Men watching a pastel-colored cartoon about magic ponies. Got a problem with that? If you do, you’re not alone.

A brony is a male who watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the modern cartoon based on the 1980’s toy (I had some myself!). The fans made up the term themselves: bro + pony = brony. Although bronies can be any gender, it is most often aimed at men who are fascinated with the show (sometimes female fans are referred to as pegasisters.) The urban dictionary has an entertaining full description.

The first time I heard about this sub-culture was from my sister. She teaches biology at Siena College and somehow got into a conversation with one of her male students that ended with him “confessing” his love of a cartoon aimed at six year old girls... and that he wasn’t alone. He told her, “Actually, it’s a pretty good show. You should watch it.” I found it highly amusing to picture a gathering of young men watching big-eyed ponies save the day.

But that’s not the reaction that other people have to bronies. There was a huge discussion among some writers of GeekMom about the sub-culture. The comments ranged from pedophilia, to escapism, to gender and age bias, to delayed maturation, and more. There was a variety of opinions from benign amusement to true concern. The quotes that follow are taken from that conversation.

“There’s something quite creepy about them.”

I was taken aback by this statement because I’m currently writing with a group of adult women who regularly partake in culture aimed at young boys. Was it creepy for me to enjoy Avatar: Last Airbender? And I mean, I really enjoyed it: I would stay up late catching up on episodes after the kids went to bed because I couldn’t wait, I skimmed through DeviantArt on a daily basis looking at fan art, I had a crush on Zukko for goodness sake!

And that’s just the start. The world (especially here on the internet) is full of women who love fantasy, science fiction, and comic books, which are predominantly created and marketed to young men. Are we creeps for enjoying Star Wars? X-Men? Bleach? What’s with the double-standard?

“I think the thing that makes it creepy is that it’s grown men, not little boys. I guess the leap people make is that grown men are trying to insinuate themselves into the world of little girls.”

Pedophilia. Let’s just get it out there. And squash it. Pedophiles are mostly men who have been sexually abused as children and become predators themselves. You cannot tell a pedophile from looking at them. And because they know very well that it is immoral and illegal, they are very good at hiding it. A pedophile is alone with the window shades down jerking off to child porn. A group of young men openly hanging out in a dorm room watching a cartoon is NOT pedophilia.

So who are these guys?

I recently attended a Siena college presentation about the sub-culture of bronies. The speaker cited data collected recently that showed that the majority of bronys are between the ages of 18-22, attend college, and are heterosexual.

Ah...I think we hit on something here. Is watching My Little Pony a sign of being gay? There’s a reason the question of sexual orientation was asked. Many bronies keep it a secret because of cultural reactions against boys liking “girl” things. “The pink and sparkly factor.”

Yeah, boys can’t like pink and sparkly because it’s emasculating. One of the GeekMom shared, “My son is a fan of My Little Pony and he likes to sing the theme song while playing in his room. When he was being potty trained, we went to Disney and got him a box of My Little Ponies and accessories as prizes. [His uncle] had a fit.”

Wearing My Little Pony insignias on sports clothing is becoming more popular. A music student of mine said he likes My Little Pony and found some lacrosse shorts with the insignia, but he knows his dad would freak out if he wore them.

We’ve finally gotten to a point in our culture where we think sporty, tough girls are cool, and yet boys are so limited! Toys and media are gender targeted to nauseation. Even Lego came out with gender specific toys. Another mom mentioned frustration at finding her son Dora stuff that wasn’t pink. She has nothing against pink, but that’s the ONLY color because the company decided boys don’t like Dora?

Nevertheless, some bronies are secure in their masculinity.

"The 501st will not only be attending the My Little Pony Fair in Orlando, FL this July but also helping with the games and the festivities. A rule of the 501st is to have fun and what better place than at a convention for MLP fans. The 501st is proud to help fellow lovers of Hasbro in celebrating everything that is My Little Pony. " - Jay Anderson

I attended a panel at PAX East with older gamers. They spoke about dealing with gaming once kids came along. One dad mentioned he gets introduced to video games that he wouldn’t be caught dead buying for himself. These games are made for his young girls, but are really good. Should we lambast guys for judging My Little Pony’s content regardless of color scheme and character genders?

One of the show’s creators, Lauren Faust has this to say about Bronies: “As a group, they have not succumbed to society’s pressure that young men must hold contempt for anything feminine, no matter what. They’ve been able to see beyond the preconceived notions that they most likely raised with to judge something on its merits. And on top of that, they’re brave enough to embrace it openly despite the ridicule they’re undoubtably subject to.”

There is terminology that goes with the culture including my favorite: “plot.” When a brony talks about plot, they are NOT referring to the events happening in the storyline, rather “plot” are the flanks of a pony. As in, “I only watch the show for plot.”

This made me roll my eyes, typical college guy. I just attended a fantastic concert of Carmina Burana, a classical piece of music inspired by poems about drinking, gluttony, gambling and lust written by college boys in the 13th century. Bronies turning a literature term into one about lust is completely normal, though immature.

And that leads me to another issue here: growing up. Is spending free time watching children’s cartoons a sign of immaturity? Are bronies stunted in their growth as adults?

“I mistrust anything that infantilizes men because I feel very protective of women [who are forced to grow up when they have children]” said one mother. This sparked a full discussion of how men seem to have a choice whether or not to grow up and help with child-rearing. Often a woman will not marry the father of their children because the man expects to be taken care of as well.

Although it may be easy to tie bronies to men who refuse to grow up, I don’t believe that. Do adult readers of YA yearn to stay teenagers? I know one woman who reads fantasy YA exclusively because she doesn’t like any kind of violence, which is very often in mature fantasy. She is a librarian with a full-time job and raised two wonderful children, and she has no interest in other teenage things. Many forms of entertainment succeed at multiple levels. Keeping the parents amused is a sure way they will continue to let their children watch a show, for example.

I think watching My Little Pony as an adult is another form of escapism. The same reason I spent several months watching the anime Bleach every night. For that half hour I didn’t think about the homework for my college classes, the organizing I had to do for my kids, the rug that needed to be vacuumed, etc. Everyone needs to get away from our responsibilities or we’ll go crazy. Most of the women in that brony discussion agreed on that point. Regardless of what you do: writing, reading, watching, everyone needs to get away.

There are many acceptable forms of escapism for men in our culture. Maybe these guys don’t want to watch “young male” shows with murder and sex every thirty seconds. Or maybe they do, but not all the time. Why do they watch My Little Pony?

According to the presentation I heard, bronies watch the show because it’s not a typical kids’ show. It has humor at different levels, clever writing, and the action is good. There’s a community of bronies that watch the show together, or at least chat online, share art, fanfiction, games, and meet up at conventions. But most importantly, all bronies have a pony they identify with. They see themselves in a character and relate.

The pony that is number one with the presenter at the talk I attended? Fluttershy, the shy, kind pony that was bullied in her youth. This guy, who has spent his childhood in our culture with its conflicting messages to boys about what it means to “be a man!” This young man, who is supposed to hold the weight of the world without crying, identifies with a character that needs friendship to be strong.

So some guys watch a show about colorful ponies. So what? Going back to the words of my sister’s student, “It’s actually a pretty good show. You should watch it.”