I have recently begun watching My Little Pony, which is clearly BEST SHOW. But, unfortunately, I began watching it when I was at home with my parents for the holidays. My parents, while lovely people, carry around giant bags of kyriarchal assumptions all the time, and are also rather prone to superfluous geek-punching.
Nevertheless, I was caught up in the fluffy pink stupids of fan-love, and therefore decided to explain to them my newfound love.
Ozy: So I’m watching this new show, My Little Pony–
Parents: Isn’t that a kids’ show?
Ozy: Yes. But lots of people my age watch it. In fact, it’s really popular among geeky college-age men.
Parents: Are they all gay?
Ozy: …no. In fact, they’re mostly straight men.
Parents: I dunno, any guy who’s into My Little Pony seems like he must be a pedophile.
Ozy: >:(
My parents aren’t the only ones who seem to be under the impression that My Little Pony fans are pedophiles. Entering “my little pony pedophile” into Google gets you Fark informing us that the Internet loves MLP because of its fondness for pedophilia, Gothamist calling MLP fans “men who don’t appear to be pedophiles,” and a Steam group that I really, really, really hope is a parody which explains that the only reason for an adult male to like My Little Pony is to reach out to young females.
If you Google “deadliest catch pedophile,” though, all you get is a bunch of people talking about To Catch A Predator.
Stop it, you guys are making Fluttershy cry!
However, all this has enlightened me and brought me to a deeper understanding of gender norms! Men are naturally masculine, and hence like manly things like Deadliest Catch and Transformers and Batman movies. In addition, being masculine is way cooler than being feminine, so if a woman likes Deadliest Catch it’s cool because Deadliest Catch is cool. If a lot of men like watching a feminine thing like My Little Pony +++OUT OF CHEESE ERROR REDO FROM START+++
All right, our systems are back online, except for that one guy whose head exploded from sheer confusion.
So a lot of men like My Little Pony! Of course, it being a cute, funny, well-written show is completely out of the question as an explanation. Men don’t like things that are cute, funny, and well-written! Men like things that are manly! Like Transformers!
Not that kind of Transformers!
However! As we know from EVOLUTION! and also SCIENCE! men are always horny and will have sex with anything. So therefore it is simple enough to explain this bizarre behavior. The men just get off on little girls! And so instead of having sex with little girls they watch a TV show that is directed at little girls! It all makes perfect sense!
The best part is that now that we’ve developed this AWESOME THEORY, we can apply it to all sorts of things people who were born with penises do that confuse or scare us because they don’t fit in our tiny model of how the world works. For instance, crossdressers!
Matt Smith in drag looks so confused. “Why am I wearing a dress? Why are there pearls? WHAT’S GOING ON?”
Clearly, it is never just that men might want to wear skirts. No, crossdressing is always always always a fetish, in much the same way that every time someone wears leather pants it’s a sign that they have a deep-seated leather kink. In fact, it is such a fetish that we can put Transvestic Fetishism in the DSM! Because not only is wanting to wear some kinds of clothing we don’t want you to wear a fetish, but it’s a mental illness.
Not only that, but men who crossdress are clearly weird and creepy and otherwise squicky! All our discomfort with men who break down the gender binary that we think is important is clearly not our own bigotry, it’s a reaction to the simple fact that if you like the way silk panties feel on your cock you are clearly a sexual predator and probably a serial killer.
And what about those bizarre people who are born with penises and think, just because they identify as women, that they’re really chicks? Well, that’s a sexual fetish too: they’re clearly just sexually aroused by the idea of being women. I mean, duh! Women think with their brains, men think with their cocks (because, clearly, all men have cocks!). Men would do any kind of bizarre behavior if it turns them on! Of course!
Fabulous Sir Ian McKellen does not have time for this shit.
So that is how thinking My Little Pony fans are pedophiles links in to transphobia, kinkphobia, and gender-role enforcement, along with probably another thousand cases of pathologization of male gender deviance I can’t think of off the top of my head. So don’t do that shit.
Here, have a picture of Muslim Fluttershy.
