Brony Culture Questionnaire

[Dark Moon 965]

1.) How old are you?

19

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?  

Finished High School, going to college for Archaeology

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

No one

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

Causally watched it with my brother who referred me to it. He also recommended the forum to me.

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

At the moment, yes. I find myself on this forum everyday for a good chunk of time  

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

Since I joined the fandom about a month ago, about 75%. It's been a month since I have touched my xbox

0, I have no brony friends in the real world  

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

Nope, they don't even know I'm a brony and I plan to keep it that way.  

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?) 

Kind of, which  it shouldn't be since there are a lot of good people in my opinion in the fandom. I'm not even sure that it is the show that holds the fandom together anymore. I think we're becoming something greater and far grander.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Dark Moon

[Steel Accord 6,660]

1.) How old are you?

 

21

 

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

 

Currently in college.

 

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

 

Patriot, idealist, Trekkie, Whovian, Avatard, gamer, novice swordsman/martial artist, writer.

 

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

 

Many things: Just choosing one, the show's ability to inspire others. To create, to care, and to better themselves.

 

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

 

Absolutely. It's not time or energy consuming to just look at EQD or these Forums. RPing is quickly becoming my favorite thing to do on the internet!

 

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

 

75%?

 

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

 

3 out of 5 I guess? I suck at math! Even simple estimation!

 

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

 

I am, and no. This is usually because it's the sort of situation where I'm open about it, but don't really go in depth unless asked.

 

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

 

No more than a usual deviant group and it's becoming less and less of a problem. As we grow in strength and numbers and time passes, bronies are beginning to occupy a similar niche to Trekkies. Strange and mocked, but an inescapable reality. The frothing at the mouth hatred will give way to general disdain as the haters realize we are too strong for their protests to stop.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Steel Accord

[Toastie 110]

1.) How old are you?

16

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

Starting collage (don't know what the american version would be...sorry! >.<)

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

Gamer

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

The show in general I find very entertaining, has a good story arc so can't complain. Also a really cool fanbase along with it  

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

Not really, I play WoW a lot so I have met a few bronies and talked to them before.

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

20% on an average day

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

I have 4 friends and one's a brony so 25% which suddenly sounds like a lot

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

Yeah I'm pretty open about it to my friends, it hasn't affected my relationship at all. I don't force it down their throats just like they don't like with things I don't care about either. If they are your real friends then they will accept your differences.

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

I think like most things which are out of the norm, or their norm at least they will not like it. Some people don't like change and they go to extremes to keep things the same. However I think society is developing so they don't care as much anymore. 

[RandomName 28]

1. 16

2. Well, I'm 16 so I'm still in high school

3. Gamers I guess

4. Saberspark's Ballad of the Brony video

5. No, but it's pretty high up there

6. 10% maybe

7. IRL friends = none (well my older brother is a brony, but I don't think that counts)

8. I do have non-brony friends and I am open to them about it (that sounds gay, but whatever). They just call me a    faggot jokingly, which we do, and I'll make fun of them for something in retaliation (it's a touching relationship).

9. Absolutely

Edited June 14, 2013 by MLP_JoshF

[Rayna 44]

1.) How old are you?

I'm 20 at the moment.

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

I finished high school last year and I just finished my first year at university. I'm studying for a Bachelor in Visual Arts. 

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

I'm in a lot of fandoms, but I've never really had an actual fan label like "Brony" before.

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

I'm a little girl at heart. I love anything that has lots of colour or something to do with magic and all that jazz. On the other hand, I'm really interested in people, in terms of character. So any show that has good character development or just likable characters, I would definitely watch. Brony culture is the thing I discovered later on. I joined in cus I had no one else to discuss MLP with in real life.

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

I go through phases. I'm currently having my MLP phase so yes, it's currently my primary hobby. For now.

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

Hmmm.... 60% at this moment?

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

None. I don't have any brony friends.

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

Yes, they know. They just kinda tease me for it because they already know what I'm like. I'm expected to like things like My Little Pony if they know I already like watching Barbie movies.

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

Well, if it's something that goes against the norm, anything of the sort would be stigmatised in some way. Especially on the Internet.

[Freewave 1,145]

1.) How old are you?

38

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

College Grad

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

Blogger, Musician, Collector, DJ

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

The Music and the creativity

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

Yes

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

60%

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

Rlife 0%, Internet 75%

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

Am a closet brony in RL.

