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Contextualising The Bronies

This document provides context around the brony fandom for the animated TV show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It situates bronies in terms of age and fandom dynamics, discourses around quality television and cult media, and the relationship between fandoms and cultural producers. The brony fandom reflects broader trends of adults appreciating media intended for children, the increased mainstreaming of animation, and the already infantilized persona of media fans. Aspects of the reimagined My Little Pony series reproduce characteristics of quality television, while also corresponding with cult television and cult cinema in affording both cultural and subcultural value. Examples show the TV show's producers deliberately courting adult fan audiences, reflecting

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Keiley Colpoys
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© © All Rights Reserved
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
115 views19 pages

Contextualising The Bronies

This document provides context around the brony fandom for the animated TV show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It situates bronies in terms of age and fandom dynamics, discourses around quality television and cult media, and the relationship between fandoms and cultural producers. The brony fandom reflects broader trends of adults appreciating media intended for children, the increased mainstreaming of animation, and the already infantilized persona of media fans. Aspects of the reimagined My Little Pony series reproduce characteristics of quality television, while also corresponding with cult television and cult cinema in affording both cultural and subcultural value. Examples show the TV show's producers deliberately courting adult fan audiences, reflecting

Uploaded by

Keiley Colpoys
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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jptv 8 (1) pp.

87–104 Intellect Limited 2020

Journal of Popular Television


Volume 8 Number 1
© 2020 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jptv_00012_1

EWAN KIRKLAND
University of Brighton

Contextualizing the bronies:


Cult, quality, subculture
and the contradictions of
contemporary fandom

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This article critically situates My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–19) brony
and the ‘brony’ following it has attracted in terms of age and fandom, discourses cult media
of quality television, cult media and interactions between fandoms and cultural cultural capital
producers. Far from unprecedented, the show’s unexpected male audience reflects fandom
adults’ historic appreciation of media for children, the increased mainstreaming of My Little Pony
animation, and the already infantilized persona of media fans. Aspects of the reim- quality television
agined series reproduce characteristics of  ‘quality television’ concerning charac-
terization, genre, authorship and political intentionality. Simultaneously the show
corresponds with overlapping aspects of cult television and cult cinema, crucially
affording both cultural and subcultural value. Finally, examples of the series delib-
erately courting adult fan audiences are presented as reflecting reciprocal rela-
tionships between show producers and its mature viewers. The brony following
consequently reflects changes in contemporary fandom dynamics, and the increas-
ing mobility of twenty-first-century television viewing.

www.intellectbooks.com  87
Ewan Kirkland

INTRODUCTION
The surprising, controversial, potentially subversive adult male fandom for
Hasbro’s animated television show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–
19) has already been the subject of several academic studies. These explore
the subculture surrounding the small screen spin-off of the 30-year-old toy
range from a series of perspectives. Bethan Jones (2015) examines the extent
bronies, as the series’ male fans have been labelled and self-identified, have
been subjected to  ‘anti-fandom’ practices. These include being stereotyped
and pathologized along lines of gender and generation, both outside and
within the fandom itself. In an article focusing on the subset of  ‘military
bronies’, Maria Patrice Amon (2016) considers the complex ways fans within
the armed forces justify and negotiate the challenge to gendered identity their
enthusiasm for pony culture entails. Andrew Crome (2014) analyses another
subgroup, religious bronies, and their use of the show’s characters and rela-
tionships to engage with the teachings of scripture; while Christopher Bell
(2013) details the controversy surrounding a pony known as Derpy Hooves,
a co-creation of the show’s producers and the television series’ fandom. Each
study reveals specific cultural struggles entailed in the enjoyment of Hasbro’s
show by what Claire Burdfield (2015) labels the ‘unexpected audience’ of the
series.
This article seeks more broadly to explain the situation whereby adult men
gain conspicuous pleasure from an animated television series about colour-
ful talking horses. With a further reboot of the franchise destined for 2020,
ten years after the latest version attracted so much attention, this represents
a timely moment to place this fan phenomenon in broad critical and histori-
cal context. While gender remains the most prominent framework for inter-
rogating the franchise, as ably covered elsewhere (Kirkland 2017), this article
is more concerned with the generational transgression the series’ appropria-
tion by adult men entails. Brony fandom emerges from, reflects and contrib-
utes to changing relationships between age and consumption practices,
discourses of quality and cult connoisseurship, long-running series’ relation-
ship with audiences, online cultures and merchandising strategies. The series,
and the success it has achieved with older viewers, relates to trends in screen
media making television animation, and its appreciation, more mainstream.
The nature of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (MLP:FIM) the show and
My Little Pony (MLP) the brand mean fans might justify their pleasures via
both discourses of quality television and notions of subcultural capital asso-
ciated with denigrated culture. As much contemporary scholarship suggests,
fandoms, even the unexpected ones, are frequently co-opted by established
media organizations as a means of securing loyal audiences and maximizing
profits on ancillary products. Despite its apparent transgressive, subversive or
inexplicable nature, the fandom for this show makes more sense when situ-
ated within such frameworks.

