Do you think any of the Stallions get upset how Equestria is female dominated?

[Phanact 333]

  On 2016-04-11 at 7:06 PM, Vixor said:

Oh, it was indeed sarcasm? Bleh, good to hear. I'm not the best at detecting that sometimes, especially when there's a lot of extremist rhetoric going around on the internet these days. It's true that it was rather difficult to tell, and I'm not exactly a fan of that sort of humor in the first place, but you didn't really need to delete the post outright or anything, just making it a little more obvious that it was sarcastic would have been enough to stop anybody from getting the wrong idea. It just came off as potentially serious because I've read the comments of some people who might actually think that way in the past.

 

If you insist on deleting your post though, I'll remove me quoting it from my post, and you can remove quoting me from yours.

 

Nah, you're right. People would consider it serious so its fine

[Vixor 80]

  On 2016-04-11 at 7:18 PM, Phanact said:

Nah, you're right. People would consider it serious so its fine

 

Eh, well I already went ahead and deleted the quote from my post.

 

Anyway, I'm tired and stressed, so I'll be going now, hopefully.

[Ponies4Bronies 394]

Did you perhaps read this article OP?

http://goodmenproject.com/all-things-geek/a-lack-of-equality-in-equestria-representations-of-masculinity-in-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-xela/

I think it would fit nice right here. Just for God's sake don't flood the comments on here the author clearly does not mind bronies its just like an editorial sort of thing about the show. Don't make any of us look bad.

[Foxy Socks 2,600]

Most likely not. The males and females are pretty much equal in rights. There doesn't seem to be a bias against male ponies despite females running it, which could just be a coincidence. I wouldn't complain if I were there.

[Goat-kun 2,530]

Being equal when it comes to law is great. Being equal when it comes to upbringing and expected behavior is not. Males and females should not be treated equally the same way you do not plant a cactus in soggy peat soil and expect it to flourish. Yes, I am aware how terrible and right-wing this sounds to many of you, and you should just go with the flow when your fellow human shows interest in things meant for the opposite sex, but that still doesn’t mean you should not treat him/her in accordance to what and who they are and respect those aspects, especially if that fellow human is your child.

 

The problem with MLP is not that males are not represented or that they do not hold important positions, it’s that masculinity in a male character is regarded as an impediment that makes you incompetent and stupid by default. All those important males exhibit what you would traditionally call girly behavior. You also get Spike: a young boy that should be running around with bruised knees but is instead playing a bucking housewife to his older stepsister. They even got him to renounce typical male teenage behavior and mark it as something that is wrong and malign.

 

Look, we all know that MLP: FIM is oriented at girls, but I never understood how that translates into open season on boyish behavior. You’re not actually teaching girls how to be strong. You’re just burning ships and bridges.

 

Random dude: But Discord … Your argument is invalid … something, something.

 

Discord is a needy man child. Leave him out of this. In fact, the only smart and powerful manly man in MLP: FIM is Tirek, and he is a stereotypic bad guy whose evil stereotypeness would put Skeletor to shame. Other males are just nerds and weirdoes. They might be decent characters, but that's beside the point.

[Concerned Bystander 2,904]

  On 2016-04-11 at 11:17 PM, Goat-kun said:

Being equal when it comes to law is great. Being equal when it comes to upbringing and expected behavior is not. Males and females should not be treated equally the same way you do not plant a cactus in soggy peat soil and expect it to flourish. Yes, I am aware how terrible and right-wing this sounds to many of you, and you should just go with the flow when your fellow human shows interest in things meant for the opposite sex, but that still doesn’t mean you should not treat him/her in accordance to what and who they are and respect those aspects, especially if that fellow human is your child.

 

The problem with MLP is not that males are not represented or that they do not hold important positions, it’s that masculinity in a male character is regarded as an impediment that makes you incompetent and stupid by default. All those important males exhibit what you would traditionally call girly behavior. You also get Spike: a young boy that should be running around with bruised knees but is instead playing a bucking housewife to his older stepsister. They even got him to renounce typical male teenage behavior and mark it as something that is wrong and malign.

 

Look, we all know that MLP: FIM is oriented at girls, but I never understood how that translates into open season on boyish behavior. You’re not actually teaching girls how to be strong. You’re just burning ships and bridges.

