Bronies and Breaking Free

The internet acts as a remix board for culture-- people share, re-create, and develop further ideas and media relics within the interface, taking culture from all media outlets. While the web does allow access to traditional media elements, as well as re-mixed versions of them, there is an entirely separate culture underlying this mode of information sharing. The forums of “4Chan” and “/b/” (pronounced as, simply “B”) are by far the largest, most internet-literate sub-groups around. Their members created the “anonymous wave,” the use of “memes” which mimic the subculture, the “rules of the internet” and so much more. The largest manifestation of these groups are the subcultures. As Lawrence Lessig stated, “the internet has induced an important and unrecognized change in that process” of “how culture is made” (7). Today, we’re going to talk about the “Bronies.”

Lauren Faust, creator of Power Puff Girls, created “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” (MLP) for girls and young women. It began as a television show, and after an article criticizing animated television as purely commercial, the board 4Chan sparked with hundreds of “pony threads,” posting reaction images. The subculture spun out from there, leaking into /b/, the users of which had been called “btards.” These supporters of MLP have since been dubbed “Bronies,” /b/ lovers of my little ponies. Whenever any sort of culture, web-based or not, comes around and is heavily emphasized, there develops an anti-culture. 4Chan refers to the MLP outbreak, and the conflict thereafter, as the “flame wars.”

Relentless posting, trolling, spamming and spamming of “endless pony threads” ensued, and when 4Chan banned these threads, they retaliated with “Mods are asleep! Post ponies!” images. They ended up migrating to a newly-formed “PonyChan,” and 4Chan later lifted the ban. Stepping away from the Bronies for a brief second, let’s discuss the theft and piracy of these images. If you think the word “theft” is a bit harsh, it’s just the linguistic term used to express “whenever I take something of value from someone else” (Lessig 18). The entire discourse is surrounded with harsh words, such as “piracy,” and it criminalizes nearly an entire generation. “Every realm was governed by copyright law, whereas before most creativity was not.” Anyone in Lauren Faust’s place, judging by how the music industry has been functioning, could have a) discouraged, b) ignored, or c) fought the use of her images.

What is most interesting about this particular phenomenon, is how Lauren Faust handled it. Rather than trying to sue for something not there, she embraced the male demographic that her show had spread to, even creating a special spoof of Katy Perry’s “California Girls” for Ponychan. She has been creating the show along with her consumers. For instance, one of her characters in the pilot episode accidentally glitched, resulting in her eyes going in different directions. Fans dubbed her “DerpyHooves” and Lauren has since included this new character. As Henry Jenkins coins it, this is a prime example of a “participatory culture.” Peers comment upon one another’s work, and culture therein ensues, evolving. He discusses how the media tends to handle reproductions of their work as PonyChan has been doing to Lauren Faust:

Media producers are responding to these newly empowered consumers in contradictory ways, sometimes encouraging change, sometimes resisting what they see as renegade behavior. And consumers, in turn, are perplexed by what they see as mixed signals about how much and what kinds of participation they can enjoy” (Jenkins 19).

Thank goodness, Lauren has not taken this approach. In fact, I’d say the show has snowballed into a glorious compilation. Thousands of pony threads and reaction images run rampant, often taking elements of her show and spreading it to other walks of life. For instance, one episode included “parasprites” which consume everything and annoy everyone-- reaction images including “parasprites” spread to refer to all of the “brony haters.” Lots of vernacular terms have arisen as well, such as “brohoof” (spawned from “brofist”) and “bronies before hoenies.” Original, creative, boring, or exciting, all of these images have amounted into a greater subculture-- far greater than the original show Lauren Faust created could have achieved on its own.

Fans embrace Lauren, referring on her DeviantArt page that she must be singing “dance, puppets, dance!” However, this cooperation between consumers and producers (although, nowadays, everyone is a producer) should be prevalent in other media outlets. Rather than shun this participatory culture, why not embrace it? I chose the MLP/Brony/PonyChan subculture because I feel that it exemplifies an attitude that most other media outlets have yet to achieve. We can learn from Lauren that the use of your images is not necessarily a bad thing, and can actually be utiltized in various ways. The most important thing to take away, however, is the evolution of culture. If she had stopped the viral spread somehow, the entire culture would have been killed.

Current media outlets should consider what they’re doing to their own industry, and consumers.