MLP:FIM, AGE AND FANDOMS


While largely discussed in terms of gender, the pleasures of brony fandom
also entail the intersecting transgression of consumption boundaries aligned
with age. Age may not be appreciated as a construction of social, cultural and
discursive processes to the same degree as gender, class, race, ethnicity or
national identity. Nevertheless there is increasing awareness of the extent age,
as a facet of identity, emerges from similar external factors. The alignment of

88  Journal of Popular Television


Contextualizing the bronies

audiences of a certain age with particular media, genres or franchises itself


reflects the very cultural processes which continue to partition the genera-
tions. While the fluidity of such structures and the mobility of audience tastes
consistently expose the constructed nature of such affiliations and associa-
tions, the antagonistic response to brony practices, evident in Jones’ (2015)
discussion of anti-fandom, suggests continued investment in maintaining and
policing boundaries of appropriate age-based media consumption.
Nevertheless, products aimed at young people have consistently been
enjoyed by adults, just as children have always consumed mainstream culture.
The line demarking children’s media has always been characterized by its
indistinctiveness, a point repeatedly evident in histories of media for chil-
dren, including books, cinema and broadcast entertainment. Gesturing to the
success of the Harry Potter series, folklore scholar Jack Zipes asserts that ‘chil-
dren’s literature is the most popular of popular literature’ (2002: 209), further
evident in the crossover success of franchises such as Alice in Wonderland,
Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Cary Bazalgette and Terry Staples (1995) argue that the commercial film
industry has never produced movies primarily for child audiences, preferring
the more vague, inclusive and potentially lucrative cycle of the family film.
This is a category appropriate to most cinema releases commonly consid-
ered ‘children’s films’, including those of Disney and Pixar, movies based on
fairy stories, and big screen adaptations of children’s literature. Concerning
1960 British radio, David Oswell notes that more adults listened to segments
broadcast for children than children themselves, while more young people
listened to adult programming than that intended for their age group (2002:
24). Such tendencies continued into the era of television broadcasting. Lynn
Spigel writes of anxieties expressed in 1950s America that television might
expose children to adult knowledge, while simultaneously infantilizing adult
viewers through their consumption of juvenile material. The persistence of
such concerns is evident in negative commentaries surrounding bronies. At
the same time Spigel observes that the pleasures offered by family-orientated
recreation expose how ‘the liminality of children’s entertainment is often just
as appealing to adults as it is to children’ (1998: 127). Adult nostalgia for old
stop frame animation, student enthusiasm for shows such as Teletubbies (1997–
2001) or Yo Gabba Gabba! (2007–15), and the re-editing, re-scheduling and
re-branding of a franchise like Horrible Histories for adult viewers indicate
the continuation of such tendencies in broadcasting and audience behaviour.
The dissolution of age-related boundaries of spectatorship and consump-
tion may well have accelerated over recent years. While adult fandom of chil-
dren’s media is not the focus of their article, C. Lee Harrington, Denise D.
Bielby and Anthony R. Bardo make many salient points concerning ageing,
agehood and fandom. The authors detail how traditional twentieth-century
life courses have been characteristically defined by the tri-partite struc-
ture of childhood, adulthood and retirement. The extension of childhood or
delaying of adulthood, combined with the increasing ageing of the western
population, has resulted in the emergence of a more flexible  ‘liquid’ adult-
hood. One consequence of this is  ‘disconnect between chronological age
(“number of years lived”), subjective age (“the age I feel”), and ideal age
(“the age I would most like to be”)’ (2011: 571–72). Consequently, fans do
not ‘grow out’ of fandoms in ways previously expected. Fan activity functions
to provide support and community which compensates for the deteriorated
structure of previous institutionalized life courses. In addition, as they mature

