[Disclaimer: While this blog post discusses Rule 34 statistics, it doesn't contain explicit imagery, embedded links to pornographic material or excessive coarse language.]

Two years ago I started recording Rule 34 statistics. Last year, I revised the numbers since new data had become available. I also discussed the origins of Rule 34.

It's the tenth of the month, so you know what that means. That's right! It's time for another in-depth analysis of clop!



My previous Rule 34 blog posts are available at the following links.

August 2012 / At the rate things are going...

September 2012 / Famous Bronies

October 2012 / Digimon

November 2012 / Equestrian elections

December 2012 / Top 11 Hottest Animated Women

January 2013 / General porn statistics

February 2013 / Touhou review

March 2013 / Season three wrap up

April 2013 / Idolm@ster

May 2013 / OC woes

June 2013 / Ribald Rivalries

July 2013 / A major announcement

August 2013 / Rule 34 Origins

September 2013 / Equestria Girls Review

October 2013 / Three years of MLP:FIM

November 2013 / Season Three Episode Retrospective

December 2013 / Twilight Sparkle's Rival

January 2014 / Passing the Bechdel Test

February 2014 / CP Atone

March 2014 / Loli and Stitch

April 2014 / The Binding of Wonder Woman

May 2014 / Cybersix Showdown

June 2014 / Sailor Moon and he Celestial Sorority

July 2014 / Misunderstood Monsters

Without further ado, here's the latest data from Rule34.paheal.net!



As of August 10, 2014, here's the state of Rule 34:

Pokemon still holds the lead with 81,204 images. 1,586 new explicit images were added during July, giving Pokemon a 1.9% increase in porn from last month. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is in second place with 57,365 images. 1,937 new explicit images were added during July, giving My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic a 3.4% increase in porn from last month. Touhou is in third place with 50,513 images. 745 new explicit images were added during July, giving Touhou a 1.9% increase in porn from last month. DC Comics is in fourth place with 24,636 images. 145 new explicit images were added during July, giving DC Comics a 0.5% increase in porn from last month. Street Fighter is in fifth place with 18,949 images. 206 new explicit images were added during July, giving Street Fighter a 1% increase in porn from last month. Naruto is in sixth place with 18,576 images. 192 new explicit images were added during July, giving Naruto a 1% increase in porn from last month. Marvel Comics is in seventh place with 17,693 images. 163 new explicit images were added during July, giving Marvel Comics a 0.9% increase in porn from last month. Sonic Team is in eighth place with 17,244 images. 280 new explicit images were added during July, giving Sonic Team a 1.6% increase in porn from last month. Digimon is in ninth place with 13,085 images. 184 new explicit images were added during July, giving Digimon a 1.4% increase in porn from last month. Super Mario Bros is in tenth place with 11,920 images. 303 new explicit images were added during July, giving Super Mario Bros a 2.6% increase in porn from last month.

In a surprising coincidence, Super Mario Bros produced the exact same number of new porn images this month as they did last month.

Congratulations to Pokemon for surpassing more than 80,000 explicit images.



Now that we've gone over the monthly update for the top ten porn producers, it's time to analyze the latest data regarding Rule 34 images for the mane six.

As of August 10, 2014, here's the state of Rule 34 for the mane six, according to Rule34.paheal.net:

Twilight Sparkle has 8,479 images. 190 explicit images were added during July, giving her a 2.2% increase from last month. Rainbow Dash has 7,168 images. 269 explicit images were added during July, giving her a 3.8% increase from last month. Fluttershy has 6,720 images. 227 explicit images were added during July, giving her a 3.4% increase from last month. Pinkie Pie has 6,150 images. 152 explicit images were added during July, giving her a 2.5% increase from last month. Rarity has 5,601 images. 161 explicit images were added during July, giving her a 2.9% increase from last month. Applejack has 5,401 images. 150 explicit images were added during July, giving her a 2.8% increase from last month.

For the first time since August, 2011, Twilight Sparkle got third place in new porn production. Hopefully Equestria's newest alicorn princess will be able to get her numbers up by next month.



Congratulations to Rainbow Dash for surpassing 7,000 explicit images! Also congratulations to Pinkie Pie for surpassing 6,000 explicit images!



Special thanks to Infinion, who made these amazing graphs of the data I collected.

