It has come to my attention that a certain segment of the “brony” community has some complaints about their favorite show; not the entire brony population, which has many cool people in it, but enough of a portion to have a visible internet presence.
Namely, they are upset that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is still written primarily to appeal to and be understood by preadolescent girls instead of post-adolescent guys. They seem especially upset about the lack of male characters, and the lack of focus on those male characters.
Dear Bronys. What you are experiencing is indeed an uncomfortable and sometimes saddening phenomenon!
It is called “not being the target audience”.
You may be familiar with this phrase from when you, your friends, or your creative heroes used it to justify making the entire female casts of entire comics franchises look like soft core porn stars with severe physical disabilities, and not giving them the same focus or character depth overall as their male counterparts.
Or you might be familiar with its use in the video games industry, where it serves much the same purpose.
Or you may know it better from within the sphere of tabletop roleplaying games.
Or you may not be a “geek”, and are merely used to being the “target audience” of almost every other show on TV that is remotely engaging.
I feel your pain. It can be pretty miserable to love a media work of some kind, and not see anyone to identify with or consider a role model! And it can be even worse to feel like examples of your gender are only there to prove to audiences that your gender does in fact EXIST in the universe of that media work, and with that token acknowledgement accomplished, no one will ever do anything notable with them.
I would advise you to take solace in the fact that you will never see Spike in a physically impossible thong, posing submissively and “sexily” for no apparent reason while writing the moral of the day or being menaced by the villain du jour. Unless, you know, you like that kind of thing, in which case I’m sure certain subsets of the fandom can oblige. You will also never see Big Macintosh reduced to absolute, pathetic helplessness and weakness simply to reassure audiences that Applejack is the strongest of the ponies and no male pony will ever be able to compete.
And please, do keep writing in to fandom secrets. The vengeful, bitter monster in my heart thinks your pain tastes like cupcakes.This is something my super smart friend SnailChimera wrote that’s relevant.
I’ll also add that a difference between Brony complaints about MLP and the issues in comics, video games, etc is that the “meant for a certain subset of hetero guys” thing isn’t just for one comic, or one video game. Superhero comics and often mainstream comics in general, are assumed to be for that subset of hetero guys. It’s not just Superman, X-Men, Batman, it’s Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Ms. Marvel, Avengers, everything. In video games, you’ll see Escher Girls in art and advertising for action games, fighting games, RPGs, strategy games (remember Evony? xD), etc etc etc…
A comparable complaint would be if the Bronies felt every children’s show was meant for pre-adolescent girls, or all mainstream television was meant for children. It’s one thing to not be the target audience of one show you like, but it’s another when entire industries decide that only one tiny subset that isn’t you is their target audience (it’s not even hetero men, it’s hetero men who want to see non-stop porny things in comics or video games that aren’t about sex).
More insight on the ever galling subject of B&B poses
I’ve seen a lot of valid arguements circulating tumblr, both for and against the boobs and butt poses. On the “for” side, there are times where it makes sense for both genders. I saw the baseball bat example used, which is a very legitimate reason for both ends being visible to the camera.
But, there are facts that need to be considered.
I’ve studied different forms of martial arts, and what I’ve learned is that power comes from pivoting — not twisting the spine, which is often confused as the same thing. My instructor(s) taught me to gain power from the hips, even when simply punching. Power comes from the entire body.
Here’s an inherent problem:
(source: Escher Girls)
The tension in her body is simply in her shoulders and arm. It’s easy to recognize someone who hasn’t been thoroughly trained when an attack consists simply of throwing the fist forward.
The foreshortening sort of killed me, which is why it’s so sketchy. But mostly it’s for the idea and the shapes (and I didn’t draw with any references, so I apologize again if these aren’t a hundred percent anatomically accurate).
The point here was to highlight tension — to accentuate force and momentum. Because her hips and ribcage tilt at these particular angles, and because the camera is positioned at a higher level, we CAN see the B&B. It’s not impossible and not improbable, as I’ve demonstrated before.
But the problem is that we see a LOT of it.
I mean, A LOT.
I sketched this as an alternative (although it would look much more believable if the two of them were close to the same plane
but I won’t point that out). I tried to give her the sense of exhaling, because shouting when attacking provides additional strength from the solar plexus. The twisting of the body is to give the sense of movement.The foreshortening isn’t as obvious here, though…………. :{ sorry.
So, yes, B&B can be practical and make sense, and it can be a believable pose if made believable. But it’s not often made believable, and it’s done in such excess that it’s become a device for subtle sexualization of women that many people accept.
That’s not good.
A B&B pose for the sake of consumption means that it’s okay to portray women as objects for sexual satisfaction in the public sphere. It’s to the point where I’ve read that redrawing a B&B pose into something more sensible makes the pose less “dynamic”.
(Source: Escher Girls)
This pose is mostly believable, but is it necessary? Does it need to be this way?
I imagined her swinging her leg around to brace herself. If something jumps at me, I naturally step back and block with the opposite arm. A body will balance itself naturally, as described in this much more in-depth post.
In an alternate version, I tried to make her look more surprised and less prepared by varying her hips and legs only slightly:
She’s leaning back more, less twisted. In photography, a pose is interesting if the model grants as many different levels and shapes as possible — that’s what makes a pose dynamic, not if you can get both breasts and cheeks to face the camera.
So, in essence, yes: a B&B pose can make sense. But it’s done so excessively that women can’t seem to do anything except show their assets to the camera, and instilling this idea into minds who are sensitive to their bodies can be damaging and cause people to develop unreleastic expectations of themselves and others.
I MEAN COME ON.
(Source: Escher Girls)
Batman and Super Man are facing the camera, ready to slap some bitches. What the heck is Wonder Woman doing over there? Why is this okay?
Would it be okay if Super Man and Wonder Woman were switched?
Of course not. Men don’t generally
and can’tpose like that.So why is it female superheroes and villains are expected to?
Nice redraws and commentary.
