My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic:: READ POST 11156/PAGE 558

[turbojet]

In this thread: you can see at a glance who's going to have a happy married life eventually and who won't.

(Or lifetime partnership if marriage isn't your thing, whatever.)

There is a special pony for every pony.

[Rusty Spy]

How is having a MLP tattoo any different to getting a Sonic tattoo? Or any other franchise or character?

Winnie The Pooh has a lot of nostalgia surrounding it, plus it's generally targeted at all ages, Pokemon is a series targeted at all ages, and do I even need to explain bands? Comparing a guy waring a tattoo of Metalica to a guy wearing a tattoo of My Little Pony?

My Little Pony is a glorified commercial aimed squarely at the owners of the X chromosome. Faust may have intended this series to be appealing to all ages too, and may have succeeded no less, but that doesn't hide or change the fact that the executive suits are still primarily selling this show to young girls.

[Snatcher2047]

In this thread: you can see at a glance who's going to have a happy married life eventually and who won't.

(Or lifetime partnership if marriage isn't your thing, whatever.)

Just for the record I've remained single (and continue to) by choice. Relationships? Just not my thing anymore. All I need in my lifeis family and friends.

Edited March 28, 2011 by Snatcher2047

[Stacy]

*Sigh* I am the only one who think its a bit sexist that a dude can't enjoy something thats aimed girls unless you're gay (which is a sucky stereotype anyway).

I guess it wouldn't help that Beauty and the Beast is one of my favourite Disney films.

Why do straight dudes have to like Metallica (nothing wrong with 'em) and play sports.

When I was little my best friend was a girl (played girl games) but I had two other friends who were male (played boy games).

I have always prefered the company of girls to males even though I had many male friends when I was younger.

[JezMM]

Winnie The Pooh has a lot of nostalgia surrounding it, plus it's generally targeted at all ages, Pokemon is a series targeted at all ages, and do I even need to explain bands? Comparing a guy waring a tattoo of Metalica to a guy wearing a tattoo of My Little Pony?

My Little Pony is a glorified commercial aimed squarely at the owners of the X chromosome. Faust may have intended this series to be appealing to all ages too, and may have succeeded no less, but that doesn't hide or change the fact that the executive suits are still primarily selling this show to young girls.

Feeling manly and self-confident enough to brandish yourself with a franchise because you like it that much, regardless of who it's aimed at, is pretty attractive to a lot of women. Someone who thinks Metallica is a shit band could easily say "you'll never get laid with a metallica tattoo".

Yes My Little Pony is more unauthordox, but unauthordox people attract unauthordox people. There are bound to be plenty of people who are impressed with his ability to laugh in the face of stereotype and do whatever the hell he likes.

Haters gonna hate and all that.

[turbojet]

My Little Pony is a glorified commercial aimed squarely at the owners of the X chromosome.

I am pretty sure that everypony has atleast one X chromosome.

Edited March 28, 2011 by turbojet

[Mollfie]

^ lol XD

I think this is veering off into being off-topic. If we want to talk about tattoos then maybe someone should start a new thread?

[SuperStingray]

I don't see what people have against Feeling Pinkie Keen. There's no hidden meaning, it's just saying don't be so quick to dismiss something you can't understand, nothing more. It's not trying to talk down atheism or anything. Hell, science does that sort of thing all the time anyway. The amount of empirical evidence backing String Theory is extremely weak, yet most major theoretical physicists have no problem abiding by it simply because it's the best way we can explain what we see in the universe.

And besides all that, it's a great episode. It also has my favorite portrayal of Twilight, testing her normally down-to-earth personality by presenting something that drives her crazy, and the almost Tex Avery-ish slapstick is a nice touch.

[Stacy]

Winnie The Pooh has a lot of nostalgia surrounding it, plus it's generally targeted at all ages....

LOL, According to my dad its for babies, yet my sister has tons of Pooh bear stuff in her house.

[Rusty Spy]

*Sigh* I am the only one who think its a bit sexist that a dude can't enjoy something thats aimed girls unless you're gay (which is a sucky stereotype anyway).

Feeling manly and self-confident enough to brandish yourself with a franchise because you like it that much, regardless of who it's aimed at, is pretty attractive to a lot of women. Someone who thinks Metallica is a shit band could easily say "you'll never get laid with a metallica tattoo".

Yes My Little Pony is more unauthordox, but unauthordox people attract unauthordox people. There are bound to be plenty of people who are impressed with his ability to laugh in the face of stereotype and do whatever the hell he likes.

All I can say is blame cultural norms.

[Aerodynamic909]

Confound these pony threads, they drive me to drink

[sonfan1984]

Someone's never going to get laid, I hope he enjoys it.

[DaBatGuy]

While I saw the obvious parallels to "science vs. faith" in Feeling Pinkie Keen, the only episode that really offended me was Bridle Gossip. I hated that the only "African" pony is initially demonized as an evil, tribal, cannibalistic witch, which is exactly how indigenous Africans have been portrayed in Western media for centuries. While the message of the episode was intended to rebuke said stereotype, Zecora was still inevitably portrayed as a tribal witch doctor. Because of this I have an awkward appreciation of the character, Zecora is easily my favorite pony even compared to the main six but due to her stereotypical traits I feel guilty for liking her so much.

[Ebby]

This topic is astounding.

