Bronies, Men Who Dig My Little Pony, Feel Misunderstood

So, what is a brony?

A brony is a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that is outside the target demographic of little girls. Most bronies are friendly teenagers and young adults that simply aren't afraid to admit that they enjoy a show which is innocent, colorful, and funny.

Background

Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise, started in the 1980s, has had several animated television series and direct-to-video movies to help promote and sell the associated toy line collection; over the years, there have been four "generations" of designs and associated characters and settings

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In 2010, Hasbro aimed to relaunch the My Little Pony line, following the success of the re-envisioning of the Transformers franchise, and brought in animator Lauren Faust as the creative developer for the show; in addition to developing the looks and characters to be featured in the toy line, Faust was also tasked with creating a new tie-in show to provide programming for its new cable network, The Hub

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Her characters were designed to challenge the norm of female stereotypes while still keeping the archetypes as familiar figures, and put the pony characters into more adventurous situations than previous My Little Pony works.

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The resulting show, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, was well received by parents, but found another unexpected target audience through the Internet image board 4chan amongst males, many of whom are adults. Quickly expanding through the Internet, the fandom came to use the term "brony" (a portmanteau of "bro" and "pony") to describe themselves.

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The brony fandom is attributed to Faust and her creative team for including strong characters, cross-generational appeal, cultural references, the show's expressive Flash-based animation, and the ability for the showrunners to communicate and reciprocate with the fandom, such as including fan-derived elements within the show. Hasbro was initially caught off-guard by this surprise demographic but have since come to embrace it, leveraging licensing deals to market clothes, media, and other merchandise beyond toys to the older audience

AN UNEXPECTED HOME

The reasons why people enjoy brony fandom are complex, in part because of the gender assumptions surrounding the show and its "intended" audience. The cartoon, as well as its values (caring, generosity, and kindness), is widely seen as being "for girls," so men who like it often are mocked as feminine or childish.

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Bronies fully realize this, which explains why fewer than half of bronies surveyed would be comfortable admitting their broniness. Identity is a tricky thing, and being a grown man wearing a My Little Pony T-shirt can get you harassedit's much easier to find like-minded friends on the internet.

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Bronies who convene online were drawn by the show, but they stayed because they'd finally found like-minded people who share the values behind it.

Brony-ism refers to fans of the new Pony series, not the '80s stuff.

The Bronies in the movie only really go crazy for Friendship Is Magic, which premiered on The Hub in 2010. If you're not familiar with it, its Wikipedia page is massive.

Bronies come in all ages and ethnicities.

The film spotlights a few Bronies from around the world, including a sweet-sounding young man whose Pony fandom upsets his father; a guy in the South who has been attacked because of his passion for Ponies; and a British man with Asperger's syndrome who says My Little Pony has helped develop his social skills.

The series' cast and creators embrace Bronies.

Voice actors John de Lancie (love him) and Tara Strong happily attend the annual BronyCon and are even listed as executive producers of the documentary. Series creator Lauren Faust disapproves of any Brony haters, saying it's important for adult men to be encouraged to be caring, emotional people.

Grown women love Ponies, too.

The BronyCon footage shows plenty of Pony-loving ladies in the mix. Of course, they don't attract nearly the amount of coverage as the guys ...

Bronies are a talented bunch.

The film shows several Pony super-fans who make music about the show, create figures and costumes resembling the characters, organize charity drives for fans in need ... and on and on. While it's hard not to raise an eyebrow at the idea of grown-up, educated men who worship a TV series aimed at young girls, after a while one realizes these guys aren't much different than crazed fans of Star Wars or Harry Potter or Buffy or fill-in-the-blank.

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