My Little Pony has gone mainstream...?

[Aidinthel]

You seem to think the brony crowd is mainly hipsters, but I don't think so.. I think the brony crowd is mostly just nerd-ster people; your standard anime, videogame, all-round internet culture people.

That's what I keep trying to tell people, but it never seems to stick. I suppose I can't really blame them; the whole "MLP actually being good" thing did kinda come out of left field.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I did see 2 Rainbow Dash shirts in my local Hot Topic.

...My dad said he would disown me if I bought either of them.
Good thing I'm not really a brony at all.

 

[Aidinthel]

...My dad said he would disown me if I bought either of them.

...seriously? I mean, he was joking, right? I'm going to assume he was joking.

 

[SAMAS]

Wait, when was MLP ever NOT mainstream?

 

[Sleepy Sol]

...My dad said he would disown me if I bought either of them.

...seriously? I mean, he was joking, right? I'm going to assume he was joking.

I'm pretty sure he was joking, but I can't be sure unless I actually buy one of the shirts.

 

[Aidinthel]

Wait, when was MLP ever NOT mainstream?

Well, it seems to me the OP means that FiM's older fanbase is now more mainstream. Of course the franchise as a whole has been pretty mainstream among young girls since it's inception.

New page, new user group link
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/MLP-Friendship-is-Magic
I recommend anyone who joins turn chat notifications off when given the option as the group is very active.

 

[Jellly]

Tbh, if I saw an adult male wearing one of these I would instantly begin to think low of him. They might be a great guy but the whole thought of a grown male wearing a shirt aimed at young girls is kind of repulsive :| Just my 2 cents let's not get to lynching me aye

No lynching, but would you mind perhaps explaining this perspective to me? I get not liking the show; like anything else, not everyone is going to feel the same way about it. But repulsive? I've never seen fandoms outside of the target audience repulsive; heck, my all-time favorite show is Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I'm far from the only one my age to think so. And though I've seen a lot of people react with surprise or even ridicule, no one has ever been disgusted by the fact that I love a children's show so much. And yet, because this is more specifically a young girl's show, one created with the specific intent of creating quality programming for that audience in a world where little exists, it's actually repulsive? You're far from the only one to think so, and I do not mean to attack you for it, but this just makes absolutely no sense to me. Any way you could explain why you feel that way?

Oh it's not a logical thought at all. If I think it through I realise I should not feel this way but instinctively my brain conjures up images of overweight 30-40 year olds fapping over ponies. :| I'm hardly saying that MLP watchers are like that at all, it's just what my initial instinctive thought of them is. Hard to say why, I'm guessing stereotypes and whatnot are to blame. Again, not saying people that watch the show are like that.

 

[Dtox333]

Tbh, if I saw an adult male wearing one of these I would instantly begin to think low of him. They might be a great guy but the whole thought of a grown male wearing a shirt aimed at young girls is kind of repulsive :| Just my 2 cents let's not get to lynching me aye

No lynching, but would you mind perhaps explaining this perspective to me? I get not liking the show; like anything else, not everyone is going to feel the same way about it. But repulsive? I've never seen fandoms outside of the target audience repulsive; heck, my all-time favorite show is Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I'm far from the only one my age to think so. And though I've seen a lot of people react with surprise or even ridicule, no one has ever been disgusted by the fact that I love a children's show so much. And yet, because this is more specifically a young girl's show, one created with the specific intent of creating quality programming for that audience in a world where little exists, it's actually repulsive? You're far from the only one to think so, and I do not mean to attack you for it, but this just makes absolutely no sense to me. Any way you could explain why you feel that way?

Oh it's not a logical thought at all. If I think it through I realise I should not feel this way but instinctively my brain conjures up images of overweight 30-40 year olds fapping over ponies. :| I'm hardly saying that MLP watchers are like that at all, it's just what my initial instinctive thought of them is. Hard to say why, I'm guessing stereotypes and whatnot are to blame. Again, not saying people that watch the show are like that.

Ah that is a much better, more understandable explanation.