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

Probably a little bit. Likely worse when combined with my age. Most peple really dont care that much unless directly asked.

[DarligPegasi 315]

1.) How old are you?

 

I am 18 years old.

 

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

 

Uhhh I'm about to become a freshman in college.

 

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

 

I am a whovian, spn fan, sherlockian, merlin fan, HIMYM fan, somewhat anime fan, slash fan, I used to be a warrior cat fan but that kinda died...I feel like there are more things that I am apart of...Uhh...I'll get back to you on that.

 

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

 

Well I first started watching the show because this girl said she liked it, and I wanted to check it out, because I wanted to know why a teenage girl liked a little kids show. (I don't think like that now ).

But yeah I love the show now, and I have always loved shows that had animals as main characters, so that definitely grabbed my attention. And also the lack of juvenile and corny elements kept my attention.

 

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

 

Nope. It's not really a hobby, it's more an interest.

 

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

 

Like maybe...5-7%.

 

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

 

I don't really have any friends. ^^

 

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

 

See above.

 

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

 

Yeah, and I wish people would just take a seat and focus their attention on more important thing. >.>

[Silver Letter 1,832]

Right now, I don't feel comfortable talking about how I feel towards MLP towards somepony that isn't even a fan so they can write about us on their thesis or whatever they are doing. Also, something about the fact that she/he is a social services worker makes it worse. I don't want to be studied like a lab animal so we can be compared to who knows what.

[Super Derpy 535]

 1.How old are you?

.I'm 13 years and 11 months old

 2.What is your level of educational attainment?

I have just graduated 8th grade I am an A-B student

3.What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

 I am a huge anime fan.

4. What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

The unique animation and great characters attracted me to the show and I was attracted to brony culture because I wanted to talk to people who also liked MLP.

5. Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby

 No

6. What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

 About 50 to 60%

7. What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

 I have one friend that is a brony i don't know what percentage that is probably around 3%.

8.If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way

I am not "out" as a brony to my friends except for my friend who is a brony

9 .Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet?

Sometimes

[Ratchetmon 1]

1.)I am 21 years and 4 months old.

 

2.)I am currently enrolled in college.

 

3.)D&Der, TF2 player, philosopher, comic book nerd, trekkie and may more.

 

4.)I thought the show was pretty cool so I consider myself a brony.

 

5.)Nope.avi

 

6.)5-10 hours per week.

 

7.)5 others.

 

8.)Yes, no.

 

9.)Somewhat.

[repsol rave 2,963]

how old are you?

i'm 17 years old

what is your level of educational attainment?

right now i'm following level 4 allround operational technician. (it's a dutch class, normal name would be algemeen operationeel technicus, in dutch)

what groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

i'm a huge fan of the game series dead space, and also a regular gues at party's like dominator, free festival and indicator.

What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

the culture is actually what pulled my in, i liked the show already, but i never considered myself a brony until i found a community on the internet.

Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

no

What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

maybe 40-60%

What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

i have no brony friends (forever alone!)

If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

i've never dared to tell that i'm a brony. i guess that if i told them, they would be very confused at first, because non of them know what a brony is!

Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet?

sometimes

[RarityYeon02 0]

1.) How old are you?

13 years

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

8th Grade

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

Pokemon and K-pop fan

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

Everyone loves and tolerates, and are really talented!

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

Yes

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

40%

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

I converted 2 and met 2

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

Yes, and No. In facet, they actually took a look at My Little Pony and 2 became bronies.

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

depends

[not 72]

1.) How old are you?

 

 I am, unfortunately, a meager 13-years-old, nearing 14.

 

 

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

 

 I have just recently graduated from seventh grade, though that information will likely serve little or no purpose.

 

 

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

 

 Many, far too many for me to list here in my sleep-deprived state. Most notably I am a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls game series, and am an active member of several forums related to this interest.

 

 

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

 

 I was initially attracted to MLP by comments on a brony PMV of a song I enjoyed. I watched an episode, and was, naturally, sucked in. As for brony culture, well, I felt obligated to take a look at it after associating myself with MLP, having been introduced to the show by the fandom itself. Little did I know that it would be so expansive.

 

 

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

 

 No, though I often times write MLP-related things, and writing IS my primary hobby.

 

 

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

 

 Approximately 20-30%.

 

 

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

 

 Only three, and only two that I know well.

 

 

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

 

 I am out of the closet with my bronydom, and though some expressed initial distaste, no further reactions have been recorded as of yet.

