John Hinkley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impress Jodie Foster. Is is possible that the young man who killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis was trying to impress … a cartoon horse?
It’s a serious question. We don’t know terribly much about the FedEx shooter, or a motive for his rampage. But. thanks to the Wall Street Journal we know that an hour before he started shooting in the FedEx parking lot he posted a message on a now-deleted Facebook page devoted to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic animated series, declaring his love for one of the show’s main characters:
I hope that I can be with Applejack in the afterlife, my life has no meaning without her. If there’s no afterlife and she isn’t real then my life never mattered anyway.
We don’t know if he was sincere, or trolling, or a mixture of the two, and we can’t ask him now because he’s dead.
Regardless, some in the My Little Pony fandom are bracing for the possibility of a backlash against the sometimes innocent, other times deeply creepy “Brony” subculture of adult male fans that has grown up around a show that was originally intended for young girls.
On Equestria Daily, a site devoted to the show, writer Sethisto broke the bad news:
We have some horrible news coming out of the Indianapolis Shooting that went down the other day. Apparently the former employee and gunman was a fan of Friendship is Magic, and more specifically Applejack, who was the focus of his final message on his pony focused Facebook page an hour before the shooting. …
Facebook and The Wallstreet Journal couldn’t find any actual motive behind the attack from either of the [shooter’s Facebook] pages; just ponies. This is still all under heavy investigation, but for now, be prepared for some potential blowback once the news starts breaking out into the wider internet.
Commenters on the site were definitely not ready for their closeup.
“It’s gonna be a shitshow for the fandom this weekend,” wrote someone called Astral. “Joy.”
While numerous commenters remembered to offer condolences for those killed in the assault, others were more worried about the fandom itself, trying their best to come up with explanations for the shooting that had nothing to do with MLP. Wrote Pony4Koma:
This guy was under a mountain of stress, I can tell that by his words. Maybe Covid (maybe something else) must have taken away everything that used to make life worth struggling for, leaving only the stress and the good memories we burn to say alive.
Others seemed to think that with the right PR this story could be turned into something that was almost good for the bronies. Wrote ColoradoBob:
This is a terrible tragedy. Let’s remember that weird news sells, and people often jump to conclusions when given a story like this. If anyone asks me, I’ll be talking about how most of the Bronies I’ve met are just regular people with a random fandom that is a bit odd. Like any fandom, you can find the fringes.
I’m going to stay focused on the positive impact the fandom has had. For example: if any of his friends had been Bronies, I bet they would have tried to reach out in friendship and love, to prevent this tragedy.
Thanks, hypothetical brony friends for hypothetically averting the massacre.
Still others, forgetting about the actual victims of the shooting rampage, warned that the tragic events could lead to evil Social Justice Warriors cancelling Applejack and making the show more “woke.”
“Well, this is it, wrote commenter Jess Rose.
Hasbro will never reference Applejack or cowboy hats ever again. They always thought that she represented the conservative South with their ranch, farms and guns and now they only got more fuel to move the show into more sjw territory than ever.
In another comment, Rose preemptively blamed the media for covering the story badly:
I bet the mainstream media will do what every responsible and wise news outlet would do and blame everything on bronies, ponies and Hasbro and not on mental issues, bad parenthood or easy access to automatic guns with little control
Meanwhile, commenter aaargh Zombies complained that
the version of Applejack in Pony Life has already had most of her country\conservative traits removed because of current day politics. Even her core values of family and tradition have been taken out.
In a followup comment, Zombies added that
The trouble with the the American entertainment industry, particularly animation, is that it’s heavily California focused, and there are … prejudices that come with this.
The writers of MLP simply didn’t know how to relate to a character like Applejack because the last ten years of American popular culture have been spent painting small town conservatives in an unflattering way.
Eight people died. But some would rather complain about excessively … Californian the writers of the show are.
