None intended, if you mean, like, government-kinda political commentary. Unless what you think you’re seeing is brilliant, in which case, yeah, totally intended!
I need to say that I OWN AT LEAST 5 Princess Celestias. and I’m a guy. Is that sad? No, not really. I’m helping a friend create a darker story for our ponies to be in. Mwahahahahaha…. Also: Fallout: Equestria is a grrrrreat story if you like long ass chapters like me. I think it’s college level, so you could probably use it for your senior year english class… But! I digress, I am a man who loves colorful ponies with tatooes. So what? Girls like Dr. Who, Football, and Wrestling. I like butterflies, Rainbows, and cried when my cat died. Guys can love cute things too without being creepy. Deal with it.
Since when is Doctor Who a gender-stereotype-associated show? Hell, especially nowadays?
I suppose Fifth Doctor era was a bit a”Boy’s Own Adventure” as they call it (allegedly; haven’t seen it nor the genre it allegedly was meant to mimic, so I wouldn’t know), but for the better part of its history, it’s been approached as a “family show”, meaning, mostly aimed at kids and at the adults who watch with the kids. If anything, that should be “adults also watch Doctor Who”!
All the more so after the… resequel? It don’t wanna call it a reboot exactly, because it was technically a direct “whole buncha years later” sequel, but the series that they started up 2005, you know. That one. That one has ALWAYS been, and still is, going into its seventh (or considering the 2009 Specials, is that 7.5th?) season… very character-driven. Which is, if we’re going by stereotypes, a “girl show” thing – all that “relationshippy” stuff you know, surely guys aren’t into that! Yet of course, it’s still popular with guys… and kids. And families.
Thing is, they deliberately MAKE Doctor Who to appeal to a wide demographic (especially nowadays), so saying “girls watch it too!” isn’t terribly impressive. Who the hell do you think all these handsome young men (Rory Williams, Jack Harkness, all three of the most recent Doctors, etc.) are introduced to ATTRACT?
Wrestling though… YES.
I don’t watch it, but having talked to guys that do, I am well aware that it is little more than, as my BF put it, “soap opera for guys”. Violent, sex-riddled, aggression-riddled… soap operas.
Of course, they’re violent, aggression-riddled soap operas with buff men in small pants and often no shirts. Plus lots of oddly homoerotic subtext. So in hindsight, having attracted a female fandom as well is not as surprising…
I like how the start of this reply just seems to be “yeah im a brony whooooo!”, has nothing to do with the thing it’s responding to, and adds absolutely nothing to the final product.
I was mourning the irony with sarcasm. Or irony. Or snark. Or hipness. I lost track.
I wish all girls’ television was good enough to make me overcome my lifelong behavioral conditioning against the pink aisle and buy brightly-colored plastic unironically.
I wish I could stand the animation on Strawberry Shortcake’s Berry Bitty Adventures long enough to develop deep empathic (one-way) relationships with the characters, two of whom (Lemon and Plum) are voiced by Pony VAs according to Wikipedia. But my eyes bleed when they move.
Remember Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer? That was the first unabashedly awesome cartoon I ever saw. Darkly themed SF/fantasy; her horse was a jerk, and his horse was a flying robot.
Of course nobody cares about the rooted hair, all anyone cares about is show accuracy. How do you make a show accurate Rainbow Dash with rooted hair?!?! You don’t that’s how.
Also, I no longer like Amber. She is wrong and must be eliminated…
Don’t listen to Brody, though. Like any toy collecting fandom, some are obsessed with show accuracy, while others acknowledge the importance of playability. Rooted hair comes with its challenges, but it’s also fun to brush and style!
Oh, you must mean Crispy Slash, the burn victim serial killer pony. He’s got a fedora with ear holes, a red and green striped mane and tail, and is a unicorn with a serated metal horn. I hear he’s dating Nightmare Moon.
Nightmare Moon is dating Crispy Slash? What happened to Slasher Camp? You know, the unicorn pony that everyone thought drowned at Crystal Lake Corral? He wears a hockey mask and a trenchcoat, and his horn has been filed really sharp. He uses it to stab ponies, and he uses all of his magic keeps him ever dying!
He dumped her after one of his visits to the campsite led him to meet Sleepaway Twist, a very happy camper pegasus. But she has a secret she hasn’t told him about yet… he wings are fake and she was actually born a unicorn!
Well, if there’s one thing I love more than My Little Pony, it’s … well, it’s anime. But if there’s TWO things I love more than My Little Pony, it’s anime and slasher movies.
Can you say ‘Pink Getho’ and ‘stuck in the 80s’? My god those toys are so pathetic with their ONE point of articulation. Would it kill Hasbro to put some balljoints on their legs?! Heck the ponies can’t even look up or down. The human alliance human dudes use more advanced toy technology than the main character from the show’s toys.
Though, to be fair, Ethan at least has a comeback to unfair gender politics in comics; unfair sexual orientation politics in comics. You think girls have it bad? Try being a gay comic book character. Chances are you’ll be the only one around and will suffer horrible torture and death within a few issues.
Its why you go to Bronibooru instead. Folks there are hard core about keeping out the creepy, the memey, and the shippy.
Very little bad escapes into the wilds, and its usually instantly downvoted and tagged for elimination.
Course from what I understand the larger Brony community is mad that circle is even trying to keep out shipping and creepy but their effort is the only reason I even bother.
I sure as hell stay away from every other online fandom. All they do is ruin everything. Nutters even ship movieverse Bumblebee and the Boof.
Characters are arch enemies? SHIP EM.
Characters are friends? SHIP EM.
Characters are related? SHIPPED EVEN HARDER.
Internet fandom of anything seems hellbent on shitting on what they claim to love, making folks embarrassed to even claim to like it.
Go far enough you have what happened to anime and anthromorphics. *barf*
And then there’s Rizolli and Iles, which is a great cop show where the creators apparently decided to toss in great gobs of lesbian subtext.
Or maybe they had the lesbian subtext and they decided to make a great cop show. Either way, lesbian subtext.
I have seen one artist who said that there needed to be more fanart and fanfic of a pairing of two female characters. Relatively normal, as fandom goes. Except the characters weren’t even in the same movie. The movies weren’t even released in the same decade. And now, even when I see their clean art, I keep thinking of their really, really creepy femslash art, such as Violet and Mirage from the Incredibles. In other words, a 14-year old girl hooking up with a morally-dubious accomplice to multiple [SPOILERS], and that’s just for starters.
So, yeah, fandom promotes tunnel vision, and sometimes people need to turn off the computer and go outside.
On the other hand, y’all are getting WAY too torqued out of shape about fandom. For one thing, if you learn to relax you’ll find that all that creepy fic/art is actually hilarious. I have a huge folder of goofy pairings and terrible porn on my hard drive that I open whenever I need a good chuckle. I suppose the people who made it wouldn’t appreciate that I was laughing at their efforts, but I never abuse or insult them. I figure I’m doing with their fan creations what they’re doing with the original work: enjoying it in an unintended way.
And you know what else? Crazy people make life interesting. As far as we know we’re the only species that uses creativity for sexual gratification – isn’t that awesome?
Rooted hair – the kind of hair you’ll find in many dolls (especially fashion dolls) and most MLP toys – strands of a hair-like material bundled into small bunches, and then inserted (rooted) into the doll/pony’s head. It can be brushed and styled. It can also be butchered by kids with scissors. (Or adults with scissors who want their ponies to be more show accurate.)
The alternative is sculpted hair, which is part of the doll/figure/pony’s head, and sculpted into a permanent hairstyle. Common on baby dolls, action figures, and the McDonald’s Happy Meal ponies (don’t know if there are other pony figs that use it). It makes it easier to make the fig match the media, but it is, obviously, unstylable, and ‘brushing’ it would just make you look silly.
Three’s also the possibility of a sheet of ‘fun fur’ like material glued onto the doll/fig, but I’ve only seen that for intensely short hair and actual fur on action figures. For anything longer than ‘fuzz’ that’s not meant to be shaggy and unkempt, it’s the worst of both worlds – its nature means it can’t be adequately styled, and it gets wild really fast if you handle the fig at all. (Which, of course, is why it’s never used for actual longer-than-a-buzz-cut hair.)
Rooted hair also has the bonus of being rerootable if you want to make custom ponies (or just fix Rainbow Dash’s colors) while with plastic hair all you can do is go at it with an x-acto knife and sugru or modeling clay then hope the new hair never snaps off.
Think of the customizers. They think of you, in the form of an awesome pony.
This comic really speaks to me and I just have to let you know how happy it made me. As a collector of My Little Pony, I try to embrace all new fans, but guys like the one in this comic can really get the blood boiling, lol.
They should at least make Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity in the style of the 5-pack that had Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Princess Celestia and Spike. normal-sized ponies with show-accurate sculpted plastic hair. I don’t mind rooted hair on the non-show characters, but the mane six NEED plastic hair to look their best!
And here I was hoping Luna would make another apperance.
But you can sit and brush rooted hair! It’s fun! (and re: you can’t make rooted hair for the characters, then how do people make the wigs for MLP gijinkas?)
Yeah! If they have rooted hair, that just means that you can customize them! I’ve seen some beautiful customizations of G4s to give them show-accurate hair. Anyone who wants it can make it happen. =D
I don’t really care EITHERWAY for rooted hair, the problem is that it’s the ONLY selling point of the figure. I mean don’t little girls want to do MORE than just brush pink hair?!
You need the actual figure to do stuff to play with it? Apparently I was doing it wrong all those years. And so for that matter have Kestrel, Davan, and PeeJee.
…Okay, Kestrel, Davan, and PeeJee may just plain be doing it wrong. But the point stands.
Mmph, as a gal myself, I would rather have the molded hair that make my ponies look like the characters that I like, in the same way I hope my comic action figures are accurate.
But then, I also don’t have time to sit around and hold war councils with my ponies anymore, being an adult. But when I was a kid…yeah, hours were spent braiding tails and plotting coupes.
The middle ground, of course, is to mold the mane and leave the tail as rooted hair, because darn it, you just can’t DO anything with the mane but brush it anyway!
Oh, I’m going to disagree with you here! My friends and I did all kinds of intricate hairstyles with the manes of our first generation ponies; dyeing it with water colours and braiding in flowers and pearls and ribbons and such and doing various up-dos. I could possibly agree on the part of the male ponies, they could just as well have done with molded hair, I guess…
We didn’t watch any cartoon that we might’ve wanted to emulate though, so show accuracy wasn’t a problem back then.
“hours were spent braiding tails and plotting coupes.”
I’m sorry, I couldn’t let that comment go by without calling out how adorable it was. D’awww!
Being a boy, I never had ponies (not complaining, mind, I know I got a bigger variety of toys with better articulation and such, and anyway I have ponies now), but I too can remember days spent amid a dizzying variety of figures, managing the logistics of large scale battles while behind the scenes assassinations and political marriages swayed the fate of plastic nations.
I did that as a kid. Only, I never had villain toys, because most of my toys were Power Ranger toys. So inevitably, the “battle” always took place in the far future in some kind of Power Ranger museum, and villains broke in and stole stuff. The villains were usually represented by this tiny bear-shaped crystal(about the size of a dime). And then there were the storyless battles, were I just kind of threw toys at each other in a no holds barred, knock-down drag out fight.