www.intellectbooks.com  89
Ewan Kirkland

fans become more astute, gaining economic, cultural and social capital which
allows them to participate in activities differently to their younger equivalents.
Such tendencies can be observed in the acceptance many find in the brony
community. In the under-explored area of female MLP fandom, narratives of
women’s lifelong fan participation entail an extension of fan activity alongside
adults’ greater freedom of movement and access to resources. Although the
authors focus on how fan attachments change over time, Harrington, Bielby
and Bardo cite ‘bemused speculation about older fans’ interest in the Twilight
series, Justin Bieber or Gossip Girl’ (2007–12) as examples of the confusion
such developments produce (2007–12: 577). Brony fandom incites the same
sense of bewilderment.
Adult male MLP:FIM fandom therefore reflects the historic permeability
between adult and children’s culture and audiences. This may be exacerbated
by recent social developments which have impacted upon contemporary
consumption and fan practices. The show’s animated content also facilitates
its relationship with older viewers. Although commonly aligned with juve-
nile audiences, fairy stories and children’s television, animation has always
enjoyed a broad audience of different age groups. Theatrical cartoons were
originally part of the mixed bill of entertainment screened to cinema goers
of the pre- and post-war periods. Animated fairy tale adaptations continue
to attract mainstream audiences, indicative of their stories’ origins in pre-
modern oral popular culture. As noted, historical evidence suggests adults
have always watched television scheduled for children, including anima-
tion. The emergence of continuous channels dedicated to animation and
children’s media has extended the cartoon beyond its segregated slot in the
schedule, developing late-night adult audiences for The Ren & Stimpy Show
(1991–95), SpongeBob SquarePants (1999–present) and Adventure Time (2010–
18). Indeed, Marsha Kinder (1995) claims that in its early years kids’ chan-
nel Nickelodeon deliberately courted both adult and child audiences, and
cultivating older viewers is a strategy employed by many similar broadcasting
platforms. Indicative of the further expansion of animation into mainstream
television, Kevin Sandler (2003) argues that cartoons function well within
a multi-channel branded environment to distinguish one broadcaster from
another. In a similar vein, Paul Grainge argues that animation has become
increasingly central to a film industry preoccupied with franchises, interna-
tional sales, character-based commodities, marketing and the creation of
multimodal  ‘total entertainment’. In such a context animation becomes  ‘a
locus of corporate identification and revenue potential’ (2008: 114). The visible
presence of animated film and television characters from Pixar, DreamWorks,
Disney, Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera across mainstream cinema,
financial and Internet services promotions, live entertainment and a wide
range of licensed products suggests the significance and popularity of the
genre extend well beyond young consumers. Such developments, along with
the unprecedented longevity of The Simpsons (1989–present) and the success
of rivals South Park (1997–present) and Family Guy (1999–present), have led
to the mainstreaming of television animation, severed from its alignment
with child audiences, and many brony fan histories attest to a long apprecia-
tion of the format.
Placing bronies in the context of  ‘geek’ subcultures and anthropomor-
phism, Venetia Laura Delano Robertson draws connections with other under-
ground texts featuring humanized cartoon animals. Although MLP:FIM
appears far removed from the  ‘gritty, drug-fuelled, and sexually explicit

90  Journal of Popular Television


Contextualizing the bronies

animalian underworlds’ of Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Reed Waller and


Kate Worley, these texts anticipate the cult status of the series and chal-
lenge exclusive associations between talking animals and children’s culture.
Robertson sees further parallels in adult appreciation of Warner Brothers
shorts revived by recent broadcasters, the Hello Kitty brand, cat-eared young
women and online LOLcats. The author draws on Sarah Thornton’s useful
term in bringing together aspects of anthropomorphism, cuteness, manga,
anime and Japanese kawaii in arguing humanized animals have, within geek
circles, markings of  ‘subcultural capital’ (2014: 23–24). In another context
Mizuko Ito relates adult consumption of juvenilia to the subcultural identity of
the ‘otaku’ or ‘media geek’. Paralleling many popular perceptions of bronies,
such figures are ‘often objects of suspicion because of what are perceived as
dangerous boundary crossings between reality and fantasy, adult and child’,
a cultural type associated with the  ‘regressive, obsessive, erotic, and antiso-
cial’ (Ito 2008: 307). Within otaku communities Ito sees several ‘marginalities’
combining. These include the marginal status of children, of adult subcultures,
and of the ‘grey markets’ within which trading card dealers and other entre-
preneurs operate as a significant component of cult media conventions (Ito
2008: 313). Traditional female MLP fan activities include the customizing of
existing toys, producing physical designs based on fan favourite characters
of whom no official merchandise exists, and the creation of artwork border-
ing upon copyright infringement. More recent male MLP:FIM fan culture is
significantly screen based, flourishing on the Internet, and largely concerned
with the franchise’s television presence. This is expressed through less mate-
rial fan art, animation and music. Significantly, in the fandom’s early stages
most episodes were unofficially available on YouTube, meaning they could be
viewed by audiences who did not have access to the channel on which the
show originally aired. Without this crucial development in television distribu-
tion it seems unlikely the brony fandom would have developed to the same
extent. While Ito suggests, along with many scholars, the outsider position of
the fan consumer and producer, the tolerance Hasbro has extended to such
communities, and the reciprocal relationship developed between fans, toy
producer and show creatives, questions the bronies’ marginal status.

