Community Post #152 - The Many Colours of Pony #5 - Feminismismismsim

So, New Year! 2016! How about we try keeping my skills as a weirdo that talks way too in depth about colourful ponies as sharp as they can with a little challenge?

And this is something I've thought of doing for a long while. A while back, I did a Community Post on some dumb country song that seemed kinda backwards. I made fun of it because it was a slow week and that was the most interesting topic I'd been exposed to at the time. It's clickbait-y as all hell but I did touch on something I probably out to dive into with this article series thing.

Feminism is kinda rooted into My Little Pony as a whole, for better and for worse. Older series are often remembered as sugary tripe while Friendship is Magic appears to have a far better standing as a positive role model. It was helmed and created by a stated feminist so, it's hard to ignore if you have any kind of interest in media theory.

Let's do it! Let's look at Feminism in MLP:FiM! It shouldn't be too hard!

Girl Power
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Did you know that we're apparently in the Fourth Wave of Feminism? I didn't. I mean, good gravy, isn't that something that ought to be broadcast or something? Like a New Year or a new millennium. "Happy New Feminist Paradigm, Yaaay!". OK, so, it doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

"Woo. Let's get this party...*sigh*'​

What the hell am I talking about? You know, I've re-written this thing about five time to try and get that down to something reasonable and straightforward and failed every time. So, let's keep this short.

A 'Wave' seems to be a general turning point or change in the direction of the social policy movement in question. As far as I can figure out, First Wave Feminism wanted equal rights, Second Wave was gunning for equality in the work place, Third Wave was looking to be more inclusive of more women than just white heterosexual females and gave rise to Queer Theory (transexuals coming up a lot as a place of contention) as well as a lot of talking about porn (seriously, this is still a hot topic for debate (you have no idea how deep this rabbit hole goes!)).

The Fourth Wave has been said to have been going since 2008 to little fanfare. As far as I can tell, Fourth Wave is Third Wave Feminism with a more tech-savvy approach. It's still talking about everything that was important before, just now using Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to campaign about it. To 'call out' misogyny and such by using the Internet as a megaphone.

This is kinda important stuff but don't feel worried if you don't get it right away.​

Caught up? Good. Here comes the ponies.

You see, a cornerstone of what inspired me to write this was this article right here: LINK TO LAUREN FAUST BEING AWESOME. This is in response to a review piece that bashed MLP:FiM that has been quietly lost from the blog for whatever reason. And, it's here that I can get a little backup right from the horse's mouth on what I'm on about.

Pun definitely intended!

OK, a hugely Feminist thing is that Celestia and Luna are female. They're in charge! It's kinda obvious, yeah, but they hold ridiculous power. Would you go up against anyone that could make the sun or moon move by will? Having 90% of the power players in the show be female, including Villains, is profoundly powerful. They have agency over their lands and will actively attempt to improve them wherever they can. Being that it's Equestria, the best improvement is 'stop it from being destroyed' but that's still progress.

Remember, we're in Feminist Media territory and the 'Smurfette Principal' or the Token Girl aspect of other shows is pretty much the exact thing we want to avoid. Our key word for today is a little thing called 'Agency'. That boils down to whether someone takes the initiative to act when and if something needs to be done in any given situation.

The Smurfette Principal is where there is only one female in an all male ensemble.
And they're usually there for variety. Yeash...​

Think of Disney Princesses. How many of them, when presented with an issue, actively attempt to fix or change them? Snow White? Not really, she just kinda runs away. Cinderella? No, she talks to mice and never shows much capability to slap back under abuse.

Mulan though! There's a war but she knows her father isn't up to fight so, she'll do it! Meredith from Brave technically counts. Pixar is still Disney. She's about to be married off so does everything within her power to try and get out of the predicament. Elsa and Anna from Frozen spend most of the movie figuring all the major stuff out. Tangled has exactly one fully-capable male character and he's a horse so Rapunzel kinda has to be somewhat proactive or she won't make it through the movie.

When you're arguing over whether something is Feminist, you ought to look at who is taking action and who is making the decisions. If it's a woman character, then your probably looking at a thumbs up in that respect.

