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Strange Discovery of the Day: Men’s Rights Bronies

Yep. They may be rarer than unicorns, but Men’s Rights Bronies (MRBs) do indeed exist. For proof, see this post on the Men’s Rights subreddit, in which an MR Brony calling himself Bullywar tries to convince fellow MRAs (and MRBs) that the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic season two finale (of which the video above is an excerpt) is some sort of grand antifeminist statement from the show’s creators. (Oh, SPOILER ALERT for everything that follows.)

You don’t have to be a brony, or even care for MLP at all to get this – just hear me out. If you don’t care to watch the 44 minute episode, I’ll summarize: an impostor shapeshifting queen disposes of a bride to be in a high-profile wedding and plans to use the groom’s magic against him in a lust for power. The linked song will pretty much get the whole episode’s plot across succinctly enough.

The song juxtaposes the heroine’s desire to complement her groom, and the villain’s desire to subjugate him; even though that (until the climax of the episode) everyone sees the latter as the former. It even references one of feminism’s battle cries for the last lyric in the reprise. Watch the whole episode on Youtube to get a closer look.

To see a wildly popular show aimed at girls, conceived and written by a woman, giving such a message to young girls today strikes me as nothing less than resounding vindication for our cause.

Because feminists are all about marrying dudes and exploiting them?

Happily, other Bronies with less of an ax to grind came along and put Bullywar straight.

CrawdaddyJoe, a critic of MRAs who usually gets downvoted on r/mensrights, garnered himself a few upvotes by noting that

Um…. feminists aren’t plotting to marry you and take your money. That’s not even remotely what feminism is about, and most feminists would find such behavior abhorrent and demeaning. Don’t be a paranoid twit.

Drinkthebleach, an actual MR Brony and Pokemon fan, asked:

Isn’t Lauren Faust [the show’s original Executive Producer] a pretty outspoken feminist? Also you left out the part where they talk about how important it is to have a male influence in your life, when she talks about how much she loves/misses/needs her brother.

RotoSequence, who doesn’t seem to regularly post in r/mensrights, offered a more nuanced analysis of the episode:

This is a ridiculous argument. The entire point of This Day was to illustrate that Chrysalis only wanted posession of Shining Armor because by manipulating his emotions, it gave Chrysalis tremendous power. Cadance and Shining Armor, on the other hand, love each other so much that they want to start a family together while the manipulative, evil Queen plans to take that away from them as collateral damage so that Chrysalis can conquer a land that isn’t hers. If anything, the lesson to take home from the finale is “we’re stronger together than we are apart,” and the corny stalwart “love conquers all.”

At least I assume that’s a more nuanced interpretation. As a non-Brony, I really have no idea.

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M Dubz
12 years ago

@pillowinhell- I’m sure they’re all conspiring for ways to get Big Mac out from underneath the femmepression of Granny Smith and Applejack. FREE BIG MAC!

ozymandias42
12 years ago

Reddit has just decided to combine its two favorite things: misogyny and ponies.

Ruby Hypatia
Ruby Hypatia
12 years ago

I too am having a hard time believing MRA’s can be Bronies. But anyway, obviously Bullywar read too much into that one episode. The series is definitely pro-feminism. BTW, I love that there are a lot more great empowering girl shows nowadays than when I was a kid in the ’70’s.

princesssunnyburn
12 years ago

I;m actually not all that surprised to find there are MRA Bronies. As much as I enjoy the cartoon and most of the fandom, there is a distressingly large number of rather unsavory dudes involved. A lot of them seem to project their own “perfect girl” fantasies onto their favorite pony (Fluttershy gets a lot of this) which is downright creepy for several reasons.

Shaenon
12 years ago

Hey, I just saw Barry Deutsch yesterday and he bought a copy of my book. Fempression successful!

lauralot89
12 years ago

DAMN IT MALE SUPREMICISTS, STOP MAKING THINGS SUCK.

M Dubz
12 years ago

@princesssunnyburn-… but Fluttershy, meek as she is, is made of STEEL. Girl takes no shit from nopony, when the chips are down. (I’m now having a massive sad because I love so much that MLP:FIM is so invested in giving shy girls a rolemodel in Fluttershy).

TheMenAreAngry
TheMenAreAngry
12 years ago

Barry Deutsch and Hugo Schwyzer. Michael Kimmel. Michael Flood.

Poor men.

Poor, deluded manginas.

They are blind.

In thrall to their mistresses- thinking they are special, blind to the coming storm.

Thinking they will be spared.

But then-

First the sexists will be suppressed (this stage is already almost complete).

Then the conservatives. (this stage is well underway)

Then the decent, regular, hardworking men.