To start off with, here's the master chart of the top ten Rule 34 producers.



This chart represents more than three years' worth of Rule 34 data. In order to more closely examine the numbers, Infinion has broken the data into more manageable semi-annual charts.

Oct. 2010 - Mar. 2011.

Apr. - Sept. 2011.

Oct. 2011 - Mar. 2012.

Apr. - Sept. 2012.

Oct. 2012 - Mar. 2013.

Apr. - Sept. 2013.

Oct. 2013 - Mar. 2014.

Which brings us to August 2014.



To get an idea of how far My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has come since its premiere, here's a chart highlighting the monthly numerical and percentage increase of MLP porn.



For those who desire a more consolidated look at the raw data, here's the numbers for the top ten porn producers, as well as their monthly increase.

Now let's take a look at the Rule 34 stats for the mane six. Here's their master chart.



In order to discover what these numbers mean, we'll need to delve deeper. In order to do that, we'll break down the data into semi-annual chunks.

Oct. 2010 - Mar. 2011.

Apr. - Sept. 2011.

Oct. 2011 - Mar. 2012.

Apr. - Sept. 2012.

Oct. 2012 - Mar. 2013.

Apr. - Sept. 2013.

Oct. 2013 - Mar. 2014.

Which brings us to August 2014.



For those who desire a more consolidated look at the raw data, here's the numbers for the mane six, as well as their monthly increase

A new CGI film based on the Peanuts is scheduled for a 2015 release. It has an interesting art design which mimics the look of the iconic comic strip.



Peanuts is one of the longest narratives ever told by a single individual. Charles Schulz produced 17,897 published strips from 1950 to 2000. In many respects, Schulz was closer to Charlie Brown than Walt Disney was to Mickey Mouse.



When Schulz pitched his comic strip idea in 1950, it was originally entitled "Li'l Folks." United Features Syndicate accepted Schulz's work, but they were concerned that the title was too similar to a couple of other comic strips at the time; namely, "Li'l Abner" and "Little Folks." United Features Syndicate ultimately settled on the name Peanuts, which was an homage to the child studio audience of the Howdy Doody show, who were referred to as the Peanut Gallery.



In the early days of vaudeville, the term "peanut gallery" was a nickname for the cheapest seats in the theater which tended to attract the rowdiest patrons. The least expensive snack sold during performances were peanuts. Those in the "peanut gallery" would often heckle and throw peanuts at the performers. Thanks to Howdy Doody's studio audience, the term "peanut gallery" came to be used as a synonym for precocious children. It's easy to see why United Features Syndicate thought that "Peanuts" was a fitting title for Schulz's comic about kids.



Pictured above: A newspaper article from the Telegram, November 15, 1954.

In a 1987 interview, Schulz revealed that he always hated the name Peanuts.

"It's totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing — and has no dignity. I think my humor has dignity."

It's amazing to think that Schulz would work for half a century on a comic strip if he hated the name. Then again, it's probably fitting that Schulz endured disappointments, since Charlie Brown never seemed to get his way either.

In a case of art reflecting life, the Peanuts comic strip often mirrored Schulz's own frustrations and insecurities. One of the most turbulent periods of his life was also the most romantic. The year is 1970. Schulz was enjoying the kind of public and private success that few people will ever experience. His comic strip was being read in 75 countries and 21 languages. (This was much more difficult in the days before the Internet.) Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas special became an annual tradition since it first aired in 1965. In 1969, NASA nicknamed the Apollo 10 Command and Lunar Module 'Charlie Brown' and 'Snoopy,' respectively. Schulz's characters had become the official mascots of the mission which paved the way for Apollo 11 and the first lunar landing.



From outward appearances, Schulz's private life was as successful as his public persona. In 1970, Schulz had been married to his wife, Joyce Halverson, for nearly 20 years. Together, they had five children. But in spite of all his success, Charles Schulz wasn't satisfied.



In 1970, when Charles Schulz was 48-years-old, he developed an infatuation for a woman named Tracy Claudius, who was nearly half his age. Claudius, who was 25-years-old at the time, snuck into an interview to thank Schulz for his work. Schulz was smitten by his eager, young fan and began to send her love letters and gifts. They went on dinner dates together and frequently spoke on the phone. He proposed to Claudius twice and she rejected him both times. It's possible that she was concerned about their age difference, but she may also have been protecting Schulz from himself, since public knowledge of their affair would taint his wholesome public image.



