gonna love and tolerate the shit outta you – Bad Reputation A feminist pop culture adventure Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:00:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6 37601771 Found Feminism: My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic /2011/09/27/found-feminism-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic/ /2011/09/27/found-feminism-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:00:30 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=6997 Selection of 1980s My Little Ponies - coloured plastic horses with coloured nylon hair, arranged in order of size on a glass-topped wicker table. Photo by the author

My Little Pony "Vintage" range - I feel old...

After spending a while bemoaning the absence of Cool Cartoons For Girls That Aren’t Avatar Legend of Korra, I went home for the weekend to be reunited with my My Little Pony collection when my Dad and I cleaned out the garage.

This then spurred me on to sit down and watch the new series, more in hope than expectation.

Well, that was brilliant, wasn’t it? Funny, well animated, lots of female (pony-shaped) characters – which interestingly sidesteps that all-animals-are-male problem. Then came feverish research – where did this awesome thing come from? Well, let me tell you. It was created by Lauren Faust, she ofPowerpuff Girls fame, and intended to be just as wisecrackingly cross-generational as those three super powered big eyed girls. MLPFIM is a strong candidate for being a Found Feminism on content and provenance alone.

Lauren Faust sitting by a microphone at a conference. A young woman with dyed red hair in a straight bobcut wearing a purple t-shirt and eyeliner. There is a sign in front of her with her name on it. Image via Wikipedia, shared under Fair Use guidelines and Creative Commons licensingBut what really sealed the deal for me was the discovery of the Bronies – men who like My Little Pony, and who like it so much that they went up against the Bastion of Internet Testosterone, 4chan. Seriously guys, you are my new heroes, swatting aside all kinds of gender conventions in a mighty leap of Being Able To Like What You Damn Well Please. *round of applause*

My personal favourite of the new batch of ponies are Scootaloo, who likes sports and lives in a treehouse, and Twilght Sparkle who is telekenetic, serious, bookish, has a pet dragon and owns her own steampunk zeppelin that doubles as a nightlight. I am not joking. I may have to buy one.

]]> /2011/09/27/found-feminism-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic/feed/ 4 6997