I seem to recall every one of my toys wound up in a makeshift”toy hospital” at one point or another when pieces popped out and I couldn’t be bothered to put them back in/on at the time.
I seem to have gotten lost in my nostalgia, so I’m not even sure what I am responding to anymore, and I’m not going to scroll up to look.
You know–as much as this isn’t a political commentary? I follow a lot of MLP:FIM tumblr blogs and I feel like the brony dudes do go out of their way to make it seem like adult women would totally never enjoy this, and if they do, are definitley completely excluded from their fandom. This is pretty irritating with like, 90% of things in the whole world–but it REALLY burns my cookies with My Little Pony. All the “lol this is totally not a girl’s show, amirite?!” Yes, yes it is. Girls can have nice things too. This is a girl thing. Ugh.
I was pretty sure Brony was exclusively male. Not that I am opposed to it being a gender-neutral term, of course. That was just the definition I originally received.
I’ve seen some people claim that “filly” is the proper term for a female fan, but for the most part “brony” seems to be used for anyone participating in the adult fandom regardless of gender.
Yeah! If you don’t support partitioning of what media people are allowed to enjoy by some sort of biological, caste-based division, you’re as good as Hitler!
The systematic decimation of multiple culture and peoples is a night impossible thing to translate into something palatable to a child, said child’s parents, and children’s television standards.
I recently found out that my two least favorite episodes of MLP:FiM (that one and “Feeling Pinkie Keen”) were written by the same guy. Which, since my main problem with both has to do with the worldview they espouse, makes a certain amount of sense.
I also found out that he was one of the writers on Scary Movie 2, so now in a weird way I’m kinda glad I dislike those eps…
Because the moral boils down to an endorsement of blind faith. And also because the climax only works because Twilight seems to have forgotten that she can teleport (something she does fairly often).
I’m a bit conflicted about them, though, because both eps have some really great cartoon gags.
I thought at that point she hadn’t figured out how to teleport purposely, yet, but I could be remembering it wrong. It was still uncontrollable, like Fluttershy’s use of The Stare.
This reminds me of how they never made a toy for Jennie, the one female character from Bucky O’Haire and the Toad Wars. At least, that’s how I remember it.
Or any of the girls from Avatar: The Last Airbender. But none of them were important characters, right? We need to save that roster slot for a fourteenth version of Aang!
That reminds me of this freaking sweet action-scene set they had for Avatar–you’d buy the four pieces and fit them together to make one scene: Aang doing an airblast, Sokka in full wolf make-up with his club in a fighting stance fighting a flamethrowing Zuko and…hm…we need a fourth to make a square…RANDOM FIRENATION SOLDIER!
Not Katara or Toph doing a different kind of bending. Not Azula with lightening. Not even one of the–surprisingly prolific–women in the Fire Nation army. Nope. Just…some dude. In a Fire Nation uniform.
What makes it even more of a crime is just how good the character design on everyone was and HOW MANY TOPH ACTION FIGURES WOULD HAVE SOLD! I mean, think about it–I’ll bet she’d sell as many as Aang, if not more.
Jenny was supposed to get a toy. You can find a review of it on youtube. Jenny’s toy falls in the category of “toys of female characters that aren’t produced until the entire “more interesting” male roster had been toy-ized and therefore has a good chance of ending up cancelled because the toyline is”, so it is marginally better than some other female character-toyline relations.
Though on a sidenote, as a girl toyline MLP has always had a similar bias towards male characters. In G1, Danny was the only human not to get a toy (and far as my knowledge goes, wasn’t ever even considered for one) and I still love how the UK comics back in the day played up Baby Lucky’s “Ooh, a boy pony”-ness. Skip forward to G4 and little has changed actually. There’s no male ponies in the line, despite some good material in the show (Hoity Toity!).
Among the subset of the fandom who is into the toys, you have the usual mix of those who want show accuracy and those who appreciate playability.
Not that there aren’t dudely bronies out there who pretend the show is targeted at them so they can hold on to anti-girly stigmas, or simply out of a habit of male privilege.
Surprised to learn you didn’t plan on bringing this guy back. When I saw Monday’s I figured it was written AFTER the MLP thing you would do Wednesday, when you decided you were too tired from the move to draw it.
On another note, bronies who don’t dig the rooted hair haven’t tried brushing it. That stuff is downright hypnotic.
I could go on to complain that this comic kinda misrepresents the complaints most bronies have with the toys, but I guess there would be less of a joke if the guy in the comic were being reasonable.
This guy ALmost represents the majority of the Brony population. Except for the percent that I’m in, that watches everything he can on the internet, doesn’t get the toys, and DOESn’t troll and 4chan.
As for Amber…it’s what we do. Before you know it, guys’ll start liking Twilight and–
Am I reading this wrong? The joke seems to be saying that women do care about the rooted hair, and that this guy is being a jerk for saying “nobody important”. Which turns into the punchline of women loosing another franchise to men. Is that what’s supposed to be getting across?
But the actual dialogue has it seem like Amber is AGREEING with the guy. All her sentences are statements. Shouldn’t her text in the middle two panels end with question marks? Or am I completely reading this wrong?
I think you’re reading this without the sarcasm that Amber or most girls in this situation would have. She’s not asking him a question. She’s just going flat with it. “Uh-huh. Nobody.” Verbal irony–words meant to imply the opposite of their apparent meaning.
Yeah… I honestly feel bad that every time I see something based a great deal on the women, it becomes sexual, anime, or it crashes… It’s not their fault or anything, either.
I personally blame lazy writers who see good guys as muscle headed ‘I can do it if I try a little harder’ types. DBZ, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Bleach, and just about EVERY failure that Gundam made.
[Sorry for double post] On a side note, I named anime because they’re popular and a very good example. Other examples include most of the shows on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and some Disney (though Disney isn’t as bad about it as the others.)
And if you don’t know if something fits, think about a situation where a person wasn’t able to do something then with little to no explanation or REAL reason that wouldn’t have already been present is suddenly stronger.
I’m incredibly amused by the presence of “anime” in that list. It gives me a mental image of mistreated shows running away to Japan in hopes of finding a better life.
Made even more egregious by the women in Bleach and Naruto often being the most interesting characters in the show –and then effectively getting written out/benched in favour of 12-episode guys-only tournament arcs.
And to add insult to this injury, even the male characters who aren’t muscle headed idiots either get written out or are made side characters with no real added aid at all.
Examples of this are Uryu and Kira from Bleach, Piccolo and Krillin from DBZ (then again everybody but Goku and Gohan period), Neji and Shikamaru from Naruto, Sokka from Avatar, etc… They’re basically used for quick explanations of what’s going on before everybody turns back to vein pulsing muscle bound meat sack with a sword/energy/ability that thinks they can do anything if they just try a little harder.
I’m a bit of an animation enthusiast, and I have to say that I greatly enjoyed the new My Little Pony show. I wouldn’t ever have any interest to pick up any My Little Pony toys, but if Hasbro did just so happen to create some spiffy looking toys which reminded me strongly of the show characters, I might be willing to throw down some money. Then the figures would sit untouched on my desk for all of eternity save for cleaning. I think it’s silly to turn the argument into a guys vs girls thing. The only differences between me and an actual MLP collector are the initial motivation for purchase and the intended usage of the toys.
I think the real problem being portrayed in the comic is of a guy being a hard-headed jerk who doesn’t understand that MLP is a long-running franchise which has many fans from earlier generations as well as more recent fans of the newest TV show.
It’s a bit heavy-handed to generalize everyone who cares about rooted hair to be a girl, and everyone who doesn’t to be guy, isn’t it? I’m sure there’s dudes who’d love to brush and chicks who’d rather have show accuracy.
I would just like options. Rooted hair for people who may want to style it (In the tradition of MLP toys) and show-accurate plastic hair for people who want show accuracy (And maybe a third option with decent articulation, for people who want to play with them as magical girls).
And this guy obviously isn’t a real brony. He would have said “nopony” if he was.
So true, so true. And yes, articulated ponies would be FULL of win. Though the photo-porn possibilities that Ponibooru would inflict on the world with them… *shudders*
Yep. I’d like the rest of the characters from the show in a style that matches the five-pack that was already released, but I’m not looking for a total reinvention of the brand.
‘S funny…when I was a kid, I was kind of frustrated by the non-articulation of the MLP toys…looked pretty, but not being able to change their pose was a bit annoying especially when playing with them in ways other than simply brushing and styling their manes and tails…but when I saw some actual articulated Ponies the G2 Magic Motion Friends, it struck me as heretical. (Then again, that may be because of the overall ‘blah’ design aesthetic of G2 and the half-assed articulation of the toys.)
IIRC G1 had one line of articulated ponies. Like, I think they were ballerinas? Mine was easily my fav pony ever, depite the dumb molded leotard it was wearing.
Sooo, girls care about playing with hair and boys don’t? Isn’t the whole point of making firl shows actually be awesome and not just make up and hair glitter to move beyond that thinking?
Not JUST make-up and glitter, no. But you’re implying that by getting story and quality, girls have to for-go all the ‘girly’ stuff they already enjoyed? Sorry kid, your choices are stay shallow, or be JUST LIKE A BOY. I was about the most tomboy girl ever, but this still irks me.
No, that wasn’t my point at all. The point was that we move beyond the gender stereotypes where girls are supposed to like hair and glitter and boys like action and explosions. Kids should play how they want to play. You want to play with hair? Play wth hair. You want to stage mock battles? Stage mock battles. Leave genders out of it.
Oooooooooookay, I think I’m not coming across as clear with my point which is it shouldn’t be assumed that the girls will want the hair and glitter. Maybe they do, mayb the guys do, it just shouldn’t be automatically assumed it’s the girls that want to do that stuff.
For example, Amber is acting like people wanting non-rooted hair and not have the toys focused on brushn to be a men taking away domething from women thing when it’s really just a difference of opinion. It’s not inherinently male to want accurate figures nor is it inherently female to want to brush the pretty hair. Personally, I’ve enjoyed both with different toys over the years. To me AMBER is the one coming across kinda sexist.
Wait – they make two varieties of those toys; those who like the combing hair and stylizing have the rooted hair and those who like them looking more in show have the more accurate to show version.
As a broney I must say nopony should be this shortsighted! There is room enough for everypony in this fandom!
On the other hand; Amber I’m sorry we’re stealing this fandom – I promise we’ll try to only take only a little bit – don’t be upset! It’s very difficult to get a 50/50 gender equality in fandoms!
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was a reboot of the My Little Pony franchise, headed by female animation goddess Lauren Faust. Her goal was to make a show, whose primary demographic was young girls, that wouldn’t talk down to girls, have actual character’s to hold on to, and actual conflict to resolve.
The mane, er, main cast is made up of six girl ponies, each with a completely different personality, attitude, outlook, and goals for their life. The most primary male character is a baby dragon who assists the closest thing to a main character in the show.
The show, while being enjoyed by a wide variety of people, has hardly been “stolen” or changed because some guys hopped on board. Are there some strangley entitled jerks who want the show to “change,” or “grow up,” or have the toys conform to a standard that would ruin them for the modders who have been single handedly holding up the franchise, and its measly show pickings, since G1? Yes. But I don’t think complaining about a somewhat maligned franchise rising to Transformers status is anything to consider “bad.” I would have thought a “girl” franchise, escaping the pink ghetto a good thing.
