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glitter_n_gore) wrote2012-12-13 09:20 pm
glitter_n_gore) wrote2012-12-13 09:20 pm
Entry tags:
Ponyacolypse Now: Rise of the Bronies
First, a bit of background:
When I was little, I had a healthy-sized collection of My Little Ponies. Still do--let's be honest. One particular collection, the Sparkle Ponies, was very special to me because Mom used them as rewards when I did well in school. One at a time, she put each of the ponies on top of the refrigerator, and if I had good grades and good comments from my teachers at the end of the week, she'd take that week's pony down and give it to me. I loved those Sparkle Ponies not just because I'd earned them, but because they were space ponies, and that was awesome. (In retrospect, I don't know if they were actually from space, but that's what I decided. Because space ponies are awesome.)
I also had the castle with the working drawbridge, and I still remember how the heirarchy was ranked in my collection. When I turned . . . 8, I think? I had a pony-themed birthday party with official My Little Pony paper plates and cake and party favors, and real live ponies for me and the rest of the kids to ride in the park.
I never watched the show that was on at the time. I think I tried to once or twice, but I just got bored. I was always more interested in shows like Thundercats and later Inspector Gadget; when it came to the Ponies, I prefered to make up my own adventures in the privacy of my bedroom.
Fast-forward to mid-April-ish of this year, when I started to watch the rebooted My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This newer incarnation of the show is the brainchild of Lauren Faust, formerly of The Powerpuff Girls and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. I became interested based on the sheer amount of buzz the show was getting on the Internet, and lo and behold, I was hooked in one episode flat. Friendship is Magic, in my opinion (and the opinions of countless others) is a vast improvement over the previous incarnation of the franchise due to its intelligent script writing, memorable cast of characters and streamlined animation, and all those things contributed to its success and popularity.
However, that's not what so remarkable about it. I'm talking, of course, about the Bronies.
The term "Brony" refers to a particular type of fan--teenaged and adult males--who falls far outside the show's target demographic of elementary-age girls. I'm told that the word itself--a mashup of "bro" and "pony"--isn't actually gender-specific, and can apply to anyone who isn't a young girl and loves the Ponies despite not fitting into the target demographic. Eh, I'm not sure I buy that, and there are lots of negative connotations associated with the term that I won't get into here, but I think the male audience garners some discussion due to the simple fact of its existence.
One of the things writers of YA fiction--particularly female writers, particularly those whose works feature female protagonists--hear over and over is that our audience is predominantly, if not exclusively, female. Which is fine I guess. However, the other half of that observation says that while young girls (and in fact women of all ages) are perfectly happy to read a book, or watch a show, with a male protagonist, boys (and in fact men of all ages) are decidedly less happy to read a book, or watch a show, with a female protagonist. As the Nostalgia Chick says in her vlog about the Smurfette Principle, "Women write stuff for women, and men write stuff for everyone." At least, that's the assumption.
I mentioned this in passing in my post about The Hunger Games. The reason I'm bringing it up is because the Pony fandom completely blasted the assumption apart--and to my knowledge, it's the first show of its kind to have ever done this. There are always exceptions, and The Hunger Games is a good example in that the fandom has attracted male and female fans despite the protagonist being a girl. However, it's also not marketed to a very young, female audience.
So, where did this phenomenon come from? Is the show any good? Well--yeah. YMMV and all that, and the episodes themselves aren't all flawless, but I recommend checking it out. It's didactic without being preachy, female-centric without shoving the characters into traditionally "feminine" roles, funny without being crude,and highly entertaining to watch. But does all that warrant its sudden trendiness and popularity with the adult male audience? There's an interesting article here at The Daily Dot, about a pair of scientific researchers looking into the subculture that they understandably describe as "cult-like."
Something happens when a show, or a movie, or a book, becomes trendy, whether via the Internet or elsewhere in fandom culture. At first, just a few people are into it, and then for one reason or another, the interest in the thing starts to spread beyond its initial perceived audience. When it spreads, the initial attraction people had to it can become almost secondary to the stuff that goes in the fan community: fanart, fanfiction, alternate continuities, and other really weird, disturbing shit that I'm not going to get into right now.
There's also a lot of fandom-related discord that just makes me sad--and this, in addition to other things, is why I don't actively participate in fandom that much anymore. The Internet just turns people mean real fast. Suffice it to say that for some reason, when a given fandom reaches critical mass, it just cannot get along with itself--especially when that fandom contains members of all genders. I have some further opinions on that as well, but for the purposes of this blog post, I'll leave it there for now.
Here's the thing: when girls express interest in a show that's marketed to boys, it's not a huge deal. It's because the show is cool, and that's assumed and accepted and unquestioned. When boys express interest in a show that's marketed to girls, it's a Pop Culture Phenomenon. And what disturbs and fascinates me about the Brony phenomenon is that, in every single newsbyte I've seen about it, whether online or in the actual newspaper, no one asks whether the show is any good. Not a single one. All they ask is why the boys are watching.