 

 

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

 

 I feel that the brony fandom is stigmatized on the Internet, yes, though this does not come into play as often as some would make it sound. Rarely do I ever see any hatred towards bronies, so long as I avoid the YouTube comments section. As for society, no, I do not feel we are stigmatized by it, as most people are not aware of the existence of bronies at all, or view them as a tiny splinter group with no effect on their lives and thus no reason to be noticed.

 

 

 

 

 Also, may I suggest using some information from the Herd Census? The site could greatly help in your endeavor.

[Videogameget 5]

Hi Everybody,

            I’ve been referred this section of the forums as the most appropriate place for what I’m going to post.  I’m currently mulling a (utterly non-scientific) blog article/series of articles about bronies as a subculture – see my thread in the Welcoming Plaza for more on that – and obviously that requires some input from bronies themselves.  With that in mind, I’d like to post a short questionnaire here just to get a feel for the demographics of this forum as a representative sampling of bronies.  Also included are some more open-ended questions that allow for more robust answers, which may be quoted in my article.

            Before that, however, I should probably give a little information about myself.  I’m a social services worker with a background in political science.  Perhaps more importantly, I’m an off-again, on-again blogger who writes rather haphazardly about pop culture, b-movies, and cultural skepticism.  I’m also a frequent guest on the pop culture-centric comedy podcast Joe’s Awesome and Tommy Hates Everything.  I am not a cultural anthropologist, however, and my interviewing skills are admittedly limited – my analytical training focused mostly on chunking huge amounts of data into SPSS and letting the computer do the heavy lifting.  Please keep that in mind if my questions seem poorly constructed, leading, or otherwise subpar.

 

1.) How old are you?

 

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

 

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

 

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

 

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

 

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

 

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

 

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

 

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

 

            Those are the questions I have for now, although if the response to these questions is robust, I’ll likely be back with more questions about other aspects of brony culture.  Once again, I’d like to extend my thanks in advance to everyone who chooses to participate.

 

Love and Peace,

-Skippy

 

Oh my god, I can sense something fishy here. I just read your blog and its pretty outdated. We already have experts doing this.

[FancyPhoenix 197]

1.) How old are you?

- I am currently 19 years old

 

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

- I've just graduated from what would most likely be comparable to the American high-school

 

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

- I'm a fan of lots of things, including anime, Japanese culture, furries, the Dr. Who TV-series, etc. However, I don't identify myself as part of any of their fanbases in the same way as I consider myself a brony.

 

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

- I first heard of MLP and bronies through my schoolmates who openly hated on the show and the fandom. I too didn't think very highly of it, until I saw some pony-art a friend of mine posted online. That got me interested, and in a moment of extreme boredomness last summer, I decided to give it a go, at this point fully knowing that I'd get hooked the moment I'd lay my eyes on it

 

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

- Yes. I do have other hobbies too, like playing music and reading books, but MLP is the most time consuming hobby I have at the moment, so I guess you could say it's my "primary" hobby.

 

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

- Around 80% I'd say. Pretty much all free time I have is spent reading pony-fanfiction, writing it myself, listening to pony-music, browsing the pony-forums, etc. I spend some time with my friends doing other activities too, so it's not like I'm completely ponified... Yet

 

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

- I have six friends who I've actually met, who have watched the show. I'm not sure if all of them are into the fandom as much as I am, but they like the show and it was through MLP I actually made friends with them I also have a couple friends who I've only talked with through the internet who are bronies.

 

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them? If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

- I used to be really closed up about my bronyism to my friends, but when one of them found out, it was like the start of a tidal wave. Now pretty much all my friends know I'm a brony, or at least I think they do. They don't give me too much hate about it, at least one of them is completely okay with it, he just doesn't want to get involved himself. I've always been a bit of an odd-ball in my group of friends, so nothing's really changed My parents and one of my siblings also know and are okay with it. I haven't told my other three siblings yet, but I'm sure they wouldn't give me too much hell about it either.

 

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

- Yes. I think the social standards we have about boys and girls are too strongly embedded for bronies to be 100% accepted, and I feel it shows in the media. So far I've yet to see a news-report or documentary, commercial or Youtube/other free media, that's not made by bronies, that doesn't make the innuendo that bronies are some kind of an odd group of socially awkward or disturbed people. I think lots of this bad reputation (not all, though) is because of bronies themselves. Unfortunately we bronies are the main reason we are looked down upon. Even though not all bronies are those strange, disturbed, or even straight out crazy people, there are those in every group, and somehow the reporters and interviewers always seem to find the odd ones out. Also, I don't know why, but bronies have a tendency to go crazy when interviewed about bronyism o.0 No dirty secret is left hidden when someone asks you questions...