[Mollfie]

While I saw the obvious parallels to "science vs. faith" in Feeling Pinkie Keen, the only episode that really offended me was Bridle Gossip. I hated that the only "African" pony is initially demonized as an evil, tribal, cannibalistic witch, which is exactly how indigenous Africans have been portrayed in Western media for centuries. While the message of the episode was intended to rebuke said stereotype, Zecora was still inevitably portrayed as a tribal witch doctor. Because of this I have an awkward appreciation of the character, Zecora is easily my favorite pony even compared to the main six but due to her stereotypical traits I feel guilty for liking her so much.

[TheGerkuman]

@Batguy Isn't that you projecting your feelings about race and society onto the character?

Edited March 28, 2011 by Gerkuman

[turbojet]

@Batguy Isn't that you projecting your feelings about race and society onto the character?

She is a zebra with an African accent(the only distinct accent that is associated with non-white civilizations in the entire series) and a pension of being a witch doctor in the only episode that dealt with stereotyping and racism? Yeah, not that hard to project race on the character since she has been stigmatized for being different.

How would you feel if your entire culture has been constantly portrayed in entertainment media as witch doctors and strange? A little angry and annoyed I bet. Atleast this episode dealt with the issue of thinking that her lifestyle is wrong because it is different is not the right thing to do, but damn it is rather annoying that yet another 'black' character is thrown in as another stereotype. It is great that she is an excellent character. I admit that.

Edited March 29, 2011 by turbojet

[Octarine]

Feeling Pinkie Keen wasn't one of my favourite episodes. The message didn't particularly offend my morals, but I'm always bothered by "skeptic" characters in high-magic settings. I mean, I understand that Twilight understands the systems of magic on a scientific level, but in a world with elements of harmony and where most of the forces of nature are powered by ponies (rainbows, season changes, whatever else), it just seems like an artificial way to create a conflict. Never mind that Pinkie Pie hadn't ever displayed her sixth sense prior to that episode, and suddenly it was activating a dozen times in one day... I mean, I know things like it suddenly being winter just in time for the winter wrap-up episode had happened before, but it felt more jarring when it was done with a character trait. The episode certainly wasn't terrible or anything, though; it was just not that great.

Bridle Gossip... yeah, I cringed a bit at Zecora being a crazy reclusive witch doctor, even though she was ultimately presented in a positive light. I got over it pretty quickly, though, partly because I'm used to that kind of thing from kids' shows and partly because holy crap she's a zebra and she looks and sounds awesome~! I guess I kind of glossed over it because I figured she'd show up in future episodes as a semi-regular character and the stereotyping would have to be toned down for that to work, and after that I just forgot.

Since we're sort of on the subject of complaints, I really wasn't a fan of the way Call of the Cutie was resolved. The episode as a whole was fine, but the sudden appearance of two other cutie mark-less girls Apple Bloom's age who we'd never seen before kind of ruined things. I mean, if Apple Bloom was the only girl in her class without a cutie mark, then where the heck were Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle before the party? I guess they were a little younger or something, but they were clearly pretty well-known. I was actually expecting that a cutie mark-less adult of some kind would show up and give a speech. Like, a vagabond who was proud of not having been shoehorned into any one job or talent or something. Hm.

[DaBatGuy]

Not to mention Pinkie-pie's song describing her as exactly that.

I understand the intent of the episode was to make strong statement about prejudice and racism by using a particularly degrading stereotype, and I respect them for doing that. I just feel they didn't do enough to prove it wrong.

[SuperStingray]

She is a zebra with an African accent(the only distinct accent that is associated with non-white civilizations in the entire series) and a pension of being a witch doctor in the only episode that dealt with stereotyping and racism? Yeah, not that hard to project race on the character since she has been stigmatized for being different.

How would you feel if your entire culture has been constantly portrayed in entertainment media as witch doctors and strange? A little angry and annoyed I bet. Atleast this episode dealt with the issue of thinking that her lifestyle is wrong because it is different is not the right thing to do, but damn it is rather annoying that yet another 'black' character is thrown in as another stereotype. It is great that she is an excellent character. I admit that.

Edited March 29, 2011 by SuperStingray

[DaBatGuy]

That song did not describe her that way at all. At what point did she do ANYTHING in those lyrics?

And again, the point of the episode was NOT to present her as a degrading stereotype, just to make her seem as alien to our culture as possible to better hammer in the fact that there ARE different kinds of people out there you may not understand. The witch doctor stereotype just happens to do that job particularly well.

[turbojet]

But if she didn't have the stereotypes, the episode would have been pointless. This isn't an episode about racism, it's an episode about understanding that people are different. Consider the alternative: Zecora being a Zebra (i.e. black) but behaving like a perfectly well adjusted member of Ponyville society (i.e. Western society.) What message would that give? That even though there are different races, there is only one universal culture? That might help them be more tolerant of other kids in school on a superficial level, but that wouldn't teach them anything about being accepting of classmates who are say, homosexual, left handed, of a different faith or mentally challenged.

I understand that being a witch doctor may have been stereotypical, but she had to seem as esoteric and foreign as possible for the episodes message to get through.

Edited March 29, 2011 by turbojet

[TheGerkuman]

@Batguy That's kinda like implying that say, certain races shouldn't eat watermelon or fried chicken because it may appear steriotypical or that british people shouldn't speak posh and wear top hats.

True, witch doctor is the sort of generalisation that I thought we'd grown out of, but it's not like they don't actually exist still IRL.

@Everyone: I'm not saying that Zecora isn't a stereotype or that stereotypes are a good thing. They're not. I'm just pointing out that it's up to each individual person to whether that bothers them or not. And from what I've seen, most don't seem to be.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Gerkuman

[SuperStingray]

I was referring to the initial assumption that Zecora was an evil cannibal witch, which pinkie describes her as.

[Kuzu]

Ponies=Serious Buisness