My Little Brony: We Appreciate Your… Enthusiasm

No, really. I’m sure the makers of the show are very excited at the massive fanbase My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has generated. And a huge amount of that fanbase are “bronies,” men who hang out on Youtube commenting on every Pony video [I won't link them here, because you can easily find them.]

And that’s fine! It’s fine! A lot of the language around the show has gotten very masculine — talking about being a “man” if you watch the show, calling the ponies “badass” [an adjective arguably associated with masculinity], calling each other “brony.”

And again, that’s fine!

But… Lauren Faust made this show for teh womens [Lauren Faust on Television for Young Girls; she's also quite smart My Little NON-Homophobic, NON-Racist, NON-Smart-Shaming Pony: A Rebuttal]. Lauren Faust created the show in an effort to give young girls positive role models, and show that things that are traditionally associated with women [fashion, pink, and baking] aren’t necessarily crap — to put it into terms the internet likes, things traditionally associated with ladies can be “badass” while still being associated with ladies. You do not have to make them associated with male characteristics [seriously] in order to make them “badass,” AND they do not have to be associated with women, either, obviously.

That’s one of the kinds of things feminism tries to fight, anyway.

My point here is that the language around this show is starting to get a little… exclusive. As though to say, “Hey, ladies, this is, like, duder territory now. Butt the fuck out because you’re making us look girly.” I mean, don’t get me wrong: IRL, I watch this show with ONLY BOYS [my best friend's favorite is Rainbow Dash.]

Someone also decided shes a lesbian.

But that doesn’t mean that ONLY BOYS watch the show. And because WOMEN watch the show, some of teh menz might feel threatened.

Stop it.

Just… stop that now, and hear me out: just because ladies like it, doesn’t make you less manly. Liking something intended for a women doesn’t make you a woman, it doesn’t make you gay [which isn't even a bad thing, isn't even necessarily a feminine thing, and FEMININE THINGS ARE NOT BAD, AND ARE NOT JUST ASSOCIATED WITH LADIES FOR FUCK'S SAKE. This isn't the 90's people]; liking something intended for women, that women watch, just makes you someone who identifies as male, who likes something intended for women. It’s like my female friend being a gigantic fan of M.A.S.H.: that’s a show that’s OBVIOUSLY targeted at men, starring men, in what was, at the time, a male-dominated field. Liking M.A.S.H. didn’t make my female friend a lesbian, didn’t make her masculine — well, if you want to follow traditional gender lines, then yes, it did.

And you don’t have to watch My Little Pony ironically — that’s just… it’s silly. Just enjoy the show! And stop, like, shoving women away from you going, “NOO, YOU’RE GETTING YOUR VAGINA IN MY PONIES!” Because, guess what, women are on the internet, they watch this show… there might even be one in the room with you… RIGHT NOW.

And she might be thinking about ponies.

Dream on brony, keep watching the show, keep loving it, just remember: you’re watching a feminist show, and loving it… maybe it’s time to rethink your attitudes about feminism and women… and… pink, or something.

I have got to stop…

… reading comments to posts I’m interested in. I’m serious. I know that the world (and especially the internet, due to its anonymity) is full of people willing to say hurtful, bigoted things just because they can, but I get so enraged reading it. The article and subsequent comments that spawned this post is from [I seem to be going here a lot lately] Kotaku, and is an interview with Casey Hudson a “project lead” on Mass Effect 2 [it's a popular game!] The article, The Thoughts Behind Miranda’s Behind in Mass Effect 2, is a follow-up to the article about homosexuality. And the comments… well, here; this is an insightful and self-proclaimed semi-feminist comment from one reader, in which she includes the comments from other readers that she is referring to [in italics]:

“Some of the comments here have certainly made me question my opinion of the Kotaku readership – I feel for those men who are embarrassed and ashamed by the actions of their fellow men. Seems that simply asking questions and sharing an opinion from the unique female perspective on games is offensive enough to warrant insult and ridicule.