MLP:FIM AND QUALITY TELEVISION


The permeability between children’s and adult culture and the multigen-
erational audience for television animation, combined with contemporary
changes in generational relations, the presence of animals in fan culture, and
the already juvenilized identity of the adult fan, provide context for adult
appreciation and appropriation of a cartoon show designed for young girls.
Another explanation, frequently mobilized to justify adult enjoyment of the
show, is the high quality of the series itself. Aesthetic judgements, as Matt
Hills wryly observes, are ‘something of a dark art’ in media and cultural stud-
ies (2007: 37). In a chapter informed by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Jeffrey
Sconce writes of the extent  ‘all forms of poetics and aesthetic criticism are
ultimately linked to issues of taste; and taste, in turn, is a social construct
with profoundly political implications’ (2008: 117). Clearly one reason brony
fan practices have attracted so much attention is the transgression of norma-
tive adult values inherent in championing a show featuring magical cartoon
horses based on a range of plastic toys. In the context of television drama
Christine Geraghty observes that the impulse to reject traditional formations

www.intellectbooks.com  91
Ewan Kirkland

of value, informed by an awareness of the power relations such evaluations


reinforce, means cultural studies debates about quality are frequently chan-
nelled through issues of ideology and representation. The word  ‘quality’, if
employed at all, is marked by obligatory  ‘scare quotes’ (2003: 28), indicative
of the scholar’s disdain for and distance from associated value judgements.
However, as Jonathan Gray (2005) asserts in the context of audience stud-
ies and the  ‘anti-fan’, while researchers may be wary of considering  ‘value’
or ‘quality’, interrogating what fans like (or in Gray’s example, dislike) offers
an opportunity for engagement with such issues in a meaningful and produc-
tive manner. Given fan academics’ obligation to declare themselves enthu-
siastic consumers of their object of scholarship, exploring notions of quality,
pleasure and value become less problematic than in more dispassionate disci-
plines. At the same time, situating a favoured text within established traditions
of artistry undeniably enhances the author’s preferred focus of analysis in the
eyes of the academy.
Interrogating issues of value and screen media have been aided in recent
years by the emerging notion of  ‘quality television’. Resulting from various
developments in and outside the television industry, this represents a discur-
sive category within popular, critical and academic circles, functioning in a simi-
lar manner to ‘art cinema’. The term implies the presence of tropes frequently
aligned with high culture aesthetics such as cinematic visual density, a literary
script, performances by respected theatrical actors, and an authorial creator.
Displaying certain canonical examples, the cover of Mark Jancovich and James
Lyons’ Quality Popular Television (2003) features images from The X Files (1993–
2002), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and The Sopranos (1999–2007).
Writing of the prestigious Peabody Award, Lindsay H. Garrison cites The Wire
(2002–08), Lost (2004–10), Friday Night Lights (2006–11), 30 Rock (2006–13)
and Mad Men (2007–15) as cases of recent television which have  ‘elicited
celebration from viewers, fans, critics, and academics alike’. Reflecting a simi-
lar caution as many others, Garrison admits that widely circulating concepts
of television ‘quality’ and ‘value’ alongside concepts of ‘“smarter” storytelling’
are ‘complex and contentious’ (2011: 160). Many established aspects of ‘qual-
ity television’ resonate with MLP:FIM, which can be mobilized by bronies in
defence of their favoured show. Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery, intro-
ducing an early scholarly publication on Buffy, start by identifying aspects
of ‘bad’ television, which is ‘predictable, commercial, exploitative’ (2002: xvii).
They proceed to detail how Buffy the Vampire Slayer transcends such limita-
tions, while heroically working within them. Buffy is prized for its feminism,
its dialogue, its employment of metaphor and symbolism, its mobilization of
fairy tales (with reference to Ezra Pound), and its invitation for active audience
engagement. Similarly, Robertson observes MLP:FIM is praised within the
brony community for the depth of its characters who ‘become more than just
simplistic female archetypes’, for its scripts, animation and voice acting, and
its ‘clever use of bricolage, employing references from science fiction, fantasy,
and popular culture’ (2014: 29–30). It is also celebrated for the active fan base
it has facilitated, something which for many appears as important as the show
itself.
Drawing on Robert Thompson’s list of quality characteristics gathered
from viewers, critics and scholars, criteria similarly referenced by Garrison
(2011: 160–61), Wilcox and Lavery (2002: xxi–xxiv) cite numerous components
in Buffy which are also evident in MLP:FIM. The cartoon has an ensemble
cast in its six distinct central characters. The series has a memory, with many

