The infamous Ponies Post, or why I like The Cute.
I'd like to start with pointing out that after four years of writing Squeaky Clean, I think I've established my GirlyCred. Heck, I took my share of heat for being a horrible monster antifeminist, which is kind of laughable if you know me, but whatever. If Avenue Q is right and "everyone's a little bit racist," probably everyone's a little bit sexist, too. Anyway, you can look at the tags I've got, especially "weddings" and "pink."
I'm enjoying My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic quite a lot. It's a nice de-stressor during one of the worst work times of the year. I started watching it because of the Avengers fic I posted earlier, and it's kind of cool.
Nope, it's not the old My Little Pony, and you can take that the good way or the bad way. I checked out the intro to the old My Little Pony, and they kept the opening music and the opening rainbow, just with a little more pizazzle. There's still a megaton of little heart shapes and candy in the settings, and honestly, SC readers are lucky this show didn't crop up before I was nearly done. It's basically the same aesthetic: pink everywhere, hearts everywhere, candy and cakes everywhere. You could die from diabetes and estrogen poisoning. It's kept the cute, and how.
(Note: be careful of clicking "recommended videos." The show is cute, and most of the videos are cute clips, but some of the fandom, brrr. Don't even mention them in the comments if you know what I'm talking about, but it can get awful. I stick the safety mode on when ponysurfing and it doesn't catch everything. This one is 110% cute, though. )
(Fluttershy is cute. Really, really, really cute.)
As far as I can tell, the reboot was Hasbro's idea, and then they hired the producer, Lauren Faust. I'm assuming they wanted to change the pony shape and kick the franchise in the butt with a new cartoon. No one could have predicted that it would appeal to an older audience, although I think the geek shoutouts and echoes of older movies were intended to make it tolerable for fully grown women watching with their kids. Hasbro definitely got involved asking for stuff, like "change Rarity's salon; we need it different for the playset," and "can you write in a schoolhouse? We want a schoolhouse playset." Somewhere out there, Hasbro execs are singing "We're in the Money." Edit: big long interview with Lauren Faust on how they developed and made the cartoon, here.
What's different mostly is that the animation is snappier and that the ponies have distinctive characters. They're still pastel ponies, don't get me wrong. You can practically hear the marketing plugs: "Rarity is a beautiful unicorn with long purple mane and tail. She loves giving makeovers!" and "Pinkie Pie loves cupcakes and throwing parties for all her friends in Ponyville!" What they don't tell you is that Rarity is a drama queen:
Rarity: "Go away! I want to be alooone. I just want to wallow in . . . whatever it is that ponies wallow in."
Rarity got on my nerves until I saw her building clothes, and there was a certain shock of recognition. I don't own a metric ton of quality AB crystal rhinestones, no sirree.
You're leaving a lot of remnant there, girlfriend.
I've got friends who swear that it's not a real costuming event if they're not sewing until 2 AM the night before, freaking out.
And Pinkie Pie is off the hook. Seriously. They gave her Pepe Le Pew's old bouncy gait. (I miss Pepe. A lot. They don't even show a lot of his cartoons anymore.) I can't even pick a Pinkie Pie clip; she's got so many good moments.
If anything, the cartoons have a heck of a lot of Harry Potter in them. The main character, Twilight Sparkle, is a purple unicorn version of Hermione Granger, Pinkie Pie has got touches of Luna Lovegood, and there's even a phoenix. There's a tiny bit of Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
Is it too much for little kids? Is it aimed at an older audience? Nah, not really. I don't think so, anyway. But you've gotta remember, I grew up before cable really took off. My family didn't get it until really late in the game. If you lived in a bad reception area, you got a lot of reruns. Kids took what they could get. I grew up on Hanna Barbera (anyone remember The Funky Phantom? Sigh. Thought not.) About the closest girls got to having their own dedicated stuff was Josie and the Pussycats, or The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. A lot of Early Cecil owes a debt to The Hooded Claw. I would have embedded some of this stuff, but I just glanced over on YouTube and on second thought, I really can't bear it.
Plus, they used to be able to show this on television. You can't anymore, which makes me sad. It was one of my favorite Daffy Duck moments, and still is.
Somehow I grew up unscarred and was never tempted to emulate this. Go figure.
Does liking the show make an older girl like me a Brony? Nah, I don't think so. (Plus, it just doesn't have the depth of the Potter books. Not even close.) Some of us never get tired of tea parties and dolls: we just do a more grown up version of them. (And some of us have a closet bulging with ballgowns, but that's another story.) I'm really happy to see GirlyStuff so good that other people decide to say, "hey, that's pretty good." I love the American Girl dolls, though I'm not much of a collector. I'd rather see awesome updated princesses than have people try to stomp the princess out. I'd rather keep Sara Crewe.
Lauren Faust quote, with which I heartily agree:
My specific dreams are still to make great entertainment for girls. I just don’t think there’s enough truly good stuff out there for them, but I also have kind of selfish reasons. When I think of something I want to say or an experience I want to share, my ideas are usually innately feminine because I’m female - and I refuse to believe that something being feminine by nature automatically means it isn’t worthwhile. If I can put the tiniest dent in the perception that “girly” equals “lame” or “for girls” equals “crappy,” I’ll be very satisfied.
The only thing I wish people would remember is that not a lot of stuff in this world belongs to little girls. Ponies and princesses and pink: they own that. So if you're a grownup and especially if you're a male grownup, please remember you're a guest, and act like one. Don't hog the swingset, don't take all the cake, say thanks, and don't leave a bunch of litter. And stick those YouTube videos where little girls won't find them. Thanks, bronies and other guys. I guarantee it will make you 20% cooler.