The affair between Schulz and Claudius lasted eight months. During that time, she collected 44 love letters and 35 drawings from Schulz, which were auctioned off in 2012.



What's most revealing about the letters is their childlike innocence. This wasn't a crass correspondence about prurient carnality. Schulz never got explicit. Instead, he wrote about squeezing her hand in the dark and stealing a kiss in a bookstore, which sounds like the fantasies of a lovestruck Charlie Brown, as opposed to a 48-year-old man. One thing was certain: Schulz was in love.



One of the most interesting results of the affair was how it was alluded to in the comic strip. In one of his love letters, Schulz wrote that he must cease calling Claudius because his long-distance phone calls to her had been discovered by his wife. Soon after, he created a strip in which Charlie Brown berated Snoopy for his obnoxious behavior when he’s not allowed to go out “to see that girl beagle.” In subsequent panels, Charlie warns Snoopy “you’d better start behaving yourself” and when Snoopy picks up the telephone, Charlie Brown yells “And stop making those long-distance phone calls.”



Schulz's affair extinguished any hope of saving his marriage. After divorcing his first wife in 1972, Schulz and Claudius drifted apart. Schulz married Jean Forsyth Clyde the following year. They remained married until his death in 2000.

In one of the cartoons that Schulz sent to Claudius, Charlie Brown visited Lucy’s psychiatric help stand and asked, "Do you think monogamy is possible for humans, given how we’re wired?" Schulz mused about a concept which will be the next topic of discussion. Are humans polygamous by nature?



In the nineteenth century, Mormons were driven from state to state for condoning plural marriage. Even after the Mormons abolished the practice, fundamentalist sects broke away from the church and continued to perform plural marriages. While polygamy remains illegal in America, there's some ambiguity about the moral implications of plural wives. If a man wants to be married to two women simultaneously, he's breaking the law, but there's nothing to stop people from having as many sexual partners as they can handle. For example, it's been rumored that Basketball star Wilt Chamberlain slept with 20,000 women.



While that estimation may be inflated, no one is denying that various individual movie stars, musicians and athletes have had hundreds and sometimes even thousands of sexual partners. What's the driving force?

The Coolidge effect is a phenomenon seen in mammalian species whereby males (and to a lesser extent females) exhibit renewed sexual interest if introduced to new receptive sexual partners, even after refusing sex from prior but still available sexual partners. The name comes from the 30th President of the United States and sexual dynamo, Calvin Coolidge.



Seriously. The story goes that when Coolidge was President, he and the First Lady were being shown separately around an experimental government farm. When Mrs. Coolidge came to the chicken yard she noticed that a rooster was mating very frequently. She asked the attendant how often that happened and was told, "Dozens of times each day." Mrs. Coolidge said, "Tell that to the President when he comes by." Upon being told, President Coolidge asked, "Same hen every time?" The reply was, "Oh, no, Mr. President, a different hen every time." President Coolidge then said, "Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge."



This is more than a mere humorous anecdote. Scientific experiments were performed where a male rat was placed into an enclosed large box with four or five female rats in heat. He immediately began to mate with all the female rats again and again until eventually he became exhausted. The females continued nudging and licking him, yet he did not respond. When a new female was introduced into the box, he became alert and began to fervently mate with the new female.



That's part of what makes porn so addictive.



Our mammalian brains are hardwired to seek out as many different sexual partners as possible in order to perpetuate our genes. If people were forced to chose only one pornographic image and avoid all others, it would eventually become too familiar and less arousing. That's why people constantly seek new porn to keep the experience fresh. To coin a phrase, variety is the spice of life.

I should mention here that the whole concept of the "Coolidge Effect" is going to be the potential basis for a sequel to Adventures of a Teenage Foalsitter.



I loved how Chrysalis was portrayed in that story. I wanted a sequel where changelings went from being despised to revered. Stallions began having affairs with changelings because it was comparable to dating Internet porn. Changelings feed off emotion, so transforming from one shape to another during sex would keep the male interested and aroused longer than any single mare. Twilight Sparkle would have to deal with an entire kingdom of angry mares who were upset that changelings had taken all the stallions. I still plan on writing that story. I suppose it's all a matter of priorities. Unfortunately, anything that doesn't help pay the rent or put food on the table has to be put on the back burner for now. But I digress...

