Bronies
This post comes as a sort of follow-up to this old post. In that post, I pointed out that different people have different artistic tastes, and the fact that other people don't enjoy something does not necessarily indicate that you shouldn't enjoy the same thing too. Also, it is questionable whether enjoying something solely because other people enjoy it is really true enjoyment. I suppose a corollary to that is challenging whether disliking something solely because other people dislike it truly means that one dislikes it.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, an animated TV show with a target audience of girls aged 4-7, comes to me as a good example of all this. Despite its young demographic, the show has unexpectedly garnered a massive fan following consisting of older viewers, many of which are male adults. Indeed, the My Little Pony fandom—the members of which identify themselves as "bronies"—has grown to be notorious. I suppose the question I really want to ask is why exactly is it considered necessarily bad or otherwise negative for a person outside of the show's target demographic to enjoy the show.
Like music and paintings, works on television are works of art. They are special works of art in that they appeal both to your senses of sight and hearing at the same time, providing the viewer with a unique sense of understanding about the work's purpose and context. I express repeatedly in my meaning of music post that the most important thing for the audience when experiencing a work of art is what the audience feels. The purpose of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is generally to entertain the audience with a positive, feel-good story. If the audience feels entertained, then that work of art succeeds in fulfilling its purpose. But here's the thing: a work of art's success is individual and subjective to the viewer. What may come as really amusing and entertaining to me may seem completely boring and idiotic to you. This is an inherent and important facet of human individuality, and it's something I have really come to appreciate. If My Little Pony fails to entertain you, that in no way whatsoever should imply that the same would fail to entertain someone else. And even if My Little Pony fails to entertain everyone you know—it would still be wrong to suggest that it shouldn't entertain anyone.
The fact that a work has a specifically targeted audience does not somehow mandate that only viewers in the target audience should like the work. In fact, it is not uncommon to see such viewers. Fandoms consisting of viewers outside of a franchise's target audience is certainly not unique to My Little Pony. Cartoon Network's Adventure Time series is targeted to an audience aged 6-14; however, it has also garnered a fan following of adults (18+). Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Squarepants was originally targeted to an audience aged 6-11, but it too has garnered a large audience aged 18-34, many of which are college students and parents. It works the other way around too. Discovery Channel's Mythbusters was aimed for middle aged people, generally men. Today, it's found an audience across all ages and genders.
Quite frankly, the target audience according to a company marketer might be ages 4-7, but to creators behind the scenes, it is a good idea to make children's fiction appreciable to adults as well, so that they can be entertained while watching it with their kids. This is exceedingly common practice in the children's animation industry—think The Land Before Time (1988), a film that explored issues of prejudice and the loss of one's parents; or Inside Out (2015), a film that attacked issues of depression. While I'm not trying to argue that the themes in My Little Pony are comparable to the deeper, more mature messages of these masterpieces, they do remind us that work targeted primarily to children can be appreciated by older audiences.
The My Little Pony fandom faces a perpetual stream of harsh criticism. What is it that is so different? In my view, there exists an underlying, somewhat subconscious stigma of men associating themselves with young girls. Something about a "grown man liking a little girl's show" really does not sit well with some people. Criticism against the My Little Pony fandom commonly includes statements against fans who create pornographic derivatives of the show, against fans who over-vocalize or attempt to draw mass attention to their enjoyment of the show, and against fans who infuriate non-fans with incessant references to the show. And these are valid points of criticism. I, too, join in this criticism not because I think these people shouldn't be liking My Little Pony, but because these are all rather poor decisions in general. However, I've also observed much more merciless, much less tenable censure (which was, indeed, the catalyst for this post), with some choosing to somehow generalize all outside-of-target-audience My Little Pony fans as basement-dwelling pedophiles.
There is a quote from a National Geographic article called "Teenage Brains" published several years ago I often like to reflect upon. The article is about teenagers and the changes they go through during adolescence. We often characterize teenagers as reckless, impulsive individuals who may be inconsiderate or imprudent. In reality...
The My Little Pony fandom is an eclectic collection of people. An inevitable consequence of being so wide-ranging is that they also include people who, yes, may be may be socially naïve or imprudent or have objectionable tastes and interests (to distinguish this from guilty pleasures: it is perfectly okay to object to things that go against your beliefs or ethics; it is not okay to ridicule someone for enjoying something you don't like from a purely preferential standpoint). It is these people who annoy us, and thus, it is these people who have come to define bronies.
