Bronies! Are you ashamed of yourself? - UPDATED

[ejb626]

For the most part, I just don't tell people. If I do I make sure it's not the first thing I tell them about me, they usually just go "Oh, cool I guess" and then we never mention it again. I also don't own any merchandise or clothing, I'm way too socially awkward to go out in public with a pony shirt. I wouldn't call this outright shame but I'm acknowledging that I watch and enjoy a little girl's show and it might not be a good idea to tell the world. Also, the videos I watch of people flaunting their broniess, all depict overweight neckbeards walking in mobs through public places singing Winter Wrap-Up at the top of their lungs or something, and just make me cringe. I think people who have no shame of their broniness are why the Internet at large hates the fandom so much.

 

[Ljs1121]

I wear the label with pride.

If someone confronts me about it, I brush it off. I don't like arguing, and I know that they're not going to change my mind and I'm not going to change theirs.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I am only 13 but my older brony friend showed me an episode one time and got me hooked on the show.
later at school I accidentally let slip that i was a brony to all my friends. I alienated on of my best mates,
who now thinks im gay, but I also found that one of my other friends is a brony too.

all in all I am kind of ashamed about liking a show meant for little girls but I also love it, the fanbase and community, all the fanworks and the resistance against trolls. Its a great thing, Im just not sure of myself yet.

It's not really made just for little girls.

Cartoons (At least, good cartoons) have a lot of things (references, concepts, etc) that are supposed to draw in people of many different demographics- specifically parents, since if the parent likes watching the shows with their kids, they're more likely to watch it aaaand ratings! Shows that are made 100% for little kids tend not to do super well (Although some manage) for that reason. They're /okay/ for kids, but parents hate being forced to put up with that shit. Like the Teletubbies.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

That was a picture of Foghorn Leghorn

If that's some sort of meme, I missed it. I'm bad at the internet.

Foghorn Leghorn was one of the original LOONY TOONS.

Look him up.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Good god, my thread appears to have run rampantly out of control.

Well, every thread does the moment that Percy pops up in it, if the R&P forums are any indication. Seriously, if I happen to ever agree with the guy I feel ashamed of myself. I'd advise you to pretty much disregard that exchange, because well...*sigh* I dunno, it's a trend of him making up shit about people and then prancing around like he owns the place.

Well, it turns out he was banned for his trouble.

I will, I promise, try to get around to answering people

This never happened, by the way.

No, it didn't. I suck. I actually thought the thread had died, but it did not! I'll try and get around to necroing the shit out of people's posts today. However, for anyone who is actually interested, the article did get written. If you'd like, you can read it here [http://ontologicalgeek.com/bronies-chaos-marines-and-dirty-little-secrets/].

Fuck me, 8 pages. Well, time to start responding. This is going to eat up my morning :-(

 

[SonicWaffle]

That was a picture of Foghorn Leghorn

If that's some sort of meme, I missed it. I'm bad at the internet.

Foghorn Leghorn was one of the original LOONY TOONS.

Look him up.

Well yeah, I know who he is, I just didn't understand why he posted that picture. In fact, it was long enough ago now that practically every detail of the conversation is gone, so I'll go look it up

 

[SonicWaffle]

The only thing I have to ask is...people get Ostracised for playing Warhammer? 0.0

Yup. I've ever done it myself - it hold some odd place in the cultural mind, where it's seen (in my country at least) as being incredibly geeky. The article I wrote is pretty much about questioning why, since it seems to be a wholly arbitrary distinction.

 

[SonicWaffle]

I wouldn't call this outright shame but I'm acknowledging that I watch and enjoy a little girl's show and it might not be a good idea to tell the world. Also, the videos I watch of people flaunting their broniess, all depict overweight neckbeards walking in mobs through public places singing Winter Wrap-Up at the top of their lungs or something, and just make me cringe. I think people who have no shame of their broniness are why the Internet at large hates the fandom so much.

I find this very interesting. Are you saying that Bronies should feel a sense of shame, or at least embarassment, about what they like even though you like the same thing yourself?

 

[SonicWaffle]

I'd like to say that I'm not ashamed, but I am
I wear my futurama t-shirts in public and my gaming ones, but not my pony ones.
My girlfriend will never discover that I watch ponies, and neither will my friends.
It's not that I'm ashamed, really, I'ts that I'm really not bothered to explain my like for it.

Is there that much that needs to be explained? If you wear your Futurama shirts and someone asks why, don't you just say "I like the show"? How differently do you think your friends or girlfriend might react if you told them you liked MLP, and why do you think that is?

 

[SonicWaffle]

If you really want to be alienated by your peers and ostracized to no end, try admitting that you're ashamed of liking MLP on the escapist.

At least I imagine this is true. By saying you're ashamed to like MLP you're essentially dissing the show, which many members here seem to devoutly worship, and you're making yourself seem like a hypocrite as well. If any escapists actually are ashamed that they like MLP, I doubt they'd ever say so on this thread.

Just wondering, did you read the OP? I have never even seen MLP, and frankly am not in any hurry to see it. Not sure how it makes me a hypocrite to ask those who do what their feelings are.

My question was for the Escapists who do, and it seems that quite a few of them are ashamed or at least deeply embarassed about enjoying the show, even if they preface their statements with "I'm not ashamed of it, but"

 

[SonicWaffle]

Good god, my thread appears to have run rampantly out of control. I will, I promise, try to get around to answering people (who have said many interesting things both agreeing and disagreeing with my OP) when I get back from work later. And do the washing up. And do the ironing. And clean my room. And finish Fable III.

So yeah - soon!

