Fugitivus Discussion Forum

A CASE STUDY!
My Little Homophobic, Racist, Smart-Shaming Pony

Words fail me.
It is.... it is definitely something o.o!!

Edit: either that or it's subtle satire... I *want* to believe it's satire, but I'm scared that it's not >.<

I thought it was a satire at first, when I discovered that there wasn't actually a "My Little Pony week", but that might just have been a little joke in a serious article rather than a hint that it was a satire. And if it is a satire, what exactly is it satirizing? Oversensitivity? Why would... a feminist... satirize... *head asplode* (I actually briefly entertained the notion that it might be a plant, but I looked around more, and she seems to be a real person.)

I kind of wish we knew what the author's response is to the near-universal criticism of the article (in the comments, and this rebuttal from later in the month.)

All I get at the other end of that link is a CGI error.

I am now also getting a CGI error (for both of the links in this thread)

Seems to be up again.
Just in case, here's a (text only) mirror of the article and the rebuttal:
http://pastebin.com/hEmxVqVh
http://pastebin.com/FvdKLJ7v

A tangent in a "what legitimate criticisms CAN be made of MLPFiM" sense: I'm really uncomfortable with the episode Bridle Gossip. The *main, supposedly likeable* characters are dehumanising and ostracising Zecora, who remains majorly exotified through the end of the episode and later appearances, and doesn't function as a character so much as she does a source of magical mystical wisdom. Trying to do head-on confrontations of racial issues doesn't really work in a lighthearted kid's show I don't think, because the right answers aren't conducive to an "And everyone became friends!" ending. It must also be noted that Bridle Gossip and the episode with the buffalo are clearly intended for the white gaze.

I love the show except for the Very Special Episodes >.<

The article really screams of "I saw the commercial and judged based on that, with no other info." Which, obviously leads to shallow interpretations of the show. If I wanted to be nice to the article, it would be that she's trying to say that it talks to people on a lot of levels. But, it's also pretty knee jerk about it. I've watched a bit of the first episode, and really didn't enjoy it. I know all the ponies have different personalities, which is pretty cool, considering what other shows exist which are aimed at girls. I just couldn't get into it.

There probably are issues with the show, when you go deeper. The fact that the tomboy was also the rainbow pony is a little "on the nose" given cultural considerations. Not sure about the race issue, but denying that race exists isn't really the best way to deal with it. The smart-shaming was really wrong... just all around incorrect. But, it does show that a queer writer sees queer problems, a person of colour sees race problems...

I'm sorry.

I just ended up watching the first two episodes of MLP:FiM, and I have to say... Hmm.

I thought the entire way the ponies interacted with each other in the first episode was really coercive. That's not necessarily a bad thing, per se; I did think that the show was allowing us to identify with Twilight Sparkle's frustration at being dragged into things. But I couldn't identify with her, because she's just as coercive to the other ponies - when she did stick up for herself, she didn't say "NO I WON'T DO WHAT YOU WANT", she said "NO, YOU DO WHAT I WANT" instead. And Fluttershy's whole "be as condescending as possible to the baby dragon" thing was kind of jarring.

Either way, though, she was actively rejecting their advances. And how was that situation resolved? It was resolved when they succeeded in dragging her into something. And then she "realized" that it had been the right idea all along. I think it's very reasonable to say that the events there teach two really yucky lessons: first, the lesson (from Twilight's perspective) that people whose actions bother you are Really Your Friends and you should join them instead of doing what's comfortable for you; second and more importantly, the lesson (from the others' perspective) that it's okay to pressure people into doing activities you think they'll like. Yucky.

Still, there were a lot of things I liked about it. I think it did a good job of making sure all the individual ponies had their own initiative and independence, and balancing that with the way they could accomplish things as a group. And they all have their own personalities and that's okay, rather than there being one true way that you're supposed to behave. Which turns out to actually make the group dynamic fairly healthy - in the second episode, they are working together because each of them genuinely wants to work with the others, even though they're independent enough to function on their own, which is a really important property in a healthy group. So despite my reservations, I think the show portrays a pretty good model of human friendship, certainly compared to a lot of the other popular-media portrayals available. And I feel like it leaves the viewer a lot of room to decide for zemself what to think.

I was kinda disappointed that the Super Good Adult Authority Figure walked in at the end to validate the friends' triumph instead of having their validation of each other be the most important thing, though. The whole backdrop of a monarchic system where it's supposed to be okay that some people are required to obey the orders of others annoyed me a bit, as did the "white = incorruptible pure pureness, black = cackling megalomaniacal evil" thing between her and Nightmare Moon. I suppose I'd say that the show repeats a lot of the somewhat-yucky tropes from elsewhere in the world, even though it also avoids a bunch of the yuckiest ones.