Kinda more than just flicking V signs and wearing clothes.
Sorry, I was reminded of Spice World recently...​

So, back to ponies, the obvious fact that most of the land's leaders are female is pretty feminist. There's no men around and, apart from one princess going a little nuts (but then it can't be easy being an all powerful creature in charge of the night for millennia after millennia), nothing's gone catastrophically wrong. Things are pretty sweet for Equestrians as a whole. So, yay!

Another good set up for 'Hell Yeah! Girls doin' it for themselves' is Rarity and Applejack. Again, it's thuddingly obvious but it's important from this standpoint that two of the characters have businesses. They they take almost full charge of. Applejack is iffier on this front as it's a family business that she runs with her brother and her Granny but that's still feisty Granny Smith at the wheel of a profitable business that's been running for decades. Applejack throws herself into that time and time again, on top of making sure her family is safe, happy and yadda-yadda. She's sort of the mother figure of Applebloom but more because no one else is there to step up rather than it being mandated.

But, it's kinda just...a thing that Applejack does. It informs her character and helps with the caricature of an American Country Girl she embodies. Applejack is all the good stuff from that with the negative elements present but generally down played. So, being hard-working and gutsy in the face of danger is great.

As much as I like Applejack and think she's cool, Rarity is just so much fun though, right?

And here's the balancing act between girly-girliness for the sake of girliness and still being enjoyable. If you actually read the article I just linked, there's a key moment there which indicates something of a struggle between making sure the show is still enjoyable and Hasbro demanding something because a chart said so. Rarity is a battleground we get to hear about in this thing and it's clear she is very feminine. The scale does slide back and forth with the other characters as they embody other archetypes but it's obvious that Rarity is the girliest of them all. She's obsessed with fashion, she loves to be pampered and is as diva-like as possible. Hasbro said from on high that there had to be fashion in here somewhere and that character wound up as Rarity.

In lesser hands, she'd be obnoxious but instead she's tons of fun. Partly because she's allowed to go a little camp and over the top now and again (Tabitha St. Germain helping greatly, like all of the cast do) but we've also got our key word to worry about. Agency is given to the character because, and I quote, Rarity is not shown 'as a shopaholic but as an artist'. This archetype usually just follows trends and buys her clothes that are then cobbled into stunning outfits. She'd be using resources and such but then she'd just be a slave to fashion. She'd only really be wearing clothes others say looks good.

Rarity in a little nutshell. Secondary scene stealer, just behind Pinkie.​

The Rarity we got is creative and actively looks to strike her own style, strutting her own stuff. She's confident in her appearance because she slaved over it. Not for anyone else but for herself. Because she likes it. That's admirable. Heck, the angle of her being highly creative gives her a kind of eccentricity to the character which plays off the other characters in useful ways.

So, one way of building AGENCY, just incase you forgot it's our keyword, is to give the characters a reason to be pushing the plot forwards and accomplishing goals. Applejack and Rarity have businesses and ambitions. Applejack wants to keep the farm going, Rarity has a steadily increasing business to keep going. They both have the need to complete that week's mission from the Cutie Mark Map and to their friends but the basis of their characters is there.

The others are a little simpler but no less kinda pro-feminist. Take Pinkie Pie? Here's a character that looks at what's normal and goes 'What's got a pink mane, sneezes confetti and doesn't give a single care about what anyone thinks of me? This pony!'. Sure, she's the pre-requisite 'kook' that does craaazy things but she goes at it with such gusto, complete with backstory, reasoning and clear motivation that she's just fun. If someone isn't having fun, she fixes that. She has literally made it her mission to keep everyone she knows happy. Everything she does is because it just popped into her head.

AGENCY APPLEBUCKER! DO YOU GET IT?!​

Twilight Sparkle has to save the world. And she gets right on that. Heck! Fluttershy's stories are often about the importance of action and not being lead around when you don't think it's the best for you.

And this is why it's kinda hard to just list off everything with this topic. Essentially, what makes the show 'Feminist' is that it tries to make the characters, who just happen to be female, entertaining and relatable. They feel like rounded people. Sure, they're archetypical but they have little twists and quirks that pull them away from what we expect of a character of that archetype. They're not ground breaking, they're kinda mundane but that might honestly be the bloody point.