I do formally apologize for anyone who complains about established facets about the franchise (deal with the rooted hair. I did. Rarity looks semi-fabulous). However, as someone who has witnessed popular culture mainstream as many of my favorite franchises, open them to a slew of new fans, and seen the early chaos, just be patient. The first blowout will be messy, but after that, you’ve gained more fans and a more stable franchise for the longer term. Hopefully one that doesn’t rely only on toys to survive, with cartoons as a poorly done after thought.
The show itself is going to stay fantastic as long as the crew responsible for it keeps up this level of quality and stick to their goal of “a well-rounded show in which girly stuff is treated as positive and desirable, but not all that girls are” – this is true.
But I think it’s a little naive to say there isn’t a risk of the fandom changing it. While there are amazing people involved in the franchise who are determined to tell great stories, Hasbro is, at the end of the day, a company motivated by profit first and last. It’s also a company that exists in a society that holds money spent by dudes as more important than money spent by ladies. If enough guys get loud enough about what they feel they deserve and Hasbro decides they can make more money by catering to that crowd than continuing to do a god show aimed at girls, changes will happen.
And I mean, ladies and girls who want to enjoy the MLP fandom shouldn’t have to ALSO deal with a bunch of entitled dudes bitching about how a show THAT WASN’T MADE FOR THEM isn’t catering to their wants and desires. They shouldn’t have to worry about shouting down these guys so that Hasbro knows there’s an audience that loves the show just the way it is.
Also for the record; Willis here is an rare exception of male fan who’s willing to call out shit like this. I’m sorry E13, but even if you’re a ‘cool’ MLP male fan who likes the girlieness and rooted hair and doesn’t think it should be changed to fit your wants, you’re still just excusing the loud-mouths who’re making a fandom aimed at girls uncomfortable for those same girls.
Hasbro knows better than to think the adult, male collector market could ever generate more sales than parents/kids. They don’t even do it with STAR WARS, never mind My Little Pony. There is no danger of that notion being seriously entertained within the Hasbro halls.
Amber, if it’s any consolation, most of us guys would love to see more girls in Transformers, G.I. Joe, and comics-in-general. Fans and characters/toys both.
Hell, I’m still pushing for a series based around Elita-1 and her team.
I’m not sure that systemically holds up. I don’t have herpes and yet I certainly don’t want herpes. Also there is a condition called gynecomastia that seems to stand in stark opposition to this theory.
I don’t really get those figures. 1/7 of Justice League audience is girls because there is 1 female out of 7 characters? What kind of logic is that?
Sorry, but a bikini wearing token female in the cast still makes it aimed at men. If it is aimed at men. Actually, a whole lot of shows with male characters are still aimed at women. The -reason-they have more male characters is often because they are aimed at women.
Anyway, I guess the brony audience possibly not being welcome by the more traditional fans is a viewpoint worth thinking about.
But it’s really poorly expressed by a femnerd like Amber raging about it. That kind of gets the reaction from me that the dumbfans usually get in your comic: “Who cares?”
Yeah, not true. If I look back at which shows I watched as a kid and which characters I remember, I easily notice I have a bias for female characters. I remember them easily over male characters unless the male characters have a specific prominence that thoroughly overshadows the female cast. I doubt this goes for all girls watching cartoons, but I’d be somewhat surprised if it doesn’t go for a large portion of them. Now, women, as in people who’ve discovered their hormones, they might be more interested in male characters than little girls, but I’d think the average woman would still feel kicked out if there wasn’t at least one woman to identify with (hence the problem of the “one female” rule – doesn’t matter whether she is masculine or feminine, because a large part of the audience is going to feel left out or possibly stigmatized).
And seriously, my younger sister has been verbally attacked or otherwise treated unpleasently by several people in the fandom for liking FIM but also not turning a blind eye to the obvious flaws it has. Nearly all of her attackers indeed are new, male fans, so I really do not feel sorry about the bronies supposedly not being welcome. That’s nonsense anyway. Everyone is welcome to enjoy MLP: FIM. It would just be appreciated if some people, who do commonly share the traits of being male and new to MLP, would not insist on selfishly killing the fun for others.
Every sufficiently large group of people includes assholes. Just a fact. Sucks when you realize a group you consider yourself a part of just got a new shipment of rectum though.
Maybe there are some particularly horrible fans where you live. But honestly, this comic hits more at home to me. The entire reason while the whole “brony phenomenon becamse a fad (aside from 4chan, you can say anything you want about memetic spread, good and bad) was because many people enjoyed the show’s quality and found it funny and satisfying to make a collective statement saying that even men can enjoy a well made girl’s show. Equating that to men taking away other’s enjoyment strikes me as, well, as selfish as the one you accuse these fans with. Maybe I am wrong, maybe every single fan is as horrible as the one you complain about, but I still agree with the idea that you should not have to be ashamed, or vindicated, for liking a show and appreciating how well it was made.
I wonder why it hits closer to home with me, since I’m not a big pony fan myself. Maybe because I really do not care about superhero comics or transformers, but MLP is something I grew up watching, so seeing Willis’ usual strawman comic on it (can anyone even tell them apart? I swear I’m seeing the same fat guy with the same personality with different colors and slightly different lines for the dozenth time) makes me feel more personally insulted. It makes me wonder just how much of the past Willis strips were just, well, offensive. It really shows how much Shortpacked is not about the enjoyment of entertainment, but the petty little wars and hates. It makes it look like people enjoying a show is bad, and that every last person in a fandom isan ignorant pest. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe these comics do touch on serious issues and phenomena, but if I have seen it as “Willis’ little soapbox” before, I’m seeing it even more so now.
I do hope I am not giving of the vibe every “brony” is male evil incarnated. That’s certainly not the case – heck, one actually has inspired my sister to start drawing MLP fan comics/art again. But how he managed to do that (not understand Rarity hatred) emphasizes the problem she has with a good number of other “bronies”.
My sister has several FIM songs uploaded on youtube, which is where the general and often nondirect insults mostly happen. First and foremost are all those comments from men about how they are male yet like this show or how they fear for their masculinity or are proud to lose it or aren’t worth their penis, etc. The entire psychology behind statements like that is drop-dead insulting to women. What these male fans do is claim that masculinity is worth more than feminity, in essence that ‘men’ are worth more than ‘women’. What they say is that by stepping into an ostensibly female area, they lose their man-ness and thereby their value. Even the ones that say they’re proud that happens to them only make that claim because the second piece of thought going is the search for likeminded men to share the “unworthiness” with, thereby re-asserting the masculinity by power of numbers. While much milder in effect, it is not different than what many female unfriendly cultures in the past and present did and do in terms of gender roles. The hierarchically higher men can take on the unworthy female roles by asserting it makes them less than their peers who do not defile themselves that way – that understanding in turn allows them to remain accepted among the other men in that the adopted traits are considered to not so much pull the male down as reinforce that females are a blight on the human race.
Or that’s the condensed version of the misogynistic psychology of a number of very unpleasant individuals my sis has dealt with. She’s played with the thought of locking comments, but eventually settled for requesting that people stop saying they’re guys. Along with requests that people stop dissing the original/earlier versions of “Putting it Together” and requests that people stop saying Hasbro is evil and/or lazy and that “Stitching it Together” is about Hasbro’s supposed bossiness. She has deleted quite a few comments in the past already, some of which ended in personal insults on her intelligence or ‘dedication to the show’ when she replied negatively on any of these claims.
Deviantart and 4chan were the places she got more personal comments from. The subjects that trigger these are mostly the same, but joined by “Rarity hatred”, “previous MLP show hatred” and “FIM blind adoration”, none of which my sister wants to have anything to do with. A small argument on Rarity and previous MLP shows seemed to end civilly, until my sister found the other person complaining about her on another site. Her disagreement with someone else about the quality of episode 26 got her a ranty comment that she was wrong (no argument further provided) and that the previous series sucked.
Those are some examples. There’s also a case that infuriates my sister regarding a young, Spanish girl with a pony OC that is mockingly targeted by a collection of bronies. In a way that really, really cannot sit well with anyone with a conscience (as in, she doesn’t know about being targeted and thinks the ‘compliments’ she gets actually are compliments).
Again, by no means all male fans are bad. Not even a big portion. But there are these few insistent pests that keep showing up everywhere, thinking they own the franchise and are special snowflakes of some kind. I hope you can understand it when I say I have no sympathy for them.
Thanks for saying this, especially the outline and explanation at the beginning. I have friends of friends who do humanized dress-up versions of the ponies and have gotten harassed by male fans for it.
It’s especially frustrating when you get news outlets and serious blogs that are going “wow, this show is so well done, even men enjoy it!”… as if a show is only worthy being called “good” if can entertain guys instead of just girls.
Funny how I’ve never heard anyone say “wow, Transformers is so well done, even women and girls enjoy it!”
There certainly are examples for the reverse. For example, RPGs are mostly enjoyed by men; White Wolf Studios (makers of “vampire” games) put it into their advertising that their RPGs are also enjoyed by women. FiM is definedly a girls’ show, so I do not find anything condescending about this making news, even if “more fans” may not be as rosy in practice for the people involved as it sounds.
That…that pretty much described my feelings towards the brony fanbase. o_o
When I first started watching I was one of those “lol I’m a dude and I like this herp” type of people, but as I continued to watch, I started to like it for the animation, the characters, the episodes, the voice acting, stuff like that. By the end of the season, I couldn’t care if I was asexual and wasn’t any gender, I like this show because it’s a good show, no other reason needs to be given.
I just wish there were people who could accept that instead of going off an angry tangent of various insults towards somebody for various reasons.
It’s difficult for me to respond. On one hand, I imagine there IS a flow of unpleasant people from sites likes 4chan with the surge of popularity that this show receives. So I do not want to seem like I am denying that.
But forgive me when I say that I can not really emphasize with your sister, based on what you write. Getting worked up over rude comments on the internet (not exactly a rare occurence, especially on vids on currently popular topics, and controversial subjects even as childlish as “X character hate”) is not exactly something one should act surprised about, especially on sites like 4chan, Youtube and DA which are outright famous for this.
I have difficulty finding sympathy for people who take stuff like some troll going to another site to rant about them seriously. It sounds to me like your sister is just as guilty of getting too involved in petty fights.
Again, I apologize, but that’s the honest vibe I get from your writing.
Another thing why I say this is your accusations of mysoginism in “brony pride” comments. It seemed like to start out as a sound complaint about your sister’s commenters, then it got into this speculation about the suspected motives of those commenters. I have difficulty seeing how much of that is the actual comments and how much is your own thinking. It appears – and again, sorry if I’m wrong – that you have a problem with people spamming the memetic “I am male and I like this” comment – annoying, yes (like all fads), but anti-feminist?
Let’s make this clear: MLP is a girls’ show. It acknowledges itself as such. It has sleepovers, characters being fashion geeks, a fairy kingdom ruled by a princess, and ponies. But it does not seem to think that this is a bad thing, and the brony movement does not think that it is either. In fact, the brony community that I know was exactly about that, making a statement that men enjoying an obviously female activity does not in any way make them inferior.
Now, if you think that the very fact that such a statement is neccessary is offensive, then you are not angry at the one smaking the statement but the rest of society. And apparenty the show itself as well, since it embraces the notion of feminine preferences existing.
