Do you think the Brony fandom has a widespread minority complex?

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

I have an impression of the MLP fandom that the people have a complex of liking such a weird and minor thing. (from various documentaries and clips, videos, articles, communities) Even the rationalization (technically and logically there is nothing wrong with liking MLP, but that's not how human psyche works) is a defense mechanism. Even sometimes I was surprised by myself reminding myself to go extra confident and strengthen my self-rightousness about liking MLP, which is absolutely unnecessary because I already pretty much don't care of what others think of me, and it came from a self-accusation in the first place.

Is the minority complex widespread among the brony fandom? And if so or not, how did it affect and shape the whole fandom and what would be a good way to deal with it as a whole? I think it partially fueled the fandom to explode in the first place, so it's hard to just separate it from the fandom. (many people started to watch it because it was a 'weird' thing to do, and stayed because the show was good). People also feel like defending themselves extra because they are often looked down by others.

I'm genuinely curious about your insight, especially the ones who's been observing the community for a long time.

Edited September 21, 2019 by Sepul-Coloratura

[BornAgainBrony 2,395]

I think it varies by locale. Some regions will be far more accepting of it than others, so if your pony fandom didn't affect you personally, it may not reflect what others have experienced. Compare it to coming out of the closet in San Francisco vs doing so in Alabama.

For me, the problems have been greatly dwarfed by the positive feedback I've gotten from wearing my Pony heart on my shoulder. I'm also not far from NYC though, which celebrates diversity, so that may be part of it.

[Pentium100 2,056]

I think this was due to the stigma attached to liking girly things, at least in the beginning. It kinda was "if you like this show you are not a man" until some marines told that they like the show too (and nobody dares to call a marine not manly).

I personally just did not advertise that I like the show, just like any other TV shows I watch. I showed a couple of episodes to my friend, who didn't really like it and that was it. If someone would ask me if I like the show I would say yes, I also have a desktop wallpaper with Twilight on it on my laptop.

I do not see a reason to behave like some anime fans do (I watch anime too, but don't behave like that), so I do not insert random references to the show when talking, saying "everypony" when talking in English and so on. It's not that I want to hide the fact that I like the show, I just do not want to get into peoples faces about it. I know it would be annoying to me if somebody else did that with a show I did not care about.

Recently a coworker noticed that the hostname of one of my servers is "twilight", he said something and I replied "yes, have any problem with that?". His reply was along the lines "oh yea, I watched those movies too", to which my response was "no, it's not named after that Twilight, it's named after *opens google image search* this Twilight".

Then again, the show is not that well known in my country. There are toys and such for sale and the show was on TV at some point (I prefer to watch in the original language though), but it's not that well known it seems and just falls under generic "animation" category.

 

[MangoFoalix 24,898]

I personally don't care either way. But, no I don't think there is some sort of "minority complex".

[cmarston1 5,951]

Finally someone said it!  While I don't hate  the fandom, this definitely is something that made me rather annoyed with it.  Like it was really annoying to seeing the fandom treat liking a show about pastel colored ponies designed to sell toys to little girls, like it was the same as being part of a historically marginalized group (mainly the LGBT community).

Thankfully this is something that I feel has lessened at least a little bit as time went on.

Edited September 22, 2019 by cmarston1

[EpicEnergy 22,074]

I think it would be an overgeneralization to say that the brony fandom has a widespread minority complex.