My husband knits, and he does all the sewing, I hate sewing and knitting. love to chop wood and get out in nature. He hates to fish, I love it. O cook, my dad said once that about the only thing a man cannot do is become pregnant and have a baby. But he should be able to do ANYTHING a woman can do. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. I love to read Westerns Louis La Amour, Max Brand, E.T Edison, Zane Grey, John Johnstone, that is considered mostly a man thing but I read and… Read more »
Society is warped and tries to set standards for men and women. Girls should wear pink and boys blue. Girls should play with dolls and teddy bears and boys with guns, and trucks. To bad As a child a little girl I hated dolls and stuffed toys, I loved nothing better than playing with toy trucks and cars and climbing trees. I have a grandson who loves his stuffed elephant and he plays with dolls, he plays with trucks and cars too and he has a sister who plays with trucks and cars and likes outdoor things. My husband wears… Read more »
I’d think you’d be more angry about the “grown men trying to hijack a show aimed at little girls” angle, at the very least. Also the creepy. And there’s a lot of creepy. That’s offensive! We’ve successfully hijacked a show aimed at little girls. I keed, I keed. There are two non-intersecting fandoms for the show: the primary target audience, and bronies. Never the twain shall meet, nor do they need to. It is, as has been previously mentioned, a damn good show that is written to appeal to both demographics simultaneously. So there’s no hijacking going on–the show is… Read more »
I think my post was eaten or deleted but I commented how full fledged adults are often able to overcome hang ups about hobbies and such things. For example, my friend was really into knitting and I really like my flowers. If this were 20 years ago (when we were young and really cared about other people’s perceptions) we’d probably to afraid to even consider these as things men can enjoy. Now it’s completely a non-issue.
My high school had a pretty impressive turnout for knitting, and an approximate 50/50 split along the sexes. So more anecdotal evidence for that, I suppose.
In my part of the world knitting was done by both men and women but for different reasons. the women generally did it to make clothing, the men to repair fishing nets (and to make clothing).
scrapemind:
My father was very fond of knitting, and did not care in the slightest what other people thought about that. Apart from knitting at home, he would often sit and knit while waiting for a bus, or when on a train, or in other situations where he would have some time sitting down and not much to do.
“Sure, football fans are mostly male, but watching football isn’t the only way to be typically male. Dungeons & Dragons players are mostly male. Transvestic fetishists are mostly male. It’s well-known that there are men who get off on wearing pantyhose, but I find it hard to picture a woman becoming aroused by wearing a jockstrap.” Transvestic fetishists, if you use the DSM’s definition, CANNOT be assigned female at birth, by definition. Because they have more options. By definition they need to wear something taboo for their sex, AND be sexually aroused by it. Given there’s no male garment that… Read more »
One of my best crochet technique books was written by a man. Don’t have it on hand to check the name, unfortunately.
And, I had meant to say earlier, y no love for Rainbow Dash? She is clearly made of awesome.
When I first heard of MLP:FiM, I thought it was a 4chan thing. I deleted that from my previous comment to spare the feelings of the readers of this blog. I thought, you guys hate that cesspool of misogyny, reddit, so you must REALLY hate 4chan, and I don’t want to taint your love of MLP:FiM by associating it with something you hate. Maybe that’s why I’m so messed up about MLP:FiM: It’s a 4chan thing; it can’t be for little girls. @makomk: I understand why women would pose as men online: They want to be treated like people not… Read more »
scrapemind: what about women posing as men online, though? There seems to be a huge obvious asymmetry between how the two groups are treated…
I saw this today and it bothered me. Not because it was MLP but the reactions from the teenagers watching it. basically about 80% of the reactions from both boys and girls were negative responses to the idea of men and boys watching this show… of particular note, when asked about what the boys thought of their gender watching MLP: “it’s like a slap in the face to us…” “if you’re a guy and watch MLP you shouldn’t be allowed to be called a man.” “they just need a girlfriend…” When the girls are asked if they would want to… Read more »
“@tovyasagain: My problem with men posing as women online is that it makes me feel like women don’t exist. I know intellectually that women are people, but I feel like women are unicorns. I know intellectually that women exist, but the Internet makes me feel like women are as mythical as the creatures that otherkin use as online identities.” In games I play, it really does seem that women are unicorns. If the games (which are all East Asia MMORPGs, at least online) I play are not called Sims or Second Life, chances are women represent less than 25% of… Read more »
I’d think you’d be more angry about the “grown men trying to hijack a show aimed at little girls” angle, at the very least.
