What's Your Stance On Anti-Bronies?

[Guest]

 

 

they are almost like drones because they copy/paste the same worn out insults like "gaaaaaaaaaaaaay"

 

Not everyone does that though.

 

Some people call themselves anti-bronies and don't expect bronies to disappear, not exist, or anything like that. Some just are people who just would like the pony content to not be everywhere, which isn't entirely unreasonable. Some are people who just are against the porn, which whether you agree with them or not, they have that right and it's not "wrong" to have a negative opinion on porn, some of which is illegal in some parts of the world. So we all don't think alike, and not everyone is an anti-brony to troll.

 

Some are ex-bronies with bad experiences with the fandom, and while those experiences don't represent the whole fandom, you can't say those experiences don't mean anything, because they affected them.

 

 

 

and they exist for the sole purpose of posting that stuff to try and lure people into an argument, they litterally thrive on making people fight and argue with them and nothing makes them happier than making someone mad enough to respond with a wall of text about why pony is awesome so they can reply "TLDR"

 

But they all DON'T not everyone is like that. Sure there is a vocal minority that is crap, but the same could be said about everything.

 

 

 

so the best remedy is to ignore,report, and ban

 

That is a good option, but I also like the additional option of: listen to their story, see why they feel how they feel. 

[Solid 1,327]

Anti-Bronies? Are they still a thing?

[Envy 6,129]

Okay, but there are so many different meanings that the term 'anti-Brony' could have:

 

1. People who hate the show - in which case, my reaction is that I couldn't care less.

 

2. People who hate Bronies because of the idea that males shouldn't like girly things - These people are annoying. These people are wrong. These people need to grow up. These people's rigid ideals of gender need to go away.

 

3. People who criticize toxic aspects of the fandom - I actually fit under this umbrella. I originally came onto these forums not only to discuss MLP:FiM but also to support the Brony fandom, mainly because of my stance in number 2 above. Over time I have to say I became...disappointed. I began to see the Brony fandom was not giving off the impression of the feminist-reasons I supported the fandom - Instead of being proud of liking a 'girly' show, the fans were throwing the fact that it was girly under the bus. Instead of enjoying the show and characters for what it is, Bronies made dark, disturbing stuff and pornography of the characters. Stuff that I ended up seeing against my will, searching on Google with safe-search on.

 

I was no longer...satisfied. Because you see a fandom like this will do absolutely nothing to prove the people of number 2 that they're wrong.

[Guest]

Okay, but there are so many different meanings that the term 'anti-Brony' could have:

 

1. People who hate the show - in which case, my reaction is that I couldn't care less.

 

2. People who hate Bronies because of the idea that males shouldn't like girly things - These people are annoying. These people are wrong. These people need to grow up. These people's rigid ideals of gender need to go away.

 

3. People who criticize toxic aspects of the fandom - I actually fit under this umbrella. I originally came onto these forums not only to discuss MLP:FiM but also to support the Brony fandom, mainly because of my stance in number 2 above. Over time I have to say I became...disappointed. I began to see the Brony fandom was not giving off the impression of the feminist-reasons I supported the fandom - Instead of being proud of liking a 'girly' show, the fans were throwing the fact that it was girly under the bus. Instead of enjoying the show and characters for what it is, Bronies made dark, disturbing stuff and pornography of the characters. Stuff that I ended up seeing against my will, searching on Google with safe-search on.

 

I was no longer...satisfied. Because you see a fandom like this will do absolutely nothing to prove the people of number 2 that they're wrong.

 

As I said before, I had a friend who was sexually harassed by bronies when she joined the fandom. She voiced it and was told by bronies to stop trying to make the fandom look bad. Does that mean that ALL bronies will do this? No. Does it even mean a majority? No. However her experience was traumatizing and when she called for help instead of protecting one of their own, they cared more about protecting the image of the fandom. Is her experience typical? No. Is it common? Don't think so. However does that mean it's not VALID? ABSOLUTELY NOT. She has every reason to hate this fandom, and to expect her to look past what happened and ignore it is basically telling her that how she was treated is not as important as making the fandom look good.