But My Little Pony fans are like teenagers—their troublesome traits don't really characterize the fandom as a whole; rather, they're just what we notice most because they annoy us. These are ordinary people—males and females, students and parents, musicians and artists. Most don't go around publicizing their status to the world (quite the contrary, I would imagine, given the intense criticism), and most do not appreciate pornographic derivatives of the show. As a matter of fact, most bronies I have observed on the Internet despise such derivatives. And really, if you look at any large fandom, you would be naïve to think pornography didn't exist for them too. Moreover, it is incredibly fallacious and rather irresponsible to accuse someone, based solely on their television show preferences, of being sexually attracted to children. Being entertained by something that someone else made—be it a TV show, a piece of music, a book, or a painting—does not even remotely equate to being sexually attracted to it, much less its target audience.
I found out about the My Little Pony fandom when, about 2 years ago, I stumbled upon an artist named Walt Ribeiro. He created these orchestral renditions of popular tracks—I had been searching for the theme song to one of my favorite childhood shows, Code Lyoko, and I found instead his stellar "for orchestra" cover of the song. Ribeiro was quite prolific, releasing a new track almost every week. His other works include a cover of the Pokemon theme song and even "Fireflies" by Owl City. Playing through his creations, I found my two favorites were his cover of the Code Lyoko theme song and his cover of the My Little Pony theme song. These arrangements were the ones that clearly had a lot of time and effort put into them, and they were catchy. Walt Ribeiro's version of the My Little Pony theme song got stuck in my head, so I decided to actually listen to the real thing. The My Little Pony fandom is also home to a trove of unbelievably talented individuals. Visuals like this blow me away, as does a full, 3-minute, entirely-fan-created animation, complete with stunning visuals, original music, and original lyrics.
It may or may not be "your thing." That's completely fine. What you and I are doing when we assume that only young girls should like My Little Pony is stereotyping. We take a situation—that the show was targeted for 4- to 7-year old girls—and oversimplify it to the point where we assume that only 4- to 7-year old girls should enjoy it. Consequently, it becomes almost socially wrong for someone who is male and is not in the vicinity of this range to watch and enjoy the show. The My Little Pony fandom shatters all of sorts of different stereotypes so effectively that it makes us uncomfortable. Instead of people that align with our common assumptions, we find a group of people that radically deviate from those assumptions. It's humbling, really. It reminds us to pay more attention to the people and the things that surround us. It reminds us that as individuals, we each have our own set of things we like and dislike—our tastes. To let these tastes be hijacked by a mindless desire for conformity is an attack on that individuality. Be you. And that's all that ought to matter.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, an animated TV show with a target audience of girls aged 4-7, comes to me as a good example of all this. Despite its young demographic, the show has unexpectedly garnered a massive fan following consisting of older viewers, many of which are male adults. Indeed, the My Little Pony fandom—the members of which identify themselves as "bronies"—has grown to be notorious. I suppose the question I really want to ask is why exactly is it considered necessarily bad or otherwise negative for a person outside of the show's target demographic to enjoy the show.
Like music and paintings, works on television are works of art. They are special works of art in that they appeal both to your senses of sight and hearing at the same time, providing the viewer with a unique sense of understanding about the work's purpose and context. I express repeatedly in my meaning of music post that the most important thing for the audience when experiencing a work of art is what the audience feels. The purpose of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is generally to entertain the audience with a positive, feel-good story. If the audience feels entertained, then that work of art succeeds in fulfilling its purpose. But here's the thing: a work of art's success is individual and subjective to the viewer. What may come as really amusing and entertaining to me may seem completely boring and idiotic to you. This is an inherent and important facet of human individuality, and it's something I have really come to appreciate. If My Little Pony fails to entertain you, that in no way whatsoever should imply that the same would fail to entertain someone else. And even if My Little Pony fails to entertain everyone you know—it would still be wrong to suggest that it shouldn't entertain anyone.
The fact that a work has a specifically targeted audience does not somehow mandate that only viewers in the target audience should like the work. In fact, it is not uncommon to see such viewers. Fandoms consisting of viewers outside of a franchise's target audience is certainly not unique to My Little Pony. Cartoon Network's Adventure Time series is targeted to an audience aged 6-14; however, it has also garnered a fan following of adults (18+). Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Squarepants was originally targeted to an audience aged 6-11, but it too has garnered a large audience aged 18-34, many of which are college students and parents. It works the other way around too. Discovery Channel's Mythbusters was aimed for middle aged people, generally men. Today, it's found an audience across all ages and genders.
Quite frankly, the target audience according to a company marketer might be ages 4-7, but to creators behind the scenes, it is a good idea to make children's fiction appreciable to adults as well, so that they can be entertained while watching it with their kids. This is exceedingly common practice in the children's animation industry—think The Land Before Time (1988), a film that explored issues of prejudice and the loss of one's parents; or Inside Out (2015), a film that attacked issues of depression. While I'm not trying to argue that the themes in My Little Pony are comparable to the deeper, more mature messages of these masterpieces, they do remind us that work targeted primarily to children can be appreciated by older audiences.