OK, take Rainbow Dash. She's plucky, brash but very loyal to her friends. She's tomboyish, but she's not overtly aggressive or anything. She just appears to like competition and performing. But, we've seen that she can be hit with stage fright easily and has a sensitive side that is usually buried deep beneath the tough exterior. She hid enjoying reading adventure novels because she didn't want to be classed as a nerd. Even though she's reading Daring Do and not Dune or a science textbook or something. She's kinda self-conscious, meaning that the opinion of others does matter to her quite a bit. So, maintaining a self-image is pretty important to her.

"And then, Spock approached Dumbledoor and whispered slowly: 'It's illogical that I should feel this way. I-I will do what I must." Dumbledoor nodded and they TALKED ALL NIGHT ABOUT THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS? I can't do anything with this!"​

Now, does that sound like what you'd expect from a multi-coloured pony with wings and a rainbow coloured tail? No. And it's why this show has bloomed like it did. Weirdly, it just does something most other shows struggle to do: make a mostly female cast relatable and entertaining.

Seriously, that's harder for some people to do than it really ought to be for some reason. I could list thousands of examples.

We all know someone that's like Applejack or Fluttershy. Heck! I'm basically Twilight incarnate. Have you missed the wall of text I'm writing right now about something so idiotically trivial just for the sheer hell of it?! While the show has it's faults (and I could honestly write three Community Posts on every one to cover them all) I will shout from the bloody rooftops that the barebones of the show are surprisingly solid. These characters are welcoming, inviting and entertaining. You watch because you want to be around these guys. They're fun, they're enjoyable. They feel like people.

I could prattle on and on about how the female characters have power and do things and blah, blah, blah. That's still a big factor but it's sort of only part of the reason why they work so well. Each character has agency in their stories because their characters have hooks and reasons and motivation to build stories on. There's things we know are at stake whenever there's a problem and so, we hope they succeed.

The big secret is that they're just well made characters. They have flesh. They're not terribly deep but they're enough to work with kinda effortlessly. The thousands upon thousands of fan made content can back me up on that. People love these guys. I love them, you love them. Agency in your characters is a good start and a drive to do stuff is pretty central to anything. Or any character. MLP:FiM is Feminist because it tried to be entertaining to everyone that would give it a shot, rather than trying to actively aim for being empowering...

Women love strippers with guns, right?
(Again, this could be an article all by it's lonesome)
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It's an obvious statement but that's kinda the point. Being Feminist or 'all-inclusive' isn't supposed to be exceptional.

- Recommended Reading

Missed this? Me too...

So, New Year means resolutions and here you can discuss what your planning to do. Give up smoking? Take up the gym? Finish all of 2016 without another one other really cool celebrities dying?

I know, I know. I'm sorry but Alan Rickman, Lemmie and David Bowie? The three of them within roughly the same timespan?! That's too much awesome to just up and vanish like that. They're gonna be missed, just like Terry Pratchett and Christopher Lee last year.

*sniff* Leave your thoughts on Mr Rickman here.

And now, a couple of things that made me think 'What are you sniffing and can I have some too?'. First, a written rap from Morphin' about Twilight. Just, just read it...

And next. Ndog thinking waaaay too much about trying to crack a nut. Really? Really, dude? Really?

Kay...

Queen Cerali is trying out music making. Hey! Musician's and such, how about you take a look, see what she can do with it and improve on, OK?

So, William Shatner in MLP, huh? I can dig it! This guy is a master class in overacting and cheesiness. If they can give him something fun to do, I'd be all over that. Shatner is entertaining, to say the least. Especially when he's looking like an idiot so, go for it!

An example of what I mean? Well...

If you haven't seen this yet, it's a must. There's so much I could show you of this man...
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A mystery unfolds before us as well. Hasbro let this image slip according to this thread:

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They note that it's got hay bales running through Ponyville, which is odd. They wonder if it's for the show but I wonder if it's for an upcoming game. Like a racing game, maybe? Like Ponykart only more likely to be finished.

Here's a thread I like the look of: What foods from your past do you want to come back? It's a fun little question. Good on ya. I'd say I'd like citrus flavoured Polos to come back. Normal Polos are little minty sweets with a whole in. The citrus ones where always the best with their sweet but tangy flavour. I miss them.

Lastly, Morphin' specifically tapped me to show off this little thing.

So, maybe we could try something more fun next time. Oh! I know! How about we see how much Starlight Glimmer's little cult actually follows the Communist manifesto? Could be interesting...