as a sign of the changing times. MLP was created with the intention of giving gender constructs the boot. Maybe Big Mac isn't acting "feminine" for the lols because he is generally very "masculine". Maybe the writers are saying that "feminine" behaviours don't have to be just for girls. Maybe the writers think that liking dolls and wearing tiaras can actually be "masculine". Or maybe the writers are saying that "masculinity" and "femininity" don't actually exist and are concepts humans made up and that they should be smashed in the name of Truth. Maybe.

[Cloud Strife 928]

Wasn't Big Macintosh brainwashed with the whole Smarty Pants thing?

 

There's a shot after Princess Celestia dispels the Want it, Need it spell of Big Mac still being enamored with the Smarty Pants doll. In that instance, no, he wasn't brainwashed.

[Spikey-Wikey 378]

But I still don't get the reason "Because he's very masculine, and portraying him as feminine is funny".

 

It's portraying Rarity as some butch guy simply because she is feminine.

[Dawning Demon 950]

This is MLP bro...nearly everything about this show is pretty feminine

[Gestum 2,493]

Because it's funny,

 

 

It's portraying Rarity as some butch guy simply because she is feminine.

 That would be super funny.

[Sunset188 193]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing, I'm glad you brought this up. Especially after "Brotherhooves Social". I think it's just supposed to be funny because he's a gag character (and no, I don't personally find it all that funny but I think that's what the show is going for). I was actually putting waaaay too much thought into it while watching the new ep, thinking he's more comfortable as a female and that's why he can talk in full sentences while dressed as "cousin-" whoever, as opposed to just saying "yep" or "nope" as himself. Probably overanalyzing but just my thoughts.

[ggg-2 3,553]

Well, let me put it this way: imagine you're a new citizen in Ponyville and the first pony you come across is Big Mac. Some might assume that the massive red Earth Pony with the near-inequine strength would be a brute. These sorts of thing make it clear that there's far more to the big red guy than meets the eye.

[Captain Brony (MG11) 218]

I wouldnt say people like princess Mac for the idea of being "random."

I know it may not apply to others, but in my case I like humor that contrasts two things out of irony. Such as the most organizational character is paired with the most messy character. A great example of this would be Key and Peele's "These Nuts" skit where an stupid immature joke is contrasted with a serious setting and stellar acting.

 

Personally I like when a BA soldier in a video game is wearing pink armor and rides on unicorns. So I understand why people like that the manliest pony likes girly things.