The My Little Pony fandom faces a perpetual stream of harsh criticism. What is it that is so different? In my view, there exists an underlying, somewhat subconscious stigma of men associating themselves with young girls. Something about a "grown man liking a little girl's show" really does not sit well with some people. Criticism against the My Little Pony fandom commonly includes statements against fans who create pornographic derivatives of the show, against fans who over-vocalize or attempt to draw mass attention to their enjoyment of the show, and against fans who infuriate non-fans with incessant references to the show. And these are valid points of criticism. I, too, join in this criticism not because I think these people shouldn't be liking My Little Pony, but because these are all rather poor decisions in general. However, I've also observed much more merciless, much less tenable censure (which was, indeed, the catalyst for this post), with some choosing to somehow generalize all outside-of-target-audience My Little Pony fans as basement-dwelling pedophiles.
There is a quote from a National Geographic article called "Teenage Brains" published several years ago I often like to reflect upon. The article is about teenagers and the changes they go through during adolescence. We often characterize teenagers as reckless, impulsive individuals who may be inconsiderate or imprudent. In reality...
"...troublesome traits don't really characterize adolescence; they're just what we notice most because they annoy us or put our children in danger."I like this quote because it represents a bigger idea: that when you regard someone or something as annoying, you tend to focus only on the annoying aspect of that person or thing because it is what occupies your attention the most. Instead of immediately judging people (or groups of people) based on their most shocking, most visible (and often most extreme) qualities, it would do one well to learn more about the qualities that aren't so annoying—that one wouldn't normally pay attention to. You may be surprised.
—David Dobbs, "Teenage Brains", National Geographic
The My Little Pony fandom is an eclectic collection of people. An inevitable consequence of being so wide-ranging is that they also include people who, yes, may be may be socially naïve or imprudent or have objectionable tastes and interests (to distinguish this from guilty pleasures: it is perfectly okay to object to things that go against your beliefs or ethics; it is not okay to ridicule someone for enjoying something you don't like from a purely preferential standpoint). It is these people who annoy us, and thus, it is these people who have come to define bronies.
But My Little Pony fans are like teenagers—their troublesome traits don't really characterize the fandom as a whole; rather, they're just what we notice most because they annoy us. These are ordinary people—males and females, students and parents, musicians and artists. Most don't go around publicizing their status to the world (quite the contrary, I would imagine, given the intense criticism), and most do not appreciate pornographic derivatives of the show. As a matter of fact, most bronies I have observed on the Internet despise such derivatives. And really, if you look at any large fandom, you would be naïve to think pornography didn't exist for them too. Moreover, it is incredibly fallacious and rather irresponsible to accuse someone, based solely on their television show preferences, of being sexually attracted to children. Being entertained by something that someone else made—be it a TV show, a piece of music, a book, or a painting—does not even remotely equate to being sexually attracted to it, much less its target audience.
I found out about the My Little Pony fandom when, about 2 years ago, I stumbled upon an artist named Walt Ribeiro. He created these orchestral renditions of popular tracks—I had been searching for the theme song to one of my favorite childhood shows, Code Lyoko, and I found instead his stellar "for orchestra" cover of the song. Ribeiro was quite prolific, releasing a new track almost every week. His other works include a cover of the Pokemon theme song and even "Fireflies" by Owl City. Playing through his creations, I found my two favorites were his cover of the Code Lyoko theme song and his cover of the My Little Pony theme song. These arrangements were the ones that clearly had a lot of time and effort put into them, and they were catchy. Walt Ribeiro's version of the My Little Pony theme song got stuck in my head, so I decided to actually listen to the real thing. The My Little Pony fandom is also home to a trove of unbelievably talented individuals. Visuals like this blow me away, as does a full, 3-minute, entirely-fan-created animation, complete with stunning visuals, original music, and original lyrics.
It may or may not be "your thing." That's completely fine. What you and I are doing when we assume that only young girls should like My Little Pony is stereotyping. We take a situation—that the show was targeted for 4- to 7-year old girls—and oversimplify it to the point where we assume that only 4- to 7-year old girls should enjoy it. Consequently, it becomes almost socially wrong for someone who is male and is not in the vicinity of this range to watch and enjoy the show. The My Little Pony fandom shatters all of sorts of different stereotypes so effectively that it makes us uncomfortable. Instead of people that align with our common assumptions, we find a group of people that radically deviate from those assumptions. It's humbling, really. It reminds us to pay more attention to the people and the things that surround us. It reminds us that as individuals, we each have our own set of things we like and dislike—our tastes. To let these tastes be hijacked by a mindless desire for conformity is an attack on that individuality. Be you. And that's all that ought to matter.