Chapter one – What is a Brony?
When most people not yet affiliated with a certain show on the Hub think of a Brony, they will invariably conjure up an image of a slightly obese man in his late 40s, glasses wearing, going to conventions dressed as a pony, definitely gay, and with a sexual attraction to horses. However, most people also think that all Muslims are Taliban suicide bombers out to kill everyone in the western world.
In both groups of people, you are bound to have your extremists. To take the terrorist analogy forward, most holy books, from the Bible and the Torah to the Koran and the Vedas, have some variation on the “Thou shalt not kill” theme. Most Muslims agree that this should be taken generally, but there are the small minority that believe that this does not apply to non believers (i.e. the western world). Going back to Bronies, yes there are the extremists who are sexually attracted to Technicolour horses, but this is a subgroup called the Cloppers, and they are not going to be discussed here.
The point is most Bronies do not fall under this stereotype. The average Brony is in his (or her) mid to late teens or early twenties, , will understand the importance of fitness (Rainbow Dash does give a slight motivation to keep fit) and whatever his sexual orientation, he is unlikely to have any odd sexual fantasies including the ponies he likes. Non Bronies (haters in particular) seem to take issue with this and lump us all in together, believing that being a Brony is an all or nothing gig. This again is not the case. Not everybrony goes to Trotcon dressed up in all their cosplay or furry glory – lots of Bronies are not open about their youtube interests. I suppose the similarity to being gay comes here – most have not “come out” yet and confine their enjoyment of the series to the internet, such as writing stories or help guides for new Bronies on sites such as Fimfiction.
So, what separates a brony from all the myriad other fandoms on the internet? Bronies are special because the show they enjoy is for little girls – in other words, they are the complete opposite of the target audience. This brings the conclusion that all bronies have the brains of girls and must therefore be sexually attracted to guys and are therefore gay. Again, this is just not true. Anyone of any sexual orientation may be a brony. Another comparison that is sometimes drawn is with tomboys – girls who don’t enjoy girly things such as ballet and pink and instead want to play football and do other boy stuff must be lesbians. This again is a very unfair assumption and insulting to both straight and lesbian tomboys. Just as girls enjoying manly pursuits does not make them lesbians, men enjoying tv shows for girls does not make them gay.
Let’s take a quick look at the show that Bronies enjoy then. My Little Pony is a Hasbro toy line spin off show that began in the 1980s. The original animated series started with a fantasy world, and over the years, successive reboots focused the show purely for little girls, aiming it younger and younger. This continued until it came to the attention of Lauren Faust, creator of the Powerpuff Girls, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Pets and several other such shows. Lauren’s reboot in 2010 on Hasbro’s channel the Hub was called “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” and aimed the show back to its original audience of girls of every age. However, Lauren’s signature directing style meant that the show would be a show that kids could watch with their parents/older siblings, so it had to be one that could be watched by all without repulsing anyone (although undoubtedly men wouldn’t find it that attractive).
It was this that brought the show to the attention of the first bronies. On the anime appreciation website 4chan (which, if you haven’t heard of it before, is where all the dark and twisted ideas present on the internet come from), several members (probably with little sisters) saw the first pilot episodes of the show, enjoyed it, and spread the word. From this humble beginning, the brony phenomenon grew, eventually gaining enough popularity that it saw action on the /b/ boards, where all the nastier elements of 4chan reside. The flame wars quickly grew out of hand until the moderators of the site placed a ban on all My Little Pony discussions on 4chan. The bronies then set up their own websites, namely Equestria Daily, ponychan, and several others. Here was a place they could chat without worrying too much about the haters.
To finish this section, I’d like to take a look at how a brony is formed. Those of us who don’t visit 4chan, how did we get hooked on My Little Pony? The most common route is probably through Youtube. There are several ways to find out about My Little Pony here – either through a brony friend suggesting a video you might like, or the genesis can happen all on its own. Quite a few videos on various subjects (music, gaming, sports etc) will likely have in their related videos section a link to a My Little Pony video. Writing from experience, my own first ever pony video was “Two Best Sisters Play Portal 2” by 2snacks, linked from the at that time new Portal 2 DLC – perpetual testing initiative trailer. Confused by what I just watched, a period of research followed, after which I took the view that bronies are an odd bunch. Most would at this point become haters, starting flame wars, calling bronies gay and wanting to stir up trouble. But the ponies never go away. They are always there in the back of your mind, just whispering of great things to come.
It is with amused detachment that a view can be made about the nature of some haters. These people profess to hate ponies with a passion, yet here they are actively searching out pony videos on the internet to see just how depraved brony culture is. What they find is disturbing – people being nice to others on the internet! What fresh hell is this? This foreign concept takes a long time to get their head around, and haters try to kick up flame wars wherever they go. The one point I would say about the bronies that take the haters up on their flame wars, stop calling these people names and being horrible back to them. We are about love and tolerance. Some will say that if there’s one group of people they won’t tolerate, it’s the intolerant, but if we can show these haters that there’s another way that is not all about being horrible to others, then maybe the haters phase will pass.
Moving on, proto bronies will always have, at the back of their minds, the naggling doubt that they really hate this show. Ok, I’ll give them that, that joke was pretty good. Wow really, a Dude Lebowski reference? Woah, that sonic rainboom is awesome! These thoughts grow and grow, until at last the proto brony stops lying to themselves and comes to terms with the fact that these ponies are awesome. At this point, personally I am happy to call these people bronies. Those that don’t want to come out to the general public (just like me), that’s fine. The crowd around you may not be as tolerant as you might like, or your society shuns social outliers. That’s fine, you have your ponies and they are yours and no one else’s. If others don’t like ponies, well then it sucks to be them. Being a brony is such fun – A brony will be a lot happier than someone who dismisses and hates them all the time.
So welcome to the herd. Be nice to people, they will like you. When trying to convert others to bronykind, don’t force ponies down their throats, just give them gentle nudges towards parts of brony culture they might like and let them take the road themselves. Be happy in who you are, not who others tell you you should be. We in the brony community will support you whatever you choose to do.
