Meet 'bronies' -- grown men who are fans of My Little Pony

http://i.imgur.com/5SFds9A.jpg

oh man. theres a strange schadenfreude you get from most of this stuff but disappointed parent stories just make me sad

how the fuck did this happen

;_;

as far as the direct influence, it's totally a product of 'moe'-ism - a component - and really the idealized object - of the hikkikimori/NEET thing, catching on more and more with gamer-y types in America

brony culture came directly out of 4chan's basement-dweller scene, which was built on anime-fandom, and is still informed by a lot of its slang and themes. that post-anime worship of cute/comforting escapist objects

larger problem?... I guess, like with the Japanese origins of NEET-ism, it's obv about men who feel they can't compete, the loss of a sense of purpose/roles (which is probably why a lot of these guys are into the fedora look too, they're reaching for this lost sense of manhood even as they're departing from/avoiding it)

i'm sure we've discussed this before on ilx but i've always been confused by the 4chan tension between a) MLP, anime/manga, other sincere idealized worship of sundry pop culture and b) trolling, gore threads, unwelcoming subculture, anonymous-type shit. i guess they both come together in misogyny.

and in misdirected young male energy in general. get a bunch of young men who need to get out of the house together for an extended period of time, and there's going to be this spectrum of an idealized 'cute' idealism/escapism (of the love object unconsummated, or relationships at all for that matter) on one end, and total rage/oblivion on the other (no purpose, no career).

I just hope most of them grow out of it. I like to think that they just need to get out and socialize more, but that's where the consumerism/gaming/anime/Internet-addiction comes in, which I think is probably the real problem here

http://okcgoldmine.com/image/49040364353

they make these guys in factories

http://okcgoldmine.com/image/49040364353

that post-anime worship of cute/comforting escapist objects

i love adventure time (which makes me one of the worst people in the world, apparently), and this is undeniably a big part of the appeal: the retreat to something safe, comforting and arguably infantile. but that's not the whole of it. i mean, i don't watch bubble guppies or my little pony. i like cartoons, like drawing & design in general, but what i like most about adventure time is the freedom the show's producers clearly extend to the artists and writers who create it. it can go anywhere, do anything, and almost always looks great in the process. the individual sensibilities and styles of its various creators are clearly visible in the episodes they produce. it's subversive and wildly psychedelic without being jarringly cruel or cynical. i wish i were involved somehow. it's the only thing currently on television that strikes me as "real art", something in which i can discern vision, personality and focused craft.

this is tangential to the thread topic, but i hate to see my favorite show lumped in with all the gross, fedora-wearing brony crap.

I'll back you up on this one contendo.

adventure time isn't remotely MLP-ish tho, it is definitely actively pursuing an audience of both children and adults. it gets reviewed by the avclub every week. i don't think there's any inherent "shame" expected by watching it, as bronies seem to think of their obsession

yeah you know it's 2013 why would anybody hassle a grown man who likes my little pony unless they were drawing attention to themselves and defending themselves in advance?

i don't think bronies are real, i think they are just trolling. why would someone be obsessed with my little pony? it doesn't even make sense.

blah blah sports analogy

i can kind of see being into a nostalgic cartoon but these people seem to make it a central part of their identity in a way that is ridiculous/insane. like, i am a fan of bob dylan: own all the albums, see him live, have scores of song lyrics memorized, but if someone called me a bob-ie or dylanbro i would tell them to not call me that... this thing about identifying with cultural products you like is sort of weird to me.

probably the urge to define oneself via cultural consumption is the real issue here, and it is the main problem these bronies are suffering from. they need to know where they "fit in"; it's not enough to just be a person in the world. as far as those guys overlap with the fedora/PUA/MRA community, the pigeonholing thinking relates to the gross, darwinian language they use when describing status: alpha, beta, etc. if they just cut that shit out of their thinking, and considered their identity fundamentally in terms of themselves as individuals, they would be better off i think.

i think kurt vonnegut discussed this fallacy in cat's cradle; he called these false identites/communities "granfalloons."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granfalloon

The more pertinent question would be what conditions creates "bronies" in the first place.

Society fails young men by indoctrinating them into a patriarchal thought process that defines masculinity by sexual prowess and social facility. With the increasing atomization of human interaction under late capitalism (and especially the niche consumer culture of the internet), more and more young males are failing to live up to these patriarchal ideals. But instead of this creating an opportunity for young men to redefine gender roles for themselves, it leads them to embrace reactionary impulses born from self-hatred and sexual frustration, which is projected outward as misogyny and homophobia.

The solution is to seize the internet and put it under the control of those who understand how to properly utilize it.

Also Christmas should be banned.

banaka otm

yeah more or less what I was getting at, latebloomer, excluding of course that obligatory post-human totalitarian thing at the end

i agree with chris agreeing with banaka with a caveat

thread was crying out for banaka

I don't think I understood or had much awareness of the banaka project before but now I'm totally on board with it now

wait banaka is latebloomer?!

Banaka are an idea not an individual.

xp yep

http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/washington-perfects-the-art-of-illusion-keep-america-focused-on-boston-bombing-while-they-strip-us-of-rights-and-prepare-for-war-04172013

brob dylan

joke rocker

4chans mlp tolerance board isn't having it yet, banaka

really tasteless to refer to banaka as latebloomer. you think thats gonna get you 'cool' points, pal? you think you're 'in' now? think again, fucko. you're on the shitlist, Chris S.

I remember the reveal to be pretty out-in-the open, and had seen a jokes/references made about it since...? had no idea anyone didn't know honestly. eh, apologies if that was that rude but... it's a sock

as to your second question, no, that wasn't on my mind. shitlist? relax

best response i have read yet to banaka's spiel:
I'm a Marine, and you're a faggot

take screenshots

https://boards.4chan.org/mlp/res/10173302#p10174336
run with it if you feel inspired

i can kind of see being into a nostalgic cartoon

When are you saying they're nostalgic for, the same morning?

presumably the original run of "my little pony." but i think most mlp fans were probably just being born around the time of its airing, so i doubt nostalgia plays a huge role

iirc bronies are mostly pretty strident/outspoken about their distaste for pre-FIM mlp

people who believe friendship is magic don't deserve friends

j/k

wait, banaka is a sock?

iirc bronies are mostly pretty strident/outspoken about their distaste for pre-FIM mlp

just disinterest I would think? make sense that anyone into FIM would get into Powerpuff Girls but not necessarily '80s MLP (unless they actively want to seek ersatz nostalgia)

i dunno about powerpuff girls, either, though. bronyism seems awfully dedicated to this particular instance of the beloved thing. it's not about "cute cartoon featuring magical little girls", it's about PONIES.

Those 'kinds' of guys either end up as bronies or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-L6cF1uc4c

i dunno about powerpuff girls, either, though.

Lauren Faust

oh i know, but my mental image of the brony depends on total abject worship of PONIES, with no other gods before them

http://bronieswithfedoras.tumblr.com/image/42911932177

http://www.lolriot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Fedora-What-you-think-you-look-like-570x303.jpg