Email: My Little Pony Friendship is Magic

Dear Master Malstrom,

Isn’t quality whatever the customer holds it to be? If people believe ponies has good writing or music or worldbuilding, then regardless of whether you share that view you can’t say they are wrong.

I watch ponies because I am entirely comfortable with my gender identity, and regardless of social stigma. It’s the same when I play Nintendo games – I do it no matter how much the hardcore call them kiddy games.

When you comment on a social trend in future, I’d like to see a business analysis of it rather than a personal attack on people whose values you don’t share.

But I didn’t attack it. I think the ‘bronies’ are a symptom of something else going on. It is a sense of masculination of women and feminization of men in society.

I enjoy observing human nature. I’ve noticed that, generally, in all relationships there tends to be a yin/yang balance of masculinity and femininity of the two partners. Sometimes it is the man who is very masculine and the woman who is very feminine. Sometimes, it is the man who is very feminine and the woman who is very masculine. Or it is another shade of equilibrium.

Can any one show me masculine men who are bronies? I haven’t seen any.

I’m not criticizing it. I’m just observing it and trying to place it in a societal context. There are reasons why men would become fans of a cartoon designed for seven year old girls.

I think the message given by My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is very good for these types of men. Since these guys will end up in the ‘friend zone’ with the women they want, perhaps it is good for them to think that ‘friendship is magic’.

I’m not the legislator of pain and reward. That would be Nature herself. And she is a tough lady whose rulings can make a life taste like ash.

I actually wonder if that is how the hardcore became hardcore in the first place. Frustrated by Nature, they turn to a digital wonderland for their sense of accomplishment. It is why the hardcore must be destroyed!