So yeah, there is definitely a stigma on bronies, but the again, we are a bit odd, aren't we?

[Nightmare Night 151]

1.) How old are you?

21

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

high school diploma

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

emo/goth/

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

the show seemed so much more inspiring and well magical than anything else on tv.

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

yep

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

30-40%

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

2 out of 7

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

nope they tease me a bit but its all in good fun.

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

yes but as they say ''Haters gonna hate''

[Flutter's lover <3 8,205]

1.) How old are you?   24

 

 

2.) What is your level of educational attainment? Electrical Apprenticeship

 

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with? Furry,Mountain biking. geekdom

 

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture? First episode I watcehd was Winter Wrap Up, I then had to watch the other episodes and thus, I am here.

 

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby? Notreally, Mountain biking and  video games are my other main hobbies next to MLP

 

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?  30% Give or take

 

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies? A few of them...probably about 10

 

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them?  If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?  Yep, and not at all, they just think it's a bit weird ..but they know I'm weird in general.

 

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)  It is the internet, and you'll have haters no matter what. You'll also either like hate or be indifferent about ponies.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Flutter Dash

[Ali_Derp 89]

1.) How old are you?

11

2.) What is your level of educational attainment?

Mah What Now?

3.) What groups or cultural identities other than Brony do you self-identify with?

N/A

4.) What attracted you to MLP and brony culture?

Curiosity

5.) Do you consider MLP-related activities to be your primary hobby?

YES

6.) What percentage of your leisure activities would you estimate are related to MLP?

75%

7.) What portion of your friends also consider themselves bronies?

-10%

8.) If you have non-brony friends, are you ‘out’ as a brony to them? If so, has this affected your relationship with them in any way?

Yes, I Told Them And Boy It Was A Bad Idea, Check my profile And My Post On Their Reaction Is Somewhere

9.) Do you feel that bronies as a group are put upon or stigmatized on the internet? (Or society as a whole?)

What? o_O

[Your Pal Skippy 3]

Hi Everyone,

 

I haven't checked these boards in a couple of weeks, and you can imagine my surprise to see that this thread is getting responses again after getting buried pretty far down in the topic list.  I had intended to start writing in earnest on the third section of my article this evening, but it looks like I'll be pulling down these responses and putting them into Access instead.  I've already completed and posted the Age and Gender section of the article, but will at some point amend it to reflect the additional responses. 

 

ILetThePoniesIn,

I understand your misgivings and would like to address them.  My article is not being written as a thesis or for any reasons other than my own personal interest.  I studied data manipulation in college and thought I'd try my hand at a little amateur research design.  I decided to look at Bronies for three reasons: 1.) I've seen a couple of episodes of the show and thought was kind of cute; 2.) I know absolutely nothing about Bronies save what I've read online and thought that this would be a chance to have my preconceptions challenged; and 3.) Bronies are "big" right now and therefore would likely have active message boards and thus a larger pool of potential respondents.  I arrived at this forum by literally typing "Brony forum" into Google and making an account at the first site that was listed. 

 

I mentioned that I worked in social services purely in the interest of full-disclosure and this research is not in any way relatedto my work.  I am not comparing the respondent data to  control group or anything else, with the caveat that I did use Maeve Duggan and Joanna Brenner's Demographics of Social Media Users - 2012 to compare the rates of male and female social media use in the general population against the reported genders of the respondents to my survey. 

 

Videogameget,

It's true that I often go for months at a time without updating the blog.  It's also true that far larger surveys of the fandom (for example the 2012 State of the Herd Report) have already been undertaken.  However, much of the reason that I've undertaken this project to learn more about the difficulties of research design (for example, many of my survey questions were obviously poorly worded, vague, or too open to interpretation, but that's a tale for another day), so simply reading other people's data or even attempting a meta-analysis of it wouldn't be helping me much.  If you feel that I'm otherwise doing something methodologically untenable, interpreting responses in an unsound manner, or otherwise simply getting it wrong, please shoot me a PM.  We can talk about things or even set up an interview so your voice can be heard in the finished product.  

 

In any event, thanks again to everyone who's responded!

 

Regards,

-Skippy