92  Journal of Popular Television


Contextualizing the bronies

episodes referencing events from others, and characters developing across


the seasons. The show mixes genres, as evidenced by Robertson’s catalogue
of ‘geek’ references (2014: 29–30). As Catrin Prys argues, the fact that televi-
sion is a conspicuously collaborative medium means the identification of any
author in the production process entails ‘a whole manner of unfounded and
sometimes naive critical assumptions’ (2006: 20). Notwithstanding, a promi-
nent criterion implicated in concepts of ‘quality’ culture is that of authorship.
As Derek Kompare observes, television studies may have ‘strenuously avoided’
such literary and film studies concepts. Nevertheless  ‘authorship still wields
considerable discursive and material power’ (2011: 96). This is evidencing in
the ‘showrunner’ commentaries the author details, and the television ‘auteurs’
Garrison sees in writer/producers David Chase et al. (2011: 160). Consequently
brony fandom celebrates original show creator Lauren Faust, whose previ-
ous work includes the girl power superhero cartoon series The Powerpuff Girls
(1998–2005) and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (2004–09) although when
these were originally broadcast Faust’s name was significantly overshadowed
by that of Craig McCracken. Derek Johnson observes how Faust constructed
MLP:FIM as ‘an outlet for her individual vision and voice’ in a manner counter-
acting the franchise’s more mercenary implications in selling toys to children.
Faust’s status as an independent creative artist was repeatedly emphasized in
interviews, blog posts and an online journal. Through politicizing MLP:FIM as
challenging a sexist media industry that routinely devalues women and girls’
culture (2013: 149–51), Faust appealed to constructions of quality television
as controversial, together with historical notions of the author as politically or
socially motivated. The circulation of such claims contributes to fans’ discur-
sive repertoire in defending the series along established lines of artistic and
televisual quality.

MLP:FIM AS CULT MEDIA


While conforming to aspects of quality television, MLP:FIM also expresses
various characteristics of cult television. Catherine Johnson observes signifi-
cant overlaps between  ‘quality’ television, fandom and cult spectatorship
(2005: 100). Kompare notes a similar intersection between discourses of ‘cult’
and ‘authorship’ (2011: 101), while Jancovich and Lyons’ (2003) edited collec-
tion on quality television is subtitled Cult TV, The Industry and Fans. MLP:FIM’s
relationship with fandom is also facilitated by the alignment Johnson observes
between ‘quality’ television and fantasy (2005: 100), established by shows like
The X Files and Buffy, and perpetuated by Lost, Battlestar Galactica (2003–09)
and Game of Thrones (2011–19). The significant fictional detail Robertson
sees surrounding Equestria, the setting of MLP:FIM, including its regions, its
history, even its language (2014: 26), is suggestive of a cult television series.
Indeed, Sara Gwenllian Jones may well be writing of the ‘extended universe’
of MLP:FIM when detailing the typical cult show’s ‘vast, elaborate and densely
populated fictional world that is constructed episode by episode, extended and
embellished by official secondary-level texts […] and fan-produced tertiary
texts’ (2002: 84) (see Figure 1). Echoing Sandlers’ (2003) discussion of anima-
tion’s compatibility with television branding, the series exploits what Johnson
(2005) sees as the fantasy genre’s opportunity for visual flourishes associated
with cult quality television’s distinctive style. Indeed, the  ‘look’ of MLP:FIM
is one of three  ‘drawcards’ Robertson argues adult fans can play in defend-
ing the show to its detractors. This emerges from the influence of manga and

www.intellectbooks.com  93
Ewan Kirkland

Figure 1:  The extensive world of MLP:FIM laid out in ‘The Cutie Mark Map: Part 1’.

anime on the show, alongside references to Japanese kawaii, chibi and moe
culture. Such components appeal to adult animation fans and allow further
mobilization of geek subcultural capital (2014: 28–29). The fantasy show’s
development of a particular visual style, as Johnson observes, also serves the
promotion of ancillary products easily aligned with a series through aesthetic
continuities (2005: 109). While Johnson’s observations relate to more contem-
porary developments in the merchandising of mainstream television to teens
and older audiences, this particular series already had such an established
aesthetic, resulting from the show’s origins as a toy brand rather than screen
entertainment.
Although MLP:FIM fans might mobilize proximities between cult, fantasy
and quality television, as Derek Johnson observes, several factors potentially
compromise the show’s claim to cultural value. These include the series’ use
of animation software associated with online sites, its commercial rather
than artistic motivation, its hyper-femininity, and the brand’s association
with young girls (2013: 138). However, such lowbrow aspects afford audi-
ences a more complex form of capital, more associated with cult cinema
than cult television. Bronies characterize the film spectatorship practices
Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton identify whereby audiences use screen
media to construct communities and, more importantly, as a means of ‘chal-
lenging taste and acting outside of mainstream consumption norms’ (2011:
59). Suggesting significant divergence between the  ‘quality’ of cult televi-
sion and the ‘degradation’ of certain cult cinema, Sconce discusses ‘badfilm’
as a form of para-cinema historically consolidated through such publica-
tions as Zontar, Subhuman and Trashola. These encompass diverse lowbrow
cycles such as  ‘splatter-punk,  “mondo” films, sword and sandal epics, Elvis
flicks, government hygiene films’, the celebration of which gains coherence
through collective efforts  ‘to valorize all forms of cinematic  “trash”’ (2008:

