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A few months ago, I became a brony. (Or a filly. Pegasister? What is the presently accepted catchy term for a female adult MLP fan? Do we have a gender-neutral one?)
My nostalgia for the old G1 ponies I'd played with so much in my girlhood was mounting, and reached a critical mass sometime around the point where I kept hearing about how entertaining the new show was, and I finally broke when I found out that the fandom was prolific, enthusiastic, and wrote interesting things. (This is a fandom where I much prefer gen to anything else - and despite the proliferation of shipping fics, I have no trouble finding really good gen. This is a good feeling.)
So, I watched it. And I liked it! Oh, sure, it was unremittingly For Little Girls. I routinely roll my eyes at the sheer proliferation of pink and hearts in the toyline. The characters are drawn in broad strokes, and after watching an episode I can usually find several things about the story and execution that fell flat for me.
But goodness, it was so charming! And even kind of feminist! And the broad strokes the characters are drawn in are entertaining and likable broad strokes! And the main characters even subvert some annoying stereotypes! The book-loving nerd is a take-charge heroine too, erudite and wordy without falling into "impenetrable Hollywood genius speak" or being insufferably superior. The girly clothes-obsessed diva? A designer, who takes her work very seriously and runs her own boutique. It's not like there weren't ever things that annoyed me, but I came to love the show, and I love it still.
But.
Oh, yes, there's a but.
As tends to happen, this new show I liked so much had some Problems.
( Complaining about shows I like: My Little Pony, Part 1: How I Started )
( Complaining about shows I like: My Little Pony, Part 2: The Problem of Derpy )
... Now, I'm probably not going to stop watching. I am in the quandary of the fan of problematic things - my favorite show did something really gross, yet the stories and characters still resonate with me and I still love the art and it's still really cute and enjoyable, dammit. I like it and I like the friendly corners of fandom I've found and I like what I've gotten out of this show, emotionally.
But I'm not gonna ignore that it has problems, either. And I'm going to start talking more about those problems, because y'know what? Silence is support.
(I'm also going to engage in a little Discontinuity to try and make it less awful in my head. It never really happened, or it didn't actually happen that WAY, or Derpy switched her allergy meds and the new brand threw her for a loop. I don't know. I don't want to erase people with mental disabilities, but if that scene is how this show is going to portray someone with a mental disability, then I don't think they should be trusted with characters who have mental disabilities.)
On that note, anyone know how to send a complaint to Hasbro?
My nostalgia for the old G1 ponies I'd played with so much in my girlhood was mounting, and reached a critical mass sometime around the point where I kept hearing about how entertaining the new show was, and I finally broke when I found out that the fandom was prolific, enthusiastic, and wrote interesting things. (This is a fandom where I much prefer gen to anything else - and despite the proliferation of shipping fics, I have no trouble finding really good gen. This is a good feeling.)
So, I watched it. And I liked it! Oh, sure, it was unremittingly For Little Girls. I routinely roll my eyes at the sheer proliferation of pink and hearts in the toyline. The characters are drawn in broad strokes, and after watching an episode I can usually find several things about the story and execution that fell flat for me.
But goodness, it was so charming! And even kind of feminist! And the broad strokes the characters are drawn in are entertaining and likable broad strokes! And the main characters even subvert some annoying stereotypes! The book-loving nerd is a take-charge heroine too, erudite and wordy without falling into "impenetrable Hollywood genius speak" or being insufferably superior. The girly clothes-obsessed diva? A designer, who takes her work very seriously and runs her own boutique. It's not like there weren't ever things that annoyed me, but I came to love the show, and I love it still.
But.
Oh, yes, there's a but.
As tends to happen, this new show I liked so much had some Problems.
( Complaining about shows I like: My Little Pony, Part 1: How I Started )
( Complaining about shows I like: My Little Pony, Part 2: The Problem of Derpy )
... Now, I'm probably not going to stop watching. I am in the quandary of the fan of problematic things - my favorite show did something really gross, yet the stories and characters still resonate with me and I still love the art and it's still really cute and enjoyable, dammit. I like it and I like the friendly corners of fandom I've found and I like what I've gotten out of this show, emotionally.
But I'm not gonna ignore that it has problems, either. And I'm going to start talking more about those problems, because y'know what? Silence is support.
(I'm also going to engage in a little Discontinuity to try and make it less awful in my head. It never really happened, or it didn't actually happen that WAY, or Derpy switched her allergy meds and the new brand threw her for a loop. I don't know. I don't want to erase people with mental disabilities, but if that scene is how this show is going to portray someone with a mental disability, then I don't think they should be trusted with characters who have mental disabilities.)
On that note, anyone know how to send a complaint to Hasbro?
