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.
Show. Avatar is a TV show.
I prefer nougat at the center, enrobed in dark chocolate.
HE IS FORTY TWO.
I TOTALLY BELIEVE THAT HE IS FORTY TWO LIKE HE SAID IN THE OTHER THREAD.
I HAVE NO PROBLEM ACCEPTING THIS INFORMATION AS FACT.
IT MOST CERTAINLY IS.
THE ONLY MOVIE I KNOW OF CALLED AVATAR IS JAMES CAMERON’S.
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER HAS HAD NO BIG SCREEN ADAPTATION, AND MOST DEFINITELY NOT A LIVE ACTION ADAPTATION AND IT IS EVER SO MUCH SAD BECAUSE IT WOULD BE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR NON-WHITE ACTORS TO HAVE ALL THE ROLES IN A MOVIE AND NOT JUST VILLAIN, COMIC RELIEF, OR TRUSTY COPY BUDDY THAT GETS MURDERED TWO DAYS BEFORE RETIREMENT SENDING THE OH SO VERY WHITE MAIN COP ON A MURDEROUS RAMPAGE THROUGH THE CITY’S CRIMINAL UNDERBELLY … OF BROWN PEOPLE.
I know a couple dudes in their thirties who are fully conversant with Avatar so, you know, proof of concept.
I’m getting kind of bored with this new troll with the fake IP who very well could be MRAL. Should I boot him? Or just moderate him, and only let through the comments that try to explain the real world with references to Avatar: The Last Airbender?
New troll’s name reminds me of my mother trying to explain the concept of Angry Birds to my not-at-all-game-savvy father.
Mom: “No, no, you fling the birds at the pigs!”
Dad: “…Why?”
Mom: “Because the birds are angry at the pigs!”
Dad: “Why are the birds angry?”
Mom: “Because the green pigs stole their eggs!”
Dad: “…So the birds are angry?”
From what I can tell, New Troll of Terrible Poetry is an Angry Bird who gained sentience.
Dear MRAs,
Get the hell out of MLP fandom. It’s WAY too feminist for you anyway. I mean, come on! They’re GIRLS and they do what they want! And they’re masculine and feminine and no one gives them hell for it either way! None of them have (or need, or even talk about) having boyfriends. The whole world of Equestria is ruled by two women. How can you watch this with your beliefs?!
I can do a complete recital of Avatar while standing on my head and crocheting doillies. And I’m 38. Annnnd…I have an obsessive nine year old daughter with dvd recordings.
It’s probably MRAL, boot the little boundaryless asspimple.
I vote for the boot. MRAL under any name is tiresome, and his latest posting style is even more boring than usual.
All right MysteryManWhoIsAngry, you’re banned. Unless you can prove to me you’re actually 42 years old, and if you post using your real IP.
Or perhaps if you write all your future comments in limerick form.
Limericks are too easy! Make him do villanelles.
But I love limericks. They are the highest form of poetry!
I’ll even start one for him:
There once was a man who was angry
So much that he gave himself gangrene
But he was a twit,
and behaved like a shit,
And I’m just not coming up with a rhyme for gangrene . . .
That legitimately ruined my week.
@LexieDi- Yeah! Feminist Fillies unite! *hoofbump*
(this thread inspired an avatar change… I am such a nerd…)
Oh wait, it didn’t work. Maybe this time?
There once was a man who was angry
So much that he gave himself gangrene
But he was a twit
And behaved like a shit
Then pouted when he was called obscene
Urgh, that was more of a half rhyme in my head, before I said it out loud.
I saw that finale. Overall, I thought it was kind of so-so, but quite good when compared to the sort of fare that is usually hurled at little girls; I really liked the bit where one of the things mentioned in the summation was telling the protagonist that she was right to trust her own judgment, even if the adults around her had dismissed it because of it coming from a child who was just assumed to be jealous of the woman she thought would be “taking away” her brother.
As a child, I would have just about died of joy to hear an adult tell me that, yes, my experience and interpretation of situations effecting me and my family WAS NOT total bullshit just because I was a little girl and what do little girls know about blahblahblah. My parents ended up doing some pretty damned abusive shit to me, and to all their kids — and a huge factor in that was they absolutely refused to recognize anything we said about anything, including their treatment of us, as being valid, just because we were kids. To this day, I still have to work to trust myself, having grown up believing that I knew nothing and could not trust my own senses, even when it was about my own body.
Oh, how you’ve been mislead. That’s what they WANT you to think. Right now they’re selling you on this fantastic marriage in which the lady pony is a perfect wife. But she’s just about to get pregnant, divorce her husband pony, take him for all he’s worth in child support, and then it’ll turn out the baby pony wasn’t even his! They’re setting you up for the ultimate lady con, thus proving that the show is actually specifically for MRAs. This introduction of new male ponies is just to illustrate the transition between the matriarchy to a patriarchy which the new mra ponies are going to bring about. TAKE THAT FEMINISTS!
I’m surprised to have not heard by now that those are just women in men-suits. The level of paranoia and conspiracy theory I hear from these people make me apt to believe that they think that such a thing is going on behind the scenes. But right now they are apparently settling for something about magical fuck me heels that bring men to their knees or something.
ahhahahaha
BDSM erotica is all fine and dandy, but why are you posting it here?
It is actually surprisingly (considering where it came from) accurate summary of the episodes.
Thing is, postulating that they’re women disguised as men doesn’t solve the problem. Feminists point to the paucity of women in positions of power as a sign that we live in a male-dominated society — in fact, not just a sign, there they are, dominating society. Even someone sexist against men doesn’t have an alternative in most elections. If we are actually in a female-dominated society, women would openly be in positions of power.