This is probably gonna get you some badge or other. Brony threads always do well (ahem).

Can't honestly say I care even a little bit about badges. I just don't get the point of them

 

[SonicWaffle]

It's a gods damn cartoon, why should they feel ashamed? It's for girls? So fucking what? Let them enjoy their girly cartoon then, what harm does it do to you? They keep talking about it you say? I asked what harm it did, not what incredibly microscopic first world inconvenience it inflicts upon your warped mind.

Please read the OP. You may then wish to re-write you post to reflect what the thread is actually about. Also, and this is just a personal request not just to you but everyone else who does it, I do wish people would stop talking about "first world" problems or inconveniences, or at least start using the phrase properly.

Much appreciated!

 

[SonicWaffle]

This really struck me. The idea that being a nerd is about turning away from the mainstream by saying "I don't care that you consider (x) unacceptable, I gonna like it anyway. Deal with it", and creating an identity based around your and others' views of that subject and other relatively nerdy ones, as long as those others aren't "too strange" or looked down upon too much by the community.

Interesting take, I've never considered that before. I've always seen geekiness not as a choice, a rejection of what is considered socially acceptable, but as certain hobbies or genres being placed in a ghetto. If we happen to like these things, we're forced into that ghetto, and given the label of "geek".

Because of this the nerd or geek "community" always seems to end up very divided over issues like MLP, based on "at least I'm not as nerdy as THAT guy", and it leads to almost a ranking of nerdiness based on how acceptable something is to the mainstream and thus how much nerds can be looked down on by other nerds because of (x) reasons despite all being relative cultural outcasts. (Pretty much what Sonic Waffle was getting at.)

It smacks of hypocrisy that nerds see themselves as nerds by saying "Deal with it, I don't care what you think" to the cultural mainstream, while still comparing themselves to it in deciding which nerd topics are OK or not according to how culturally acceptable they are!

What gets me is how arbitrary it is. There really is no reason for an MLP cartoon to be less cool than something like Wall-E or Toy Story, and yet the division clearly exists. I don't think it's entirely a backlash against aggressively pro-MLP Bronies, there must be some sort of criteria which makes A cool and B uncool.

 

[SonicWaffle]

As for why you would even make this thread, let alone name it such, is beyond me.

Well, um...for the reasons stated in the OP? Because it seems to have a huge following amongst geeks, is very prominent here on the Escapist, and I wanted to know whether those posters felt any kind of shame or embarassment over liking it.

I'm not sure how I could have been clearer

 

[SonicWaffle]

Why has no-one posted a link to the Geek Hierarchy yet?
http://brunching.com/geekhierarchy.html

Ha! That's great, I wish I'd seen it in time to include it in the article. Perfect demonstration of my point, thanks!

 

[SonicWaffle]

My favourite hobby is dressing up as Robin and going to comiccon.

Out of interest, which Robin? I hope you're not wearing those little yellow hot pants...

 

[Savryc]

It's a gods damn cartoon, why should they feel ashamed? It's for girls? So fucking what? Let them enjoy their girly cartoon then, what harm does it do to you? They keep talking about it you say? I asked what harm it did, not what incredibly microscopic first world inconvenience it inflicts upon your warped mind.

Please read the OP. You may then wish to re-write you post to reflect what the thread is actually about. Also, and this is just a personal request not just to you but everyone else who does it, I do wish people would stop talking about "first world" problems or inconveniences, or at least start using the phrase properly.

Much appreciated!

I don't recall if the OP contained the update when I posted, it was almost a month ago and honestly, I usually forget I've even posted something a few minutes after I've hit the button. My point still stands, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to feel ashamed over a TV show. In fact I'd say the folk that get into a frothy mouthed rage (I'll concede this very rarely happens nowadays) over people outside a show's target demographic enjoying it have some troubling issues of their own to deal with.

Having said that since my post I have seen and come to like the show. So to actually answer the question posed in the OP instead of launching into an admittedly pointless rant, no. I don't feel ashamed. Like I said, it's just a cartoon at the end of the day.

As to your personal request...

Spoiler

Nope.

 

[Verzin]

no. No I am not. Am unsure 'why' I would be...

 

[Olas]

If you really want to be alienated by your peers and ostracized to no end, try admitting that you're ashamed of liking MLP on the escapist.

At least I imagine this is true. By saying you're ashamed to like MLP you're essentially dissing the show, which many members here seem to devoutly worship, and you're making yourself seem like a hypocrite as well. If any escapists actually are ashamed that they like MLP, I doubt they'd ever say so on this thread.

Just wondering, did you read the OP? I have never even seen MLP, and frankly am not in any hurry to see it. Not sure how it makes me a hypocrite to ask those who do what their feelings are.

My question was for the Escapists who do, and it seems that quite a few of them are ashamed or at least deeply embarassed about enjoying the show, even if they preface their statements with "I'm not ashamed of it, but"

Wow, talk about delayed feedback. I posted that original comment almost 2 months ago.

I think you've misunderstood me. I wasn't talking about you, OP, or any specific person. In this case the word "you" was just a generic reference to any person who likes MLP. As in "you can take a pony to water, but you can't make him drink".

I was saying anyone who likes MLP but who openly admits to being ashamed of it would seem like a hypocrite for essentially disavowing a show that they watch. In a community like this, where MLP has such positive support, saying anything that could be construed as an insult to it would be paramount to heresy. In other words, even if they do feel ashamed about liking it in the outside world where MLP is probably a joke to most people, on this site it would be more shameful to admit you're ashamed to like it.

You shouldn't assume that every comment in a thread you start is a direct response to you personally. I didn't even have you (OP) i mind when I posted it.