In today's modern age, pornography is not seen as a vice, but as merely another form of entertainment to be consumed without consequence. Porn is easily accessible on any computer or smartphone and increases expectations of what constitutes "great sex," while simultaneously decreasing an appreciation and understanding of erotic desire. This ease of access means that kids are exposed to explicit imagery at an earlier age than ever before. An entire generation has grown up believing that hardcore porn is a realistic portrayal of sex. Pornography works by removing sexual acts from the context of loving relationships and real people. Porn is fake; devoid of all the tenderness and capacity for joy that comes from shared physical pleasure between loving individuals.



Porn isn't the problem. It's how we use it that counts. There needs to be more open discussions about sex, without stigma or shame. Don't use professional wrestling as instructions on conflict resolution. Don't use porn as instructions on how to build intimacy in a relationship. Just because something's entertaining doesn't make it a good role model. There's much more to sex than the marginalized mess which constitutes a majority of porn. Allowing pornography to be the benchmark for what sex should be sets a dangerous precedent.



Returning to the subject of monogamy, there's currently an ongoing discussion regarding the definition of marriage. I don't want to discuss this subject at length, but I think that everyone is missing the bigger picture. It's not about which sexual orientation should or shouldn't be allowed to get married. From an evolutionary standpoint, the only unnatural marriage is a monogamous one.



This isn't meant to disparage monogamous relationships. Just because something is natural doesn't mean it's good for us. Tooth decay and body odor are natural, but that doesn't mean we should embrace them by rejecting "unnatural" things like showers and brushing our teeth.



A marriage of two individuals is the exception rather than the rule. According to the the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, 84.6% of the 1,231 different cultures are classified as polygamous, 15.1 as monogamous, and 0.3% as polyandrous. Polygamy (one man with multiple wives) is much more common than polyandry (One woman with multiple husbands) because the evolutionary benefits of polygamous men are much higher than the benefits of polyandrous women.



As was previously mentioned, the male brain is programed to seek out as many sexual partners as possible. In a polyandrous relationship, a man whose co-husband impregnates their shared wife has to wait at least nine months until the child is born before he can attempt to reproduce. In contrast, a woman in a polygamous relationship whose co-wife has been impregnated by their shared husband can still get pregnant right away.



Just because a society allowed polygamy doesn't mean that everyone there practiced it. There were only so many available women to go around. Most men were lucky if they obtained one wife. Only wealthy individuals could afford to take care of multiple wives.



From an evolutionary standpoint, Polygamy is the only natural relationship, so why has Western society worked so hard to suppress it with unnatural monogamy? Judeo-Christian values play less of a role than one would assume. Some proponents of "traditional marriage" use the Bible to try and argue why marriage should be defined as "one man and one woman." I find this funny, since King Solomon and King David had more wives and concubines than Hugh Hefner has Playboy bunnies. Traditional marriage in ancient times wasn't limited to a monogamous union between one man and one woman, so why start now?



No. The reason for imposed monogamy was much more secular in nature and can be traced back to the ancient Romans and Greeks. Greco-Roman laws prohibited any man from having more than one official wife at a time. By preventing the elite class from legally acquiring multiple wives, they improved the ability of lower-ranking men to acquire wives of their own. Rationing wives wasn't done for the sake of morality, but out of military necessity.



The ancient Greco-Roman and medieval European leaders were heavily-invested in the art of war. Their positions depended on maintaining large armies. Men want women, generally speaking. By equally-distributing the women amongst the men, it meant that men didn't have to go searching for a wife and could be a loyal soldier. The leaders made it so that individuals of high status could not hoard all the women for themselves. Elite men allowed lower-class males to marry in exchange for their military service and taxation. When Christianity became the official religion of Rome, imposed monogamy became part of the doctrine. Those in higher power no longer had to concern themselves with caring for the needs of multiple wives. Instead, they could still experience the thrill of sexual variety with mistresses and concubines. It's amazing to think that polygamy used to be considered a societal norm. Now, it's seen as an aberration by the Western world.



