You know that part in an alien invasion movie where a soldier will kill a giant monster in a really cool way and quip, "I love this job!" I can only imagine sociologists had the same reaction the first time a colleague mentioned the concept of a "Brony." A Brony, for those who don't know, is an adult male fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I'll let Wikipedia explain further:Two informal surveys of about 2,300 and 9,000 participants, respectively, revealed that the average age for the older fans was around 21, that approximately 86% were male, and that 63% were currently pursuing a college degree or higher.In the past I have tried, and failed, to understand Twilight fans but in fairness it was never going to be my world. This time though? I'm WELL over 86% male and I have two college degrees! So at the risk of being judged by an inanimate object I told TiVo to grab the next episode of Friendship is Magic so I can see if I can see what the fuss is about and take a step towards understanding such a seemingly bizarre social group.
In the words of Dean Pelton, "I hope this doesn't awaken something in me..."
Play...
0:01 - Okay, first hurdle of understanding has been cleared...oh, and coincidentally the first scene is a pony jumping over hurdles. Anyway, as someone who grew up in the 80s and early 90s (aka the 1980s of the 1990s) my familiarity with My Little Pony is from the theme song which would play during the commercials and be relentlessly mocked on playgrounds around the English-speaking world ("my little pony, skinny and boney" etc). This show starts out with the same Disney princess soundtrack for a few seconds before going "hey, can you hand me the pop-punk shaker? Thanks *sprinkle sprinkle*" If you know the chorus to "Sk8er Boi" then you can't really be embarrassed by this theme song. That was one of my very first thoughts, "how are these guys able to sit through that theme song?" Now I know, not as hard as you'd think. Only thing is I was hoping the intro would answer whether this show has a villain or not, but I'm still unclear on that so far.
0:01 - Oh and we have our first ad break. Completely forgot how many ads kids' shows have. Excuse me, shows DESIGNED for younger audiences.
0:07 - This already has more depth and complexity than I was expecting. Ponyville's resident athlete, Applejack, is on her way to the big rodeo and is under pressure from her family to perform her absolute best, from the town leadership to win lots of money (she's already pledged her winnings to fix the town hall) and from her friends to have fun and make the most of the experience. Did not expect to get to use my Sport Studies degree to see parallels with the pressures faced by high-level athletes in a show about magical horses.
0:09 - Now she's sent word back that she won't be returning but will send the money soon. Her friends have decided to head out to find her and see what the problem is. Yes, I can see exactly where this is going, but I also once predicted at the beginning of a Disney Channel show I'd never seen that two characters would surprisingly kiss at the end of the episode, to the surprise of my friend who watched the show regularly. So I won't get confused about the appeal YET, because it might just be that I have magic powers in regards to plot predictions. My Mom certainly does, so it could be inherited.
0:09 - Oh, and another commercial break! There's an ad for "slushy magic" that's already giving me an ice-cream headache just looking at it.
0:16 - Yikes, I think I might have been wrong. Naturally I assumed Applejack did poorly and was afraid of letting everyone down, but instead she kicked ass and took a job at a cherry orchard. Her friends are sticking around to find out what she's not telling them though, so *fingers crossed* I could still be partially right! On another subject, I wonder if the writers come up with suitably whimsical things on an episode-by-episode basis or if they have a big list of jobs and locations that are properly whimsical for the characters to be engaged in.
0:19 - While the other ponies use their hooves like hands and pick stuff up to manipulate it, one of them can levitate stuff and just does that all the time with everything. Makes her seem really conceited. Yes, if I could levitate things I'd do it all the time too, and yes I just got really catty about a magical animated pony. Whatever *Z snap*
0:24 - After refusing to answer any questions about why she won't go back to Ponyville, Applejack is now escaping in a horse drawn wagon after attempting to ditch her friends again. I was going to mention how weird it was that the ponies would be using other horses for transport but then I realized I was essentially describing a rickshaw soooo carry on, I guess.
0:28 - YES! I was RIGHT! Take THAT, uh, easy to follow storytelling? Applejack won a ton of ribbons but didn't come in first in anything so she was worried she'd let everyone down and took the job to try and make up for the prize money she didn't win. Of course her friends are proud of her and super impressed with all the ribbons she won and assure her that "we can always find a way to fix that hole in the roof, but if you don't come back we'll never be able to fix the hole in our hearts." Aww.
I get it! Well, I get why kids would like it. It has a younger-skewing Powerpuff Girls vibe to it, it's fast paced, and has vibrant yet archetypal characters. If I had a niece who wanted to watch a marathon of it I wouldn't be bashing my head against the wall about sitting there watching it. Would I search it out though? Would I buy the show's merchandise and adjust my outward persona to indicate outwardly that I watch the show regularly? No.