 

It's a problem and it turned her into an anti-brony. She now speaks against the fandom and the sexual harassment that happens. That's one "anti-brony" that could have been spared from becoming a "hater" if someone had just been willing to LISTEN and not instantly assume any and all criticism against the fandom is invalid.

 

THAT is why I can not stand by the idea of blindly hating all "anti-bronies" because you shut down potential allies. You shut down the chance to grow. And you possibly even shut down the chance to help someone who might need it.

 

I have always been someone who critiqued this fandom, and I don't call myself a brony or anything. However I have seen bronies do great things, and I have seen them do terrible things. Every time I see the words "Every fandom does..." as an excuse to ignore a problem, I want to rip my hair out and scream. Because that's a cop out. That's saying you know it's a problem, you know it's ALWAYS BEEN A problem, and you know other people have experienced the problem, but you're not going to do anything because it's just "the norm" now. The brony safe for work search group is an EXCELLENT example of people not just accepting the norm and DOING something about a problem. They are a group that periodically goes on Google safe search and flags NSFW images that slipped through the cracks. They are people taking an initiative instead of going "all fandoms have porn" as an excuse whenever someone stumbles across it in an area where it shouldn't have been. We need more efforts like that.

 

So yeah, people are not going to like bronies. It's GOING to happen, but to assume that their reasons are purely based upon being assholes or trolls kind of continues a vicious cycle.

 

Be the change.

 

My poor friend was pushed away from this fandom and it's too late to convince her to come back, but it might NOT be too late for someone else. You HAVE to be able to take criticism of your fandom though. If you don't, you are only hurting the fandom, not helping it. I know it's not what we want to hear, but sometimes what's best isn't always what we want.

[Dark Qiviut 22,378]

 

 

Instead of enjoying the show and characters for what it is, Bronies made dark, disturbing stuff and pornography of the characters.

Just because they like more adult content doesn't mean they don't enjoy it "for what it is." Creative content is a hobby with no effect on what they enjoy outside of it. It's possible to like clop or grimdark, yet still love the show for delivering excellent stories to everyone.

 

 

 

Stuff that I ended up seeing against my will, searching on Google with safe-search on.

Majority of adult work is filtered. For example, FIMFiction and Derpibooru are heavily filtered. Regardless of fandom, adult content (porn or otherwise) will forever escape the filters. No site or search engine is perfect. But that doesn't mean we can't be proactive on it. Flag the content to hide them from view.

[El Duderino 879]

Everyone is entitled to their opinions and I respect that...  That doesn't make it ok to pick on others, but I can't control what others do so I don't let it bother me.

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

I don't give anyone who attacks the fanbase my time. This is of course different to smeone who doesn't care for the show. I find the ones who insult the fanbase very annoying, but what am I going to do? Somehow change their opinion because I want to?

 

It is best to ignore them, or try to avoid them as much as possible. They always like to say how "cringey" the fandom is, which it is in areas. Honestly I don't care what they think because I enjoy the fandom, and won't let some idiot get in the way. Who cares?

Fair enough. To be fair the Anti-Bronies can be pretty cringey themselves so that point is out the window.

No offense, but isn't assuming they are basically stupid drones and can't possibly have any legitimate reason for disliking the show or fandom without even getting their side the exact same thing that you apparently dislike about them? I mean you're making a ton of assumptions, just like you dislike them doing about you. Seems hypocritical to me.

This guy kinda has a point...

If someone wants to demonize and insult every fan of FiM because they may not like something about the fandom or they may not like a certain group of bronies or some shit like that, then I am completely justified in my position.

 

Like I said in my post and you seemed to miss this entirely: If someone dislikes the show, that is fine. That is perfectly fine. I do not care if someone doesn't like the show, to each their own. However, the moment someone goes into 'anti-brony' status and starts hating on fans because they love the show, that is where they can f**k right off. See?