Of course men lose “masculinity” points for acting aganst the expected role, but I do not see how the fear of that means that either role is preferable to the other! The fans humorously included these things, like enjoying dress ups or cute animals, into the values that ‘real men” will stand up for. If anything it seems like a step in the right direction, so I really don’t get how it could turn into someone seeing it as the opposite.
Very off-topic here, but… Amber seems to have really trimmed down lately. It’s bizarre to say this, but I think I actually preferred her slightly more round look….
(How often does THAT happen? A male fan preferring a female character to be LESS trim?)
The other day, when Variety effectively ascribed the fair use victory around FiM YouTube fan activity to what they be ever to be an all-male fandom, I pretty much just wanted to cry.
That, and running into “gee, what do we call lady bronies?” twice in fifteen minutes across two different venues.
Variety thinks the MLP fandom is all-male? Seriously?
Wow, now I kinda understand how “Bleep My Dad Says” got turned into a sitcom, if the entertainment industry is still that confused about how the Internet works.
Well so much for that whole Self-awareness comment I made on the previous comic. I wonder if this guy will ever wake up one morning and realize “I spent two whole days obsessing about the rooted hair of a toy aimed chiefly at young girls” and suddenly feel any sense of shame.
BTW: Has anyone else notice that for a toy store, there are very few children who appear in Shortpacked? I just kinda realized that we rarely see kids appear in the store, but instead we see dozens of adult men bitching about the state of toys to the employees. It kinda makes you wonder if the parents of San Francisco found the idea of grown men hanging out it a toy stores, without their own children, and bitching about the state of toys, somewhat creepy and now refuse to let their kids visit Shortpacked as much…
Probably because a lot of the things characters say and do to customers wouldn’t be funny if the adults said and did them to children. Furthermore, a lot of the funnier customer interaction comes from fans being upset over canon(changes to, deviations from, bad direction choices, etc) and the employees not giving a damn.. Kids are generally much less concerned with things that. The overall focus of the non-storyline comics center on fandom and related issues, rather than actual retail humor.
Though, your theory is kind of amusing to think about.
Also, no. This type fan takes to self-awareness like particularly fussy cats take to water.
I didn’t get the impression that children even liked toys anymore, what with all the cool new stuff there is for them to play with and how appealing it is as a parent to provide an outlet for them to quietly play in the corner without leaving a myriad of items for parents to step on.
I know two children who I’ve seen with a toy at any point. Their father is a toy and comics collector the type of which is often lampooned in Shortpacked!. He drops them off periodically hoping to get the kids interested. They’re not.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are still children who own toys somewhere, but if I’m being frank I don’t question it when I walk through the toys aisle at my local walmart and there’s no one under twenty in there.
Then again, I can’t actually recall the last time I stepped into a dedicated toy store. I was a child myself at the time, so perhaps it’s not as I picture it at all. I tend to picture it being about the same as my local comic book stores. Not the kind of place you’d really want to take a child. You might go there to pick something up for them, but you’d never bring a child there. Just far too seedy an establishment with too much potential to expose the child to bad influences. Pretty much like you’re saying about the Shortpacked! store.
Well, when I was a till monkey at a big department store, I worked in the children’s clothes & toys department. The ratio of kids to adults was about 6:4, and I rarely saw an adult that wasn’t buying a toy for a child. But that’s just one shop, I’ll admit.
Where does Amber get 90% of the Avengers from? If she’s talking about the movie, then we don’t fully know yet. If she’s talking about the founders, then that’s only 4/5ths. If she’s talking about the cartoon, then that’s only 7/8ths. If she’s talking about the comics, then it’s usually less than half.
For the record, part of what makes my “Riding Along with Twilight Sparkle Scooter” so cool — well, after the safety helmet, since it has an opening for her horn and everything — is the rooted hair makes it easier to imply that she’s driving dangerously fast, forcing her cat to hang on for dear life and OH MY GOD WATCH OUT FOR RARITY!!! AUUUUUGH!!
So some guys dig the rooted hair. That’s all I’m saying.
I, for one, never *needed* rooted hair to play with MLP figures. I had epic battles between armies of Carebears, MLPs, GI Joes, Go Bots, and Transformers when I was a kid.
It’s true, though. In my country, even G3 stuff is cluttering the shelves everywhere, and the new rooted-hair ponies from FiM are not selling either… but the plastic-haired mini-PVCs? Sold out in a week. (In no small amount to me receiving emails from GUYS everywhere to buy a Fluttershy for them… )
I almost wish this strip had occurred during a weekly schedule, just so that there actually would be a “Tuesday”. The first two panels are still ranking favourites, though.
When I first discovered It’s Walky!, I spent the better part of the finale damning Willis under my breath. It wasn’t until later that I discovered it’s a fandom tradition.
I like the rooted hair just fine, what bugs me is the fact that Twilight Sparkle’s hair has too much pink in it and that her head’s always a slightly different color from her body. And that pink Celestia, yeesh.
Hahaha, my little pony. Ruted Hair FTW!
So why do many male Transformers love this and put them in their avatars in discussion forums? Makes about as much sense as people He-Man fans wanting She-Ra figures. Oh wait..
I think I know whats best for toy lines. I’m 24, therefore I’m a male age 18-30, who should be the primary audiance for any toyline, with females secondary and children last. And, as a male age 18-30, I know what’s best for a toyline. And what’s best is show accuracy.
HA! I know what you mean about a, um, certain segment of the fandom. This is why I prefer Ponygoons when it comes to discussing FIM, they’re generally nice folks (helps that it’s heavily moderated to keep inappropriate stuff out).
For the record, I have no interest in the toys whatsoever. I just like the show. To each its own, I guess.
I prefer the molded hair but a lot of people like the rooted hair and in all fairness it was there first so if they’re only going to do one version it should be rooted.
Granted I’d buy the hell out of more molded hair ponies.
Sounds like a thinly-veiled political commentary, but maybe that’s me.
Eh, they weren’t telling people they had nothing, so it’s not related to the deficient crisis.
None intended, if you mean, like, government-kinda political commentary. Unless what you think you’re seeing is brilliant, in which case, yeah, totally intended!
Gender politics stuff totally intended, however.
Yes, how dare those women folk dare think they are important. I agree with your views, as well as your views on how much toys are dumb
/stupidity.
I need to say that I OWN AT LEAST 5 Princess Celestias. and I’m a guy. Is that sad? No, not really. I’m helping a friend create a darker story for our ponies to be in. Mwahahahahaha…. Also: Fallout: Equestria is a grrrrreat story if you like long ass chapters like me. I think it’s college level, so you could probably use it for your senior year english class… But! I digress, I am a man who loves colorful ponies with tatooes. So what? Girls like Dr. Who, Football, and Wrestling. I like butterflies, Rainbows, and cried when my cat died. Guys can love cute things too without being creepy. Deal with it.
Since when is Doctor Who a gender-stereotype-associated show? Hell, especially nowadays?
I suppose Fifth Doctor era was a bit a”Boy’s Own Adventure” as they call it (allegedly; haven’t seen it nor the genre it allegedly was meant to mimic, so I wouldn’t know), but for the better part of its history, it’s been approached as a “family show”, meaning, mostly aimed at kids and at the adults who watch with the kids. If anything, that should be “adults also watch Doctor Who”!
All the more so after the… resequel? It don’t wanna call it a reboot exactly, because it was technically a direct “whole buncha years later” sequel, but the series that they started up 2005, you know. That one. That one has ALWAYS been, and still is, going into its seventh (or considering the 2009 Specials, is that 7.5th?) season… very character-driven. Which is, if we’re going by stereotypes, a “girl show” thing – all that “relationshippy” stuff you know, surely guys aren’t into that! Yet of course, it’s still popular with guys… and kids. And families.
Thing is, they deliberately MAKE Doctor Who to appeal to a wide demographic (especially nowadays), so saying “girls watch it too!” isn’t terribly impressive. Who the hell do you think all these handsome young men (Rory Williams, Jack Harkness, all three of the most recent Doctors, etc.) are introduced to ATTRACT?
Wrestling though… YES.
I don’t watch it, but having talked to guys that do, I am well aware that it is little more than, as my BF put it, “soap opera for guys”. Violent, sex-riddled, aggression-riddled… soap operas.
Of course, they’re violent, aggression-riddled soap operas with buff men in small pants and often no shirts. Plus lots of oddly homoerotic subtext. So in hindsight, having attracted a female fandom as well is not as surprising…
I like how this reply just seems to be “yeah im a brony whooooo!” and has nothing to do with the thing it’s responding to.
also lol fallout equestria
I like how the start of this reply just seems to be “yeah im a brony whooooo!”, has nothing to do with the thing it’s responding to, and adds absolutely nothing to the final product.
also lol fallout equestria
It’s a patriarchal conspiracy to ruin your life Amber and Mike’s the chairman.
After that “I’m marrying the Devil” comment I see everything as a secret plot by Mike to be an asshole. Though I guess one should suspect that anyway.
As opposed to his blatant ongoing campaign to be the ultimate asshole?
Nobody cared about rooted hair?
Nobody = everybody who doesn’t see the point in styling it = guys. Which is their loss.
(Why, no, I don’t still have my original collection of My Little Ponies. Why do you ask?)
I’m sorry, Amber. Feminism is exactly backward now: men want the nice things women have.
Besides, you can keep all previous iterations (except Midnight Castle, we gotta share, we gotta care) for yourself.
$40.00 ceramic 6″ show-accurate Rarity? Ours. $6 plastic doll with badly pre-curled doll mane and tail? Yours.
Not to be “that girl” but… you do know you’re coming off as pretty sexist, right? Or was that intentional? I don’t get hipster irony…
His sarcasm in that post was so strong I can practically taste it. Unless I’m getting a false positive from my ham sandwich.
I can’t see any way to read that last paragraph as anything but sarcastic.
A quick look at eBay says guys are willing to pay such.
I was mourning the irony with sarcasm. Or irony. Or snark. Or hipness. I lost track.
I wish all girls’ television was good enough to make me overcome my lifelong behavioral conditioning against the pink aisle and buy brightly-colored plastic unironically.
I wish I could stand the animation on Strawberry Shortcake’s Berry Bitty Adventures long enough to develop deep empathic (one-way) relationships with the characters, two of whom (Lemon and Plum) are voiced by Pony VAs according to Wikipedia. But my eyes bleed when they move.
Remember Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer? That was the first unabashedly awesome cartoon I ever saw. Darkly themed SF/fantasy; her horse was a jerk, and his horse was a flying robot.
I don’t remember those.
I grew up on Powerpuff Girls and Two Stupid Dogs, hence my draw towards the show. Might have to look up the Rainbow Bright one if it’s actually good.
Was that the pilot to the old cartoon? I remember that actually being pretty good when I was a kid (the pilot, not the series itself).
There are ceramic FiM figures?!?!
I love that song!
I don’t know what’s more awesome: the fact this got followed up on in real time or the punchline.
The real time followup.
Definitely the real-time followup.
Poor Amber, all your toys are belong to us.
I like the clever colour-swap of the guy’s undershirt and overshirt to denotate that it’s a different day.
Of course nobody cares about the rooted hair, all anyone cares about is show accuracy. How do you make a show accurate Rainbow Dash with rooted hair?!?! You don’t that’s how.