Monogamous relationships are under more strain than ever in their efforts to keep their vows of fidelity. Famed psychoanalyst Carl Jung once wrote to Sigmund Freud that “The prerequisite for a good marriage, it seems to me, is the license to be unfaithful.”



People are given more opportunities to cheat and are having more affairs than ever. Ease of travel has led to longer commutes and more time spent away from home. New technology means we are continuously connected with more people than ever before. The very definition of infidelity has expanded as a result. Imagine what Schulz's affair would've been like if it had taken place today!



Monogamy is a human construct, but humans are not monogamous by nature. From a historical perspective, humans have repeatedly been unfaithful and readily condemned the infidelity of others. Reason rarely resonates on affairs of the heart. People have been willing to risk everything for a fleeting chance at happiness. Peggy Vaughan, author of The Monogamy Myth, estimates that 60% of husbands and 40% of wives will have an affair at some point in their marriage; however, less than 10% of people who have affairs divorce and marry their lovers. Of the 10% who do marry their lovers, 70% of those unions will eventually separate.



So why do people have affairs? Sometimes the end goal is power. Infidelity is a statement of empowerment for anyone who practices it. Do I need to quote Oscar Wilde again?

"Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power." - Oscar Wilde

Pictured above: Photo of Oscar Wilde rocking his pimp cane and fur coat.

Now let's discuss cuckolding. The word 'cuckold' derives from the cuckoo bird, in which the female of the species allegedly changes its mate frequently and lays its eggs in other bird's nests. The carefree bird gave us the word 'cuckold,' which came in the Middle Ages to mean a husband with an adulterous wife. The word 'cuckold' also implies that the husband was unaware of his wife's infidelities. And he might only find out on the arrival of a baby, which is presumably not his.



Chaucer and Shakespeare characterized cuckolding as "the ultimate shame." The gullibility of the cuckold is often used in farcical stories as a source of tension. The cast of characters will usually include the cuckolded husband, his cheating wife, her current lover and a spurned former lover. Like most good farces, much of the humor is built upon deceit. The unfaithful wife convinces her husband to believe outlandish lies so she can continue to have affairs behind his back. Another crucial aspect of these stories is the lover’s trick. This often involves a secondary game between the unfaithful wife and two of her lovers. It establishes the lovers as having fun in their infidelity, which is crucial in a farce. There shouldn't be any hand-wringing or moral qualms in a comedy. The lover's trick is usually the device by which the lovers get their comeuppance. It is assumed that the lie will be their undoing, but actually it is their trick which leads to their downfall. What often happens is the unfaithful wife will spurn one of her lovers who ultimately returns to seek his revenge. In spite of the chaos between the current lover, the spurned lover and the unfaithful wife, the cuckold remains oblivious to the infidelity.



Horns have come to be associated with cuckolds. One possible explanation dates back to ancient Rome. Returning soldiers were given horns, symbolizing success on the battlefield. But the horns also came to imply that a soldier had been away for such a long time that his wife had been unfaithful in his absence. It was never a good idea to leave a Roman wife alone for too long.



A more common explanation is that a horned beast cannot see its own horns. And husbands are often the last to know about their wife's infidelities.



Here's a song about a cuckold and his wife by the Dubliners entitled "7 Drunken Nights."

Walt Disney had implied cuckolding in his Ugly Duckling Silly Symphony.

As a child, I remembered watching this and was unable to understand why the father duck was so upset. It makes sense when you realized that he suspected his wife was having an affair with a swan.



Even My Little Pony alluded to Mr. Cake being a cuckold.



Since their first appearance in Friendship is Magic, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were known as being one of the few canon couples in Equestria. As a result, most fanfiction or fanart that dealt with themes of infidelity would often include them. I've even been known to dabble in writing the occasional cuckolded Mr. Cake scene.

Here's some bonus Rule 34 data as of August 10, 2014!

Peanuts has a total of 223 explicit images.

Mrs. Cake has a total of 329 explicit images.

Mr. Cake has a total of 150 explicit images.

Cup Cake is currently featured in more than twice the amount of porn as Carrot Cake. Makes you wonder who she's with when her husband isn't around...