94  Journal of Popular Television


Contextualizing the bronies

101). Comparable cult television appropriation might exist in camp appre-


ciation of soap operas, game shows, old situation comedies and other forms
of daytime television. While brony discourses are not defined by such ironic
modes of viewing, there are considerable parallels between the  ‘counter-
aesthetic turned subcultural sensibility’ considered by Sconce, and MLP:FIM
fandom. Like advocates of para-cinema, online brony activity, particularly in
its early stages, represented  ‘a disruptive force in the cultural and intellec-
tual marketplace’ (2008: 101–02). While far removed from the controversial
content promoted by Sconce’s para-cinema publications, the franchise chal-
lenges traditions of taste, quality and legitimate culture in numerous ways, as
evidenced by the outraged responses the fandom frequently attracted, and
even encouraged. In celebrating the show’s pleasures adult male fans are
engaged in a comparable act of countercultural appropriation to those cham-
pioning trash cinemas.
MLP:FIM fans might thereby mobilize discourses of cult film spectator-
ship, celebrating the subversive, guilty or forbidden pleasures of lowbrow
culture along lines of gender and age, which coexist with seemingly opposi-
tional aspects of ‘quality television’. This apparent contradiction reflects how
cult media distinguishes itself from the mainstream, either through rejecting
the polished conventions of commercial culture and the stuffy preferences of
middle-brow critics, or by representing more artistically challenging experi-
ences than those proffered by an industry catering to the lowest common
denominator. As Joan Hawkins highlights, the kinds of publications which
promoted Sconce’s para-cinema also advertised European art, avant-garde
and experimental films. Both ‘art’ and ‘sleaze’ video companies retailed titles
associated with high and low culture, and the catalogues listing these titles
subsequently effaced distinctions between the two. Both forms of outsider
media trade on sensational material, controversial social subjects and sexu-
ality. Both are somehow  ‘different’ and their consumption represents  ‘a
reaction against the hegemonic and normalizing practices of mainstream,
dominant Hollywood production’ (2000: 6–7). Consequently, Hawkins
provocatively asserts that  ‘high culture trades on the same images, tropes,
and themes that characterize low culture’ (2000: 21). Cult’s status as simul-
taneously ‘outsider’ and ‘quality’ cinema is also observed by Sconce, as para-
cinema fans adopt the elite discourses associated with French New Wave
or American independent films (2008: 108–09). Bronies are similarly free
to deploy discourses of respectable television, outsider media and subver-
sive pleasure. As para-cinema is characterized by  ‘an aesthetic of excess’
and an opposition to mainstream culture (2008: 107), MLP:FIM is a series
and a franchise which Johnson notes is  ‘over-determined by its commer-
cial and gendered excesses’ (2013: 136). Ellen Seiter argues that the orig-
inal series’ bright, colourful palate and bouncy musical numbers, qualities
which continue in its current incarnation (see Figure 2) mobilize ‘a tradition
of subversion in children’s literature and folklore’. Its ‘ultrafeminine’ design
(1995: 232) challenges the middle-class tastes and values of parents who
condemn such bubblegum culture as sexist, garish, formulaic and cliché-
ridden. In addition to the various marginalities adopted by the adult male
MLP:FIM fan might be added the marginality of young girls and the media
they enjoy.

www.intellectbooks.com  95
Ewan Kirkland

Figure 2:  A bright and bouncy musical number opens ‘Magical Mystery Cure’.

MLP:FIM AS FAN-FOCUSED
Many studies of contemporary television highlight the growing significance of
fan cultures and expressions of fan creativity for media producers, industries
and institutions. In the introduction to their much-cited collection, Jonathan
Gray et al. suggest the past decades have seen fans and their practices becom-
ing increasingly ‘mainstream’ as a consequence of shifts from broadcasting to
narrowcasting, deregulation of media markets, and new communication tech-
nologies (2007: 4–5). There are many recent examples of fan practices being
appropriated by official culture in a manner which challenges received popular
and academic perceptions of fans as outsiders, tricksters or thieves. This model
has been replaced by a more nuanced appreciation of the mutually beneficial
if imbalanced relationship between fans and the organizations whose intel-
lectual property they poach. In a chapter exploring Enchanted (Lima, 2007),
Maria Sachiko Cecire considers the profusion of references to Disney movies
within the feature film as echoing the kind of fan activities Henry Jenkins
famously explores in their seminal study (2012: 247). Given the Corporation’s
historically aggressive response to the unauthorized use of its trademarked
characters, the recognition and appropriation of fan practices throughout this
animation-live action hybrid are particularly significant. However, the tacit
exoneration of fan activity inherent in Disney’s Enchanted pales in comparison
to the celebration of fandom represented by MLP:FIM’s hundredth episode.
‘Slice of Life’ was organized entirely around the activities of characters
popularized through the adult fan base (see Figure 3). In an inversion of stand-
ard practice, the main six characters feature only as background ponies. This
was not the first instance where online communities were explicitly acknowl-
edged. The most notable was the aforementioned naming of Derpy Hooves. A
grey and yellow figure with mismatched eyes, this pony appeared on the show