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@Redsilkphoenix
That’s fascinating, but confusing. Why do people who apparently don’t like girls or women all that much like empowerment fantasy for girls? It’s not that it transcends the genre. My Little Pony is a well-written show for kids, I find it much easier to endure than another Paw Patrol marathon*, but it’s not something I’d ever choose to watch if I wasn’t parenting. I can’t even blame it on idealised portrayals of teen bodies – there can’t be that many people attracted to blobby pastel horses. Is it because they can’t bear that something has been made for this group and not for them? Because being pornographically grotesque about a children’s show titillates their trollishness?
*My kid is much more in the Paw Patrol littlies age-group – MLP is an occasional half-understood diversion because they really like rainbows and unicorns.
@Chris Oakley. I didn’t see your comment before, as it was presumably still in moderation, but the show itself bears no responsibility for the actions of a few wankers that it does absolutely nothing to court.
@Redsilkphoenix
a) it is, actually, a good thing to have regs that prohibit slimy corporate suits from doing upskirt shots of implied-minor characters to appease the grossest subset of fans
b) sexualizing minor characters on a kids’ show is fucking disgusting
c) people who sexualize minor characters on a kids’ show are fucking disgusting
d) seriously why the fuck do so many
cis dudesAMAB peoplefans have to sexualize everything, it’s gross as hell@Mogwitch
TBH I suspect it’s a combo of being control freaks towards women (kind of like Joss Whedon’s thing where he emotionally abuses women who he sees as strong), “putting girls in their place”, and fetishization of purity + the idea of destroying/corrupting purity. But honestly who knows.
And like not to say that there aren’t adult fans of MLP who are okay. But these guys… ain’t. ISTG, people in fan spaces are so openminded about sexuality that their brains fall out.
@mogwitch, @cyborgette : their thought process can be more complicated too, and might vary between creep to creep. The process where they sexualize the heroins and the process where they want to be like the heroins can be different and unrelated to each other, too.
Said otherwise, female empowerement fantasy is empowerement fantasy, and some will like it because it’s an empowerement fantasy. Unrelatedly, theses fans also can find the heroin attractive. (they are pretty much written to be broadly attractive to boot)
Similarly, someone can at the same type wish to be X, and wish to have X as partner.
As for “regulation being stricter in the USA”, I am skeptikal, but maybe ? Japan is famously conservative and have a ton of laws destined to rigidly control what can be shown. The USA have that too, but saying it’s because regulation that the USA produce less smut-like animations seem to be missing the true reason.
Manosphere types like MLP because it’s childish escapism that allow them to flee adult responsibilities, same reason why they like moe anime and to a lesser extent furries. However in this case “bronyism” is an epiphenomenon not a relevant factor.
The article on this site was tone-deaf and the comments are even worse that said TBH I’m very inconfortable with the way WHTM sometimes falls into gratuitous attacks. I remember an article about a weeb who said he only loves anime girls. The guy could have been a misogynyst but there was nothing in the post indicating it so IMO it has nothing to do here. Eight people died, yes, and piling up only adds more harm and offers no solution.
What’s more the MLP fandom can’t be reduced to this. I’m pretty sure they lean progressive overall (not the segment that is featured here) and many are queer people, like furries
@kevin : “Manosphere types like MLP because it’s childish escapism that allow them to flee adult responsibilities, same reason why they like moe anime and to a lesser extent furries. However in this case “bronyism” is an epiphenomenon not a relevant factor.”
Holy oversimplifying god oO.
MLP isn’t “childish” escapism. Moe anime, depend on the specific, but most aren’t. Furry is pretty much the opposite of childish. All three might have element of escapism, but only as much as *any* pastime is escapism.
Furry and liking moe anime are also not a relevant factors for manospherian liking them.
Moe anime, in general, are the definition of an epiphenomen : they are inherently conservative and created as a consequence of the ultra conservative Japan and their very heavy social and gender division. Specific moe anime might have very different profile tho. Manospherian are a consequence of the conservative America, and will tend to like it because it’s effectively designed to appeal to them.
