Brony - Reactions - Criticism

Criticism

The adult fandom has been perceived negatively by others. Media coverage of the brony phenomenon overshadowed the critical praise the show received. The brony community has encountered ridicule through trolling on internet forums, although it has moved away from 4chan. The Fox News Channel comedy talk program Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld poked fun at the fandom because it largely consists of young adult males. Kurt Schlichter of BigHollywood.com called the phenomenon a "terrifying new trend", and wrote, "Hollywood, do you really need to enable the creepy immaturity of these geebos? No. It's time to stop the insanity." Commenting on Schlichter's article, Greg Pollowitz of the National Review Online wrote that considering the target audience he could not understand the show's appeal to adult men. Jerry Springer has sent out a request for members of the fandom to appear on his show, but many fans, as well as those that support the fandom like voice actress Tara Strong, have warned others from participating fearing the show would highlight the negative aspects of the fandom. Though Springer did include a segment in an October 2012 show on "Outrageous Guilty Pleasures", featuring two people that claimed to be bronies, sites such as The Daily Dot question if these were just staged actors after the previous warnings alerted the fandom. The hacking group GNAA targeted specific pages on Tumblr in an attack in early December 2012, primary those that came from the brony fandom or that had reported on it, though since has been stopped and repaired by Tumblr; the attack included insulting language posted to the affected Tumblr sites, in claims of an upcoming "brony-removal drive".

Some media have been critical of the adult-oriented material created by fans. In some cases, these videos may appear in internet searches that children may perform while looking for online copies of the program, forcing parents to have to discuss pornography and sex with their children. One parody series, drawn by animator Max Gilardi in the style of John Kricfalusi, places the characters in explicit adult situations and was described by the web site io9 as "disgusting ... and most certainly NSFW". A segment on the The Howard Stern Show in July 2012 weighed on the pornographic aspect of the brony fandom, often referred to as "clop", though at least one journalist reported that this a small subset of the larger group. Slate's Amanda Marcotte opined that the transformation of the pony characters into teenage girls for the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls feature film was a move to satisfy the adult fans who "have expressed a strong interest in seeing the Ponies in sexy, humanized forms". In one case, several media outlets highlighted a letter written by a brony that claimed to be marrying Twilight Sparkle to a fan artist that drew the character in erotic situations to cease such work, as to highlight of the ridiculous nature of the fandom and Internet as a whole.

Rebecca Angel, writing for Wired's Geekmom column, described some of the negative feedback from fellow writers about the mostly-male brony culture that included accusations of pedophila, homosexuality, and immaturity. Angel defended the fandom's culture, describing adult fans' interest as a form of escapism, and that the show provides characters they can relate to and talk about with other fans. She also acknowledged the double-standard whereas females can watch male-oriented entertainment without question, while male bronies receive criticism about their interest in the show. Angel later called the brony fandom as rebellious towards gender roles, stating that "having interests that go against what men are supposed to embrace is the sneakiest kind of rebellion". In a similar vein, an "Idea Channel" segment from the Public Broadcasting Service said that the ridicule received by the brony community is partly because the male appreciation for the show challenges preconceived notions of gender roles in the mass media.

Portions of the brony fandom have often reacted negatively to changes in the direction of the show, such as in the above change to "The Last Roundup" episode involving the Derpy Hooves character. Similarly, the Season 3 finale episode "Magical Mystery Cure" ended with the main character Twilight Sparkle transforming into a winged unicorn (alicorn) and being named a princess. This change was revealed prior to the episode's airing, and a portion of the fandom were critical of the change, comparing it to a "jump the shark" moment for the show, while others considered that it was a significant change of one of the show's more popular characters that most of the brony fandom could relate with. The showrunners had to offer that while Twilight's physical appearance would change, this would not otherwise alter her personality or the general concept of the show. On the announcement of the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls feature-length animated film, in which the pony characters are re-envisioned as human teenage girls going to high school, a large fraction of the adult fandom reacted negatively towards the premise. Several stated that it was a corporate play by Hasbro and veered away from the direction that Faust had envisioned for the show at its onset, while others commented on the cliched aspect of a high school comedy, the overly thin appearance of the human characters, and other factors. The fan site "Equestria Daily" had issued a caution to its readers to not lash out at the show's creators who had also worked on the film, and other more predominate figures of the fandom urged others to continue to support the staff. "Equestria Daily"'s Shaun Scotellaro considered the fandom's behavior to be "your typical overreaction to something changing in your favorite series".