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Figure 3:  The range of background ponies featured in MLP:FIM’s 100th episode, ‘Slice of Life’.

with increasing frequency after being spotted and adopted by fans, although
the moniker has subsequently been retracted due to disability sensitivity (Bell
2013). ‘Slice of Life’ starred an un-named Derpy alongside a British scientist
character with an hourglass cutie-mark dubbed  ‘Dr Whooves’ by audiences
after the long-running television time traveller (see Figure 4). Octavia Melody
and DJ Pon-3, a character whose fan name was similarly adopted by producers
(Amon 2016: 95) were another frequently fan-matched couple shown sharing
a house together. A third popular pairing, Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon, was
also depicted, with sly references to the latter’s alternative name of Sweetie
Drops. The canonization of these couples not only indicates the blurring of
boundaries between  ‘official’ and  ‘unofficial’ cultures, but questions assump-
tions concerning the  ‘subversive’,  ‘transgressive’ or  ‘queer’ nature of slash
fiction. As Jones argues, if media producers and media texts are complicit in
the generation of slash pairings, this challenges traditional understandings of
such practices as necessarily oppositional. Instead, ‘the exotic erotics of slash
fiction look much less like instances of “resistance” and much more like exten-
sions of cult television’s own contra-straight logics’ (2002: 89).
Crome observes that one trope of cult media that MLP:FIM frequently
employs is the integration of popular culture references which reward careful
repeated viewing (2014: 403). Many of these increasingly prominent allusions
belong to media with pre-existing cult status. A bowling alley scene featured
ponies resembling characters from the Coen Brothers’ cult film (Klinger 2010)
The Big Lebowski (1998). The season two finale closed with a shot-for-shot
homage to another cult movie (Hills 2003) Star Wars: A New Hope (Lucas,
1977). ‘It’s About Time’ references Escape from New York (Carpenter, 1981) and
The Terminator (Cameron, 1984) (see Figure 5), 1980s science fiction classics
which would not appear out of place in a late-night movie screening. The cast-
ing of John de Lancie, known for playing Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation
(1987–94), as the voice of recurring trickster character Discord further aligns

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Ewan Kirkland

Figure 4:  A popular grey and yellow pony, alongside ‘Dr Whooves’, reluctantly identified as a Time Lord by
his striped scarf.

Figure 5:  Future Twilight Sparkle materializes in a manner similar to The Terminator’s time traveller
in ‘It’s About Time’.

98  Journal of Popular Television


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MLP:FIM with the most well-known of television fandoms, and another show
which graces the cover of Jancovich and Lyons’ (2003) edited collection on
quality television. Mainstream filk musician ‘Weird Al’Yankovic, whose songs
include parodies of nerd culture, Star Wars and Internet downloads, also
voiced the character Cheese Sandwich in the episode ‘Pinkie Pride’. As further
shout outs to cult, fan and geek media, throughout the series characters have
been magically transported into a comic book (‘Power Ponies’) (see Figure 6),
a role-playing adventure game (‘Dungeons & Discords’), and attended a fan
convention in cosplay (‘Stranger than Fan Fiction’). As Robertson suggests,
the nature of these references implies a  ‘tailoring to the geek demographic’
(2014: 29–30), aligning the series with other cult texts, culture and activities.
Given the franchise’s entrenchment in toy culture it is unsurprising that
certain ranges of merchandise are implicated in this appeal to fandom. The
feature-length spin-off, including Equestria Girls (Thiessen, 2013), Rainbow
Rocks (Thiessen, 2014), Friendship Games (Rudell, 2015) and Legend of Everfree
(Rudell, 2016), in which pony characters appear as high school students,
constitutes a nod to fan art traditions of redrawing the characters as humans,
as well as a means of promoting Hasbro’s new doll range. Alongside other
favourites such as Dr Whooves, Lyra and Daring Do, the latter being the
object of an in-show character’s fan devotion, the pony formerly known as
Derpy has been memorialized as a vinyl figure, which retails at a signifi-
cantly higher price than traditional MLP toys. Collectable versions of these
characters commonly sell in comic shops, fan conventions and stores
specializing in geeky merchandise. Further show-accurate figures have been
made of Gilda the Griffon, Queen Chrysalis, Granny Smith and photogra-
pher Photo Finish, a character designed after Barbara Hulanicki. These prod-
ucts are far outnumbered by those stocked by traditional toy stores, sold
at pocket money prices, aimed at the franchise’s traditional demographics.