Unlike the stories of Chaucer and Shakespeare, today’s cuckolding fetish takes the deception and betrayal out of cheating. Both partners are in on the secret. The cuckolding fetish isn't the same as a threesome. The husband is forced to watch while his wife has sex with other men. Usually, the men are larger and more well-endowed than the cuckold. The wife makes sure that the husband is aware of his failure; often taunting him while climaxing with a "better man" than him. It’s a form of psychological sadomasochism. Some people get turned on by whips, chains and physical pain. Cuckolds get aroused by mental anguish. Good grief, as Charlie Brown might say.

As was discussed earlier regarding pornography, the physical act of sex is the least important part. It's one thing if the cuckold watches his wife getting screwed by another man for an hour; it's another thing entirely if if the wife and lover cuddle for two hours afterwards and talk. For a cuckold, the real fear comes from his wife developing an emotional connection with any of her other lovers. Cuckolding appeals to intellectuals because it replaces sexual touch with the psychological stimulation of humiliation and emotional pain. It's pleasure on a higher level.



The three main types of cuckolds are the submissive, the forced bisexual and the voyeurs. Submissive cuckolds are aroused by humiliation. They fantasize about being degraded and mocked by their wife. For the second type of cuckolds, pain isn't the objective. Some husbands are closeted and want to see naked men. Some cuckolds are bisexual, since part of the humiliation may involve the cuckold servicing his wife's lover. Not all of the second type of cuckold are attracted to men, though. Some of these second types of cuckolds want to be pushed into exploring forced bisexuality. They want to be pushed by their wife into doing things they would never do, like sexually worshiping another man. Then lastly, there are voyeurs, who just enjoy watching their lover get pleasured by another man. Sometimes these cuckolds derive pleasure from knowing that their wife is sexually attractive to other men.



If prostitution is the world's oldest profession, then sex is the world's oldest sport. All modern sports of putting balls in hoops or sinking putts or scoring touchdowns are all pale imitations of the original competition which takes place inside a vagina. The goal of the game is to be the first to fertilize the woman's egg. One way to help ensure victory is by getting rid of the competition’s sperm. The human male penis was designed in such a way that the bulbous tip of the organ would effectively displace the semen of competitors from their partner’s vagina. Basically, the frenetic thrusting not only encourages the penis to ejaculate, but it also flushes out the sperm left behind by prior partners. If God had wanted us to be monogamous, He wouldn't have given man a mushroom-tipped cock.



A married man may love his wife, but there's no urgency to have the largest erection and biggest ejaculation if he knows that the woman is his alone. The human body wants to conserve energy and won't work harder than is necessary. A husband watching his wife have sex with another man will make him harder than he would be normally in an effort to exceed the competition.



Cuckolding is a mental workout because the mind must rise above feelings of jealousy. A sense of betrayal stems from the social construct of wives as property. Once the cuckold makes peace with his jealous thoughts, he is able to build a stronger relationship with his wife. Some view cuckolding as a positive change which represents female sexual independence, while others view it as further degradation of women.



One unsettling aspect of cuckolding is the racial component. More often than not, the scenario involves a white cuckold, his white wife and a large, African-American man. This is a fetish within a fetish, (that's a fetishception for you Nolan-types). It harkens back to the days when interracial relations were still considered taboo by a majority of society.



Cuckolding is a form of escapism. Cuckold fetishists are relieving themselves of the stress put upon them by society and escape into a simpler, less-demanding position. Rejecting society's definition of masculinity because of a fun alternative? Where have I heard that before?



Cuckolding definitely isn't for everyone. It can easily lead to feelings of jealously and resentment. Especially if an emotional connection is developed between the husband's wife and her lover. The important thing to realize is that just because a particular fetish doesn't appeal to the majority, that doesn't invalidate is as a means of sexual expression. I'll sum everything up with the following quote:

"It doesn’t matter

who you love

or how you love

but that you love."

-Rod McKuen

Rod McKuen wrote the songs for A Boy Named Charlie Brown. I thought it fitting that I end this blog entry with him.

Thanks for reading to the end of this article! I hope everyone learned something about Charles Schulz, monogamy, polygamy, infidelity and cuckolding. I learned a lot while compiling research for this blog post. Please feel free to discuss this month's topics in the comments. I'll be back September 10th with another Rule 34 update!



Goodnight, Sparky Schulz, wherever you are.