Saying that furry is a relevant factor to be manospherian is just obviously stupid. It’s more that furries aren’t immune to being conservative.
Also, remember that generally speaking, well designed shows often have layers, be it layer of jokes or of symbolism. It simultaneously make the show more watchable by adult and make it more appreciated by children, because they generally tend to be much smarter than we gave them credit for.
I don’t know if you’re badly informed or tone deaf, but TBH your post look much more like an attack than the article.
@Mogwitch
Having been a fan of a Military Magical Girl series like strike witches and having had some dubious encounters with the more toxic and ugly subset of the fanbase (that even the rest of the fanbase exiled), while I can’t say wither my observation is anicdotal or not: at least as far as what I saw: such specific and toxic subset of fans see the strong female leads as a means to shallowly project desires for “waifus” for shallow aesthetic, despite the fact the Characters actually have engaging depth of Character and if they were actual people would frankly take issue with such shallow objectification. It seems to come across as a sort of similar, pseudo-stalkerish mindset and reasoning that IRL stalkers seem to operate under and the people such stalkers target.
Other times however their are subsets of these toxic fans that covet the power and power fantasy of these female heroins embodying and seem to want to try and envision themselves as some kind of Generic, self insert, dime a dozen Gary Stu in order to try and usurp the cannon female leads powers and role in the actual story so the toxic fan is the heroic lead in the spotlight usurping the females leads roles and power so the female magical girl leads become “useless, sexy lamps” and a possible comfort battalion for his usurping power fantasy.
Alternatively their are otherwise anti-feminist/misogynist fans who are able to temporarily suspend their regular objections to a strong, female characters power to get off to the character engaging in action scenes because the fan tries to filter the female characters action and show of force and power for some kind of weird sadomasochistic fetishism, wither or not their is any actual sexualisation and/or hyper-inflating and distorting what little sexualisation their may be under the fans own specific chauvinist lens.
And honestly it’s really irritating when that segment of the fandom does that kind of stuff when I actually love and enjoy the magical girls as people with their own personalities, hopes, dreams, fears and lives.
And that’s not even getting into the weirder subset of militantly homophobic fans of strike witches that strangely love the series, characters, story and world building but hate the strong Yuri undertones in Strike Witches and get into mouth frothing range when any of the Magical Girl soldiers show even the mildest bit of intrest in a female comrade… something a lot of the fans find to be annoying and dumb.
Sorry my comment was very badly written and I apologize if I come out as an asshole because this is not what I wanted to imply. (Also english is not my native language)
When I say “childish escapism” I didn’t mean it in a pejorative way. Theres nothing wrong with escapism per se, especially in those crappy times. escapism into today’s common fandoms (moe anime, MLP, etc) can have several factors, like feeling lonely and imagine the characters as firends/lovers, but isolated young (generally white) men who have their gender and race privilege, but not much else, will gravitate towards escapism for the same reasons they gravitate towards the alt-rigght: they want a world where they can fantasize about their importance. Youre totally right about japan culture and patriarchy in anime…
Aslo this just in: the shooter browsed white supremacist websites, that was to be expected…
@Cyborgette,
You are right that there shouldn’t be any kind of gross sexualization in shows aimed at young kids (leave that stuff to the appropriately marked fanfics, ‘kay?). On the other hand, some of those kids’ show regulators (Federal Communications Commission? A group more connected to the main three networks?) went waaay too far at times in ‘protecting’ young kids from things that might upset them. In fact, based on some of the stories I’ve heard about what they’ve censored, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the regulators thought ‘red paint plus blue paint makes purple paint’ was too far above the average kid’s understanding of the world to be allowed in a show.
