Exhausted, but o the pony wank
I tried to keep this short, as I ought to be in bed.
ONTD post on the complaints of awful behavior at a recent MLP convention: Accusations of racism and sexism at brony convention hit tumblr.
Behavior, of course, is indefensively, horribly bad, and partially reported on here.
Bronies unfortunately do have a bad rep and in many/some cases, it's richly earned.There is a reason why I sometimes go through and find a tiny few G-rated pony art and comic recs, because I know some people on my f-list enjoy ponies and do not want to go swimming in a cesspit of gore and porn. This isn't the place for it, but there are plenty of places where you can find examples of bad behavior. It's also not defensible that when some of these reports started to surface, some bronies sent threatening messages to the posters. Not at ALL cool.
However, ONTD thread soon veers away from awful behavior or even an unpleasant quality of the fandom that many pony fans would just as soon disassociate themselves from, and on to bronies' ugliness, lack of fashion sense, and presumed sexual (non) experience, with pictures of some fan meetups. (See page four of the comments.) I couldn't see anything particularly reprehensible about those pictures. They're just a group of young adults, and some high schoolers, mostly male, but there are some young women in there. Some are wearing flannel shirts. Some are wearing pony t-shirts. Some have braces. So what? I suppose this irritates me because when I look at that, I see people like my students.
This, IMO, is also not cool. I've said it before: fandom is fandom is fandom. Here's where the line is, for me. If you don't like something, that's fine. You don't have to like Twilight or Fifty Shades or MLP. If you find something worrying in the fandom, then. . . then, well, you're getting into a dicey area. I'm a crazy optimist, I know, but I'd prefer to think that for every person who asks Taylor Lautner to sign her skivvies or well--no, I won't go there, but anyway, there are many more people sitting around, sadly murmuring, "this is why we can't have nice things." Still, this can be legit.
If you then start lambasting people on their appearance, and start tossing around words like "fat," "basement-dweller," "man-child," "neckbeard," "stupid," etc., then you have stepped over that line. Criticize Stephenie Meyer's writing if you must, but her weight is irrelevant. (So is her consumption of Diet Coke. I don't know why this matters to some people.)
Coda: If you looked at the Daily Dot article, it refers to a tumblr called Truth About Everfree. Um.
"1. I didn’t actually go to Everfree
2. I made up those stories
3. Don’t believe everything you read on tumblr without evidence
lol"
Follow-up Daily Dot article here.
Leaving us all to wonder what the hell actually happened and what if anything ought to be done about it.
ONTD post on the complaints of awful behavior at a recent MLP convention: Accusations of racism and sexism at brony convention hit tumblr.
Behavior, of course, is indefensively, horribly bad, and partially reported on here.
Bronies unfortunately do have a bad rep and in many/some cases, it's richly earned.There is a reason why I sometimes go through and find a tiny few G-rated pony art and comic recs, because I know some people on my f-list enjoy ponies and do not want to go swimming in a cesspit of gore and porn. This isn't the place for it, but there are plenty of places where you can find examples of bad behavior. It's also not defensible that when some of these reports started to surface, some bronies sent threatening messages to the posters. Not at ALL cool.
However, ONTD thread soon veers away from awful behavior or even an unpleasant quality of the fandom that many pony fans would just as soon disassociate themselves from, and on to bronies' ugliness, lack of fashion sense, and presumed sexual (non) experience, with pictures of some fan meetups. (See page four of the comments.) I couldn't see anything particularly reprehensible about those pictures. They're just a group of young adults, and some high schoolers, mostly male, but there are some young women in there. Some are wearing flannel shirts. Some are wearing pony t-shirts. Some have braces. So what? I suppose this irritates me because when I look at that, I see people like my students.
This, IMO, is also not cool. I've said it before: fandom is fandom is fandom. Here's where the line is, for me. If you don't like something, that's fine. You don't have to like Twilight or Fifty Shades or MLP. If you find something worrying in the fandom, then. . . then, well, you're getting into a dicey area. I'm a crazy optimist, I know, but I'd prefer to think that for every person who asks Taylor Lautner to sign her skivvies or well--no, I won't go there, but anyway, there are many more people sitting around, sadly murmuring, "this is why we can't have nice things." Still, this can be legit.
If you then start lambasting people on their appearance, and start tossing around words like "fat," "basement-dweller," "man-child," "neckbeard," "stupid," etc., then you have stepped over that line. Criticize Stephenie Meyer's writing if you must, but her weight is irrelevant. (So is her consumption of Diet Coke. I don't know why this matters to some people.)
Coda: If you looked at the Daily Dot article, it refers to a tumblr called Truth About Everfree. Um.
"1. I didn’t actually go to Everfree
2. I made up those stories
3. Don’t believe everything you read on tumblr without evidence
lol"
Follow-up Daily Dot article here.
Leaving us all to wonder what the hell actually happened and what if anything ought to be done about it.