I know, I know, this probably was brought up a dozen times. Chillax, broughham! I just want to share with you my theory as to why bronies are the target of certian subjects and as a majority. I can see why anti-bronies have no purpose as to target female viewers, but it's the male fans who seem to be the center of everything bad the anti-bronies have to say. What inspired me to write this up was a video on Youtube (which I will not show for purposes), basically humiliating the cloppers of the fandom. Please note, I have no problem with cloppers, but I for the most part disagree with it. Goes without saying, I scroll down to the comment section with no real surprise, seeing both sides going at it like cats and dogs fighting over a piece of cheese. I see comments that say, "If you are a Brony you are a ****** regardless of whether or not you are a homosexual. I watched a few episodes of my little Pony, largely because my initial reaction to Adventure Time, now one of my favorite shows, was to think it was rather gay. Given the diversity and size of the fan base, I was honestly surprised to find in My Little Pony nothing exceptionally creative or original. I can see why girls 13 and under would dig the show, but I can only imagine that it's male following is composed of people who simply want to wank to these animations. Disgusting!" Or "Never have I met a normal brony they're all beta males with some sort of mental problem" I'm not exploiting the opposite side, nor am I stirring up any controversy among this fandom! This is just leading up to what i'm going to say! Now if you have noticed, the comments are getting harsher and harsher as the fandom grows bit by bit. When we bronies think "cloppers", we think that side of the fandom. When a non-brony hears "clopper", they think the majority of us are the same. True, that we have people on this forum and in the fandom who may and may not have clopped before, but it doesn't mean all of us do. Get it yet? If not, i'm going to go ahead and use an example you may not like, and hopefully not mind. Ttust me, if you do the comparison, you can see what i'm getting at: Justin Bieber, a once known pop icon, now most likely the most hated celebrity to ever walk the stage. What do you think possibly gave him such a terrible image in the first place? Well, think back when Justin started his career. When he started his career, he was just that adorable kid who loved to sing, and i'll admit, his singing used to be pretty good! Now what do you think circulated, coming from the demographic mind of people who barely knew Bieber? You guessed it. A few people called him "gay", it spread throughout the internet, and eventually, a whole thread of venomous haters decided it would be cool to take the words from someone elses mouth into their brains, and instantly hated him. Why...? Because my friends, it was "trending". I know, this is pretty irrelevant to the topic, but hear me out. compare his past demons with the fandom of MLP. Bronies originated on 4Chan as a joke, but it blasted back in their faces when it came to show, there WERE fans of the show! Like Bieber's career, MLP has recently climbed it's way to the top of the list of fandoms around the internet. In the same way, the fandom began to get it's own doses of venomous haters...coming up with remarks such as "******" or "cloppers". You see what I mean? People target the fandom...because it's trending! You see, some people barely know a thing about the fandom, and only observed by what they seen rather than have empathy hoping to gain more attention from fellow antis. "Tell me something I don't know, HomuKitteh..." I know, that's what you were thinking and possibly hoping for a less vague conclusion. People have their opinions, but calling bronies "cancers of the world" is taking it a bit far, don't you think? Eventually, when there is something else trending that takes MLP's place, it will get the same amount of hate just like this one.
I can basically sum up your opinion in this one sentence, People pick on bronies because they are different. When the average person thinks about a man, they assume thet are into cars, robots, weapons, war, masciline things. When the average person thinks of a girl they think of dolls, ponies, horses, babies, cleaning etc. If anything falls out of line with that view on genders, which is basically known as Pink and Blue, then it is considered wrong to them and therego should be feared. This is where the ugly insults or comments or stone age minded opinions come in. People forget that the world is changing, it always has, but change is scary to them, so they cling to what they know and what they were raised in. I find it funny, I was picked on in middle school because I loved drawing dragons, robots, cyborgs or heros for fun. I do it to this day and I'm not picked anymore for it. So why is it that men are being picked on for liking this show? Its an unfair level of equality here. Men and Woman tend to be segregated on their differences, and not being viewed as equals. But that is slowly changing with the movement of all sex rights. Change is bound to happen, we must keep up with it, or be left behind. And if you are left behind, its those people that will be feared and hated on by the rest. As for Justin Beiber, its nothing to do with whether or not I think he's gay or his music is gay, I never thought that way about him as he got older. What I hate about him is that he's broken the law and set a bad example for his fans. He used to be such a good kid, but obviously the fame has gone to his head, which happends with anyone. However when you choose to be famous and being in front of the public eye all the time, its just common sense to keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble, if you don't, you face the consequences just like he did. My nephew is a good boy, he's a brony and I'm taking him to the TX BronyFair this year. Gentlecolts, there is no shame in liking what you like, stand proud.
I can't agree more to this! I worked a good 15 minutes on this thing. xD Your nephew sounds cool. ^-^
People have hated us for the same asinine reason since the beginning; any man who dares to like girly things is a f*****, because as we all know, one's sexuality is completely tethered to one's interest in children's cartoons...at least, that's how it works from an idiot's P.O.V. Regarding popularity, I don't think there are too many folks out there who hate us just because MLP is getting popular; rather, the larger the fandom grows, the more aware of it the public becomes, alerting more and more conservative hicks out there to our presence and increasing our 'haterbase'. That's just People 101, I guess, but luckily the U.S. seems to finally be catching up with the rest of the developed world, and the voices of social liberals are slowly-but-surely beginning to drown out those of the very same social conservatives who try to anchor people to outmoded gender roles. What's really funny about that: Pink actually used to be considered a highly masculine color. Back in the '80s, if you were a little boy with a hot pink bicycle, nobody thought you were "gay" - they thought you were the coolest kid on the block. Kind of funny how people's perceptions of what's masculine/feminine changes over time, yet the level of ire with which people regard you for not falling into the "correct" category is just the same as it ever was.
I can semi-agree with this. I go on /mlp/ which is on 4chan every other day. Usually for a good laugh. Also with the hate, I think it is pretty funny because of how ignorant people who hate the fandom are. Most of them can't even put up with a good argument about why and how they hate bronies and the fandom. Also, in total honesty, I think it is also pretty funny that the stereotypical image we make of our selfs or particularly the Male viewers are Fedora Wearing Neckbeards with Cheetos on our hands. And to put this out there, cloppers aren't bad at all. A good friend of mine is a clopper and I don't think any less of him, same with gays. He might like things that others don't but we still shouldn't shun them away, because some of them are pretty damn cool. Groups like these make me laugh: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ATBA#
People pick on that which is different. In fact, members of our group are guilty of it, even as they take the same scrutiny. There are a lot of bronies, for example, who will have a bad opinion of furries... without having personally known any or bothering to really talk to them, (because they're strange.) Guilty too, are some furries, who pick on bronies for... well, basically the same reason. Which is odd, since you'd think that both the groups would learn that it's silly to bash on someone for liking something different from what you like. Since we like something that is "strange to like" to normal society, we are then targeted by more conservative minded people in society, who generally learn these traits from the previous generations. There are a lot of groups like that though. LARP'rs are always shown at their goofiest, and made fun of for doing something they genuinely enjoy. I'm sure the rest of you can think of a number of examples as well. However, I immediately compared Furries and Bronies because they're both very similar... in the fact that public perception demonizes them mostly because of fanart which some of the fandom's artists provide. So really... if you're in a niche group... it's a target. There are many groups like bronies in that sense.
I'm going to quote my post from the Grayson thread because it also applies to this one, and pretty much all conflict and strife. So in other words, bronies are easy targets because it's grown men being very passionate about something intended for little children (possibly little girls, but this generations is more gender ambiguous in its targeting). Some outsiders look at bronies being passionate about something that, in their experience, they "shouldn't" be passionate about, and in response to this new, unfamiliar concept, they lash out with an intent to do harm rather than try to understand it, or even try to understand that they can't understand it.
Adult Grown Males + Show for Children = Paedophile. That's just how most closed-minded people look at it.
Despite the fact that Friendship is Magic was made to be a family show, most people still view it as a show exclusively for little girls. Any teen or adult that watches a show for little girls is perceived as either immature or weak, and it is human nature to target the weak.
I resent most of that theory, especially the Justin Bieber analogy. However, the parts I resent are also the parts that (for me, at least) ring true. Like the part about bronies being beta males or having mental issues. I fit that criteria, unfortunately. I have real difficulties in attracting a female mate. I'm a Narcissist, a Machiavellian, and a Misanthropist. Such accusations really make me feel ashamed, especially when they're true. On the other hand, such accusations also make me extremely angry. Remarks like those only incur my wrath and feed the flames of my rage. Alas, there is nothing I can do about it. There is nothing anyone can do about it. I guess persecution is the cross we all have to bear. I just wish it wasn't so. "Pray not for easy lives, gentlemen. Pray to be... stronger men." - John Fitzgerald Kennedy