Then the liberals.

And then the mangina shock troopers will be consumed.

Leaving only the male feminist leaders, who will remain blinkered in ignorance.

Until finally-

The tight ass high heel of the oppressor grinds ever harder, crushing our nose in the mud and slime.

Twisting our balls ever more painfully, long red fingernails digging into the ball skin.

But the manginas feel nothing- they cut them off long ago (metaphorical)

Which is their tragedy.

They cannot feel what we can.

But they will be consumed regardless.

That is the fate of the mangina.

akestra
akestra
12 years ago

@Falconer, the stories are a bit old at this point, but The Avengers are famous for writing some of the worst male/female relationships in comics, and everyone else (all their buddies, like Cap’n Amurikah) who should fuckin’ *know better* just standing around and being all, “Oh, you wanna live in a pocket demension with your rapebaby who raped you with mind control and is probably controlling you right now? Cause that’s totally cool, Ms. Marvel. We Respect Your Choices!” You can read more about this here: http://www.cracked.com/article_17626_the-5-creepiest-sex-scenes-in-comics_p2.html

Then there’s the whole unsavory Ant-Man/Wasp/Iron Man triangle with the domestic violence and the manipulation by Tony Stark who knows about Janet’s marital troubles because he’s Iron Man, but she doesn’t know he knows.

Oh, and the time Mockingbird got raped and Hawkeye didn’t believe her, because her (phantom) rapist said that it didn’t happen. They were married at the time: http://www.cracked.com/article_16512_the-6-worst-comic-book-super-husbands_p2.html?wa_user1=4&wa_user2=Movies+%26+TV&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended

Does Cracked have a thing for highlighting horrible Avengers rape storylines? Maybe so, but they wouldn’t be able to do it so often if there weren’t so damn many there to find.

LBT
LBT
12 years ago

RE: Falconer

I presume they meant Hal Jordan hooking up with Arisia when she was only sixteen and got magically physically aged by Enforced Plotonium.

I see this more as a symbol that Hal Jordan is a douche, which is hardly news. But then, I’m a Guy Gardner fan. (And no, he’s no symbol of feminism either. But he’s never intended to be.)

Hippodameia
Hippodameia
12 years ago

TMAA,

Your Significant Pauses

do not

make you sound

Impressive.

Or intelligent.

Or scary.

They make you

sound

laughable.

cloudiah
12 years ago

Barry Deutsch and Hugo Schwyzer. Michael Kimmel. Michael Flood.

I’m dating myself, I know, but I can totally hear parts of Mr. Crankypants’ emails as alternative verses to REM’s “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” Is that weird?

princessbonbon
12 years ago

Then the conservatives. (this stage is well underway)

Do I not fucking wish. The US would do better.

M Dubz
12 years ago

@Hippodameia- Good work!

@MrAngryMan- Dude. Seriously. NOT POLITE TO TALK AT LENGTH ABOUT YOUR FETISHES ON THE INTERNET WHEN NOBODY ASKED YOU.

pillowinhell
pillowinhell
12 years ago

I hear you Princessbonbon. Your ultra conservatives down there are running wild. I wonder what’s left for them to criminalize about women.

Rutee Katreya
12 years ago

‘Cos in my opinion, media usually combines misandry and misogyny nicely, and if we’re to treat the other…

That’s nice, but your opinion is wrong. Misandry doesn’t really exist as a separate factor, because men are the grossly advantaged class. The only things that can be called misandry (the systematic oppression of men) that really exist are the gendered oppressions of other peoples (Such as various non-whites, or the poor) that vary from how women of the same oppressed class are treated (Which is almost always ‘worse than the dudes of same class’, but still different).

As there is no systematic oppression of men qua men, there is not really a ‘misandric’ opinion the media can give voice to. Further, most of the things that are called ‘misandric’ are not; yes, ‘Men can’t control their sexual urges’ hurts some male rape victims… but by and large it benefits men by providing cover for the rape of women.

I should really be equally pissed about the fact that the freedom of the men is restricted.

The ability to serve is a class advantage of being a man in most of history, for a variety of reasons. Yes, ‘lacking the freedom’ (You don’t lack this freedom, especially not now, but that’s besides the point) is terrible and all, but it doesn’t hurt men nearly so much, because the ability to serve as soldiers doesn’t actually require you to be a soldier to benefit you at all, and even draftees have it pretty good for their class in most societies. So no, actually, you should not be ‘equally pissed’ that you have a class benefit that may theoretically force an obligation from you (Especially because it is only theoretical; you will not be drafted until science fiction technology cancels nukes).

…Ugh, maybe that wasn’t such an innovative example. Hope you understood my point though.

