PRAISE BE
Wendyâs is doing the same thing.
Will wonders never cease.
Reblogging this because it keeps showing up on my dash and I keep not-quite raining on the parade, but it seems like everyone thinks this means something different than it does, so I guess Iâll rain on it a little bit.
Iâm afraid this motion has nothing to do with conquering the gender binary or whatever Tumblr is really happy about to be reblogging it so heavily. Itâs not about making little children feel like they can get whichever toy they prefer. Itâd be nice if it was, but Iâd be shocked if that was the case.
No, the girl toy here is a My Little Pony. Which means that the *real* reason for this notice is that a bunch of bronies, as there are bajillions of photos and videos of them doing, are coming into fast food restaurants and buying several happy meals. They threw pissy fits when asked if they wanted the âboy or girlâ toy, insisting that My Little Pony isnât for girls or whatever, again, only saying this because of overwhelming evidence that bronies do this shit. Management eventually has enough of it, asks employees to just ask if people want Skylanders or My Little Pony so they wonât have any more disgusted bronies getting mad that their precious fandom is targeted at crappy dumb little girls.
So the short version is: this little paper unfortunately means the exact opposite of what you think it means, socially speaking. It was put up because grown-ass men get all pissy when itâs suggested that they like a thing for girls.
Proof: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2014/04/editorial-how-to-buy-mcdonalds-ponies.html <â this was posted on the netâs biggest brony hive on April 10, 2014. So yeah, this is sadly not about anything else but how awful bronies are, sorry.
siiiiiiigh
Bronies ruin everything.
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So the outcome SEEMS like itâs gender neutral, while the ACTION is actually male (Brony) as the default (customer). I just⊠I will never get this Broni thing? Ok? Never. I wasnât a MLP girl as a child, but this thing makes it hard to even get INTO it now.
And just brings up a thing I saw the other day – where someone was wishing AppleJack and Rainbowdash could be made to act and appear âmore feminineâ.
⊠Yeah. Not even my fandom and IâM all WTF?!
I canât even.
A few months ago, Iâd have tried to âfeelâ it by imagining if Fedoras took over She-Ra or JEM. But then, Fedoras actually took over JEM so – yeah.
I am never going to be ok with Bronies and hereâs why. The first time I met my boyfriendâs nieces, I was chatting with their mom and I noticed that they are all in love with MLP. And I mentioned the movie and she said they went once, but she decided not to take them again because the first time there had been too many adult men without children in the audience.
So, the reason Iâm not ok with it is that adult men have taken over a space intended for young girls. And theyâve done so in a way that makes that space no longer safe for young girls.Â
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Well fuck. When you say that?
âŠ
At first part of me felt and generally does feel someway, about assumptions on non-child accompanied men in certain places. Bear with me. My mind goes to widowers/grieving parents, male queer couples contemplating parenthood and people who only physically seem adult but mentally are not. Then my mind goes to what I know some women have gotten away with re: societal attitudes about women without children in child oriented spaces.
Then my mind flicked to being in a theater, with a bunch of adults reacting in adult ways and those adult ways being full of misogyny and rape culture and the hard sexual element that seems to be part of âBroni-hoodâ – and two little kids sitting in the middle of all that. [emphasis mine]
And now I realize, thatâs not the only part. The chance to bond with peers via an expedition to the movie of a beloved franchise? Youâd now have to group together and buy out a show and thus it all be people you kind of know already. No chance of your kids, your girls, giggling and making eye-contact with someone else their age wearing a certain t-shirt, etcâŠ
Itâs an invasion of a woman only space, or at least a majority woman only space – that these assholes think and unfortunately ARE getting away with – because itâs a âjunior woman only spaceâ. And their attitude is not just that women donât count, itâs that young women – young girls donât count. Young girls donât get to have ANYTHING. Not even the things propped up in pink – not if itâs deemed âgood enough that it SHOULD be for âBOYS/MENâ.
I guess I should rephrase my âdonât getâ with âwonât accept the bullshit ofâ – cause I DO get the message; âGirls donât get ANYTHING.â And itâs fucked up.
On the surface; MLP or Skylanders should be gender neutral. But it isnât. It CANâT be when what precipitated the change was âthe social stigma of girlhoodâ.
The second I saw what the toys were I knew it was the bronies.