Also, I no longer like Amber. She is wrong and must be eliminated…
Hear hear!
The Supreme Order of Bronies has agreed that justice must be delivered swiftly and by ninjas.
But can ninjas get past Mike? We need someone who can strike where he cannot protect her. We need… Freddy Krueger.
A vote has been called and the the Supreme Order of Bronies agrees,
Freddy Krueger shall go to town riding on a pony.
Wearing a hat designed by Rarity, and he can stick a one of Philamena’s feathers in it, if necessary.
I…became a brony today.
Bwa ha ha, welcome to the string.
Don’t listen to Brody, though. Like any toy collecting fandom, some are obsessed with show accuracy, while others acknowledge the importance of playability. Rooted hair comes with its challenges, but it’s also fun to brush and style!
NO! TOYS ARE NOT TO BE PLAYED WITH!
Freddy Krueger?
Oh, you must mean Crispy Slash, the burn victim serial killer pony. He’s got a fedora with ear holes, a red and green striped mane and tail, and is a unicorn with a serated metal horn. I hear he’s dating Nightmare Moon.
Nightmare Moon is dating Crispy Slash? What happened to Slasher Camp? You know, the unicorn pony that everyone thought drowned at Crystal Lake Corral? He wears a hockey mask and a trenchcoat, and his horn has been filed really sharp. He uses it to stab ponies, and he uses all of his magic keeps him ever dying!
He dumped her after one of his visits to the campsite led him to meet Sleepaway Twist, a very happy camper pegasus. But she has a secret she hasn’t told him about yet… he wings are fake and she was actually born a unicorn!
(Anyone who gets this one deserves a prize).
I could be completely wrong, but I thought everyone already knew all there is to know about The Crying Game.
Duh, Angela from Sleepaway Camp.
Don’t look at me, I don’t watch horror movies.
OtakuX wins.
This is one of those cases where winning means you really lose.
Well, if there’s one thing I love more than My Little Pony, it’s … well, it’s anime. But if there’s TWO things I love more than My Little Pony, it’s anime and slasher movies.
Slasher Camp’s Cutie Mark is a black cat knocking over a tin can, because his special talent is jump scares!
Crispy Slash’s cutie mark is an elm tree on fire.
Sleepaway Twist’s is a pair of scissors.
Who needs Freddy Kruger when you can summon Nightmare, the devourer of souls.
Damn… I just been remind of how unfair girls haved it on the world of toys.
I just had a terrible vision of the bronies somehow getting hold of Lady Lovelylocks. ::shudders::
Can you say ‘Pink Getho’ and ‘stuck in the 80s’? My god those toys are so pathetic with their ONE point of articulation. Would it kill Hasbro to put some balljoints on their legs?! Heck the ponies can’t even look up or down. The human alliance human dudes use more advanced toy technology than the main character from the show’s toys.
Though, to be fair, Ethan at least has a comeback to unfair gender politics in comics; unfair sexual orientation politics in comics. You think girls have it bad? Try being a gay comic book character. Chances are you’ll be the only one around and will suffer horrible torture and death within a few issues.
Even if they’re the star of their own title.
Especially is they’re the star of their own title.
(R.I.P. Freedom Ring)
Agreed their situation is even worse, on mainstream comics -.-
Dear Amber,
On behalf of my gender, I would like to apologize for taking away your childhood nostalgia.
Attached at the clumps of “hair” that were part of my failed attempt to cut Rainbow Dash’s hair. You’re welcome.
To: Amber
From: Some Guy
Re: Ragnal’s apology
In addition. If you want to retain your love for all things pony, don’t go to Ponibooru and turn off the filters. Don’t. Ever.
Its why you go to Bronibooru instead. Folks there are hard core about keeping out the creepy, the memey, and the shippy.
Very little bad escapes into the wilds, and its usually instantly downvoted and tagged for elimination.
Course from what I understand the larger Brony community is mad that circle is even trying to keep out shipping and creepy but their effort is the only reason I even bother.
I sure as hell stay away from every other online fandom. All they do is ruin everything. Nutters even ship movieverse Bumblebee and the Boof.
Characters are arch enemies? SHIP EM.
Characters are friends? SHIP EM.
Characters are related? SHIPPED EVEN HARDER.
Internet fandom of anything seems hellbent on shitting on what they claim to love, making folks embarrassed to even claim to like it.
Go far enough you have what happened to anime and anthromorphics. *barf*
You ever watch Durarara? Asks the question “How does a knife express love?”.
And then there’s Rizolli and Iles, which is a great cop show where the creators apparently decided to toss in great gobs of lesbian subtext.
Or maybe they had the lesbian subtext and they decided to make a great cop show. Either way, lesbian subtext.
I have seen one artist who said that there needed to be more fanart and fanfic of a pairing of two female characters. Relatively normal, as fandom goes. Except the characters weren’t even in the same movie. The movies weren’t even released in the same decade. And now, even when I see their clean art, I keep thinking of their really, really creepy femslash art, such as Violet and Mirage from the Incredibles. In other words, a 14-year old girl hooking up with a morally-dubious accomplice to multiple [SPOILERS], and that’s just for starters.
So, yeah, fandom promotes tunnel vision, and sometimes people need to turn off the computer and go outside.
On the other hand, y’all are getting WAY too torqued out of shape about fandom. For one thing, if you learn to relax you’ll find that all that creepy fic/art is actually hilarious. I have a huge folder of goofy pairings and terrible porn on my hard drive that I open whenever I need a good chuckle. I suppose the people who made it wouldn’t appreciate that I was laughing at their efforts, but I never abuse or insult them. I figure I’m doing with their fan creations what they’re doing with the original work: enjoying it in an unintended way.
And you know what else? Crazy people make life interesting. As far as we know we’re the only species that uses creativity for sexual gratification – isn’t that awesome?
Exactly! The HP fandom gave us My Immortal, and I, for one, thank them for it.
Guess I need to google “rooted hair”
I didn’t get it at first either, but I think it’s the kind of hair you can brush. The hair like hair. As opposed to plastic hair.
Ditto. On Monday I assumed that rooted hair vs whatever alternative there was was a joke because he clearly did care about the minutea of the model.
I didn’t even get that this was a boy toy/girl toy thing until the last panel today.
To expand on the other answers:
Rooted hair – the kind of hair you’ll find in many dolls (especially fashion dolls) and most MLP toys – strands of a hair-like material bundled into small bunches, and then inserted (rooted) into the doll/pony’s head. It can be brushed and styled. It can also be butchered by kids with scissors. (Or adults with scissors who want their ponies to be more show accurate.)
The alternative is sculpted hair, which is part of the doll/figure/pony’s head, and sculpted into a permanent hairstyle. Common on baby dolls, action figures, and the McDonald’s Happy Meal ponies (don’t know if there are other pony figs that use it). It makes it easier to make the fig match the media, but it is, obviously, unstylable, and ‘brushing’ it would just make you look silly.
Three’s also the possibility of a sheet of ‘fun fur’ like material glued onto the doll/fig, but I’ve only seen that for intensely short hair and actual fur on action figures. For anything longer than ‘fuzz’ that’s not meant to be shaggy and unkempt, it’s the worst of both worlds – its nature means it can’t be adequately styled, and it gets wild really fast if you handle the fig at all. (Which, of course, is why it’s never used for actual longer-than-a-buzz-cut hair.)
Rooted hair also has the bonus of being rerootable if you want to make custom ponies (or just fix Rainbow Dash’s colors) while with plastic hair all you can do is go at it with an x-acto knife and sugru or modeling clay then hope the new hair never snaps off.
Think of the customizers. They think of you, in the form of an awesome pony.
This comic really speaks to me and I just have to let you know how happy it made me. As a collector of My Little Pony, I try to embrace all new fans, but guys like the one in this comic can really get the blood boiling, lol.
They should at least make Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity in the style of the 5-pack that had Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Princess Celestia and Spike. normal-sized ponies with show-accurate sculpted plastic hair. I don’t mind rooted hair on the non-show characters, but the mane six NEED plastic hair to look their best!
“Mane six”
I see what you did there.
And here I was hoping Luna would make another apperance.
But you can sit and brush rooted hair! It’s fun! (and re: you can’t make rooted hair for the characters, then how do people make the wigs for MLP gijinkas?)
Yeah! If they have rooted hair, that just means that you can customize them! I’ve seen some beautiful customizations of G4s to give them show-accurate hair. Anyone who wants it can make it happen. =D
I don’t really care EITHERWAY for rooted hair, the problem is that it’s the ONLY selling point of the figure. I mean don’t little girls want to do MORE than just brush pink hair?!
You need the actual figure to do stuff to play with it? Apparently I was doing it wrong all those years. And so for that matter have Kestrel, Davan, and PeeJee.
…Okay, Kestrel, Davan, and PeeJee may just plain be doing it wrong. But the point stands.
Conversely, the only selling point of the other figures is that they’re show-accurate.
Mmph, as a gal myself, I would rather have the molded hair that make my ponies look like the characters that I like, in the same way I hope my comic action figures are accurate.
But then, I also don’t have time to sit around and hold war councils with my ponies anymore, being an adult. But when I was a kid…yeah, hours were spent braiding tails and plotting coupes.
The middle ground, of course, is to mold the mane and leave the tail as rooted hair, because darn it, you just can’t DO anything with the mane but brush it anyway!
Oh, I’m going to disagree with you here!
My friends and I did all kinds of intricate hairstyles with the manes of our first generation ponies; dyeing it with water colours and braiding in flowers and pearls and ribbons and such and doing various up-dos. I could possibly agree on the part of the male ponies, they could just as well have done with molded hair, I guess…
We didn’t watch any cartoon that we might’ve wanted to emulate though, so show accuracy wasn’t a problem back then.
“hours were spent braiding tails and plotting coupes.”
I’m sorry, I couldn’t let that comment go by without calling out how adorable it was. D’awww!
Being a boy, I never had ponies (not complaining, mind, I know I got a bigger variety of toys with better articulation and such, and anyway I have ponies now), but I too can remember days spent amid a dizzying variety of figures, managing the logistics of large scale battles while behind the scenes assassinations and political marriages swayed the fate of plastic nations.
I did that as a kid. Only, I never had villain toys, because most of my toys were Power Ranger toys. So inevitably, the “battle” always took place in the far future in some kind of Power Ranger museum, and villains broke in and stole stuff. The villains were usually represented by this tiny bear-shaped crystal(about the size of a dime). And then there were the storyless battles, were I just kind of threw toys at each other in a no holds barred, knock-down drag out fight.
I seem to recall every one of my toys wound up in a makeshift”toy hospital” at one point or another when pieces popped out and I couldn’t be bothered to put them back in/on at the time.
I seem to have gotten lost in my nostalgia, so I’m not even sure what I am responding to anymore, and I’m not going to scroll up to look.
Think about it this way.
Maybe we’ll get Revoltech ponies?
You know–as much as this isn’t a political commentary? I follow a lot of MLP:FIM tumblr blogs and I feel like the brony dudes do go out of their way to make it seem like adult women would totally never enjoy this, and if they do, are definitley completely excluded from their fandom. This is pretty irritating with like, 90% of things in the whole world–but it REALLY burns my cookies with My Little Pony. All the “lol this is totally not a girl’s show, amirite?!” Yes, yes it is. Girls can have nice things too. This is a girl thing. Ugh.