 

Random dude: But Discord … Your argument is invalid … something, something.

 

Discord is a needy man child. Leave him out of this. In fact, the only smart and powerful manly man in MLP: FIM is Tirek, and he is a stereotypic bad guy whose evil stereotypeness would put Skeletor to shame. Other males are just nerds and weirdoes. They might be decent characters, but that's beside the point.

 

 

You make me wish I could brohoof part of a post.  I agree with your first paragraph, but the rest of it... not so much.  There are plenty of positive portrayals of males in the show.  There is a lack of focus on them, but that is due to the target demographic and not some kind of conspiracy to force them into subservience.

[Goat-kun 2,530]

  On 2016-04-12 at 6:41 AM, Concerned Bystander said:

You make me wish I could brohoof part of a post.  I agree with your first paragraph, but the rest of it... not so much.  There are plenty of positive portrayals of males in the show.  There is a lack of focus on them, but that is due to the target demographic and not some kind of conspiracy to force them into subservience.

There is no conspiracy to put them into subservice in the show itself I agree, but there is this insistence on portraying manliness as something negative and using “it’s for girls” card is irrelevant. This is not about oppression inside the show or anything like that; it’s just this kindergarten “boys against girls” mentality that is cultivated by the writers.

 

So, by the by, I’d like to read about these shining examples of typical male behavior inside this show. Or is it that you have mistaken positive portrayal of characters belonging to male sex as a positive portrayal of manliness itself? Because characters belonging to male sex are indeed portrayed in a positive way many a time, but gods forbid they exhibit predominantly masculine traits. When they do, they turn out to be idiots, villains, and closet wimps.

[Concerned Bystander 2,904]

 

 

  On 2016-04-12 at 11:06 AM, Goat-kun said:

So, by the by, I’d like to read about these shining examples of typical male behavior inside this show. Or is it that you have mistaken positive portrayal of characters belonging to male sex as a positive portrayal of manliness itself? Because characters belonging to male sex are indeed portrayed in a positive way many a time, but gods forbid they exhibit predominantly masculine traits. When they do, they turn out to be idiots, villains, and closet wimps.

 

Okay, let me start with one of the original premises for the cartoon stated by Lauren Faust.  When she was creating the characters of the mane six, they were intended to show that there are  many different ways to be a girl, and that none of them are wrong, hence we have six different stereotypes, the fashionista drama queen, the tomboy, the shy one, the outdoorsy one, the bookish one and whatever the heck Pinkie Pie is supposed to be.  We see a similar, although much reduced principle being applied to the male ponies as well.

 

Obviously, we can take the fact there is less focus on male characters as being axiomatic, for the reasons stated previously.  The most obvious example of a male stereotype being portrayed positively is of course Big Mac, the strong silent type.  We also have Fancy Pants, representing a more sophisticated 'gentleman' type, Shining Armour as the sensitive one.  On that last point you may argue that sensitivity is not an inherently masculine characteristic.  I would (mostly) disagree, and the fact that he is in the military (surely the most masculine of occupations, apart from possibly being a lumberjack), is intended to offset his sensitivity by deliberately juxtaposing it with something stereotypically masculine, probably for comic effect.

 

Additionally, we see the mane six, most notably Rainbow Dash and Applejack, exhibiting what could be considered more masculine traits, thus ungendering those traits to the point where they, quite rightly, are not considered to be gender specific.

 

Finally, there are also many negative portrayals of females as well, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Trixie and Suri Polomare to name but a few.  Many of the negative female types align quite closely with one (or more) of the positive types represented by the mane six, and show that most personality traits are neither inherently negative nor positive and that how a person acts matters more than a few labels that may be applied to them.  The same goes for the male characters as well,  for example, we see similar traits shared by Fancy Pants and Prince Blueblood but where one is noble the other is just plain arrogant.

 

I could probably go on at some length, but I'm currently on lunchbreak and rapidly running out of time, plus nobody likes being confronted with a wall of text anyway.  

[Goat-kun 2,530]

  On 2016-04-12 at 12:24 PM, Concerned Bystander said:

Okay, let me start with one of the original premises for the cartoon stated by Lauren Faust.  When she was creating the characters of the mane six, they were intended to show that there are  many different ways to be a girl, and that none of them are wrong, hence we have six different stereotypes, the fashionista drama queen, the tomboy, the shy one, the outdoorsy one, the bookish one and whatever the heck Pinkie Pie is supposed to be.  We see a similar, although much reduced principle being applied to the male ponies as well.