Well, OK, I've just been proven wrong then XD

Not really.

 

"Life's a bitch, doesn't mean you get to be one." 

 

 

 

 

See above.

It's not really being a bitch, more or less. He's just giving his moral stance on the whole thing.

This post does literally NOTHING for this conversation. I established my position completely and showed you why it is justified. I don't like Five Nights at Freddies, I think it is very overrated but I don't go around insulting the FNAF fanbase and treating them like shit. I let it be. If someone did something I really did not approve of, then that would be that ONE PERSON. I would have no right to fully berate every single fan just because of the actions of a few.

 

So yeah, I am rather harsh on anti-bronies. However you interpret that is up to you entirely and quite frankly, I don't care about what you think. I had to make 2 additional posts to show my point that I made in my original post, that is a bit much and I would prefer to not clog the thread up anymore.

OK, I have a feeling this is gonna turn into a war...

It retains to the topic, it's relevant. The topic is our stance on anti-bronies, and my stance is that when you feel so adamantly against them to where you stereotype them as "drones" you are being as bad as you believe them to be. I have met people who legitimately have real concerns about bronies based upon being misinformed. They are people a lot of the time whom might have experiences that make them hate bronies and responding to that by calling them "drones" or saying they don't deserve to not be berated is closing the door of communication.

 

If you sit down and talk rationally to people, ask about their reasoning and approach is reasonably you could gain an ally versus reinforcing them as an enemy. Your "drone" accusation is more or less being the bully you think them to be. You're assuming, you're using their opinion on a show and its fandom to justify not liking them, and justify invalidating their thoughts. The EXACT SAME THING you don't like when they do to you.

 

It's counter-productive to the brony fandom to do that, as it continues the cycle rather than make an attempt to break it.

 

There are people who have legitimate reason to hate this fandom as much as no one wants to admit it. I have met a former brony who dislikes this fandom and joined the ranks of anti-bronies because of the insane amount of sexual harassment she received from bronies and when she tried to call attention to it, bronies went at her for making bronies look bad. Not everyone who is an anti-brony is an asshole. Some are people who have been hurt by this community, and denying that is basically trying to say this fandom is perfect, has no faults and is above criticism.

 

Sometimes it's best to listen to people and perhaps consider their feelings and get to the bottom of them. Not everyone who hates something you like is a troll or an asshole.

Bronies do sexual harassment?  What is Earth coming to...

[Guest]

 

 

Bronies do sexual harassment?  What is Earth coming to...

 

Everyone is capable of it sadly. 

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

they are almost like drones because they copy/paste the same worn out insults like "gaaaaaaaaaaaaay"

and they exist for the sole purpose of posting that stuff to try and lure people into an argument, they litterally thrive on making people fight and argue with them and nothing makes them happier than making someone mad enough to respond with a wall of text about why pony is awesome so they can reply "TLDR"

so the best remedy is to ignore,report, and ban

I wouldn't say they're drones, that's a little far. Maybe, annoying is the right word?

Not everyone does that though.

 

Some people call themselves anti-bronies and don't expect bronies to disappear, not exist, or anything like that. Some just are people who just would like the pony content to not be everywhere, which isn't entirely unreasonable. Some are people who just are against the porn, which whether you agree with them or not, they have that right and it's not "wrong" to have a negative opinion on porn, some of which is illegal in some parts of the world. So we all don't think alike, and not everyone is an anti-brony to troll.

 

Some are ex-bronies with bad experiences with the fandom, and while those experiences don't represent the whole fandom, you can't say those experiences don't mean anything, because they affected them.

 

 

 

 

But they all DON'T not everyone is like that. Sure there is a vocal minority that is crap, but the same could be said about everything.

 

 

 

 

That is a good option, but I also like the additional option of: listen to their story, see why they feel how they feel. 

There's something I'm feeling is being ignored here. If the Anti-Bronies are in it just because "they don't want the content everywhere" then why don't they just avoid pony content?  And on Anti-Bronies having bad experiences and such, that's more of a reason to just leave the fanbase alone, which puts me back to what I said before, if you don't like pony content, don't look at pony contenr.

