My Little Pony Fanfiction, "Cupcakes", and my kids
A year or so ago, I began to pay a little bit of attention to the My Little Pony fan community, mostly due to the fascinating intersection of sexual politics and innocent cartoon horse fun for girls. There's lots more I could say about that, but I'll skip over it, mentioning it only to explain why I know that there's a MLP fanfiction out there called "Cupcakes". I haven't read it, but I've read a synopsis. One of the ponies lures the rest, one by one, into her place where she turns them into delicious cupcakes that she then feeds to the remaining, oblivious ponies who drop by to investigate the disappearances. It's horror of a stripe fairly standard in fanfiction, but a lot of bronies (male adult MLP fans) were completely unaware this sort of writing existed. The existence of "Cupcakes" caused a lot of uproar and as a result, there were a number of spinoff works, including a fanvid on YouTube.
All well and good, right?
Tonight, my daughter (6, who loves My Little Pony) and my son (13, who helps her navigate to the MLP videos and episodes on YouTube when it's her turn on the computer) are upset and agitated because they watched a Cupcakes video on YouTube.
While their upset is genuine and I know I'm supposed to be all protective and up in arms about this ... honestly, it's hard to keep a straight face. Does that make me a horrible parent?
All well and good, right?
Tonight, my daughter (6, who loves My Little Pony) and my son (13, who helps her navigate to the MLP videos and episodes on YouTube when it's her turn on the computer) are upset and agitated because they watched a Cupcakes video on YouTube.
While their upset is genuine and I know I'm supposed to be all protective and up in arms about this ... honestly, it's hard to keep a straight face. Does that make me a horrible parent?