Also the creepy. And there’s a lot of creepy.
@The_L: I know that female fans of MLP:FiM exist, but my stereotype of such a fan is a male geek. It raises my eyebrow a little for a woman to be a fan, like if a woman professed her love for Captain Beefheart or Godzilla. @Paul Hobson: It’s hard to explain why I can’t think of MLP:FiM as girly. Maybe it’s that when I first heard of it, I thought it was some kind of obscure web show. It’s easy to explain why vampires and werewolves have gone girly: They’re no longer horror but paranormal romance. @tovyasagain: My problem with… Read more »
@scrapemind
Well, that’s pretty offensive.
It’s entirely possible someone likes it *because it’s a good show*. I mean, seriously, neither men nor women are allowed to like a show that’s more or less marketed towards girls, in your mind?
I mean, seriously, your “I doubt a woman is a real woman if….” statement is offensive on so many levels. To women who like the show (and are still women!), to men who like the show (and aren’t trying to pretend to be women, since you apparently view that as an offense…). What the hell?
@jnakabb: They make sparkly Twilight-inspired dildos, actually. >.> @scrapemind: If I had a few minutes with a webcam and a couple MLP action figures, I think I could convince you that I’m a female MLP:FiM fan. ;P Also…I have a filthy mind, and Carrot Cake’s “that makes sense, right?” flew right over my head. But then, I wasn’t paying much attention during that part of the episode. @RocketFrog: Indeed. It must be rough to be a pedophile, knowing you can’t act on your attraction without causing harm to innocent children. (Note in case this isn’t clear: I do not believe… Read more »
Jade: Thank you! I found it on Tumblr and didn’t recall who did it. 🙂 I will include a credit.
To give credit where credit is due, the final picture is by [Shaburdies](http://shaburdies.tumblr.com/post/15261219095/if-you-can-guess-which-episode-this-is-from-then).
Actually, the “pedophilia = child molestation” is really something that annoys me. At least in my home country, terms like “convicted of pedophilia” and “suspected of pedophilia” are often used in the media. But pedophilia is not, in fact, a crime. Child molestation is. Not all child molesters are pedophiles, and not all pedophiles are child molesters (for a famous example: Lewis Carroll is believed to have been a pedophile who, due to his conscience, lived his entire life in celibacy and never actually molested children). The use of “pedophile” as more or less synonymous with “monstrous child rapist” is… Read more »
I don’t get the “must be a pedophile!” thing. I sort of get the conflation of pedophilia and child molestation – obviously you can’t be attracted to anyone without immediately raping them, because nobody has a conscience. I sort of get that if someone exists near a child then they must be planning to rape them. Existing near their victim is something a rapist would want to do. But why would a pedophile be more likely to enjoy things children enjoy too? Do people think that pedophiles emit mind-waves at cartoons to absorb the souls of children who watch same… Read more »
I was definitely a woman on Kingdom of Loathing for a while. It was nice… and felt really comfortable and easy. I got to be really cuddly and affectionate without seeming creepy and really got to just be myself. It was really, really cool. I was no more “stereotypically” female than anyone else… hell, half the time I was talking about Football or video games!
“I know this makes me a bad person, but I also doubt that a woman on the Internet is a real woman if she professes to like MLP: FIM. I think it’s a man acting out his fantasy of women as they ought to be, as A Gay Girl In Damascus presumably was.” Those have been accusations leveled at trans women, simply for being trans women. That by identifying as female, they are acting out their fantasy of what they think women are or ought to be, and nothing more. I find that thought itself to be troubling when thinking… Read more »
“tis a strange world indeed when a show about brightly colored talking ponies, is seen as less girly than vampires and werewolves.”
Perfect example of why MLP is awesome: in the episode where Pinkie Pie babysits, two Earth Ponies have a Pegasus and a Unicorn child. When asked how that’s possible, the father rattles off some very obscure relatives and then says, “… that makes sense, right?” I fucking busted out laughing and I bet most kids would see that joke fly right over their heads.