Anti-Bronies? Are they still a thing?

Well, yeah, they've been a thing for a while...

Okay, but there are so many different meanings that the term 'anti-Brony' could have:

 

1. People who hate the show - in which case, my reaction is that I couldn't care less.

 

2. People who hate Bronies because of the idea that males shouldn't like girly things - These people are annoying. These people are wrong. These people need to grow up. These people's rigid ideals of gender need to go away.

 

3. People who criticize toxic aspects of the fandom - I actually fit under this umbrella. I originally came onto these forums not only to discuss MLP:FiM but also to support the Brony fandom, mainly because of my stance in number 2 above. Over time I have to say I became...disappointed. I began to see the Brony fandom was not giving off the impression of the feminist-reasons I supported the fandom - Instead of being proud of liking a 'girly' show, the fans were throwing the fact that it was girly under the bus. Instead of enjoying the show and characters for what it is, Bronies made dark, disturbing stuff and pornography of the characters. Stuff that I ended up seeing against my will, searching on Google with safe-search on.

 

I was no longer...satisfied. Because you see a fandom like this will do absolutely nothing to prove the people of number 2 that they're wrong.

I think 1 and 2 are excellent points, and to be fair, it shouldn't be something super special for a guy to like a girls show, It's just a normal thing, but the public always interprets it like It's the strangest thing ever. And as for the dark stuff and pornography, while I don't much get into it myself, you've gotta understand some bronies will have different tastes than others outside of the show. If they want to create content like that, It's not a problem. And every fandom has people who make stuff like that, maybe not as many people as in the brony fandom, but It's still a thing.

As I said before, I had a friend who was sexually harassed by bronies when she joined the fandom. She voiced it and was told by bronies to stop trying to make the fandom look bad. Does that mean that ALL bronies will do this? No. Does it even mean a majority? No. However her experience was traumatizing and when she called for help instead of protecting one of their own, they cared more about protecting the image of the fandom. Is her experience typical? No. Is it common? Don't think so. However does that mean it's not VALID? ABSOLUTELY NOT. She has every reason to hate this fandom, and to expect her to look past what happened and ignore it is basically telling her that how she was treated is not as important as making the fandom look good.

 

It's a problem and it turned her into an anti-brony. She now speaks against the fandom and the sexual harassment that happens. That's one "anti-brony" that could have been spared from becoming a "hater" if someone had just been willing to LISTEN and not instantly assume any and all criticism against the fandom is invalid.

 

THAT is why I can not stand by the idea of blindly hating all "anti-bronies" because you shut down potential allies. You shut down the chance to grow. And you possibly even shut down the chance to help someone who might need it.

 

I have always been someone who critiqued this fandom, and I don't call myself a brony or anything. However I have seen bronies do great things, and I have seen them do terrible things. Every time I see the words "Every fandom does..." as an excuse to ignore a problem, I want to rip my hair out and scream. Because that's a cop out. That's saying you know it's a problem, you know it's ALWAYS BEEN A problem, and you know other people have experienced the problem, but you're not going to do anything because it's just "the norm" now. The brony safe for work search group is an EXCELLENT example of people not just accepting the norm and DOING something about a problem. They are a group that periodically goes on Google safe search and flags NSFW images that slipped through the cracks. They are people taking an initiative instead of going "all fandoms have porn" as an excuse whenever someone stumbles across it in an area where it shouldn't have been. We need more efforts like that.

 

So yeah, people are not going to like bronies. It's GOING to happen, but to assume that their reasons are purely based upon being assholes or trolls kind of continues a vicious cycle.

 

Be the change.

 

My poor friend was pushed away from this fandom and it's too late to convince her to come back, but it might NOT be too late for someone else. You HAVE to be able to take criticism of your fandom though. If you don't, you are only hurting the fandom, not helping it. I know it's not what we want to hear, but sometimes what's best isn't always what we want.