Just something to think about.
Last book read: Shine, Shine, Shine, by Lydia Netzer
Currently on: American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis
When I was little, I had a healthy-sized collection of My Little Ponies. Still do--let's be honest. One particular collection, the Sparkle Ponies, was very special to me because Mom used them as rewards when I did well in school. One at a time, she put each of the ponies on top of the refrigerator, and if I had good grades and good comments from my teachers at the end of the week, she'd take that week's pony down and give it to me. I loved those Sparkle Ponies not just because I'd earned them, but because they were space ponies, and that was awesome. (In retrospect, I don't know if they were actually from space, but that's what I decided. Because space ponies are awesome.)
I also had the castle with the working drawbridge, and I still remember how the heirarchy was ranked in my collection. When I turned . . . 8, I think? I had a pony-themed birthday party with official My Little Pony paper plates and cake and party favors, and real live ponies for me and the rest of the kids to ride in the park.
I never watched the show that was on at the time. I think I tried to once or twice, but I just got bored. I was always more interested in shows like Thundercats and later Inspector Gadget; when it came to the Ponies, I prefered to make up my own adventures in the privacy of my bedroom.
Fast-forward to mid-April-ish of this year, when I started to watch the rebooted My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This newer incarnation of the show is the brainchild of Lauren Faust, formerly of The Powerpuff Girls and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. I became interested based on the sheer amount of buzz the show was getting on the Internet, and lo and behold, I was hooked in one episode flat. Friendship is Magic, in my opinion (and the opinions of countless others) is a vast improvement over the previous incarnation of the franchise due to its intelligent script writing, memorable cast of characters and streamlined animation, and all those things contributed to its success and popularity.
However, that's not what so remarkable about it. I'm talking, of course, about the Bronies.
The term "Brony" refers to a particular type of fan--teenaged and adult males--who falls far outside the show's target demographic of elementary-age girls. I'm told that the word itself--a mashup of "bro" and "pony"--isn't actually gender-specific, and can apply to anyone who isn't a young girl and loves the Ponies despite not fitting into the target demographic. Eh, I'm not sure I buy that, and there are lots of negative connotations associated with the term that I won't get into here, but I think the male audience garners some discussion due to the simple fact of its existence.
One of the things writers of YA fiction--particularly female writers, particularly those whose works feature female protagonists--hear over and over is that our audience is predominantly, if not exclusively, female. Which is fine I guess. However, the other half of that observation says that while young girls (and in fact women of all ages) are perfectly happy to read a book, or watch a show, with a male protagonist, boys (and in fact men of all ages) are decidedly less happy to read a book, or watch a show, with a female protagonist. As the Nostalgia Chick says in her vlog about the Smurfette Principle, "Women write stuff for women, and men write stuff for everyone." At least, that's the assumption.
I mentioned this in passing in my post about The Hunger Games. The reason I'm bringing it up is because the Pony fandom completely blasted the assumption apart--and to my knowledge, it's the first show of its kind to have ever done this. There are always exceptions, and The Hunger Games is a good example in that the fandom has attracted male and female fans despite the protagonist being a girl. However, it's also not marketed to a very young, female audience.
So, where did this phenomenon come from? Is the show any good? Well--yeah. YMMV and all that, and the episodes themselves aren't all flawless, but I recommend checking it out. It's didactic without being preachy, female-centric without shoving the characters into traditionally "feminine" roles, funny without being crude,and highly entertaining to watch. But does all that warrant its sudden trendiness and popularity with the adult male audience? There's an interesting article here at The Daily Dot, about a pair of scientific researchers looking into the subculture that they understandably describe as "cult-like."
Something happens when a show, or a movie, or a book, becomes trendy, whether via the Internet or elsewhere in fandom culture. At first, just a few people are into it, and then for one reason or another, the interest in the thing starts to spread beyond its initial perceived audience. When it spreads, the initial attraction people had to it can become almost secondary to the stuff that goes in the fan community: fanart, fanfiction, alternate continuities, and other really weird, disturbing shit that I'm not going to get into right now.
There's also a lot of fandom-related discord that just makes me sad--and this, in addition to other things, is why I don't actively participate in fandom that much anymore. The Internet just turns people mean real fast. Suffice it to say that for some reason, when a given fandom reaches critical mass, it just cannot get along with itself--especially when that fandom contains members of all genders. I have some further opinions on that as well, but for the purposes of this blog post, I'll leave it there for now.
Here's the thing: when girls express interest in a show that's marketed to boys, it's not a huge deal. It's because the show is cool, and that's assumed and accepted and unquestioned. When boys express interest in a show that's marketed to girls, it's a Pop Culture Phenomenon. And what disturbs and fascinates me about the Brony phenomenon is that, in every single newsbyte I've seen about it, whether online or in the actual newspaper, no one asks whether the show is any good. Not a single one. All they ask is why the boys are watching.
Just something to think about.
Last book read: Shine, Shine, Shine, by Lydia Netzer
Currently on: American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis