Is Equestria a Matriarchy?

[Phantom Wolf 9]

I've noiced that there are a lot more mares then stallions in the show, and that the mares seem to lead everything. Applejack is younger then Big Mac, but she runs the farm. Cup Cake and Pinkie Pie seem to run the store. The two leaders of Equestria are females (although they are royal, so it may not have to do with gender for that). When Shining Armor was getting married, Twilight seemed to be 'defending his honor'. Could it be that mares are the leaders in Equestria? Maybe it's because there are so few stallions, so they are protected?

[Devious Detonation 442]

Well, now that you said that... I quite think that same way.

Yeah, there are barely any Stallions in the series... And barely any is an important character...

But then I remember that most of the fandom are males... Pretty interesting...

Also, thank you for sharing the point of view.

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

Honestly that does make sense. I don't think it is a matriarchy, on account of the fact that it started as a girls show, and if you haven't noticed most characters in little girls tv shows are girls. So I dunno, maybe, maybe not.

[Champion RD92 8,655]

I'm kind of curious as to why there are so few stallions in Equestria...there must be a lot of competition for mates lol

 

Anyway, not sure if it's a matriarchy, but there are definitely more females than males.

[Guest]

Well in a governmental sense, yes Equestria is indeed a matriarchy since the ruling class seems to be composed of all females (that we know of).

 

On a societal level, I would say that it isn't quite so much a matriarchy, because that would imply that the mares are mistreating and taking away rights of the stallions, which I do not believe is evident.

 

Also, as an interesting side note, I honestly think it might just be Ponyville that is that way, because Canterlot and Appaloosa both had a lot more stallions than ponyville does. Also, all the other pony cities seem to have ponies wearing clothes... I'm starting to think that Ponyville is a feminist nudist colony...

[Phantom Wolf 9]

I'm kind of curious as to why there are so few stallions in Equestria...there must be a lot of competition for mates lol

 

Anyway, not sure if it's a matriarchy, but there are definitely more females than males.

 

Maybe there are herds like in real life. Although I doubt it, because it's a kids show. However, in real life, one stallion would have a group of females as his mates. Right, kids show. . .

[RazzyJam 1,519]

Well in a governmental sense, yes Equestria is indeed a matriarchy since the ruling class seems to be composed of all females (that we know of).

 

On a societal level, I would say that it isn't quite so much a matriarchy, because that would imply that the mares are mistreating and taking away rights of the stallions, which I do not believe is evident.

 

Also, as an interesting side note, I honestly think it might just be Ponyville that is that way, because Canterlot and Appaloosa both had a lot more stallions than ponyville does. Also, all the other pony cities seem to have ponies wearing clothes... I'm starting to think that Ponyville is a feminist nudist colony...

 

I'm starting to think that Ponyville is a feminist nudist colony...

 

Ponyville is a feminist nudist colony

 

Ponyville is a feminist nudist colony

 

Oh...

oh...

Oh dear sweet mother of Celestia above please be wrong. In the name of the champion of the sun please God be wrong ;_;

 

Interesting theory, but Idek man, its a show for girls X)

[duidamasterXD 9,626]

Well in a governmental sense, yes Equestria is indeed a matriarchy since the ruling class seems to be composed of all females (that we know of).

 

On a societal level, I would say that it isn't quite so much a matriarchy, because that would imply that the mares are mistreating and taking away rights of the stallions, which I do not believe is evident.

 

Also, as an interesting side note, I honestly think it might just be Ponyville that is that way, because Canterlot and Appaloosa both had a lot more stallions than ponyville does. Also, all the other pony cities seem to have ponies wearing clothes... I'm starting to think that Ponyville is a feminist nudist colony...

 

That nudist colony theory makes WAY more sense than it should

 

The definition of matriarchy is

a family, society, community, or state governed by women.

 

Considering that just about every authority figure we've seen is female it is easy to come to that conclusion (Celestia, Luna, Cadence, The Mayor, Spitfire, only guys with authority that come to mind are Blueblood and Shining Armor.)

But given that females seem to be the vast majority in Equestria that is probably inevitable

[~Asuka <3~ 867]

I guess it would be, but I'm sure there are stallions somewhere. There's multiple powerful stallions in Canterlot, although all but one lacks political power. In Ponyville, I've seen a whopping total of two stallions.

 

tl;dr, Women control everything.

[Nohbdy 4,108]

Well, Lauren Faust is a pretty outspoken feminist. It's probably just because it's a girl's show, so it's natural that greater focus would be placed on the females.

 

If we disregard that and look from an in-universe perspective, then a matriarchy is not an unreasonable conclusion. In real life, herds of horses are usually led by mares. Sure, we have plenty of powerful stallions, but mares seem to have the most influence. That said, most doctors, scientists, and businessmen are male.

 

It's kind of like Salarians from Mass Effect. Females do the politics and organization, while males do the rest.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,694]

Now that you put it that way, Phantom, Equestria being a matriarchy makes a lot of sense. Mares seem to outnumber stallions by at least 2 to 1 on the show. Although there are males in positions of power, a tradition of females in the highest ranks is exemplified by Celestia and Luna and seems to stretch back to the founding of the country. All of the leaders in the Heart's Warming Eve play were apparently female (since all were played by the Mane 6).

 

It's not really talked about, nor has it ever become an issue on the show. (In fact I think it would be a mistake to go in that direction.) But I think it goes back to the previous generations' leading female cast and the show's primary demographic being young girls. They need an abundance of characters they can identify with.

 

Although I find myself identifying with Twilight Sparkle a lot more than, say, Jack Bauer.

Edited November 3, 2012 by TailsAlone

[HomuraBL 851]

How many times must I say this?

 

# of Mares = # of Stallions.

 

The reason we think that there are more mares is that we don't pay attention to the new stallions that show up, and we focus on the background ponies we know, which are mostly female.

 

As for females being leaders. I wouldn't say it isn't possible for a male to be a leader.

[himanuts 165]

I don't mind the idea of Equestria being some kind of matriarchal culture. In real life, horse herds are led by what's called a bossmare. So it makes sense for that concept to somehow translate over to MLP.

[irobern2857 95]

as a rule the females are more ever present but the males show up in big places in society as well. Fanceypants and Filthy Rich are two examples of this

Edited November 4, 2012 by irobern2857

[Castoro Chiaro 181]

Personally, I just think Equestria is a society where strict gender roles do not exist. Guys can do stereotypically "feminine" things (cry, like girl stuff, dress up), and it's not seen as a negative or weak thing. Gender does not determine how powerful you are and how much success you have, as we see both mares and stallions in positions of prominence. Basically, it's a world of true equality. Nobody's "better" or "worse" than anyone else based on gender alone.

 

Just my thoughts.

[Flutterdasher 114]

I don't think it is really supposed to be a matriarchy per say I think as someone above said there is just mostly female characters because it was slated as a girls show. But there are males, males in important positions. They aren't treated as second class citizens or anything. I dunno that's just what I think.

[GoldenShield 46]

Well, from a purely political standpoint, yes Equestria is a Monarchy since the leaders of the land are female. However I am quite sure the actual question is much more relating to whether Equestria is a social monarchy rather than asking the obvious about it's political status. Socially speaking, it really is hard to say based on the small portion of Equestria we get to see through the show but from what I can tell it seems to be relatively equal, both mares and stallions appear to have equal opportunity and consideration for their lives. An interesting thing to note is that Equestria is actually what would be considered an egalitarian society mostly due to the existence of cutie marks, because ponies know what they are going to do in their lives and everypony is aware that other ponies were born to do what their cutie mark indicates, no one is looked down upon (well not in general at least) and are treated equally in the eyes of society.

As for the distinct lack of stallions in Ponyville, all I can say is that it is a show targeted towards young girls and young girls generally will relate to female characters more easily.

[Black Star 62]

Also, as an interesting side note, I honestly think it might just be Ponyville that is that way, because Canterlot and Appaloosa both had a lot more stallions than ponyville does. Also, all the other pony cities seem to have ponies wearing clothes... I'm starting to think that Ponyville is a feminist nudist colony...

 

I just noticed that and it is kind of weird that ponyville has mostly mares but the other towns and cities seem to be fairly even numbered when it comes to gender. Also the feminist nudist colony thing is for some reason really easy to believe.

[dad george 105]

The true reason: It's a show originally meant for little girls. /thread. No but honestly, they started adding more male characters later when they noticed guys enjoyed the show too, but FiM doesn't really have the habit of introducing mayor characters often (aside from villains that is), so most of them are just background ponehs

[poniesforfun 716]

Two words: Girl Power.

 

And I wouldn't want it any other way. Though it's not entirely matriarchal when Discord was the very first ruler of Equestria when the world wasn't in order yet.

[Genepool 224]

Hard to truly say really, but it does seem to be somewhat that way. However, there are hints of stallions being in other parts since we see a male running the jewelry store during Hearts and Hooves day and a male running a shop *Mr. Breeze I think* during that one CMC episode in S1.

 

Main reason I think there are primarily mares vs stallions shown is the foundation of the show being "For girls." Having too many stallions running the show would probably devalue that idea to some degree.

 

Pfft, who knows, maybe it's like that Girls Bravo where stallions are rare creatures or becoming rare creatures. lol Can't imagine a MLPFIM like that with mares being deprived of stallions and the male species being on the verge of extinction. (Fan fiction already done or should I get writing?)