To be honest, voicing yourself about being sexually harassed and just hating on the fandom, really AREN'T the same thing, not even close.

 

It was their choice to become an Anti-Brony, therefore they made themselves like that. Maybe if your friend contacted someone that could help, it wouldn't have got so bad. And if someone's been sexually harassed, what does them being a brony have to do with anything? They should be more concerned about being sexually harassed, not what fandoms they support.

 

I get a little sick of this sometimes. Before you call me a pedophile or anything like that, I myself don't look at MLP porn. However, that doesn't mean it doesn't have a right to exist. It's completely fine, people have their interests, I'm cool with that. Porn isn't a problem, It's just a thing people create. People have different tastes for content. It's like saying OC's are a bad thing because you don't like OC's. However, the rest you're kind of right on. I just think you chose the wrong subject as an example.

 

OK, fair enough, not every Anti-Brony is a bad person, maybe they have their good reasons for it, but Isn't that a reason to just avoid the fandom rather than criticise it and give it more of a bad reputation than it already has? No fandom is perfect obviously, and I'm fine with being criticised, but it has to be said.

[SynBassilicious Pony 322]

....................

Edited January 30, 2023 by SynBassilicious Pony

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

Everyone is capable of it sadly. 

Well, that's pretty sad... Are people ever gonna learn?

[BrawnyCharger 511]

In some ways I see them as people trying to maintain a certain status quo regarding what sorts of entertainment adults and children, men and women, boys and girls, can and cannot be fans of. Yet as we all know, those walls are now crumbling and those people are taking extreme measures to keep them up. But sadly for the Brony haters, it's clear that in the long run, the fight to keep up those barriers will be in vain. 

 

Although I do get angry when they take it way too far with their attacks on the Brony community. But they haven't said anything about me as a brony as of yet and I hope they don't come after me. 

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

"Anti-brony" and "hater" are kind of silly terms; it's not like they mindlessly hate MLP stuff for no reason.  Yes, some "anti-bronies" are just immature kids, but the same is true for bronies.

 

Besides, bronies themselves are known for being hateful or bullying others.  Remember when they would send death threats, for ridiculous reasons such as the Molestia blog being taken down?

 

I think the Molestia blog shouldn't have been taken down anyway. It wasn't doing harm to the fandom, and people could have just ignored It's existence if they don't like stuff like that. Sending death threats over it though, is admittedly kinda stupid.

In some ways I see them as people trying to maintain a certain status quo regarding what sorts of entertainment adults and children, men and women, boys and girls, can and cannot be fans of. Yet as we all know, those walls are now crumbling and those people are taking extreme measures to keep them up. But sadly for the Brony haters, it's clear that in the long run, the fight to keep up those barriers will be in vain. 

 

Although I do get angry when they take it way too far with their attacks on the Brony community. But they haven't said anything about me as a brony as of yet and I hope they don't come after me. 

As long as you stay clear of them, they probably won't come after you. But gender stereotyping is something that I think is a big part of this whole Anti-Brony thing.

[Guest]

 

 

To be honest, voicing yourself about being sexually harassed and just hating on the fandom, really AREN'T the same thing, not even close.

 

Except as I said, in her case, the two are directly connected:

 

 

 

It was their choice to become an Anti-Brony, therefore they made themselves like that.

 

More like she was pushed into it.

 

 

 

Maybe if your friend contacted someone that could help, it wouldn't have got so bad. And if someone's been sexually harassed, what does them being a brony have to do with anything? They should be more concerned about being sexually harassed, not what fandoms they support.

 

Except the problem was she was getting sexually harassed BY bronies and when she brought it up to other bronies for help, people she hoped would take action, their primary concern was telling her to keep it down so that it didn't get out that bronies sexually harassed her. They were more concerned about making the fandom look good than doing the right thing. Can you honestly blame someone for not trusting bronies after that and not liking them? She trusted them to do the right thing and they turned around and told her more or less that outing the people who did it was less important than protecting the "image" of the fandom. THAT is a problem. When protecting the image of the fandom is valued by ANY in the fandom over doing the right thing, it needs to be addressed.

