The Mare/Stallion Gender Ratio

[Flailing Dinosaurs 238]

Okay, a little while ago, I was reading through comments on a fanfiction, and an interesting topic came up: the skewed ratio of mares and stallions in comparison to that of humans. It's obvious that there are many many more mares than stallions. But, why? Seeing as how ponies are mammals, it would give a fifty-fifty gender chance. I offered my own two bits (no pun intended lol) suggesting that perhaps magic, as Equestria certainly seems to be saturated with it, has a way of swaying the sex of a foal?

 

An example would be in say, non-mammals, though, not an ideal comparison, it still has something to go off of. Crocodile eggs, if I remember correctly, are affected by temperature changes, warming producing more males, and colder giving way to more females.

 

I may just be looking too deep into what this really is though: a childrens' cartoon, made specifically for little girls, which may have created a great gender bias... but, then again, I'm thinking more in the fanon aspect here.

 

 

(also, there seem to be a lot more males in Canterlot than in Ponyville in comparison to the number of mares. For some reason, that always struck me as weird)

 

I'd like to hear more opinions.

 

(also, forgive me if this is in the wrong spot XD I skimmed around in the section and decided that it seemed like the right place to post)

 

 

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

Well, being that the Equestria is ruled by two mares, it's safe to assume the society in general is, to some extent anyway, matriarchal, with females having more power and influence than males. In which case it may be that we simply don't see the males as much because they are simply not as important.

 

At any rate, your theory is perfectly sound.

[Zygen 6,066]

I guess its possible that your theory is corrected, I honestly don't have much of a better explanation.

 

I mean I guess it could be that maybe the Mare's in pony society are just more important and thus show up more, but still idk.

 

Maybe Ponyville is just largely Mare's and other places have more Stallions, who knows.

 

It does seem weird to have hardly any males in ponyville though, I mean all the Mares and Stallions had to come from a pair aswell, so what happened to those pairs? And why are there not many of those pairs in ponyville or most of Equestria?

 

It is a bit odd though I definitely agree.

 

Maybe the Stallions just aren't involved in any of the stuff happening during the episodes generally, idk.

 

Maybe a Large part of the stallion population is a part of the armies of Equestria? That would explain why they're not present often.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Zygen

[Doctor XFizzle 8,670]

I like to think that a vast majority of Equestria's stallions died in battle during a great species war coupled with an abundance of female births during wartime that both depleted the male population and boomed the female population. Males born in wartime are the ones we see milling about Ponyville and other cities and are enrolled in the royal guard now.

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

There are just as many stallions as there are mares, they're just off in the Zebra lands fighting to defend the Equestrian way of life from the tyranny of the striped menace.

 

Also, this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNuto85rL4E

[Shanks 10,816]

I think Equestria would be in a lot of trouble if the show is any indication on the gender ratio, I think there are probably just as many stallions as there are mares but that well mares are just viewed as more marketable which is probably why we don't see as many stallions.

[Fhaolan 4,484]

According to a study of feral horses done in 1991, in the wild equine births are usually 50/50 for gender, but males were less likely to survive to adulthood, the ratio dropping to 25/75 male/female by the 4-5 year old range.

 

Of course, these are 'wild' animal statistics, and not indicative of a civilization like the ponies.

 

If you want to go dark, there's always the possibility of deliberate selection of fillies over colts for survival, much like some cultures today do with deliberately exposing certain babies if they aren't the 'right' gender.

[Thrashy 2,800]

As much as I like the idea that this show is written for everyone and not just little girls, one has to remember that the latter is still technically the chief demographic (at least as far as Hasbro is concerned), so accordingly, the majority of characters need to be female in order to push the highest possible number of toys, because...well, I guess the general assumption is that girls don't want to play with male dolls. Which is kind of BS when you think about the popularity of the Ken doll.

 

Whatever the case, it'd be nice to see a few more stallions in-show. If the writers can do such a great job of making a mostly female cast so relatable to male viewers, then it'd surely be a piece of cake to write some more developed male characters who are relatable to both genders.

 

And as for the war theories...they make sense, I guess, but that's kinda grim for my tastes. Oddly enough, I'm just fine with including warfare and death in my own headcanonical nations, but as far as the Equestrians are concerned, I just cringe at the thought of them being anything other than peaceful folk. That's just me, though.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Lowline

[Motion Spark 7,807]

now that you mentioned it, yes there is a huge difference...I would say that since MLP is a show targeted for little girls it would be obvious that there would be more mares than stallions.

However if I try to mess with the world of Equestria, I'd say that the majority of stallions are part of the princesses royal guards, for example in "A Canterlot Wedding" when the mane6 arrived to Canterlot, the castle was plagued with royal guards. So I assume that most stallions try to get into the royal guards while the pussy less lucky ones stay in Ponyville and find something else to do.

 

 

makes sense to me XD

[Freewave 1,145]

They are in an amazonian society so if the males get too uppity **WACK** they go.  That or there are stallions drafted or killed off in fighting some off-screen war. The good thing is that since there are enough females that there isn't a risk of their society drying up (unlike some countries on earth where there IS a large balance of males).