I think a lot of the “Lol MLP totally isn’t for girls” is supposed to be joking about how popular it is with males.
Also, which brony blogs are actively excluding women from the fandom? All of the ones I’ve seen consider the word “Brony” to be gender-neutral.
I was pretty sure Brony was exclusively male. Not that I am opposed to it being a gender-neutral term, of course. That was just the definition I originally received.
I’ve seen some people claim that “filly” is the proper term for a female fan, but for the most part “brony” seems to be used for anyone participating in the adult fandom regardless of gender.
I would only call female fans fillies if I could call myself a gentlecolt.
Nopony’s stopping you.
The next time my wife calls me a brony, I am so going to tell her I’m going with gentlecolt, now.
I’ve seen Brony used for male fans, or for fans of FiM who don’t like the older stuff (such as myself)
In our defense the show is really good…
Americans to the Natives: “In our defense, this country is really good…”
Not to say the bronies are spreading smallpox, of course. Just complaints.
If it makes you feel better, I’m happy to share and enjoy the cartoons together regardless of your gender.
I was actually paying attention to the show.
Yeah! If you don’t support partitioning of what media people are allowed to enjoy by some sort of biological, caste-based division, you’re as good as Hitler!
You gotta share. You gotta care.
(Man, that episode had some great gags, but the implications were all kinds of unfortunate)
The systematic decimation of multiple culture and peoples is a night impossible thing to translate into something palatable to a child, said child’s parents, and children’s television standards.
Yet they still keep trying.
nigh*
I recently found out that my two least favorite episodes of MLP:FiM (that one and “Feeling Pinkie Keen”) were written by the same guy. Which, since my main problem with both has to do with the worldview they espouse, makes a certain amount of sense.
I also found out that he was one of the writers on Scary Movie 2, so now in a weird way I’m kinda glad I dislike those eps…
What did you think was wrong with “Feeling Pinkie Keen”? I don’t feel strongly either way for it.
Because the moral boils down to an endorsement of blind faith. And also because the climax only works because Twilight seems to have forgotten that she can teleport (something she does fairly often).
I’m a bit conflicted about them, though, because both eps have some really great cartoon gags.
I thought at that point she hadn’t figured out how to teleport purposely, yet, but I could be remembering it wrong. It was still uncontrollable, like Fluttershy’s use of The Stare.
This reminds me of how they never made a toy for Jennie, the one female character from Bucky O’Haire and the Toad Wars. At least, that’s how I remember it.
Or any of the girls from Avatar: The Last Airbender. But none of them were important characters, right? We need to save that roster slot for a fourteenth version of Aang!
That reminds me of this freaking sweet action-scene set they had for Avatar–you’d buy the four pieces and fit them together to make one scene: Aang doing an airblast, Sokka in full wolf make-up with his club in a fighting stance fighting a flamethrowing Zuko and…hm…we need a fourth to make a square…RANDOM FIRENATION SOLDIER!
Not Katara or Toph doing a different kind of bending. Not Azula with lightening. Not even one of the–surprisingly prolific–women in the Fire Nation army. Nope. Just…some dude. In a Fire Nation uniform.
What makes it even more of a crime is just how good the character design on everyone was and HOW MANY TOPH ACTION FIGURES WOULD HAVE SOLD! I mean, think about it–I’ll bet she’d sell as many as Aang, if not more.
Oh heck yeah! I’d of only bought toys if I could have Toph too.
If I saw a Toph figurine for under fifteen bucks today I’d leave fifteen bucks poorer.
…You mean you’d overpay for it?
It would be fifteen after taxes. Damn that HST!
Ang? The bald kid you mean?
I guess he was tolerable, but the only character I’ve really liked in the show has been Katara so far. Not that I have seen the entire show. Eh.
Jenny was supposed to get a toy. You can find a review of it on youtube. Jenny’s toy falls in the category of “toys of female characters that aren’t produced until the entire “more interesting” male roster had been toy-ized and therefore has a good chance of ending up cancelled because the toyline is”, so it is marginally better than some other female character-toyline relations.
Though on a sidenote, as a girl toyline MLP has always had a similar bias towards male characters. In G1, Danny was the only human not to get a toy (and far as my knowledge goes, wasn’t ever even considered for one) and I still love how the UK comics back in the day played up Baby Lucky’s “Ooh, a boy pony”-ness. Skip forward to G4 and little has changed actually. There’s no male ponies in the line, despite some good material in the show (Hoity Toity!).
If any boy pony deserves a toy, it’s Big Macintosh, who’s actually an important recurring character.
Or Celestia’s guards, because those helmets are sweet.
I’d buy a toy of Celestia’s guards in a heartbeat.
Spike’s available as a toy, but only as a part of a bundle (In which Celestia is the wrong colour).
Part of me is surprised that Bronies don’t like styling the rooted hair.
I’m sure if the ponies all had plastic hair the bronies would whine that they wanted to style the rooted hair.
Some do! It’s a big internets, all sorts, etc.
Among the subset of the fandom who is into the toys, you have the usual mix of those who want show accuracy and those who appreciate playability.
Not that there aren’t dudely bronies out there who pretend the show is targeted at them so they can hold on to anti-girly stigmas, or simply out of a habit of male privilege.
[i]Ain’t Nobody
Loves me better
Makes me happy
Makes me feel this way!
Ain’t Nobody
Loves me better than you![/i]–Chaka Khan, as lead singer for Rufus
Darn formatting confusion! BAH!
Amber = My Little Pony’s very own CLINT.
http://www.shortpacked.com/2005/comic/book-2-pulls-the-drama-tag/01-addicted/sigma/
*brushes rainbow dash’s hair* Indeed nobody…. Comic so VERY apriciated.
Surprised to learn you didn’t plan on bringing this guy back. When I saw Monday’s I figured it was written AFTER the MLP thing you would do Wednesday, when you decided you were too tired from the move to draw it.
Naw, I was too tired to write it as well.
*nopony
On another note, bronies who don’t dig the rooted hair haven’t tried brushing it. That stuff is downright hypnotic.
I could go on to complain that this comic kinda misrepresents the complaints most bronies have with the toys, but I guess there would be less of a joke if the guy in the comic were being reasonable.
This guy ALmost represents the majority of the Brony population. Except for the percent that I’m in, that watches everything he can on the internet, doesn’t get the toys, and DOESn’t troll and 4chan.
As for Amber…it’s what we do. Before you know it, guys’ll start liking Twilight and–
Okay, I can’t even say it.
Am I reading this wrong? The joke seems to be saying that women do care about the rooted hair, and that this guy is being a jerk for saying “nobody important”. Which turns into the punchline of women loosing another franchise to men. Is that what’s supposed to be getting across?
But the actual dialogue has it seem like Amber is AGREEING with the guy. All her sentences are statements. Shouldn’t her text in the middle two panels end with question marks? Or am I completely reading this wrong?
I think you’re reading this without the sarcasm that Amber or most girls in this situation would have. She’s not asking him a question. She’s just going flat with it. “Uh-huh. Nobody.” Verbal irony–words meant to imply the opposite of their apparent meaning.
Sorry Amber.
Also you forgot GI Joe :p
Yeah… I honestly feel bad that every time I see something based a great deal on the women, it becomes sexual, anime, or it crashes… It’s not their fault or anything, either.
I personally blame lazy writers who see good guys as muscle headed ‘I can do it if I try a little harder’ types. DBZ, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Bleach, and just about EVERY failure that Gundam made.
[Sorry for double post] On a side note, I named anime because they’re popular and a very good example. Other examples include most of the shows on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and some Disney (though Disney isn’t as bad about it as the others.)
And if you don’t know if something fits, think about a situation where a person wasn’t able to do something then with little to no explanation or REAL reason that wouldn’t have already been present is suddenly stronger.
I’m incredibly amused by the presence of “anime” in that list. It gives me a mental image of mistreated shows running away to Japan in hopes of finding a better life.
Made even more egregious by the women in Bleach and Naruto often being the most interesting characters in the show –and then effectively getting written out/benched in favour of 12-episode guys-only tournament arcs.
And to add insult to this injury, even the male characters who aren’t muscle headed idiots either get written out or are made side characters with no real added aid at all.
Examples of this are Uryu and Kira from Bleach, Piccolo and Krillin from DBZ (then again everybody but Goku and Gohan period), Neji and Shikamaru from Naruto, Sokka from Avatar, etc… They’re basically used for quick explanations of what’s going on before everybody turns back to vein pulsing muscle bound meat sack with a sword/energy/ability that thinks they can do anything if they just try a little harder.
I’m a bit of an animation enthusiast, and I have to say that I greatly enjoyed the new My Little Pony show. I wouldn’t ever have any interest to pick up any My Little Pony toys, but if Hasbro did just so happen to create some spiffy looking toys which reminded me strongly of the show characters, I might be willing to throw down some money. Then the figures would sit untouched on my desk for all of eternity save for cleaning. I think it’s silly to turn the argument into a guys vs girls thing. The only differences between me and an actual MLP collector are the initial motivation for purchase and the intended usage of the toys.
I think the real problem being portrayed in the comic is of a guy being a hard-headed jerk who doesn’t understand that MLP is a long-running franchise which has many fans from earlier generations as well as more recent fans of the newest TV show.
It’s a bit heavy-handed to generalize everyone who cares about rooted hair to be a girl, and everyone who doesn’t to be guy, isn’t it? I’m sure there’s dudes who’d love to brush and chicks who’d rather have show accuracy.
I would just like options. Rooted hair for people who may want to style it (In the tradition of MLP toys) and show-accurate plastic hair for people who want show accuracy (And maybe a third option with decent articulation, for people who want to play with them as magical girls).
And this guy obviously isn’t a real brony. He would have said “nopony” if he was.
So true, so true. And yes, articulated ponies would be FULL of win. Though the photo-porn possibilities that Ponibooru would inflict on the world with them… *shudders*
Yep. I’d like the rest of the characters from the show in a style that matches the five-pack that was already released, but I’m not looking for a total reinvention of the brand.
‘S funny…when I was a kid, I was kind of frustrated by the non-articulation of the MLP toys…looked pretty, but not being able to change their pose was a bit annoying especially when playing with them in ways other than simply brushing and styling their manes and tails…but when I saw some actual articulated Ponies the G2 Magic Motion Friends, it struck me as heretical. (Then again, that may be because of the overall ‘blah’ design aesthetic of G2 and the half-assed articulation of the toys.)
IIRC G1 had one line of articulated ponies. Like, I think they were ballerinas? Mine was easily my fav pony ever, depite the dumb molded leotard it was wearing.
What about some little plushie ponies? Fluttershy, in particular, strikes me as deserving of something extra huggable.
Must… have… full line of… plush ponies…
purely for my daughters, of course.
I would gladly kill someone for a Rainbow Dash plushie.
Actually, that’s rather extreme. I’d probably just maim them.
Or Gummy.
I initially read this as wanting gummy ponies… But I assume you mean a plush Gummy.
Right?
Sooo, girls care about playing with hair and boys don’t? Isn’t the whole point of making firl shows actually be awesome and not just make up and hair glitter to move beyond that thinking?