 

This was a girl who would probably still be a brony today if someone had done the right thing. However too many people chose to brush it under the rug and use excuses to justify what happened and then BLAME HER for becoming against the fandom.

 

That's not something we should encourage.

 

 

 

OK, fair enough, not every Anti-Brony is a bad person, maybe they have their good reasons for it, but Isn't that a reason to just avoid the fandom rather than criticise it and give it more of a bad reputation than it already has? No fandom is perfect obviously, and I'm fine with being criticised, but it has to be said.

 

The problem is that people don't like the apply that criticism. What happened to her should have NEVER HAPPENED. We should not have an excuse for it, we should instead be doing things to make sure it doesn't happen. Just saying "no fandom is perfect" is NOT an excuse to not take action to bad things happening in this fandom. If you see people treating others rotten, call it out. When you let bad seeds run around doing whatever they want, you are assisting in creating the negative stereotypes for the fandom that you dislike. When someone points out an experience that happened to them and you make an excuse such as "not all bronies do that" you are shutting people's experiences down and telling them they are wrong to be hurt by something that happened to them.

 

These are people. Meet them with compassion and understanding. If my friend had just gotten a LITTLE sympathy from some of the people in this fandom when she was trying to alert people to sexual harassers, she might still be here. That's an enemy of the fandom that COULD HAVE been avoided if someone just decided to stand up for what was right instead of worrying about what the fandom would look like if it was known that someone was sexually harassing someone else in it. Well now she instead of telling people how the brony fandom swats DOWN sexual harassers and protects their own, she tells people of how they swatted HER down and told her that her well being wasn't important. How they excused sexual harassment and brushed it under the rug.

 

That's someone that could be out there preaching positive things, but the fandom turned her away. Everyone who said nothing, everyone who did nothing, and everyone who made excuses are to blame.

 

 

 

Well, that's pretty sad... Are people ever gonna learn?

 

Not if people keep making excuses.

 

 

 

There's something I'm feeling is being ignored here. If the Anti-Bronies are in it just because "they don't want the content everywhere" then why don't they just avoid pony content?  And on Anti-Bronies having bad experiences and such, that's more of a reason to just leave the fanbase alone, which puts me back to what I said before, if you don't like pony content, don't look at pony contenr.

 

For starters it's kind of hard to got to a website and NOT see pony stuff. It has a tendency to invade other parts of the net. On top of that, people having bad experiences such as my friends is not as simple as "avoid it". If someone sexually harassed you and a group of people more or less covered it up, you would want to warn people to stay away so that they didn't fall victim.

 

If people don't like this kind of thing happening to the brony fandom they need to stop making excuses such as "all fandoms have X" to avoid taking initiative. Otherwise you have to accept the stereotypes you get. That's how life is, you have to work against stereotypes sadly, or they don't go away. 

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

All sarcasm aside though, we need a way to differentiate them from regular haters. See, this Isn't normal hate... THIS IS ADVANCED HATE!

May I ask how this is different than normal hate?  

[zerox 1,092]

I'm just a casual fan of the show.

 

if someone is attacking me for no reason I just igonre that type of behavior. 

[Jeric 46,850]

A bit relevant if you exclude those that just don't care for the show or the fandom but aren't aggressive with their opinion. Some thoughts on the psychology of trolls

 

https://youtu.be/5gqHTlBp6iY

 

^ on my phone so I'll embed that later.

[Guest]

A bit relevant if you exclude those that just don't care for the show or the fandom but aren't aggressive with their opinion. Some thoughts on the psychology of trolls

 

https://youtu.be/5gqHTlBp6iY

 

^ on my phone so I'll embed that later.

 

I love you so much right now Jeric!

 

Thank you for pointing out a very important point. These people might not actually blindly hate the show, they just are getting some harmless fun! Some people troll for good purposes too. Not ALL trolls are just assholes.