Though I believe a bigger reason for why American comics and animation were so restricted for decades before anime and the 60’s underground started showing up here was the society idea that comics and cartoons were kids-only fare. With said idea being enforced on those writers and artists with the weight of what may as well have been the law. Won’t go into a huge discussion here about it, but a brief history of the Comics Code Authority will show how much pressure was brought to bear to keep everything ‘kid friendly’:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority
(Now if I could only recall who was controlling the content of kids cartoons during the same periods, I’d be in business.)
As for the pop culture view of small town USA life, if I had a nickel for every show/movie/book/etc. whose Big Shocking Twist Reveal That You Won’t See Coming was ‘OMG! This place/these people aren’t a Norman Rockwell painting come to life! They have dark murderous passions in them Just Like Us/City Folk! GAAAAAASP!’, I’d have a lot more money to my name than I do now. All because things like murder don’t happen every day – or even every week – down here doesn’t mean that it never happens at all, ya know?
Plus people who think Rockwell was portraying nothing but idealized conservative views of small town life clearly haven’t seen a great deal of his work. They’re likely thinking of pictures like the family doctor ‘listening’ to a teddy bear’s heart because the human kid wanted reassurance that medical exams weren’t scary, while forgetting Rockwell also did pictures like the little girl in pigtails and a cotton dress who clearly had not only gotten in a no-holds-barred fistfight with another kid, but based on her demeanor had decisively won it. And based on the actions of the adults in that picture, she wasn’t going to be punished for fighting either.
Wait wait hold on…. Applejack had guns???
Applejack never had any “conservative” traits. She has a cowboy hat, but she isn’t a rancher and she certainly never had guns. She’s a vegetarian pony whose family owns orchards. They look after trees, harvest apples, make apple pies, sell apple pies, etc. She ultimately believes in peaceful co-existence with buffalo herds, vampire bats and even zebras.
Whew — that’s what I remembered too, and I’m glad to have it confirmed! My son loved MLP and I’d hate to find out it had creepy conservative undertones that I’d somehow missed (I mean, I know there was problematic stuff in MLP, but I think I’d have remembered a gun-toting Applejack).
Did anyone else find this:
rubbed them the wrong way? David, I am not meaning that you said anything off; I think you’ve quite accurately described their sentiments! I just read it and felt like…dudes, you’re a fan subculture, not an oppressed group. When I hear the word “backlash” I think of, for example, “the persecution of people with mental illness based on perceptions that a shooter may have been mentally ill”. Backlash, imo, is the word for negative impacts on the civil liberties of the group associated (however unfairly) with the act of violence. It does not mean “getting the side-eye based on your fandom”.
Comments like this one:
coupled with the total lack of empathy for the victims give me an icky feeling. It’s like the Brony guys (the nasty ones) desperately want to feel like everyone is out to get them.
If bronies were going to be denied rights or treated with violence due to their fandom getting unfairly associated with violence, that would be backlash. But I don’t think that’s likely.
I’m not being very coherent, I think! Um…I will blame fasting-brain. Tl;dr, when privileged white dudes want to cast themselves as The Most Oppressedest Of All, it’s creepy and obnoxious. It also lacks empathy for the actual victims of this shooting.
@Chris Oakley
Well first off MLP:FiM is over, it has been for a while. Which is why the fandom has been dying off. Secondly your attitude of generalizing is toxic and I’m shocked David didn’t delete your post. I’ve never met a brony who wasn’t a sweet and caring person. Yeah every fandom has its toxic assholes. I know, I’m a Fallout and BATTLETECH fan. I’ve actually gotten deathreats from Fallout purists for liking games past Fallout 2. Both communities have seen fans in our communities commit atrocities though, causing many open fans to get harassment and death threats themselves. It wasn’t as high profile as this, but it has happened. You’re no better than the most toxic elements of fan communities. You literally drive hatred that get innocent people chased from their homes and potentially murdered. You are the type of person who gets progressive folk like me and the others here labeled as hateful SJWs by toxic jerks and actual domestic terrorists. Turning us into targets. So don’t you dare generalize a diverse fandom like that.