Not JUST make-up and glitter, no. But you’re implying that by getting story and quality, girls have to for-go all the ‘girly’ stuff they already enjoyed? Sorry kid, your choices are stay shallow, or be JUST LIKE A BOY. I was about the most tomboy girl ever, but this still irks me.
No, that wasn’t my point at all. The point was that we move beyond the gender stereotypes where girls are supposed to like hair and glitter and boys like action and explosions. Kids should play how they want to play. You want to play with hair? Play wth hair. You want to stage mock battles? Stage mock battles. Leave genders out of it.
Man, that’s really condescending to girls who like glitter and brushing hair.
Yeah! WTF is wrong with glitter and hair? Or better yet, glitter infused hair.
Hell yes! I so want a return of glitter ponies…
<____>
..what..?
For the record, I am not against glitter, or hair. I am in full support of glitter hair. Glitter is the best part of any toy.
Oooooooooookay, I think I’m not coming across as clear with my point which is it shouldn’t be assumed that the girls will want the hair and glitter. Maybe they do, mayb the guys do, it just shouldn’t be automatically assumed it’s the girls that want to do that stuff.
For example, Amber is acting like people wanting non-rooted hair and not have the toys focused on brushn to be a men taking away domething from women thing when it’s really just a difference of opinion. It’s not inherinently male to want accurate figures nor is it inherently female to want to brush the pretty hair. Personally, I’ve enjoyed both with different toys over the years. To me AMBER is the one coming across kinda sexist.
I don’t see how it is anymore condescending than the counterpart about boys who fit the stereotype of only enjoying action and constant motion…
So… I can’t enjoy the ponies because comic book creators are archaic assholes? What?
Bah, Friendship is Magic. We can share!
Wait – they make two varieties of those toys; those who like the combing hair and stylizing have the rooted hair and those who like them looking more in show have the more accurate to show version.
As a broney I must say nopony should be this shortsighted! There is room enough for everypony in this fandom!
On the other hand; Amber I’m sorry we’re stealing this fandom – I promise we’ll try to only take only a little bit – don’t be upset! It’s very difficult to get a 50/50 gender equality in fandoms!
Sorry Amber we just noticed the awesomeness (AKA Pinkie Pie) and just stayed with it.
Let’s see…
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was a reboot of the My Little Pony franchise, headed by female animation goddess Lauren Faust. Her goal was to make a show, whose primary demographic was young girls, that wouldn’t talk down to girls, have actual character’s to hold on to, and actual conflict to resolve.
The mane, er, main cast is made up of six girl ponies, each with a completely different personality, attitude, outlook, and goals for their life. The most primary male character is a baby dragon who assists the closest thing to a main character in the show.
The show, while being enjoyed by a wide variety of people, has hardly been “stolen” or changed because some guys hopped on board. Are there some strangley entitled jerks who want the show to “change,” or “grow up,” or have the toys conform to a standard that would ruin them for the modders who have been single handedly holding up the franchise, and its measly show pickings, since G1? Yes. But I don’t think complaining about a somewhat maligned franchise rising to Transformers status is anything to consider “bad.” I would have thought a “girl” franchise, escaping the pink ghetto a good thing.
I do formally apologize for anyone who complains about established facets about the franchise (deal with the rooted hair. I did. Rarity looks semi-fabulous). However, as someone who has witnessed popular culture mainstream as many of my favorite franchises, open them to a slew of new fans, and seen the early chaos, just be patient. The first blowout will be messy, but after that, you’ve gained more fans and a more stable franchise for the longer term. Hopefully one that doesn’t rely only on toys to survive, with cartoons as a poorly done after thought.
The show itself is going to stay fantastic as long as the crew responsible for it keeps up this level of quality and stick to their goal of “a well-rounded show in which girly stuff is treated as positive and desirable, but not all that girls are” – this is true.
But I think it’s a little naive to say there isn’t a risk of the fandom changing it. While there are amazing people involved in the franchise who are determined to tell great stories, Hasbro is, at the end of the day, a company motivated by profit first and last. It’s also a company that exists in a society that holds money spent by dudes as more important than money spent by ladies. If enough guys get loud enough about what they feel they deserve and Hasbro decides they can make more money by catering to that crowd than continuing to do a god show aimed at girls, changes will happen.
And I mean, ladies and girls who want to enjoy the MLP fandom shouldn’t have to ALSO deal with a bunch of entitled dudes bitching about how a show THAT WASN’T MADE FOR THEM isn’t catering to their wants and desires. They shouldn’t have to worry about shouting down these guys so that Hasbro knows there’s an audience that loves the show just the way it is.
Also for the record; Willis here is an rare exception of male fan who’s willing to call out shit like this. I’m sorry E13, but even if you’re a ‘cool’ MLP male fan who likes the girlieness and rooted hair and doesn’t think it should be changed to fit your wants, you’re still just excusing the loud-mouths who’re making a fandom aimed at girls uncomfortable for those same girls.
Lauren and her husand did a great job with Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, and they had to combat a lunatic fandom for that, too.
I think this show will be fine.
Which is good to hear. I just don’t always trust that a creator will be able to protect their show when the higher-ups with the money get involved.
Hasbro knows better than to think the adult, male collector market could ever generate more sales than parents/kids. They don’t even do it with STAR WARS, never mind My Little Pony. There is no danger of that notion being seriously entertained within the Hasbro halls.
Amber, if it’s any consolation, most of us guys would love to see more girls in Transformers, G.I. Joe, and comics-in-general. Fans and characters/toys both.
Hell, I’m still pushing for a series based around Elita-1 and her team.
Hey that’s a great idea. I think the female Autobots aren’t getting the attention that they deserved.
Tell Hasbro, spend money on toys of female characters, and encourage everyone to do the same. Only way it’s going to happen.
On that note, EVERYONE BUY ARCEE (PRIME) WHEN SHE COMES OUT.
Funny that Ethan would come up with the same reason straight men love boobs so much. We just noticed something we didn’t have.
I’m not sure that systemically holds up. I don’t have herpes and yet I certainly don’t want herpes. Also there is a condition called gynecomastia that seems to stand in stark opposition to this theory.
There is always an exception to the rule.
Like how stand-up comedians = funny right before someone reminds you that CarrotTop exists.
Or Gallagher.
Or Carlos Mencia.
Or Larry the Cable Guy (Pixar deserves a medal for managing to make him entertaining in a movie)
Lots of exceptions to that rule.
Speaking as a guy, I and my Gen 1 ponies fully support rooted hair. How can you braid their tails if they’re molded plastic? HOW?
Rooted hair is superior.
You forgot 2/3rds of the Power Rangers
I don’t really get those figures. 1/7 of Justice League audience is girls because there is 1 female out of 7 characters? What kind of logic is that?
Sorry, but a bikini wearing token female in the cast still makes it aimed at men. If it is aimed at men. Actually, a whole lot of shows with male characters are still aimed at women. The -reason-they have more male characters is often because they are aimed at women.
Anyway, I guess the brony audience possibly not being welcome by the more traditional fans is a viewpoint worth thinking about.
But it’s really poorly expressed by a femnerd like Amber raging about it. That kind of gets the reaction from me that the dumbfans usually get in your comic: “Who cares?”
Yeah, not true. If I look back at which shows I watched as a kid and which characters I remember, I easily notice I have a bias for female characters. I remember them easily over male characters unless the male characters have a specific prominence that thoroughly overshadows the female cast. I doubt this goes for all girls watching cartoons, but I’d be somewhat surprised if it doesn’t go for a large portion of them. Now, women, as in people who’ve discovered their hormones, they might be more interested in male characters than little girls, but I’d think the average woman would still feel kicked out if there wasn’t at least one woman to identify with (hence the problem of the “one female” rule – doesn’t matter whether she is masculine or feminine, because a large part of the audience is going to feel left out or possibly stigmatized).
And seriously, my younger sister has been verbally attacked or otherwise treated unpleasently by several people in the fandom for liking FIM but also not turning a blind eye to the obvious flaws it has. Nearly all of her attackers indeed are new, male fans, so I really do not feel sorry about the bronies supposedly not being welcome. That’s nonsense anyway. Everyone is welcome to enjoy MLP: FIM. It would just be appreciated if some people, who do commonly share the traits of being male and new to MLP, would not insist on selfishly killing the fun for others.
Every sufficiently large group of people includes assholes. Just a fact. Sucks when you realize a group you consider yourself a part of just got a new shipment of rectum though.
Verbally attacked in what way?
Maybe there are some particularly horrible fans where you live. But honestly, this comic hits more at home to me. The entire reason while the whole “brony phenomenon becamse a fad (aside from 4chan, you can say anything you want about memetic spread, good and bad) was because many people enjoyed the show’s quality and found it funny and satisfying to make a collective statement saying that even men can enjoy a well made girl’s show. Equating that to men taking away other’s enjoyment strikes me as, well, as selfish as the one you accuse these fans with. Maybe I am wrong, maybe every single fan is as horrible as the one you complain about, but I still agree with the idea that you should not have to be ashamed, or vindicated, for liking a show and appreciating how well it was made.
I wonder why it hits closer to home with me, since I’m not a big pony fan myself. Maybe because I really do not care about superhero comics or transformers, but MLP is something I grew up watching, so seeing Willis’ usual strawman comic on it (can anyone even tell them apart? I swear I’m seeing the same fat guy with the same personality with different colors and slightly different lines for the dozenth time) makes me feel more personally insulted. It makes me wonder just how much of the past Willis strips were just, well, offensive. It really shows how much Shortpacked is not about the enjoyment of entertainment, but the petty little wars and hates. It makes it look like people enjoying a show is bad, and that every last person in a fandom isan ignorant pest. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe these comics do touch on serious issues and phenomena, but if I have seen it as “Willis’ little soapbox” before, I’m seeing it even more so now.
I do hope I am not giving of the vibe every “brony” is male evil incarnated. That’s certainly not the case – heck, one actually has inspired my sister to start drawing MLP fan comics/art again. But how he managed to do that (not understand Rarity hatred) emphasizes the problem she has with a good number of other “bronies”.
My sister has several FIM songs uploaded on youtube, which is where the general and often nondirect insults mostly happen. First and foremost are all those comments from men about how they are male yet like this show or how they fear for their masculinity or are proud to lose it or aren’t worth their penis, etc. The entire psychology behind statements like that is drop-dead insulting to women. What these male fans do is claim that masculinity is worth more than feminity, in essence that ‘men’ are worth more than ‘women’. What they say is that by stepping into an ostensibly female area, they lose their man-ness and thereby their value. Even the ones that say they’re proud that happens to them only make that claim because the second piece of thought going is the search for likeminded men to share the “unworthiness” with, thereby re-asserting the masculinity by power of numbers. While much milder in effect, it is not different than what many female unfriendly cultures in the past and present did and do in terms of gender roles. The hierarchically higher men can take on the unworthy female roles by asserting it makes them less than their peers who do not defile themselves that way – that understanding in turn allows them to remain accepted among the other men in that the adopted traits are considered to not so much pull the male down as reinforce that females are a blight on the human race.