[Guest]

Since being a fan of MLP doesn't define me as a person and the show really isn't the most important thing in my life, I don't really care about the existence of haters. They can do their hateful thing, but it won't change my own opinion about the show anyways.

[simba86 1,541]

Not everyone does that though.

 

Some people call themselves anti-bronies and don't expect bronies to disappear, not exist, or anything like that. Some just are people who just would like the pony content to not be everywhere, which isn't entirely unreasonable. Some are people who just are against the porn, which whether you agree with them or not, they have that right and it's not "wrong" to have a negative opinion on porn, some of which is illegal in some parts of the world. So we all don't think alike, and not everyone is an anti-brony to troll.

 

Some are ex-bronies with bad experiences with the fandom, and while those experiences don't represent the whole fandom, you can't say those experiences don't mean anything, because they affected them.

 

 

 

But they all DON'T not everyone is like that. Sure there is a vocal minority that is crap, but the same could be said about everything.

 

 

 

That is a good option, but I also like the additional option of: listen to their story, see why they feel how they feel.

 

I wouldn't have a problem listening to there story if they would ever bother to actually tell it, every encounter with an anti-brony I have had has been them being a straight up troll. I never see them say "I hate this fandom and here is the heart touching reason why" all I ever see is them posting military gore pics, swasticas, and yelling about how we are all gay "like it even counts as an insult now?" and how we all have sex with horses and telling us to die and kill ourselves and then they get banned and dissapear

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

Except as I said, in her case, the two are directly connected:

 

 

 

 

More like she was pushed into it.

 

 

 

 

Except the problem was she was getting sexually harassed BY bronies and when she brought it up to other bronies for help, people she hoped would take action, their primary concern was telling her to keep it down so that it didn't get out that bronies sexually harassed her. They were more concerned about making the fandom look good than doing the right thing. Can you honestly blame someone for not trusting bronies after that and not liking them? She trusted them to do the right thing and they turned around and told her more or less that outing the people who did it was less important than protecting the "image" of the fandom. THAT is a problem. When protecting the image of the fandom is valued by ANY in the fandom over doing the right thing, it needs to be addressed.

 

This was a girl who would probably still be a brony today if someone had done the right thing. However too many people chose to brush it under the rug and use excuses to justify what happened and then BLAME HER for becoming against the fandom.

 

That's not something we should encourage.

 

 

 

 

The problem is that people don't like the apply that criticism. What happened to her should have NEVER HAPPENED. We should not have an excuse for it, we should instead be doing things to make sure it doesn't happen. Just saying "no fandom is perfect" is NOT an excuse to not take action to bad things happening in this fandom. If you see people treating others rotten, call it out. When you let bad seeds run around doing whatever they want, you are assisting in creating the negative stereotypes for the fandom that you dislike. When someone points out an experience that happened to them and you make an excuse such as "not all bronies do that" you are shutting people's experiences down and telling them they are wrong to be hurt by something that happened to them.

 

These are people. Meet them with compassion and understanding. If my friend had just gotten a LITTLE sympathy from some of the people in this fandom when she was trying to alert people to sexual harassers, she might still be here. That's an enemy of the fandom that COULD HAVE been avoided if someone just decided to stand up for what was right instead of worrying about what the fandom would look like if it was known that someone was sexually harassing someone else in it. Well now she instead of telling people how the brony fandom swats DOWN sexual harassers and protects their own, she tells people of how they swatted HER down and told her that her well being wasn't important. How they excused sexual harassment and brushed it under the rug.

 

That's someone that could be out there preaching positive things, but the fandom turned her away. Everyone who said nothing, everyone who did nothing, and everyone who made excuses are to blame.

 

 

 

 

Not if people keep making excuses.

 

 

 

 

For starters it's kind of hard to got to a website and NOT see pony stuff. It has a tendency to invade other parts of the net. On top of that, people having bad experiences such as my friends is not as simple as "avoid it". If someone sexually harassed you and a group of people more or less covered it up, you would want to warn people to stay away so that they didn't fall victim.

