on Love and Tolerance: Prologue - Reaction to Teens' Reactions

Yo dawg, I heard you like reactions, so I decided to post my reactions to the reactions of teens watching the MLP:FIM Opening. All overused Xzbit memes aside, this video, along with several other happenings and stories from the Brony community have really sparked my interest over the idea of "Love and Tolerance" which is supposedly one of the key aspects of the show and Bronydom (sorry, if that's not a legit fanword - I'm not terribly in tune with the movement, I just mostly like the show). So first, for those who haven't seen it, here's the video:

So, In addition to my reactions to several of the kids featured in the video, specifically, I have my own reactions to the questions in general, and so I'll break this series of words down into a number of posts:
0 - Specific Comments/Children
I - Ponies and Relationships
II - Bronies and Sexism/Gender Norms (& Sexuality)
III - Sharing, Caring, and Copyrights
IV - Tolerating Dislike of Ponies

So with these individual kids, there are a number of different reactions from disgust to an enthusiastic love for Ponies and Bronies. I'm not going to talk about each of the kids in here, just the ones that I had specific comments towards, and will do so in order of their appearance in the video.

The Adam-Person:
His general opinion (by the end of the video): "Bronies are all trolls. They don't actually like the show, they're just using that as a guise to stir up controversy, and for that I support them."
How do I feel about this? Uh, well, from what I've seen, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not saying that Bronies and Trolls are mutually exclusive - there are certainly Bronies that are trolls and trolls that are Bronies, but certainly not all Bronies are trolls and those who are Bronies are more than likely actual fans of the show, not just trolling. I mean, I know trolls will go out of their way to troll, indeed. But organizing conferences, creating new games, art, toy-mods, etc? This is definitely not a troll movement. The sheer amount of creativity involved in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan-base really shows that people care about and enjoy the show.

The Isaac-Person:
His general reaction: "The Brony phenomenon is weird, but I won't judge them."
This. This kid is awesome and I hope that attitude remains with him in all things. His words, "Do your thing - I'm not gonna judge you" is really what people need to think more about all things. Even if you do judge, just a little... as long as you can accept it, you can be the getalonginest pony person ever, and that's great.

The Jade-Person (well no, she's not actually a person made of Jade):
This particular person knew of Bronies before being told about the fan based, and said she had watched a bit, but the show was not really for her. This alone I think is a fine opinion. I might argue that you need to watch at least 3 episodes to really get a good sense of the show, but at least she tried, so, okay. I do have a small beef with what she and some of the other girls say, but I will address that in Part I.

The Jourdan-Person:
Okay, hold on - Fluttershy mode so I don't sound super hateful because I'm not hateful, just... irritated.

HOW DARE YOU?! Listen here, mister: Just because you think you're cool, doesn't mean you get to be a bully! You may have a silly emo haircut, and your hipster pink plaid-y shirt, but you do not, I repeat you do NOT have the right to judge ANYONE because they like a show with large amounts of rainbows, pink and purple. You got that?

And in fact, he can't even say anything like, "but the rainbowy ones kicked me" because nothing like that's ever happened. This was obviously his first exposure to My Little Pony and he's already hating on it. With statements like, "I'm a little concerned that you think that I should watch that... because you thought I'm on the other side of the road, and I'm not?" But, geeze, we'll address Bronies and sexuality/sexism later.

COME ON. You're wearing a shirt with pink in it, you ADMITTED IT (in the deleted scenes), and you're STILL raggin' on guys who like this BECAUSE THERE'S PINK IN IT. DON'T YOU, "BUT I-" me, mister. Now what do you have to say for yourself?

But really - in all seriousness, with the silly hairdo and pink shirt thing, he might argue that he's just trying to assert his individuality, and express himself. Well, so are Bronies - so how can he hate on them for just being who they are, just like he's doing? Imma slap this one with my HYPOCRITE stamp and move on.


The Devin-Person:
This is my favorite little person, not because he's an instant Brony convert (in fact, it scares me that just the opening is so appealing to him), but because his comments are right on the mark of Love and Tolerance and awesome. On being asked why guys would like this, he said, "Because there's, like, nothing wrong with it - it's just, like, fun" YES. EXAAAAAAACTLY. That's what people really need these days. I know from personal experience, and also from my studies (on friendship? lol) that in today's society, we all need a little bit of fun! While not everyone may find their enjoyment in Ponies, as long as people have their way of harmlessly finding joy, there should be no reason for anyone to deny them that, or to judge them for that. No one's going to say, "you shouldn't be rock climbing!" or "you're a disgrace to society for painting!" The only reason why these Bronies are so controversial is because they're breaking expected gender and age norms/expectations. And for that, I am thankful.

We'll talk more about those individual expectations momentarily, but really, I'm just happy that Bronies really bring to light how backwards, hypocritical, and just plain strange our gender norms really are.

(Disclaimer: All screenshots used are property and copyright of Hasbro)