Has the MLP animated series really been aimed toward little girls?

[ManaMinori 4,149]

Now, I get that the TOYLINE has been aimed at them. Low quality plushies, brushables, barbie dolls. It's very obvious that Hasbro's main demographic are the little girls. BUT- has the series, throughout history, ever been? Well...g3 and g 3.5 have, but let's look at the start of MLP. Gen 1 had its share of Lava demons, witches, centaur demons, beating hearts in satchels, ponies turning into dragons, baby ponies hoping that their newborn siblings met and get attacked by monsters/ struck by lightning/getting hurt, as it would serve them right/ people putting slave collars on them and turning them into pets; witches nearly being decapitated by guillotine by their own mother. It's pretty dark and gritty.

 

G1.5 was really no better, as it was aimed more to a demographic that was ready to start dating, and being attracted to boys. And this series doesn't use its romance subplot as cute puppy dog love that would resonate well with its “target audience”; instead, it uses it in horribly devious ways. The girl ponies gossip about a boy pony who sleeps with a teddy bear, and word gets out, and he's a laughing stock by his other male pony friends. So the girl ponies use their sex appeal to get the pony guy's friends to dress up like babies, and blackmail them to get them off their friend's back, or they'll share the embarrassing photos with everyone in town. Covering up cruelty with yet more cruelty. That's for the target audience, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObeiQ8oWkMU

 

And then there's gen 4. A series that- yet again, is said to be “for little girls”, and yet.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAp6Ths_sxc

Edited January 17, 2017 by Nightmare Muffin

[cmarston1 5,964]

That's kinda implying that media aimed at young girls (and to a lesser extent girls in general) isn't allowed to have conflict or be interesting.

Which goes against what Lauren Faust had in mind with the creation of FIM, which was that she wanted to create the show that she wanted to see when she was a little girl, and challenge the notion that media aimed at young girls was to be devoid of conflict and inherently bad.