MLP Guilt

[Twentypercent 204]

This is a inspiring post from Penciller on the /r/mylittlepony subreddit on reddit.com, but I thought it would be great to share it with this forum and anyone who hasn't read it yet. I just read it yesterday and thought it was very descriptive about how a lot of us feel.

 

We all know the jokes we make about how My Little Pony is "not usual" or somehow not proper entertainment for the off demographic fans (Bronies). Now media is jumping the bandwagon of MLP guilt (Fox for starters) trying to dramatize and portray a caricaturization of Bronies as some pathetic no-life delinquents.

How very wrong this is too, it offends the original demographic of girls, young or not but still they can be just as witty and intelligent, critical, humorous people as any other group. Why should all girls shows be "stupid" or "ridiculous" fluff and seen as poor entertainment based solely on the demographic? Sure they may like talentless hacks like Justin Bieber for his looks and sappy lyrics but for every 10 girls who likes Bieber, there's one girl who facepalms with the rest of us.

It also offends men and what is seen as "acceptable behaviour" for a man. As if the form of entertainment a man enjoys somehow makes his contributions to society lesser and reduces his worth only because he does not dedicate his life solely to gender-specific posturing. It does not make a surgeon who saves lives any lesser medical expert if he likes Little candy coloured ponies, it does not mean that the fireman who watches ponies prancing would do his work any less effectively or be any lesser father to his children.

This attitude of guilt and shame that all the neighsayers try to project upon bronies is ridiculous machismo complex ridden nonsense that makes marketing such useful products like freaking razorblades saturated with stereotypes and chest puffing naming of products in the kind of satire along the lines of Gillette fusion turbo stealth bicep-knuckle hyper 3000. Really, I don't need my skin caring aftershave or shower gel to have combination name that resembles a cartoon robot only because I am a male.

I do not need to watch wrestling, monster trucks, hockey and football to qualify as a male or an acceptable member of my gender, those dangly bits between my legs do that job perfectly well. If I want to watch some ponies, and have a key-chain, desktop image or some another personal item in the likeness of a cute pony how does that make me almost as bad as a terrorist or some kind of social reject?

Simply put: It doesn't. No matter how insecure seeing cute ponies makes some lesser men around us, the true bronies are secure enough in their own masculinity to allow themselves to live and enjoy any kind of entertainment they want. If anything is manly and courageous, being true to yourself is that. Strength and fortitude to be yourself, not submit to pathetic roles and shut yourself into safe little box of what it means to be a man in the cave-man society is what defines a honest remarkable individual.

So all the haters and scoffing insecure men trying to make daddy proud by being a jackass, all the stereotyping small minds, all the cowardly weaklings who fear that if people can become open and honest about themselves they would have to face the reality about themselves, all of them that enforce this absolutely foolish boxing of people are now not laughing in ridicule, but ridiculing out of fear.

We are humans, all of us are humans, girls, boys, women, men. We are biological creatures with incredible amount of genetic similarity, only difference is one branch of chromosome in our genome and that by the definition of every biologist does not justify any disparity between any one individual.

Love and tolerance is a bloody good message, and if any bit of that message is left in our hands from exposure to MLP then that series has done a service to mankind ten thousand times the worth of any monster truck race. The guilt we are all "supposed" to feel for liking My Little Ponies is nothing more than fear of something different.

As we have learned from atomic theory, CERN, combustion engine and everything new and "different" like ending slavery or vaccinating against polio the change is often only for the better. Perhaps this incomprehensible set of rules in entertainment based solely on viewer underestimation is about the time to fill up with some demographics transcending shows. Animaniacs, My Little Pony, anything from Pixar makes a great example how entertainment can be aimed for humans first and foremost, not to some little boxed in stereotypes of what "certain sort of people" have to be.

Future needs tolerance, our world grows smaller each year in terms of accessibility and ease of interaction. Good place to start tolerance is from yourself. Tolerate and love yourselves bronies, tolerate what you love and enjoy life. If you let yourself to have "silly" things and accept that part of yourselves it becomes easier to tolerate and love your fellow man and their silly things, their strengths and weaknesses and all the wonderful differences that make this world interesting and worth every moment of our lives.

Original Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/kr3oj/mlp_guilt/

 

In honor of this great writing, and coming out of the stable, I present to you a picture of me hanging out with Pinkie at Comic Con this year for the world to see! (I'm really not that chinky-eyed, I think I was blinking ) Love and tolerance everypony!

 

*Brohoof*

 

[Akaraah 77]

A fantastic read! I'll give a more thorough comment on this later on (it's late where I am)

[ryak 135]

What a great read, thanks for the post. And Oh my gosh, I have that exact shirt!

[LyraHeartstrings 482]

I love things like this. Someponies just know how to manipulate words into wonderful things...

[Twentypercent 204]

What a great read, thanks for the post. And Oh my gosh, I have that exact shirt!

 

You're welcome! And you have good taste haha, it's my favorite pony shirt by far.

[ryak 135]

 

You're welcome! And you have good taste haha, it's my favorite pony shirt by far.

 

I know right? Plus with Rainbow Dash being one of my favorite ponies, it's my favorite as well.

[Tiaaaaa 176]

Good place to start tolerance is from yourself. Tolerate and love yourselves bronies, tolerate what you love and enjoy life.

 

This is a wonderful idea. Everything needs somewhere to start and often that start needs to take place within before it can without.

And a wonderful article at that. Thank you very much for posting this!

[Shanks 10,816]

Agreed, life is way too short to worry about what others think just be yourself and enjoy whatever it is you like even if is something that society has arbitrarily deemed as strange or unusual as if something being a little different is a bad thing.