Because it is totally novel and I have never considered it before.

Oh wait.

What I wanted to say that the gender roles are too rigid in most media I personally happen to consume
This, I can agree with, but that doesn’t mean that ‘misandry’ is a thing. It means that the oppression of women does in fact not lead to the super-freedom of all men forever.

M Dubz
12 years ago

@ Rutee- I think it’s more nuanced than that. While certainly the limitations placed on male gender expression are accompanied by a huge power imbalance in their favor, it does not chance the fact that, for individual men who cannot or do not sufficently comply with enforced masculinity, their lives are made shit for that fact. Whether that’s due to misogyny or misandry is, in my opinion, besides the point. I think the only way to fix it is to begin publicly embracing and celebrating feminine men AND masculine women. And I also believe firmly that as men are encouraged to let go of poisonous gender roles, that will lead to them feeling less anxious about female power and self-expression.

Fatman
Fatman
12 years ago

There are anti man myths out there; that we are all violent, that we are naturally predisposed to be rapists, that we are naturally pedophiles, but it is MRAs and their ilk that are perpetuating these myths. Sure, they say that they are opposed to the Schrodinger’s rapist concept, but they then make things like that reprehensible rage comic about the “friend zone” that David posted recently. They seem to want to be absolved of the responsibility to act socially by claiming that we are all violent sociopaths, and they then get angry when feminists take them at their word.

Perhaps this is why they fear that feminists are out to create a “gynocracy” complete with boiler plate BD/SM imagery. They know that if men really were what they claim we are then strict control over our actions would be justified.

Luckily for all of us the myths about men that they spread are, in general, false. They are only true where they are a result of a self fulfilling prophesy, wherein men are raised believing that they are the horrible people that MRAs make them out to be, and act accordingly, or in the case of pathological aberration. As feminism becomes more and more mainstream, and fewer men are convinced that they are naturally rapists, the rate of sexual violence will continue to plummet, as it has for the past 20 years.

All of the bleating about the coming MRApocalypse seems to be an attempt to bluff feminists into giving up on achieving equality and to return to an even more imbalanced society than we have today. As if by telling us that there will be a revolution if we don’t turn back the clock to the gilded age, they can convince us give in with out a fight. Well, that or they are actually deluded enough to believe that most people would prefer to return to the stifling gender norms of the past. I suspect that it is a little of column A and a little of column B.

Rutee Katreya
12 years ago

There are anti man myths out there; that we are all violent, that we are naturally predisposed to be rapists, that we are naturally pedophiles,

All of which serve as cover for jackassery like “ZOMG KILL AGE OF CONSENT LAW”, “ITS OKAY IF HE HITS HIS WOMAN” and “IT WASN’T RAPE IT WAS NATURAL SEXUALITY”, the latter of which is still ultimately in full legal force as well. Which is why they aren’t really ‘misandric’.

their lives are made shit for that fact.

Except they really aren’t. Worse than a proper dude, yes. “Shit”, not really.

that will lead to them feeling less anxious about female power and self-expression.

That’s got substantially more tod o with women-as-inferiors than anything.

M Dubz
12 years ago

@Fatman- That’s an important addition to what I was trying to say. While the MRA claims that poisonous male gender roles stem from feminists, poisonous gender roles in general stem from the status quo. Generally, the more feminist a man or woman is, the less anxious they tend to be about their masculinity or femininity.

TheMenAreAngry
TheMenAreAngry
12 years ago

Rutee.

You are wrong.

Men are not the advantaged class; we are the disadvantaged class, at least in the Western world.

In fact, you seem very emotionally invested in denying the existence of misandry.

Typical Dworkinite.

Are you a Fem-Nazi or a cringing mangina like Deutsch?

Us MRAs don’t get emotional.

We have cold hard logic.

The facts. Nothing more.

Men who are not the masculine ideal (Mr. Pitt; Mr. Depp; Mr. Lautner, etc.) are denigrated mercilessly.

You will deny misandry until your last breath because you find what you don’t WANT to see to be a personal offense.

That’s the difference between you and me- I don’t.

I take what the evidence shows me.

And that is how wars are won.

jumbofish
12 years ago

We have cold hard logic.

The facts. Nothing more.

If you got facts where is your cited proof?

Rutee Katreya
12 years ago

Men who are not the masculine ideal (Mr. Pitt; Mr. Depp; Mr. Lautner, etc.) are denigrated mercilessly.

…I don’t know who you are, that you think you’re being clever, but this fake troll thing was old when it was just Ami and Ozy.

Amused
12 years ago

Us MRAs don’t get emotional.

We have cold hard logic.

Hence all the rage and wildly overwrought purple prose. Logic!!