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

This post has been redacted by the author.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Blue

[Cwanky 17,643]

Digibrony pretty much sums up what I would say and is a pretty accurate explanation for the lack of stallions. Think about it in real life for a moment. Just because you don't see a lot of Asians or Africans where you live, doesn't mean that there are very few of them. You may just be looking in the wrong places or even the wrong times. Likewise a lack of male stallions doesn't means they don't exist or are few in numbers. In fact the video shows several instances where stallions clearly outnumber mares. 

 

At the end of the day, MLP: FIM is still a show targeted primarily towards a younger adolescent female audience, like it or not. So naturally the characters the show shows, often intentionally will be predominantly female or at least geared towards a "female mindset," which also unfortunately translates into a lack of male leads and role models.

[Forlong 1,726]

 

The gender ratio favors the females, but is rather close to even.  Blue's graphs are quite close to the calculations I made myself a while ago.

[Scootalove 10,689]

The graphs pretty much summed up the ratio between the Mares and the Stallions. Judging from that, we see less stallions around than we see mares around. They are ruled by two powerful god-like alicorns which we all know are Celestia and Luna, I'm pretty sure that there are stallions around but we don't see much of them around Ponyville.

[that one pony 0]

to be honest, i just don't think we see all the stallions throughout the show, the mares obviously are more important to the show, first of all 2 are the rulers, the mane 6 are all mares, and it just seems that they are more important throughout the show, while most stallions just kind of slide on back n out of the show, sure there are some bg stallions, but there is probably more not in the show, staying away from the camera, right?

[Batbrony 16,056]

While at first glance it may seem that there are far more mares than stallions throughout most of Equestria, especially Ponyville, I think the reality is that it simply appears that way because the focus of the show is placed on a group of six mares.  As no true romantic subplots have ever developed, these mares are naturally more likely/inclined to interact with other mares more so than with stallions, unless they be family such as Big Macintosh, Shining Armor, and Spike, or friends/associates such as Mr. Cake, Doughnut Joe, etc.  In reality, I really do think the ratio is more like 50/50, it's just that most of the show's focus is placed on the Mane 6 and their more often than not fellow mare associates.

[SoarinBlue 202]

Obviously there must be some societal advantage to being female (maybe parents are hoping they'll become princesses some day), and they're selectively aborting male babies like in china, but reversed. Or maybe Equestria has a lot of trans people

[RrVPfX9cPtw59FpC 1,304]

Anywhere you go, there will be slight sexism. All Twilight friends (or at least most of them) are female, so it makes sense that she would hang out with females more often than males.

[Thrashy 2,800]

I actually saw a video by an YouTube MLP analyzer, Digibrony, giving some (pretty damn logical IMO) reasons as to why exactly we don't see many stallions:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNuto85rL4E

[~Sole~ 852]

Alright, i think everyones overthinking this here. I'm pretty sure the skewed ratio is due to its targeted audiance being little girls, so naturally most main characters would relate to the little girls cuz theyre girls too. That'd be a good reason to make most of them girls for a girl audiance. And pluse, most males are either brothers or different species/ages of the main characters.

[Thrashy 2,800]

Alright, i think everyones overthinking this here.

 

That's part of the fun of watching a show. After all, a sizeable chunk of this fandom is composed of college-age bronies who thrive on analyzing things, and cartoons are no exception. Just about any discrepancy in a kid's show can be written off as a product of the show's demographic or, more commonly, as "just cartoon logic", but finding realistic explanations for these discrepancies is a major part of the experience for many of us, myself included.

 

Now, when discrepancies are so glaring that they can neither be ignored nor explained, they become plotholes, and those definitely have the potential to ruin a show. Luckily, the mare/stallion ratio issue doesn't really present itself as a plothole, given the incredible amount of explanations bronies have come up with to explain it.

[Nature's Spell 526]

One issue, non fanon related, is that the artists may find it easier to draw mares for background ponies. Also remember the artists don't care about background ponies and don't put much thought into them. Think about it this way. If you had to determine the sex ratio for any TV drama from extras what would it be? It might not match the real world either.

Edited August 1, 2013 by Nature Spell

['NamBrony 22]

I think it's because most Stallions are in the Royal Guard. 

[AlbaTross 1,586]

There are just as many stallions as there are mares, they're just off in the Zebra lands fighting to defend the Equestrian way of life from the tyranny of the striped menace.

 

Also, this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNuto85rL4E

That vid(also posted by Applethrash) makes good points. Blue makes a good point as well. In all due honesty, I never really thought of the gender ratio, because I figured, since it's a little girl's show, it would favor mares. But, as Applethrash mentioned, I guess it is kind of fun to think about. I think that vid has the most solid evidence though. As for Blue's graph, it's understandable that male unicorns would be the least represented, since unicorns are the least likely to engage in physical labour, and also the least likely to engage in sporting events, which are things that are generally more associated with masculinity. Of course, ponies have no control over their genetics, but the show does appear to be more likely to represent males in more "masculine" settings.

[RainbowDangerDashie 195]

I bet there are more stallions, just that since the show is targeted towards young females, we tend to see mares more often.