Samuel Miller's office in UND's Merrifield Hall leaves most students speechless.

It is dense with My Little Pony toys, trinkets and fan art. His desk is adorned with several miniatures, his couch is draped by a pink pony blanket and his walls are covered with several pieces of art, the largest of which is a shadow box containing hot pink glittery paper leaves nestled around the face of a pony.

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When he shared an office with two women, visitors usually asked them who the third woman was.

"Automatically they somehow assume this would be a woman's space," Miller said. "The other ladies would say no. It's something atypical for a man to enjoy, though, so that's what a lot of my research revolves around."

Not everyone would find Miller's enthusiasm for the world of My Little Pony so unusual. He is part of a widespread subculture known as Bronies, adults, often men, who are passionate fans of a cartoon show about six colorful and magical ponies based on a series of toys from the 1980s.

The phenomenon has been the subject of media curiosity, online scorn and, in Miller's case, academic research.

A self-described transient, Miller served in the military, attended college at Georgia State University and went on to teach at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pa.

That's where Miller discovered a small section of the Anime club he advised was interested in starting a club celebrating the children's TV show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."

It stars six ponies, the "Mane Six," with varying personalities who deal with and learn from situations in the magical land of Equestria.

After some slight pushback from the administration who signed off on the club, Miller said he was shocked to see 25 people show up for the first meeting, all excited to watch an episode of the show.

"They were really into it, and I'm like, this is no longer a joke," he said.

Miller then came to UND to earn his doctorate degree in communications studying Bronies and their implication on gender, masculinity and pop culture and now, with one year left until graduation, he said he has learned a lot.

"The amount of hate I've seen generated is alarming," Miller said. "All you have to do is put 'I hate Bronies' into YouTube and you get a myriad of people in front of their cameras screaming about how wrong this is. This is part of my research: Why is this such an issue?"

Facing criticism

Many Bronies say they are drawn to the show's message while critics get hung up on its "girly" look.

UND student Taft Ashcraft had heard of Bronies on the Internet but didn't see what all the fuss was about until 2012. While it took a few weeks, he gradually discovered despite the fantasy aspect of the show he could really relate to the characters and problems they faced.

Ashcraft cited an episode in which the joker character does everything she can to be seen as responsible and trustworthy.

"At the end she has a breakdown about it and your heart goes out to her," he said. "You've been there. You've felt that before."

Ashcraft lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, at the time and started a My Little Pony club there before coming to UND for the chemical engineering program and starting a small group in Grand Forks.

Some young My Little Pony fans have made national news when faced with bullying because of their passion.

In 2014, the Citizen-Times of Asheville, N.C., reported a boy had been banned from bringing his My Little Pony backpack to school because it triggered bullying, though the school eventually reconsidered and promised new antibullying initiatives.

One month later, the the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., reported an 11-year-old boy attempted suicide because of relentless bullying, partially due to his love of My Little Pony.

Part of Miller's research involves going through about 1,300 online surveys detailing the lives of the average Brony.

"The hardest part when you're going through these responses are the questions about harassment and being bullied," he said. "That was painful because it's amazing the lengths people will go to to make someone's life miserable because they have a picture of a pony on their laptop."

The research

Communication Department Chair Timothy Pasch helps students like Miller through coursework and the dissertation writing process. While Miller's topic may seem unusual, he said the research is timely and important.

"I had not been familiar with the fan culture community of 'Bronies' before I had the opportunity to discuss with Sam," he wrote in an email. "Despite my preliminary need for significant additional information, I was immediately very impressed with Sam's focus on utilizing social media and online data collection methods to learn more regarding the scale and scope of this huge international social movement."

Miller's research focuses on gender, something he said is actually very fluid yet confined by social constructs.

"The fact that it's young men, that's something worth investigating," he said. "Why are they clinging to this so much?"

And they are clinging. Miller spoke at the 2015 BronyCon which had about 10,000

Bronies in attendance. He travels often, expanding his network of Bronies and being on the receiving end of their fandom. He's scheduled to speak at the Southwest Popular/American Culture conference in Albuquerque, N.M., in February.

"The fandom is so open and receiving of people, it's like they actually take these messages to heart," he said.

Miller said faculty at UND were very supportive of his area of study.

"I would recommend to anyone who might view Sam's work as potentially flippant due to its subject matter, to consider that Sam has purposefully selected the Bronies phenomenon to investigate serious, far-reaching matters such as freedom of communication, First Amendment rights, digital security and privacy, gender rights and freedom to choose media preferences without fear of reprisal or prosecution in some countries," he said.

Findings

Miller said of the surveys he has received, about 90 percent of respondents identified as heterosexual, something some people are confused by.

"Why does that matter?" he said. "Why is sexuality suddenly questioned?"

The show promotes good values: loyalty, laughter, kindness, honesty, and generosity. Miller said his research led him to the discovery of military Bronies who say the values line up with military values.

"If that's what you derive from this show, where young men and young women become more hospitable, I don't see the harm in it," Miller said. "Why is it a bad thing if men ask for help or collaborate with other men? Young men are trained to be stoic individuals, but why is it wrong to ask for help? It shouldn't be."

Miller said he knows the fandom is hard for some people to understand. His own father was confused by his son's area of study but has come around and even purchased a My Little Pony calendar for him last Christmas.

"It will definitely be a thing that I show my kids and say it's one of the best things I've ever encountered," he said.

Miller said the interesting part of his research is realizing how society aggressively wants to put gender in a box, finding an upbeat educational program inappropriate for males simply because it's pretty, pink and covered in glitter.

"It just conflicts with what they understand, that young men interested in something clearly effeminate to them, there has to be something wrong."