Blog 9. Ponies

It’s getting harder and harder to come up with topics for these blog posts. It may be because I’ve been watching less and less car…toons…

WAIT A MINUTE! MY LITTLE PONY IS ON NETFLIX!

*A few hours later*

Whew that was good. Now where was I… Oh… I forgot about my blog post. I better hurry up and write something. Something that has to do with animation and…

Ponies.

That’s right this blog post is about Ponies. Don’t like it? Tough cookies. But how do I make this about something other than appreciation? …

I got it.

Why is guys liking My little Pony such a big deal that they garner the nickname “Bronies”. We do live in a society where gender differences are mocked when one takes on the other, a prime example being the ridicule I received from my girlfriends family when I gave her son a toy kitchen for his birthday. (By the way, the kitchen is the manliest place in the house as it houses knives, fire and food.)

So my argument here is, do classic cartoons promote gender bias and do modern cartoons seek to reverse it?

Let’s take a look at classic cartoons. The first Disney princesses are, for lack of a better term, subservient and totally dependent on men and preyed upon by other women. Classic cartoons paint women at their best as helpless and at their worst as petty vultures. Look at old Disney movies. Look at Popeye the sailor man’s Olive Oil. Look at any female character in looney toons. Cartoons are meant to be caricatures, but there is a fine line between pointing out differences and promoting stereotypical themes as fact.

Now let’s look at modern stuff! My little pony, Foster’s home, Phineas and Ferb. All of these shows feature a host of many gendered characters but instead of relying on gender stereotypes they instead rely on themes. My little pony’s characters are based off of laughter, honesty, loyalty, magic, kindness and generosity, and the only way to tell they are girls is because of their voices and some of their quirks. The stereotypes are hidden behind the themes, not in place of them.

I suppose what spurred this article was the disbelief that I could like a show most people assume is a girl show. It was, back in the day, but now it is more than that and people simply revert to the classics to inform their decisions. And the kitchen thing. My son can have a kitchen and be a man.