So why are guys my age watching it that way? I'm a researcher so I'm not going to do the Fox News thing and go "some might say..." and pretend it's a deep psychological profile that fits every guy who has ever watched an episode of a kids' show. What I WILL do is contrast the moral of this story with what would have happened in the boys' shows I watched.
I kinda knew what was going to happen because I could recognize the storyline of the big event coming up, with all the pressure to succeed, and what happens when you then fall short. In my experience it could be because you're Billy the Blue Ranger and have a big test coming up, so Rita sends down a monster called, I don't know, Exam-antis the praying mantis who asks multiple choice questions. OR the actual Power Rangers episode where Billy gets a B on a test so Rita sends a Bee-themed monster to attack him and destroy his psyche (look it up). The main character has all this pressure and expectation to succeed, they fall short, and they succumb to their worry that the people they care about will be disappointed or upset. Classic storyline.
The difference comes in the angle shown of that storyline. While Power Rangers would focus on the character undergoing the hardship, and place their friends at arm's length and absent from the narrative, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic focuses squarely on Applejack's friends and their reaction to her disappearance. Power Rangers would show visions from Billy's imagination, of his friends laughing at him or being ashamed of him, possibly with wavy lines or soft focus to indicate this was happening in his head. At the end he'd reveal to his friends that's what he thought their reaction would be, and they'd tell him how silly he was to think that and tell him how worried they were when he became distant. Friendship is Magic SHOWS how worried Applejack's friends are, and causes the audience to want to discover "what made her upset?" rather than share the character's fear of "will everyone be mad at me?" It's a subtle difference, but an important distinction. "Boys'" shows that I can remember feature characters suffering through the loneliness and doubt that we have all experienced and has the friendship stuff occur off-screen. When Applejack reveals her shame over not coming in first we all immediately understand because we've all been there, we don't need to see what Power Rangers will show us. Instead, Friendship is Magic shows us the friendship stuff, the part that's usually "off-screen" in real life when you feel alone, the part you don't get to see or notice when it's most important to.
The other important difference is the ending. If a kid on Power Rangers came in second in a karate competition the Rangers would tell them that's perfectly okay, just work harder and you'll come in first next time. When Applejack's friends see all the ribbons she won they're proud without any reservations. In their minds she kicked ass, and deserves praise for it. Is this what guys are getting from My Little Pony that they never got anywhere else? The idea that you can be proud of your accomplishments without having to now be responsible for immediately rededicating yourself to improving upon them in an ever-escalating cycle that never results in satisfaction or a feeling of achievement? I mean, obviously that's not going to be the moral of every episode, but if the overarching message of the show is "it's okay to be happy and to make other people happy and leave it at that" then I actually can see what draws Bronies to it.
The gender identification aspect of Friendship is Magic's male following seems to be the main mystery about it, more than anything age-related. The thing is that isolation and self-doubt are universal problems for everyone but assholes, and assholes exist in all genders, as do non-assholes. Being an asshole, at its base, has nothing to do with gender, or sexuality, or socio-economic status, or nationality, or ethnicity. It has everything to do with a desire for emotional isolation and ignorance, an incapability for empathy, and an unwavering focus on personal material success. I've noticed that when people describe pressure to act "masculine" the behaviors have more to do with being an asshole than anything required of simply being male. The idea that you need to be ruthless to succeed in business has always seemed to me to be more about the business world being ruled by assholes than being ruled by men. Looking at Bronies I don't see a group of guys wanting to act feminine, I see guys enticed by the idea that they don't have to be assholes. Taking the gender aspect out of it, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic reminds me of Chuck, the NBC show about a regular 'nerd' pressed into service as a spy for the CIA. I say 'nerd' because Chuck himself was tall, thin, smart, and handsome and the nerd moniker was more about his resistance to be ruthless than his proclivity for video games. He wanted to be open with his feelings, be with his friends and family, and make sure people were taken care of; everything the ponies of My Little Pony seem to represent. He wasn't in Ponyville though, he was in the CIA where even the women are men, and much if not all of the show's dramatic aspects developed out of that conflict. Chuck fandom doesn't get attention though, because it has guns and beautiful women and explosions and a male main character, but the morals seem to be the same albeit hidden under the codeword of 'nerd' rather than laid bare in magic rainbow-colored girlish delight.
So no, watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic didn't make me a Brony, but it didn't make me wonder what this world is coming to like Twilight did (and still does). Taken at face-value it's the same "sensitive guy" phenomenon that's been around for far longer than I have, and might just be a hyper-reaction to a Gears of War masculine "ideal" that only seems to be becoming more sociopathic. Either way, it's healthier and more enjoyable than watching the waning episodes of Entourage.
Rating: *ding* thumb up.
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