Figure 6:  MLP:FIM characters transformed into Radiance, Zapp, Mistress Mare-velous and Masked
Matter-Horn, superheroes based on DC and Marvel characters.

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Ewan Kirkland

Nevertheless, the presence of pony collectables, adult-sized pony clothing,


even the release of entire seasons of MLP:FIM on DVD, a practice rarely
employed in distributing shows only popular with young children, indicates
an acknowledgement, courting and monetization of adult consumers and
fan practices.

CONCLUSION
Stories of adult men happily watching a television show made for young girls
may represent a positive sign that boundaries segregating male and female
culture are, for some generations at least, becoming less rigid. At the same
time, the negative reactions the brony phenomenon has attracted, in popu-
lar media and online, suggests there remains something taboo about crossing
such borders of taste and consumption. More complex is the possibility that
the transgression of these lines constitutes part of the pleasure of the show
and the formation of the brony community. Moreover, these audiences are in
numerous ways being actively facilitated by show producers, suggesting a less
transgressive practice than may first appear.
In contrast to media whose initial remit was a deliberate multigener-
ational audience, the adult male fandom for My Little Pony: Friendship Is
Magic, whose diversity is obscured by the discursive label of the  ‘brony’,
seems to have taken all concerned by surprise. Nevertheless, as this arti-
cle has argued, the fandom for the show corresponds to patterns of audi-
ence appreciation circulating fantasy, quality television and screen media
on the borders of legitimate culture. The adult male MLP:FIM enthusiasts
might draw upon a range of established cultural and subcultural capitals in
justifying their viewing practices. Moreover, MLP:FIM can be understood
as a franchise facilitating various aspects of contemporary fandom. Based
on a pre-existing range of toys, the series can be readily incorporated into
an array of official merchandise ranges targeted towards audiences of vari-
ous ages. The series features a plethora of regions, cities and countries
with various proximities to actual locations, inhabited by a host of charac-
ters, cultures and species, thereby providing fertile ground for fan-authored
fiction. Its anthropomorphic protagonists, in contrast to other animated or
live-action characters, are relatively straightforward to reproduce within
fan art. A pony’s individualism is simply distinguished through their colour,
mane, accessories and the icon-like ‘cutie mark’ on their flank which signals
their special talent. The straightforward displacement of this distilled image
onto a lunch box, earing, cufflink or woolly hat immediately transforms that
object into a piece of pony merchandise. Such brandability suits produc-
ers of both official and unofficial products. Ponies are eminently themable
and customizable, providing a blank slate to be appropriated by any artist in
producing crossover  ‘ponified’ protagonists from other franchises or origi-
nal characters. These can, in turn, be coherently re-orientated back into the
show in a manner which satisfies fan’s desire for recognition, and producers’
interests in securing a loyal audience. Although it may have taken many by
surprise, the structures of fandom surrounding MLP:FIM have a traceable
history, with interactions between fans and television producers reflecting
mainstream trends in contemporary media more acutely than either party
might acknowledge.

100  Journal of Popular Television


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Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (2004–09, USA: Cartoon Network).
Friday Night Lights (2006–11, USA: NBC and The 101 Network).
Game of Thrones (2011–19, USA: HBO).
Gossip Girl (2007–12, USA: The CW).
Lost (2004–10, USA: ABC).
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and Discovery Channel).
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   ‘The Cutie Mark Map: Part 1’ (Season 5, Episode 1; 4 April 2015).
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SUGGESTED CITATION
Kirkland, E. (2020), ‘Contextualizing the bronies: Cult, quality, subculture and
the contradictions of contemporary fandom’, Journal of Popular Television,
8:1, pp. 87–104, doi: 10.1386/jptv_00012_1

www.intellectbooks.com  103
Ewan Kirkland

CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Ewan Kirkland teaches screen studies at the University of Brighton. Their
research interests include children’s media, horror video games and popular
representations of dominant identities. As well as being a regular speaker at
My Little Pony conventions, in June 2014 Kirkland organized the first one-
day academic conference on the franchise. Kirkland is the author of Children’s
Media and Modernity: Film, Television and Digital Games (Peter Lang, 2017),
which explores media for children across modern history and contains case
studies of Hook, Teletubbies, Little Big Planet and the Children’s Film Foundation.
In addition Kirkland has published chapters and articles on The Powerpuff
Girls, Robin Williams, Twilight, Battlestar Galactica and The Lego Movie.
Contact: School of Media, College of Art and Humanities, University of
Brighton, 154-5 Edward Street, Brighton, BN2 0JG, UK.
E-mail: [email protected]

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7036-2259

Ewan Kirkland has asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that
was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

104  Journal of Popular Television


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