Small-mindedness

[ZoidbergBestPony 30]

So was surfing the net, and while on google, a particular thread caught my attention. I immediately knew it was going to be... interesting. After all, the title of the article was "Bronies: Adult Men Who Like My Little Pony And Why It Disturbs Me".

 

Now I always like to hear what people think, even if I disagree with what they have to say, as I feel it allows for an expansion of perspective. So naturally I clicked the link and read the article that followed. I will post the link below so you can see for yourself, but essentially the article came down to being a rant lableing all "bronies" as sexual deviants that are dangerous, and asking if she (the writer of the article) was alone in thinking this.

 

Below the article, I saw that she had closed the article due to "threatening and hostile comments [that] have only proven to me that this whole bronie trend leaves a bad taste in my mouth".

 

NOW THAT grabbed my attention .So I spent a good 1/2 hour reading the comments, and naturally there were several supposed "bronies" dropping the f-bomb and being disgusting, but i feel that they were trolls being trolls. Actually the majority of the comments were very postive and open-minded as well as being civil. But as I continued to read, I realised it did not matter how polite or civil the comments were. It became apparent that the writer was not truly looking for what people thought, but rather looking for opinions to confirm what she felt.

 

Overall, the saddest thing about the whole deal is that the site the article is on, Momfia.com, has "It's all about the families..." for it's slogan. Really hypocritical if you asked me.

 

Well, anyways i figured the article would make for an interesting read, and wanted your thoughts on it all.

 

The article can be found here : http://sdmomfia.com/2011/06/bronies-adult-men-who-like-my-little-pony/

 

Thanks for reading and as always stay pony my bronies /)

[Prince Lightning Da Cute 616]

I love how the bronies are so polite on the matter!

Good show my friends!

[Luurilka 325]

Not being concerned with age and gender roles = step before child molestation. This logic sickens me.

 

But, as hard as it may be, I will tolerate her.

[MVC NVMXD JVRXD 2,406]

With websites dedicated to fan art and fan stories, these are men in their twenties, thirties and forties that are just as obsessed with MLP as my 3 year old daughter.

I hate people who don't properly research stuff... Bronies can be anyone who is outside of the targeted group of viewers... I mean I'm buckin 13!

Looking at my daughter this morning, still glassy-eyed from her pony dreams, I realized why this bothers me so much…to me, it’s a step away from some kind of child molestation. I see these 30 year old men sitting there with pink plastic ponies and envision them getting turned on. Or worse – are they getting turned on by my daughter playing with her beloved Apple Jack or Pinkie Pie.

I'm glad no one told her about R34 Again, not every brony is a 30 y/o guy!! And most bronies don't watch it to be turned on.... It's because it's a good show...

 

This woman just pisses me off.

[SydneyGrey 32]

Trolls need to troll. Haters gotta hate. Articles like this are about as worthy of respect as a television evangelist telling me I'm going to hell for being a Democrat. Just ignore it. The biggest problem with the internet is that the dummies get a very public soapbox to preach from.

[Eric Noecker 27]

Oh great another idiot writing about this show who did little to no research at all. And automatically judging us as pedophiles.

[ThePlantsOfDistraction 56]

Yeah it's not even worthy of being read I spit on the person who put this dribble online. BTW nice tags XD

[Ezio Auditore 702]

I just don't understand why people don't watch the show or talk to any of us then automatically think they can judge us and call us crazy THEN believe they're just in doing so. It sickens me.

 

BUT I love them <3

[Radiance64 7,051]

Oh geez, can't we just forget people like her? They don't know nothin' about us bronies.

[Jalaton 155]

Well at least she has a G4 picture of Twilight...

 

Really all she did is make assumptions without doing any research. I bet she'd be really surprised to find that the majority of us aren't in the 30-40 range.

[Titan Rising 2,156]

Don't need to read another one of these. I don't harass women who like Ed Edd n Eddy and I would expect them not to harass me for liking the Powerpuff Girls. They're all cartoons, meant to make people laugh and smile, to read into it any more than that is unnecessary and a waste of time.

[Batbrony 15,994]

Here's all I gotta say to this, uhhhhh, "critic" (I use that term loosely because if she was an actual critic, or journalist for that matter, she might've actually done some, oh IDK, RESEARCH!!!)

