I'm a feminist! — Page 12

My grandmother never shaved her legs.

Hm, okay, I'll be serious. I don't consider myself a feminist, not as the term is typically used (but I do agree with Boost on the diapering option). I'm in favor of equality of opportunity. That to me doesn't mean seeking equal results, gender neutrality, or encouraging gender non-conformity. I think, by-and-large, boys will be boys, and girls will be girls. My niece has always hated wearing things on her feet - socks, shoes, slippers, any of it. Then one day her father buys her slippers she absolutely adores. They're Darth Vader slippers. She is too young to know who that is, she just loves them. I don't see it as a feminist victory, it's just awesome.

I'm assuming B is not awesome because you don't consider Cinderella slippers to be unisex.  So why are Darth Vader slippers not "gender specific" while Cinderella slippers are?

As for Bingowings's original questions, I would say that is equally awesome, although I'd personally prefer Ariel or Belle slippers myself.

You didn't answer my "why?". :-)

Maybe so (see, not disagreeing with you!), but by that token, Star Wars has always been meant to appeal to 6-11 year old boys. 

(And growing up, I was into toy cars and toy guns, Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles as well... but also Disney Princesses.  Didn't really see why I had to choose one or the other... well, until I gave in to societal pressure, but I'm my own person now.)

Well, see, that's my point!  Star Wars was "meant" for boys... and, hey, girls liked it too.  The world didn't end.  It's absolutely no different, but for some reason, we give females quite a bit more latitude when it comes to this.  If boys try to do the exact same thing, it's wrong and weird somehow?

Well, it was inevitable.  I didn't even realize until now it would come to this, but I think it was certainly inevitable.  The fact of the matter is, I have never seen this show, but it has come up in my life a couple of times recently.  Confused Matthew talked about it in a video recently, which led me to research the topic a little bit, and then I just now watched SFDebris's take on it as well.  And by which I am referring to...

BRONIES!!!

That is, for those of you not in the know, the term referring to male fans of My Little Pony:  Friendship is Magic.

Now, even though this is a banner that, as far as I can tell, the fans themselves use with pride, it does carry a very negative stigma outside of that circle.  The word evokes, at best, a sad immaturity and silliness and, at worst, sick perversion.  Despite everything I've said in this thread so far about not caring about judgment, even I find myself somewhat hesitant to seek out this show for fear of that label being attached to me, which, quite frankly, surprised me.

All because a cartoon primarily intended for little girls has developed a substantial peripheral demographic.  Kinda like Star Wars but in reverse.

Like I said, this is something I've never seen or really had that much interest in, but I did feel compelled to try and find some background on the topic just to try and figure out for myself:  is FIM attracting the social rejects of humanity, or is the show itself simply good entertainment that manages to cross the so-called "gender boundaries"? 

To my surprise, I learned that the original show runner is a woman named Lauren Faust, who, back in my own childhood/adolescence, worked on a little show called The Powerpuff Girls.  Now, see, my original inclination was to be amazed that, perhaps for the first time, a clearly female-oriented cartoon was getting a male fanbase, and, as such, its fans are receiving the backlash for that.  But, let's be honest here.  The Powerpuff Girls has very "girly" overtones:  it focuses on young female protagonists and associated iconography:  stuffed animals, coloring, strobing hearts, and color-coded dresses, etc.  And yet, The Powerpuff Girls is looked back on rather fondly, and, I remember being about 12 or so when its popularity took off, and all of my friends were fans of it, and there was never any kind of question or fear among any of us that boys shouldn't be fans of The Powerpuff Girls. 

Now, maybe that has something to do with the "girly" elements being subverted by so many elements and nods to the superhero genre (or the other way around, really), while people assume a show about ponies is completely diabetes-inducing.  Granted, from what I've looked up, FIM seems to have quite a nice blend of action-adventure.  Also, Faust only worked as an animator on PPG.  Its creator was actually a male.  Maybe that has something to do with it subconsciously?

I don't know.  Any Bronies on the board?  Any non-Bronies want to weigh in?  What's the deal?  What do you think?  Are Bronies sad freaks who need to figure out what it means to really be a man?  Or is this the big, mainstream beginning to tearing down gender walls in entertainment that women have long since been able to cross freely?  I'm starting to find this somewhat intriguing.

EDIT:  Whoah, wait a minute.  John "Q" de Lancie has done voice work for this show?  And has compared the male fans of this show to female fans of Trek?  AND HELPED DEVELOP A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT BRONIES?! 

Okay, my mind is officially blown...

Access to knowledge and education used to be very much "gender specific" to the deficit of women.  If we continued to maintain that "things are the way they are, we're too conditioned and ingrained, and change is scary," they still would be.