Twisted Appropriation or Why Bronies Really Bug Me

I must first begin with a disclaimer: there is a good deal of rant in the post that follows and for that I apologize. When I was first told that there was a growing movement of male fans of the latest Disney princess movie Frozen who had begun to draw attention to themselves and be associated under a seemingly unironic name of “brozen,” I shuddered. I literally had a physical response of repulsion to the very idea. I certainly don’t mind if men are fans of something that’s traditionally marketed for female audiences; in fact I find the whole gender-specific media marketing problematic in its own right, though that’s another discussion entirely. But the thought of adult men invading a space meant for young girls, defining themselves as special fans because they’re defying gender roles, and making the fandom uninhabitable for the very audience it was originally created for pushes me past my breaking point. Of course this scenario should sound familiar; it’s exactly the same phenomenon as the “brony” fandom – a rather large group of adult men who proclaim to be fans of cartoon ponies. In general I guess you could say that I have a distrust of this brony ideology. So when I learned that the brony fandom had deliberately gone against the wishes of a mother and her ill son, I decided that I had enough.

In the latest episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – a cartoon about magical ponies who join together in friendship that embodies many feminist and empowering female ideologies – a teenager with spinal muscular atrophy and other life-threatening conditions had his pony original character (OC) written into an official episode as a part of the Make A Wish Foundation. As a long time fan, Sylvain Portelance wanted his character, Stellar Eclipse (which is pictured above), and his physical disability (he uses a wheelchair much like his pony) to be represented in the show. However when bronies began to create pornographic images featuring his character and just generally discus him inappropriately, Sylvain’s mother posted a message to the fandom reminding them that he was a minor and that he didn’t want his wish and contribution to be portrayed in such a way. But how did the bronies (especially those of 4chan’s /mlp/ forum) respond? They made more of it, said he should be flattered that his OC was being used in such a way, and disregarded the mother’s requests in typical troll fashion. Many of those not directly involved chose to devote their time to insisting that bronies “aren’t all like that” rather than working within the community to teach the others why they were being inappropriate.

This recent incident exemplifies the disrespect and callousness that runs so rampant within the brony community. Being racist and homophobic, taking characters designed to be positive role models for children (and young girls in particular) and attaching sexualized and misogynistic themes to them, making browsing the internet for anything MLP related unsafe for children, and harassing minors are all on their metaphoric “rap sheets.” But the brony fandom’s first and original offense began will always be the appropriation of a series meant to empower young girls and essentially making it hostile and unwelcoming for those who don’t fit with them.

Strangely in video games I often see this sort of “hostile takeover” occurring in mock video game playthroughs or reviews. It is not often that games are marketed and designed specifically for girls. Those that are generally revolve around some traditionally associated aspect of conventional femininity – dress-up or beauty games, games that involve caring for animals (especially horses), and simulation games like Cooking Moon are often what are labeled as “games for girls.” But recently after attempting to rediscover a favorite childhood horse game of mine (I was a rider and fanatic and so combining a love of horses with games was a great thing for me), I encountered a variety of adult male YouTube users who broadcast “let’s plays” of these sorts of games with “humorous” commentary. Some of their points are valid critiques of the game’s mechanics, rather ridiculous dialogue or the story. But more often than not they would attack the game as being “stupid” or terrible without ever considering that they are far removed from the game’s intended audience. Designed with stereotypical girl interests or not, these are still games that girls want to play (I for one was so interested in horses that I even played games like Barbie Horse Adventures when I generally disliked the Barbie mystique) and validate them as gamers. But there are generally few or no genuine playthroughs of these games compared to those being played to mock them which can contain any number of inappropriate themes. And more often than not these jokes seem like veiled ways of trying to defend their masculinity while they customize their riding outfits.

What might have once been safe places, mediums, and fandoms for young girls now seem to be thrown by the wayside as they continuously get invaded by adult men who claim them for themselves and twist it to meet their wants and needs. So while women and girls are continuously degraded as being “fake gamer girls” or harassed for attempting to participate in historically male-dominated mediums, brony groups and these gamers may be praised for defying gender norms and taking the fandoms away from the very people they were once created for.

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