 

 

I mean, gosh, c'mon people, what is so hard about doing some research into a cultural phenomenon? We have the Internet for crying out loud, it's just a matter of looking up "bronies" on Google search and reading two or three informative, knowledgeable articles on the subject, gosh dang!!!! But no, people instead think that after they hear from Bob at the office that "some wierd 40 year old guys like to watch MLP," they're automatically experts on bronies and can reasonably and fairly write on the subject, AND THEN THEY SPOUT NONSENSE AND WRITE THEIR DRIBBLE, AND, AND.....

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTNP792ykYM

 

...

 

Woah... sorry ya'll, kinda lost it for just a second there. But, it's OK, I'm perfectly _*twitch* fine now. Heheh.

Edited April 29, 2012 by Batbrony

[Akemi Homura 7,680]

Here's a comment from that particular article. OP seems to understand the whole brony thing better now since one guy explained it perfectly using his own life and how the show is exactly popular in the first place:

 

"Thanks for your thoughts, Josh. I do appreciate your point of view and am sorry if I offended you personally. As a mom we see things from the view of our kids – so many of us moms see MLP as the cheesy plastic toys we are forced to buy at Target and the show that’s clogging our DVR. Maybe as we become moms we become biased towards sub-cultures around things that attract our kids? Our over protective nature kicks in and we jump to conclusions.

But also being an adult that has “played” with the toys, memorized all the names of the ponies, read the books and watched all 18 episodes, I will say I still don’t get it. But? I hope all Bronies are like you… NOTHING would make me happier than to be proven wrong on this!"

[Pandy_C 30]

I wonder how much of the brony-hate is an attempt to get free publicity and website hits.

 

Not necessarily the thread quoted, but a scathing attack on a very popular subculture will drive up traffic on a website (either from fellow trolls or from the subculture in question leaping to defend themselves) and increase their ego/advertising revenue.

 

In the case above though, it just seems like many, many people are quite happy to reinforce gender stereotypes by mocking anyone who strays from a very rigid definition of "what boys can like" and "what girls can like".

[Starshine 16,330]

My opinion on this matter: Just let her alone

 

Each people are entitled to their own opinions. You can't simply expect others to see your ways of thinking, no matter whether they're well-informed about the subjects or not.

 

But as Devin Mccourty posted earlier, I do hope she can see things better now that someone actually kind enough to explain it to her

[~Chaos~ 3,966]

I just wish people would be more open-minded.

[Bugz 159]

I just wish people would be more open-minded.

 

So do I, but people are what they are.

 

I must admit that I was kind of a "hater" before I actually checked whats this all about.

 

It's just human nature to judge others...

[Nah 3,181]

and you wonder why the average joe hates bronies, they read an article, believe the hater propaganda, and automatically hate us.

 

 

Sad we are all so gullible today.

[JhonHipster 124]

That was a preety impressive flame war even the furrys where standing up for us. That is a remarkable sight. Anyways the mom obviously jumped to conclusion, threw her opinion on the internet and labeled it 'true'.

[Raptor_a22 83]

I'm. wondering if she's talking about the older generations of MLP.

I don't see Friendship is Magic anywhere in the opening paragraphs.

 

EDIT: Yes, her daughter has 4thGen toys, but has she herself seen the show?

Edited May 9, 2012 by Raptor_a22

[Haven Celestii 9,385]

Looking at my daughter this morning, still glassy-eyed from her pony dreams, I realized why this bothers me so much…to me, it’s a step away from some kind of child molestation. I see these 30 year old men sitting there with pink plastic ponies and envision them getting turned on. Or worse – are they getting turned on by my daughter playing with her beloved Apple Jack or Pinkie Pie.

 

This is by far the worst case of overexaggeration and the saddest statement I have seen today on the internet.

[Aureity 3,055]

Some people are like that. Stubborn like a mule, and they won't even listen to any contrary opinions that others present. It's all about them.

 

Rarity is disappoint.

[Crystal Sparkle 344]

*rolls eyes* Here we go again! As I stated in another Thread, no matter how reasonable people are with dealing with haters, people (mostly trolls or haters) on the internet are hellbent on pissing other people off.

[EmmerichWolfe 47]

Really? Out of everything there is, the brony fandom is what leaves a bad taste in her mouth? She had to write that article? Has she been on the internet? There are so much worse things we could be doing.

 

"it's a step away from child molestation." In what crazy way, lady? We're not looking to associate with her daughter or any other child--outside our own--something that she seems to be forgetting.

 

She goes on to say "I tend to take things a bit to the extreme." O rly? Tell me more.

 

The comments section proved to me this particular woman was just looking for an echo chamber. She didn't really care about another perspective, she just wanted to hear more false concern and outrage.

[WTFisupwithyouguys 24]

I think you mean close-mindedness.