 

If people don't like this kind of thing happening to the brony fandom they need to stop making excuses such as "all fandoms have X" to avoid taking initiative. Otherwise you have to accept the stereotypes you get. That's how life is, you have to work against stereotypes sadly, or they don't go away. 

OK, fair enough, but how do you suggest we address it? This is something that needs to be handled delicately, without pissing off either side of the coin.

 

This forum already has plenty of precautions as said before that make sure things like that happen as rarely as possible. I'm not sure what more we exactly can do.

 

With all due respect, I'm sorry about what happened to your friend, but I'm afraid there's not much that can really help here. If members of the fandom aren't willing to listen, I'm not sure what can be done. It's probably too late now, but I don't know when this happened, but I think this fandom has improved in the past years. I'm not sure if It's always been around or what, but this site has a life advice section where you can voice concerns and gain support and advice from other bronies. I've used it myself before, and It's been rather effective.

I'm just a casual fan of the show.

 

if someone is attacking me for no reason I just igonre that type of behavior. 

The silent treatment? Well, OK then...

A bit relevant if you exclude those that just don't care for the show or the fandom but aren't aggressive with their opinion. Some thoughts on the psychology of trolls

 

https://youtu.be/5gqHTlBp6iY

 

^ on my phone so I'll embed that later.

OK, that's actually a pretty good video. Hats off to you.

I love you so much right now Jeric!

 

Thank you for pointing out a very important point. These people might not actually blindly hate the show, they just are getting some harmless fun! Some people troll for good purposes too. Not ALL trolls are just assholes.

Harmless fun is all fine, but what if someone takes it the wrong way or takes something seriously that Isn't meant to be?

Since being a fan of MLP doesn't define me as a person and the show really isn't the most important thing in my life, I don't really care about the existence of haters. They can do their hateful thing, but it won't change my own opinion about the show anyways.

That's all good. Keep your firewall up.

I wouldn't have a problem listening to there story if they would ever bother to actually tell it, every encounter with an anti-brony I have had has been them being a straight up troll. I never see them say "I hate this fandom and here is the heart touching reason why" all I ever see is them posting military gore pics, swasticas, and yelling about how we are all gay "like it even counts as an insult now?" and how we all have sex with horses and telling us to die and kill ourselves and then they get banned and dissapear

Wow, that sounds like the random board on 4chan in a nutshell...

Edited September 13, 2016 by OmegaBeamOfficial

[cider float 2,537]

Responding to them just starts a whole cascade of elementary school drama if you asked me. Anti-bronies were never organized and weren't really many in number to be a nuisance. Someone just saying bronies are this and that but doesn't spend their time on that topic a lot isn't an anti-brony by the way, the ones that go out of their way and to spend most of their time bashing bronies could be an anti-brony. 

[Luminance 2,186]

I actually think they're jealous because they can't comprehend the good aspects of the show and they only pick the bad aspects of the fandom to bring it down. My view on them is simple, I just ignore them.

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

Responding to them just starts a whole cascade of elementary school drama if you asked me. Anti-bronies were never organized and weren't really many in number to be a nuisance. Someone just saying bronies are this and that but doesn't spend their time on that topic a lot isn't an anti-brony by the way, the ones that go out of their way and to spend most of their time bashing bronies could be an anti-brony. 

Yeah, the ones who go out of their way to do that is who I'm talking about.

[Kiri 7,288]

You can't change someone's mindset. People are free to like or dislike whatever they want. As far as trolling and flame warring goes, there are hate groups for just about everything, so I'm not at all surprised by the sometimes very abrasive expressions of dislike for the show and those who participate in the fandom. I just ignore people who have shown that they are incapable of being respectful during conversation. Life is too short to be hung up on people who take pleasure in verbally attacking others!

 

It seems like the majority of people, though, are respectful in their viewpoints.

Edited September 16, 2016 by Lady Kiriness