I pretty much had the same initial thought when i started seeing all of the pony stuff around the web (Deviantart avatars, TF2 sprays, and other things), i thought it was a bunch of children or autistic people getting into a fad of some sort or something. It was especially confusing and concerning when i learned that there were people of a much older age into the show.

But then i checked the show out....and fell in love with it lol.

 

[CODE-D]

Its a shirt at Hot Topic, hardly means mainstream.

 

[Denamic]

Oh it's not a logical thought at all. If I think it through I realise I should not feel this way but instinctively my brain conjures up images of overweight 30-40 year olds fapping over ponies. :| I'm hardly saying that MLP watchers are like that at all, it's just what my initial instinctive thought of them is. Hard to say why, I'm guessing stereotypes and whatnot are to blame. Again, not saying people that watch the show are like that.

All I can really suggest you do is to simply watch the show; it's what I did.
I intended to just watch a few episodes to find out what the 'bronies' were on about.
Now I, too, love the show, and I love the characters. They make me feel fuzzy inside.
But it's in no way sexual. The thought of fapping to the cast of MLP puts me off big time.
It's more akin to the feeling you get when your pet does something adorable and you want to hug the living shit out of it.
So just put aside your prejudices for a moment and simply watch an episode or two. Or three. Probably all of them.
Judge the show on its own merits, and if you don't like it, that's fine.
Just give it a fair shot, and you'll no doubt understand bronies much better whether you like it or not.

 

[badgersprite]

When has My Little Pony ever not been mainstream? It's about the most mainstream franchise I can think of off the top of my head, next to other cartoon counterparts like G.I. Joe or Pokemon or something. I mean, it's a franchised marketing vehicle aiming to sell products to little girls. How much more mainstream can you get?

Frankly, part of the whole reason why I find the whole brony movement so awesome is that it's one of the first times I've seen people not care about liking something that is so mainstream. People can just enjoy something for what it is and have fun without being self-conscious assholes who only care about how cool they look or how uncool some other 'mainstream' thing is.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is one of the least elitist and most fun fandoms I've ever been a part of. If people are just liking it to 'be cool' or 'be trendy' or 'be ironic' and only plan on abandoning the show because it's popular, then I'm not really sorry for their loss. I don't really want people with that kind of attitude tainting my fandom experience. I won't be sorry if they make room for more people who genuinely like the show.

(By the way, isn't kind of weird when genuinely liking something so mainstream and celebrating it purely for fun and without cynicism in our society is considered a counter-culture movement?)

 

[Aidinthel]

By the way, isn't kind of weird when genuinely liking something so mainstream and celebrating it purely for fun and without cynicism in our society is considered a counter-culture movement?

Yeah, I keep seeing the term "New Sincerity" mentioned in relation to this show and a couple other things, and it seems to me that something's really off when sincerity is so unique as to get its own movement name.

 

[uneek]

Hold an - an MLP thread with no hate in it? What's going on?

I knew I wasn't the only one wondering this.

 

[uneek]

I find it completely weird, since I used to watch and play with My Little Ponies when I was a little girl.

I know, right? It's like when I hear about grown men bathing. I mean, I used to bathe when I was a little boy.

 

[link35142]

I used to be a Pony Hater, until I took an arrow to the knee.

Now I love it. So to everypony who hates MLP, I will tolerate and love the shit out of you.

 

[Aidinthel]

I pretty much had the same initial thought when i started seeing all of the pony stuff around the web (Deviantart avatars, TF2 sprays, and other things), i thought it was a bunch of children or autistic people getting into a fad of some sort or something. It was especially confusing and concerning when i learned that there were people of a much older age into the show.

But then i checked the show out....and fell in love with it lol.

That's pretty much the same story I've heard from everyone.

No (or, at least, very few) adult wakes up one day and decides "Today I plan to watch little girls' television" for no reason. But the reaction from other people is generally "Wow you must be really weird that you admit to watching little girls' shows" instead of "Wow this show must be pretty good that you're willing to admit to watching it", which would be the more reasonable response in my view.