Transgender-Friendly Moments In the Show

[Roketsune 388]

I would consider myself a moderate brony. The show I find abnormally captivating for a children's show and I am drawn to the community which is centered on it, but i don't obsess about the show and never became extremely excited about it. That changed today when I caught the second half of the episode Brotherhooves Social for a couple of reasons, and it also makes me wonder whether there are any other parts of the series which cover at all alternate gender expressions or identities in a positive way.

So, I had to poop this morning after 8-10 hours of slumber, but both bathrooms were occupied. Rather than sit or stand and only contemplate how badly I needed to poop, I decided to turn on the TV and see if MLP was on. It was, and it was an episode I haven't seen before (and there are quite a number of them). I immediately see this rather large pony trying to convince some panelists that he was a mare. I wonder whether I'm seeing Big Mac pretending to be a female, and wonder why he is going through such horrible strain and pressure to enter this competition to begin with. Rainbow Dash was amusing since she realized "Orchard Blossom" was Big Mac and said, "Don't think I'll take it easy on you just because you're a stallion!". Big Mac acts embarrassedly and inadvertently breaks the table the judges are sitting at. MLP is usually amusing in various ways, so this was not remarkable.

 

Anyway, cut to the point immediately after Big Mac/Orchard Blossom basically rampages through to the finish line like a super-heavy panzer, and his clothes disintegrate. Everyone knows by now (and many before then, I'm sure) she is really a male, and Applebloom basically excoriates him for the futile attempts to come across as a mare and never be found out. The moment that engenders a heretofore unprecedented level of pride in the show is when the judge says essentially, "That's not why we're disqualifying him. We knew he was a stallion all along. We have very loose standards for what counts as a sister." Additionally, the judge comments that his behavior was not only unladylike, but unponylike in general.

 

I don't believe I've ever seen or heard of a show meant for children which has at all strayed into this territory. I admit since I'm transgender and a femboy I am naturally going to have a different resonance and be fixated on this. However, the fact remains, the show subtly but clearly took an affirmative stance on gender crossing. I'm sure I previously thought about whether they would ever do this or touch on sexual orientation, possibly lamenting the apparent infeasibility of such a stand given the show's main demographic and our societal norms. I honestly had no idea they had done this before. I'm surprised conservatives haven't taken up arms over this episode, since it basically told children it's okay to identify as and act as the other gender (though the children this show was designed for likely won't understand this). One of the reasons I gravitate towards bronydom is the overwhelming LGBT acceptance and lack of regard for gender norms, and I am extremely pleased the show's writers and directors found a way to have the show match this attitude.

I was also moved slightly to tears at the end when Big Mac confesses the reasons he did all of this and Applebloom's response. It was a very poignant and admirable moment in an episode I already became extremely fond of. It was emotionally compelling without being ultimately saddening or otherwise upsetting.

So, did anyone else react as strongly to this episode as I did? Are there any other episodes which have similarly transgender-friendly moments that I have missed?

[GhostlyPudding 79]

I never actually thought about the episode that way. To be perfectly honest, most episodes like these are pretty cringy so I didn't watch the whole episode. That's some food for thought.

 

Also, in "Princess Spike" there may have been a possible transgender pony who was giving Spike a massage..?

 

 

 

 

 

[Jest (Inactive) 875]

The only transgender friendly moments are going to be ones that are percieved or imagined to be transgender friendly, since the show ,yes this is a broken record but true, was written for an audience that is to young for this issue to effect, I know there are transgendered kids, but my point is that kids shows don't implement this sort of ''adult'' topic. When a fandom especially on a show like MLP starts bringing in thinks like, what is this characters sexuality, is the show homosexual friendly, is the show trans friendly, are the ponies actually naked and various grimdark questions it is pointless asking them because the answer is both yes and no. No in the sense that it was not written to show any kind of leanings towards those type of things and yes in the fact i doesn't poke fun at them either. 

[Roketsune 388]

@, As I said, most likely the target audience isn't going to have such a realization or view of it simply because they are too young. I also readily admit it's a rather subtle gesture as opposed to it being the main lesson of the show. However, it's still a transgender-friendly moment nonetheless, and it might resonate with or reassure a few children. There are indeed a few very young transgender children and I feel this would be beneficial to them.

[Concerned Bystander 2,901]

Male characters dressing as females (and vice versa) as a means to an end has been common fodder in children's programming for as long as I can remember and I've never seen conservatives (or liberals for that matter) get overly excited about it.

 

In the end, we will probably never know the intent of the program makers, but that is largely irrelevant anyway.  The important thing is how the person watching chooses to interpret what's happening on the screen.

 

If there's one thing that the Brony fandom excels at, it's over-analysing the cartoon, and in any discussion on any topic you will always have as many interpretations of an episode are there are participants in said discussion.  But if you have found a particular moment in the program that says something important to you as an individual, then go with it, and don't let anyone tell you that you're wrong.  Because at the end the day, you are entitled to read whatever you want into it, just as surely as they are.

[cider float 2,535]

 

 

"That's not why we're disqualifying him. We knew he was a stallion all along. We have very loose standards for what counts as a sister."

 

That was my point to why I recognized that episode being about transgenderism and how the argument that it was nothing but a children's gag didn't apply. When have you watched a show for children that makes a statement like that? In any other cartoon we would have just gotten something real generic.