Edit: here's a cool article about My Little Pony and "the New Cute," which I think is interesting.
The Ponies Physics presentation. Now this here is a great example of healthy crossover. I was blown away to find out that this guy actually attends my university.
I'm enjoying My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic quite a lot. It's a nice de-stressor during one of the worst work times of the year. I started watching it because of the Avengers fic I posted earlier, and it's kind of cool.
Nope, it's not the old My Little Pony, and you can take that the good way or the bad way. I checked out the intro to the old My Little Pony, and they kept the opening music and the opening rainbow, just with a little more pizazzle. There's still a megaton of little heart shapes and candy in the settings, and honestly, SC readers are lucky this show didn't crop up before I was nearly done. It's basically the same aesthetic: pink everywhere, hearts everywhere, candy and cakes everywhere. You could die from diabetes and estrogen poisoning. It's kept the cute, and how.
(Note: be careful of clicking "recommended videos." The show is cute, and most of the videos are cute clips, but some of the fandom, brrr. Don't even mention them in the comments if you know what I'm talking about, but it can get awful. I stick the safety mode on when ponysurfing and it doesn't catch everything. This one is 110% cute, though. )
(Fluttershy is cute. Really, really, really cute.)
Click to viewAs far as I can tell, the reboot was Hasbro's idea, and then they hired the producer, Lauren Faust. I'm assuming they wanted to change the pony shape and kick the franchise in the butt with a new cartoon. No one could have predicted that it would appeal to an older audience, although I think the geek shoutouts and echoes of older movies were intended to make it tolerable for fully grown women watching with their kids. Hasbro definitely got involved asking for stuff, like "change Rarity's salon; we need it different for the playset," and "can you write in a schoolhouse? We want a schoolhouse playset." Somewhere out there, Hasbro execs are singing "We're in the Money." Edit: big long interview with Lauren Faust on how they developed and made the cartoon, here.
What's different mostly is that the animation is snappier and that the ponies have distinctive characters. They're still pastel ponies, don't get me wrong. You can practically hear the marketing plugs: "Rarity is a beautiful unicorn with long purple mane and tail. She loves giving makeovers!" and "Pinkie Pie loves cupcakes and throwing parties for all her friends in Ponyville!" What they don't tell you is that Rarity is a drama queen:
Rarity: "Go away! I want to be alooone. I just want to wallow in . . . whatever it is that ponies wallow in."
Rarity got on my nerves until I saw her building clothes, and there was a certain shock of recognition. I don't own a metric ton of quality AB crystal rhinestones, no sirree.
You're leaving a lot of remnant there, girlfriend.
I've got friends who swear that it's not a real costuming event if they're not sewing until 2 AM the night before, freaking out.
And Pinkie Pie is off the hook. Seriously. They gave her Pepe Le Pew's old bouncy gait. (I miss Pepe. A lot. They don't even show a lot of his cartoons anymore.) I can't even pick a Pinkie Pie clip; she's got so many good moments.
If anything, the cartoons have a heck of a lot of Harry Potter in them. The main character, Twilight Sparkle, is a purple unicorn version of Hermione Granger, Pinkie Pie has got touches of Luna Lovegood, and there's even a phoenix. There's a tiny bit of Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
Is it too much for little kids? Is it aimed at an older audience? Nah, not really. I don't think so, anyway. But you've gotta remember, I grew up before cable really took off. My family didn't get it until really late in the game. If you lived in a bad reception area, you got a lot of reruns. Kids took what they could get. I grew up on Hanna Barbera (anyone remember The Funky Phantom? Sigh. Thought not.) About the closest girls got to having their own dedicated stuff was Josie and the Pussycats, or The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. A lot of Early Cecil owes a debt to The Hooded Claw. I would have embedded some of this stuff, but I just glanced over on YouTube and on second thought, I really can't bear it.
Plus, they used to be able to show this on television. You can't anymore, which makes me sad. It was one of my favorite Daffy Duck moments, and still is.
Somehow I grew up unscarred and was never tempted to emulate this. Go figure.
Does liking the show make an older girl like me a Brony? Nah, I don't think so. (Plus, it just doesn't have the depth of the Potter books. Not even close.) Some of us never get tired of tea parties and dolls: we just do a more grown up version of them. (And some of us have a closet bulging with ballgowns, but that's another story.) I'm really happy to see GirlyStuff so good that other people decide to say, "hey, that's pretty good." I love the American Girl dolls, though I'm not much of a collector. I'd rather see awesome updated princesses than have people try to stomp the princess out. I'd rather keep Sara Crewe.
Lauren Faust quote, with which I heartily agree:
My specific dreams are still to make great entertainment for girls. I just don’t think there’s enough truly good stuff out there for them, but I also have kind of selfish reasons. When I think of something I want to say or an experience I want to share, my ideas are usually innately feminine because I’m female - and I refuse to believe that something being feminine by nature automatically means it isn’t worthwhile. If I can put the tiniest dent in the perception that “girly” equals “lame” or “for girls” equals “crappy,” I’ll be very satisfied.
The only thing I wish people would remember is that not a lot of stuff in this world belongs to little girls. Ponies and princesses and pink: they own that. So if you're a grownup and especially if you're a male grownup, please remember you're a guest, and act like one. Don't hog the swingset, don't take all the cake, say thanks, and don't leave a bunch of litter. And stick those YouTube videos where little girls won't find them. Thanks, bronies and other guys. I guarantee it will make you 20% cooler.
Edit: here's a cool article about My Little Pony and "the New Cute," which I think is interesting.
The Ponies Physics presentation. Now this here is a great example of healthy crossover. I was blown away to find out that this guy actually attends my university.