For the record, most of you here sound like misogynistic bastards; completely closed off to the idea that women do not experience games (or sexual attraction for that matter) the same way you do from your convenient position of being the major demographic – the ‘catered to’ audience. Women have to slip into your world and find a comfortable position within it all – and sometimes stuff like this just doesn’t sit right – yet by all accounts we’re not allowed to voice that discomfort?

Are we not allowed to validly question developers? Are we are not allowed to see sex differently? Are we all in a time warp and back in the 19-fucking-50′s?

Here’s a choice selection of the bile being spewed by people here. I think it deserves to be highlighted.

“As a side note…speaking as a male, guess what? I look at hot womens’ asses. All the time. If the author was hot, and had a great ass, and she was in my vicinity…I would look at it. That’s just how it works, sorry if you hate men but unless a man is gay, chances are real good he enjoys looking at hot women’s asses.”

“Every single Kotaku article written by a woman, that I’ve read, has been worthless, insipid garbage. This feminist whinefest, and the one before it, is no different … Yeah, it’s true: men like attractive women in tight outfits. Get over it. Or buy yourself some cats.

“if you don’t like miranda’s fake, yet awsome ass, go fucking play Mario. Cunt.”

“Hahahahah! This chick just had her period all over this page and titled it “The thoughts about Miranda’s behind” You don’t get your dick and manass shots because they are trying to appeal to the MASSES with that. If you want to appeal to the MASSES and the MASSES just so happen to be male.”

“No offence Tracy, but you sound like a bit of a Prude … Outside of a few prudish people (many woman I know would have liked that shot, nevermind be bothered enough by it to actually confront the game designer about it in a minorly hostile and judgmental way).”

“Oh, please. Mass Effect seeks to demean all women. Get over yourself.”

“Honestly, all i see in this article is the author putting Hudson on the spot by whining and demanding answers to a completely irrelevant and harmless aspect of the game. It’s ridiculous that this is even an issue.”

“This is exactly why the author isn’t a successful video game developer.”

“This post is nothing but drivel written by someone trying to make a big deal out of nothing.”

“psstt…stfu.”

I am not a feminist particularly, but I too found Mass Effect 2 to be annoyingly sexualised. It detracted from the story, and no, “she was genetically engineered to be that way” doesn’t really excuse zoom in shots of her arse. I was also put off by Jack and Samara for similar reason; lest not forget the succubus daughter.

From Mass Effect 1 – which was an exemplar games where a strong female lead doesn’t have to be about sexual objectification – to Mass Effect 2, where almost every female character has their tits and arse accentuated for ‘fan service’ purposes; it was a step backwards, and Tracey has every right to discuss it, question it and share her opinion of it.

All you sexists who automatically disqualify her opinion because she is female need to wake up to what century you’re living in and perhaps learn that women do not view the world exactly as men do.”

I wanted to scream. Someone writes an interesting article with a well-made, and brief, point, and what happens? Some of the boys feel their fantasy is threatened by the intellectual commentary. Heaven forbid people have a serious discussion about video games–something that a lot of the gamers I’ve met, really, want people to do, so that we’ll all be taken seriously as worshipers of a new art form. And heaven forbid that discussion includes the idea, nay, the fact, that most video games cater to the male perspective.

Here’s a take-home message: It insults your intelligence, guys, that game designers assume that you can easily be drawn into a game from gratuitous ass shots, and tits hanging out everywhere. Why? Because the game designers know that they can be lazy in storyline [which ME2 was] and in character depth [which both ME2 and ME1 were, deceptively--a flaw here or there does not a complex person make [and one dialogue with Joker (in ME1) does not satisfy the Seth Green fans ;_;]. They can make you pay $60 to see an ass you could find for free on the internet, and they’re not giving you a much better story than the porno Pirates.

Okay, so the storyline is better than Pirates, but that’s not the point. The point is, if you stop acting like misogynistic, wiener-brained, dumb-struck “We’ve-never-seen-a-nice-ass-before”-boys, the game designers will have to pick up the slack they made. They will have to start making more creative, and innovative games that appeal to your [and women's] intelligence, not just our genitals. Like Psychonauts. Remember Psychonauts?