Or that’s the condensed version of the misogynistic psychology of a number of very unpleasant individuals my sis has dealt with. She’s played with the thought of locking comments, but eventually settled for requesting that people stop saying they’re guys. Along with requests that people stop dissing the original/earlier versions of “Putting it Together” and requests that people stop saying Hasbro is evil and/or lazy and that “Stitching it Together” is about Hasbro’s supposed bossiness. She has deleted quite a few comments in the past already, some of which ended in personal insults on her intelligence or ‘dedication to the show’ when she replied negatively on any of these claims.
Deviantart and 4chan were the places she got more personal comments from. The subjects that trigger these are mostly the same, but joined by “Rarity hatred”, “previous MLP show hatred” and “FIM blind adoration”, none of which my sister wants to have anything to do with. A small argument on Rarity and previous MLP shows seemed to end civilly, until my sister found the other person complaining about her on another site. Her disagreement with someone else about the quality of episode 26 got her a ranty comment that she was wrong (no argument further provided) and that the previous series sucked.
Those are some examples. There’s also a case that infuriates my sister regarding a young, Spanish girl with a pony OC that is mockingly targeted by a collection of bronies. In a way that really, really cannot sit well with anyone with a conscience (as in, she doesn’t know about being targeted and thinks the ‘compliments’ she gets actually are compliments).
Again, by no means all male fans are bad. Not even a big portion. But there are these few insistent pests that keep showing up everywhere, thinking they own the franchise and are special snowflakes of some kind. I hope you can understand it when I say I have no sympathy for them.
Thanks for saying this, especially the outline and explanation at the beginning. I have friends of friends who do humanized dress-up versions of the ponies and have gotten harassed by male fans for it.
It’s especially frustrating when you get news outlets and serious blogs that are going “wow, this show is so well done, even men enjoy it!”… as if a show is only worthy being called “good” if can entertain guys instead of just girls.
Funny how I’ve never heard anyone say “wow, Transformers is so well done, even women and girls enjoy it!”
well. maybe because it’s not so well done :S
There certainly are examples for the reverse. For example, RPGs are mostly enjoyed by men; White Wolf Studios (makers of “vampire” games) put it into their advertising that their RPGs are also enjoyed by women. FiM is definedly a girls’ show, so I do not find anything condescending about this making news, even if “more fans” may not be as rosy in practice for the people involved as it sounds.
That…that pretty much described my feelings towards the brony fanbase. o_o
When I first started watching I was one of those “lol I’m a dude and I like this herp” type of people, but as I continued to watch, I started to like it for the animation, the characters, the episodes, the voice acting, stuff like that. By the end of the season, I couldn’t care if I was asexual and wasn’t any gender, I like this show because it’s a good show, no other reason needs to be given.
I just wish there were people who could accept that instead of going off an angry tangent of various insults towards somebody for various reasons.
Wait what? Have these people never heard of Sondheim?
It’s difficult for me to respond. On one hand, I imagine there IS a flow of unpleasant people from sites likes 4chan with the surge of popularity that this show receives. So I do not want to seem like I am denying that.
But forgive me when I say that I can not really emphasize with your sister, based on what you write. Getting worked up over rude comments on the internet (not exactly a rare occurence, especially on vids on currently popular topics, and controversial subjects even as childlish as “X character hate”) is not exactly something one should act surprised about, especially on sites like 4chan, Youtube and DA which are outright famous for this.
I have difficulty finding sympathy for people who take stuff like some troll going to another site to rant about them seriously. It sounds to me like your sister is just as guilty of getting too involved in petty fights.
Again, I apologize, but that’s the honest vibe I get from your writing.
Another thing why I say this is your accusations of mysoginism in “brony pride” comments. It seemed like to start out as a sound complaint about your sister’s commenters, then it got into this speculation about the suspected motives of those commenters. I have difficulty seeing how much of that is the actual comments and how much is your own thinking. It appears – and again, sorry if I’m wrong – that you have a problem with people spamming the memetic “I am male and I like this” comment – annoying, yes (like all fads), but anti-feminist?
Let’s make this clear: MLP is a girls’ show. It acknowledges itself as such. It has sleepovers, characters being fashion geeks, a fairy kingdom ruled by a princess, and ponies. But it does not seem to think that this is a bad thing, and the brony movement does not think that it is either. In fact, the brony community that I know was exactly about that, making a statement that men enjoying an obviously female activity does not in any way make them inferior.
Now, if you think that the very fact that such a statement is neccessary is offensive, then you are not angry at the one smaking the statement but the rest of society. And apparenty the show itself as well, since it embraces the notion of feminine preferences existing.
Of course men lose “masculinity” points for acting aganst the expected role, but I do not see how the fear of that means that either role is preferable to the other! The fans humorously included these things, like enjoying dress ups or cute animals, into the values that ‘real men” will stand up for. If anything it seems like a step in the right direction, so I really don’t get how it could turn into someone seeing it as the opposite.
On the plus side he’s a very polite misinformed customer. He even came back on the same day and everything!
He’s not exactly polite. After all, he continued to look pointedly at Amber when he said “nobody important”. That was kinda rude.
Very off-topic here, but… Amber seems to have really trimmed down lately. It’s bizarre to say this, but I think I actually preferred her slightly more round look….
(How often does THAT happen? A male fan preferring a female character to be LESS trim?)
I thought that was normal. The curves man, the curves.
The other day, when Variety effectively ascribed the fair use victory around FiM YouTube fan activity to what they be ever to be an all-male fandom, I pretty much just wanted to cry.
That, and running into “gee, what do we call lady bronies?” twice in fifteen minutes across two different venues.
So, Willis, dude, thank you for these.
Er, “what they believe to be an all-male fandom.” Stupid overaggressive autocorrect.
Variety thinks the MLP fandom is all-male? Seriously?
Wow, now I kinda understand how “Bleep My Dad Says” got turned into a sitcom, if the entertainment industry is still that confused about how the Internet works.
Well so much for that whole Self-awareness comment I made on the previous comic. I wonder if this guy will ever wake up one morning and realize “I spent two whole days obsessing about the rooted hair of a toy aimed chiefly at young girls” and suddenly feel any sense of shame.
BTW: Has anyone else notice that for a toy store, there are very few children who appear in Shortpacked? I just kinda realized that we rarely see kids appear in the store, but instead we see dozens of adult men bitching about the state of toys to the employees. It kinda makes you wonder if the parents of San Francisco found the idea of grown men hanging out it a toy stores, without their own children, and bitching about the state of toys, somewhat creepy and now refuse to let their kids visit Shortpacked as much…
Probably because a lot of the things characters say and do to customers wouldn’t be funny if the adults said and did them to children. Furthermore, a lot of the funnier customer interaction comes from fans being upset over canon(changes to, deviations from, bad direction choices, etc) and the employees not giving a damn.. Kids are generally much less concerned with things that. The overall focus of the non-storyline comics center on fandom and related issues, rather than actual retail humor.
Though, your theory is kind of amusing to think about.
Also, no. This type fan takes to self-awareness like particularly fussy cats take to water.
I didn’t get the impression that children even liked toys anymore, what with all the cool new stuff there is for them to play with and how appealing it is as a parent to provide an outlet for them to quietly play in the corner without leaving a myriad of items for parents to step on.
I know two children who I’ve seen with a toy at any point. Their father is a toy and comics collector the type of which is often lampooned in Shortpacked!. He drops them off periodically hoping to get the kids interested. They’re not.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are still children who own toys somewhere, but if I’m being frank I don’t question it when I walk through the toys aisle at my local walmart and there’s no one under twenty in there.
Then again, I can’t actually recall the last time I stepped into a dedicated toy store. I was a child myself at the time, so perhaps it’s not as I picture it at all. I tend to picture it being about the same as my local comic book stores. Not the kind of place you’d really want to take a child. You might go there to pick something up for them, but you’d never bring a child there. Just far too seedy an establishment with too much potential to expose the child to bad influences. Pretty much like you’re saying about the Shortpacked! store.
Well, when I was a till monkey at a big department store, I worked in the children’s clothes & toys department. The ratio of kids to adults was about 6:4, and I rarely saw an adult that wasn’t buying a toy for a child. But that’s just one shop, I’ll admit.
What we let you keep Strawberry Shortcake?
(gets told Strawberry Shortcake will include samurai swords) Uh, maybe not.
Where does Amber get 90% of the Avengers from? If she’s talking about the movie, then we don’t fully know yet. If she’s talking about the founders, then that’s only 4/5ths. If she’s talking about the cartoon, then that’s only 7/8ths. If she’s talking about the comics, then it’s usually less than half.
For the record, part of what makes my “Riding Along with Twilight Sparkle Scooter” so cool — well, after the safety helmet, since it has an opening for her horn and everything — is the rooted hair makes it easier to imply that she’s driving dangerously fast, forcing her cat to hang on for dear life and OH MY GOD WATCH OUT FOR RARITY!!! AUUUUUGH!!
So some guys dig the rooted hair. That’s all I’m saying.
(Seriously. The helmet sold this figure.)
I, for one, never *needed* rooted hair to play with MLP figures. I had epic battles between armies of Carebears, MLPs, GI Joes, Go Bots, and Transformers when I was a kid.
It’s true, though. In my country, even G3 stuff is cluttering the shelves everywhere, and the new rooted-hair ponies from FiM are not selling either… but the plastic-haired mini-PVCs? Sold out in a week. (In no small amount to me receiving emails from GUYS everywhere to buy a Fluttershy for them…
)
I almost wish this strip had occurred during a weekly schedule, just so that there actually would be a “Tuesday”. The first two panels are still ranking favourites, though.
I think Tuesday’s strip should have been the same as Monday’s, except the guy isn’t there. Just three panels of Amber standing there working.
DAMN YOU! i have been sleepless for the better part of a week… i just found the site
xD awsome
Whoa, remember when I did that with Roomies, back when It’s Walky had barely gotten started.
One little criticism: It’s not DAMN YOU!
It’s: DAMN YOU, WILLIS!
Close, it’s “DAMN YOU WILLIS”. No comma, no exclamation point. Loud but flat.
When I first discovered It’s Walky!, I spent the better part of the finale damning Willis under my breath. It wasn’t until later that I discovered it’s a fandom tradition.
I like the rooted hair just fine, what bugs me is the fact that Twilight Sparkle’s hair has too much pink in it and that her head’s always a slightly different color from her body. And that pink Celestia, yeesh.
Hahaha, my little pony. Ruted Hair FTW!
So why do many male Transformers love this and put them in their avatars in discussion forums? Makes about as much sense as people He-Man fans wanting She-Ra figures. Oh wait..
Man, you should have seen the crapstorm that was kicked up by male fans when Mattel gave the new She-Ra rooted hair.
I think I know whats best for toy lines. I’m 24, therefore I’m a male age 18-30, who should be the primary audiance for any toyline, with females secondary and children last. And, as a male age 18-30, I know what’s best for a toyline. And what’s best is show accuracy.
To be fair, I don’t think females will be back down to 1/7 of the Justice League until August 31.
HA! I know what you mean about a, um, certain segment of the fandom. This is why I prefer Ponygoons when it comes to discussing FIM, they’re generally nice folks (helps that it’s heavily moderated to keep inappropriate stuff out).
For the record, I have no interest in the toys whatsoever. I just like the show. To each its own, I guess.
I prefer the molded hair but a lot of people like the rooted hair and in all fairness it was there first so if they’re only going to do one version it should be rooted.
Granted I’d buy the hell out of more molded hair ponies.