What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

tumblingtheology asked: Thank you so much for taking down that ridiculous, misogynistic, gender-essentialist article about My Little Pony! I am a 20-something woman, but I know a lot of guys who love the new MLP show, and I think it actually has a lot of positive messages about gender and accepting those who are different from you. There's nothing wrong with "girly" and there's nothing wrong with guys liking the show. (Although there is some unfortunate misogyny even within the fandom.)

Personally, I like MLP, but with reservations - it has a lot of truly awesome stuff going for it, great art and fun scripts and catchy songs, and I really love that men are breaking social stigmas to enjoy it openly, whether with their daughters or just in its own right. But it also has some problematic elements that bother me on a number of levels. For instance: I dislike the obvious contrast between the traditionally feminine ponies (Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie) and the more tomboyish ones (Rainbow, Applejack, Twilight) and how Rarity especially is treated in terms of her agency and sexuality. I also have serious reservations about how race and colonialism are treated in the show - canonically, frontier towns and colonisation still seem to be going on, and the episodes with Zecora and the Buffalo do not do wonders for racial equality.

Given all that, the idea that there might be misogyny in the fandom doesn’t surprise me - but I also know there’s a lot of sex- and race-positiveness there, too, as exemplified by the many awesome fanarts of the ponies as humans of different races, faiths, orientations and genders that show up on tumblr. The fact that the show appeals to so many different people, though, is something special and significant, and that’s why I keep on watching - because anything that has the power to provoke this much debate on gender, race, sexuality, faith and culture from so many different quarters has got to be noteworthy. 

Earlier today, a friend directed me to this great piece on how to like things that are problematic - or rather, how to acknowledge the problematic elements of things we like while still engaging in respectful discussion with others. It makes a point that I really agree with: humans are flawed, and so most of what we make is flawed, too. If you go around exorcising every problematic thing from your life, you’re bound to end up with almost nothing left. That doesn’t mean we can’t still decide to avoid certain things, but it does serve as a reminder that perfection is impossible, and that the best way forward is to keep on talking about what our narratives are doing, and why. 

  1. fozmeadows posted this