 

Obviously, we can take the fact there is less focus on male characters as being axiomatic, for the reasons stated previously.  The most obvious example of a male stereotype being portrayed positively is of course Big Mac, the strong silent type.  We also have Fancy Pants, representing a more sophisticated 'gentleman' type, Shining Armour as the sensitive one.  On that last point you may argue that sensitivity is not an inherently masculine characteristic.  I would (mostly) disagree, and the fact that he is in the military (surely the most masculine of occupations, apart from possibly being a lumberjack), is intended to offset his sensitivity by deliberately juxtaposing it with something stereotypically masculine, probably for comic effect.

 

Additionally, we see the mane six, most notably Rainbow Dash and Applejack, exhibiting what could be considered more masculine traits, thus ungendering those traits to the point where they, quite rightly, are not considered to be gender specific.

 

Finally, there are also many negative portrayals of females as well, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Trixie and Suri Polomare to name but a few.  Many of the negative female types align quite closely with one (or more) of the positive types represented by the mane six, and show that most personality traits are neither inherently negative nor positive and that how a person acts matters more than a few labels that may be applied to them.  The same goes for the male characters as well,  for example, we see similar traits shared by Fancy Pants and Prince Blueblood but where one is noble the other is just plain arrogant.

 

I could probably go on at some length, but I'm currently on lunchbreak and rapidly running out of time, plus nobody likes being confronted with a wall of text anyway.  

I love walls. Let’s build a wall and make this forum great again!

 

Shining, Big Mac, and Fancy Pants do not exhibit masculinity. They could have easily been made into very standard girl characters without much effort. Shining is as manly as a slice of toast that just happens to be in the military, and his non-comedic responses to every character and any important situation are neutral and flaccid. Girls can be glorified soldiers A, strong silent types (Maud), and fussy rich pricks too (Rarity), but they are allowed to do it in their own way without restraints. Rainbow Dash is a tomboy, yet she can get excited over “girly stuff” as much as she wants. Big Mac can also get excited over “girly stuff” as much as he wants. However, traditional masculine traits like brute strength, introverted behavior within a group or aversion towards displays of emotions, male camaraderie, tendency towards courageous(ly stupid) and aggressive acts, assertiveness, feeling responsible for protection of others … these are either frowned upon or are only allowed to be positively depicted on a female character, and even then they are properly diluted and served with a healthy dose of female forbearance. And that's just fine. But when a male is written with one of these traits, these are usually balanced out with one-sided humor and cautionary tales.

 

We get Bulk Biceps who’s only purpose in life is to lift stuff and just be a lump of horsemeat.

 

We get Garble’s gang of teenage dragons and Cloudsdale pegasi bullies, young men who are in those confusing years when they begin to develop their identity, question authority, get an urge to be recognized, and normally behave like little shits when one looks from outside at their little male group. But many of us were like them when we were younger. It’s normal and it should not be paraded as something wrong, just misguided. Though, I would still want to have a little chat with those dragon parents regarding that phoenix egg.

 

We get Iron Will who didn’t even do anything wrong. His philosophy does work in real life, but they just had to take it overboard and picture it as something destructive towards society and friendship. And it just happens to encompass male behavior.

 

We get Tirek, a greedy, cunning, and brutish despot/plot device who wanted to consume all pony magic cause reasons and supposedly has no redeeming qualities.

 

We get yaks who are big, stupid, strong, predominantly male ungulates who use every excuse to engage in senseless acts of violence.

 

Then we get Cranky, Igneous Pie, Chief Thunderhooves, and Sheriff Silverstar, a few insignificant background characters who were allowed to channel a strong, traditional male without silly drawbacks connected with masculinity.

 

The rest of males have something, but that sure as Tartarus ain’t masculinity.

 

P.S: When females are portrayed in a negative way, their behavior is not usually associated with their gender.

[Cherry Palette 81]

Nope.

 

In our world, societies that place a greater emphasis on one gender, often treat the other like dirt.

In Equestria, the controlling gender treats the other with respect and equality.

 

Stallions don't care because they're seen as equals, and are invited to hold the same jobs and positions as mares.