I don't much care for the term and I don't know any girls that prefer it. "Brony" is just the entire fandom name as a whole, then there are those who use sub-categories like pegasister, clopper, and so on just to be a little more specific about who they are, at least that's the way I see it.
Let's clear this up first. Just because I am female and like MLP, does NOT in any way mean that I'm 'Jumping on the band wagon'. And the whole 'Brony thing' is NOT because of the 'Men liking something feminine' thing. It's because of the widespread internet attention the show got. Yeah, there are guys that like it. Doesn't mean that the whole community started just because they did... As for the 'Hoenie', that's just pretty rude. It's not nice to refer to ALL females of a single fandom as *****s, especially when the fandom is about a CHILDRENS program. I can agree that Pegasister doesn't fit at all. There might be female fans of the fandom that have a unicorn OC for example, so PEGA (as in, Pegasus) doesn't even make sense. I'd rather just be called a Brony. But I just think you're being plain ignorant and rude.
Rawr....kitty got claws lol jk. I dunno who posted the comment you replied to or really what it was all about, but if they're insinuating that girls only watch the show because a bunch of guys started watching it, well that's just stupid, not to mention sexist. BTW...wtf is a hoenie?
I think the term "hoenie" is just plain stupid and rude. I would never use that. I would call a female Brony by the term "Pegasister" if that was what she asked me to call her (even if a male Brony asked me to call him that, I would do so), but if she tried to correct me on the usage of the term "Brony" when I refered to other female fans who have no preference (which has happened), I would politely tell her that there is really no difference between the words and that every individual has the right to define their own label.
I've been thinking the same thing. I almost don't want to be called brony anymore because the word brings more negative thoughts to me than positive now, but I'll still remain an MLP fan. Perhaps I've been hanging around the wrong kind of people, but that's a topic of it's own.
As long as you're not going to leave anytime soon then I don't think it matters what you call yourself especially if you're still a fan.