Trying to share FiM with friends...

[kmlv23]

Has anyone else tried? My crowning achievement thus far has been getting three of my more macho male friends hyper into ponies....one of them even bought me my first pony (FS Pinkie Pie) for christmas! This was after I'd made jokes that Pinkie is my spirit animal. One of the guys even calls me Pinkie Pie now as a nickname, while the other thinks I'm more like Rainbow Dash. Gets confusing but whatevs.

However when I try to introduce it to any of my other friends I get laughed at or worse, met with full force hatred and opposition. I just dont get it! I know not everyone has to like MLP or even FiM, but they haven't even given it a shot. One girl has even hated ponies from a young age because of her interest in developing equestrian skills and apparently having ponies 'forced' on her.

What would you do if your friends were making fun of you for your love for ponies, or what have you done if it has happened? I'm starting to feel very victimized, just for trying to share something I love.

[zora]

i for myself like fim because its fun and very well animated. i attend an animation and art university and i tried to lead my classmates to fim too. i also earn laughter but as i am a girl its more a 'oh how cute the girl dont wanna grow up!'

they dont watch even 1 episode! if they would, they would recognize that they really can learn from fim - not only the animation part! :]

[kmlv23]

Yeah I totally agree! Maybe my friends wouldn't be so mad all the time and get into less fights if they learned something from the ponies. I know I am personally better than I used to be, and I thank the ponies for that.

[DoctorMowinckel]

I wouldn't have gotten into ponies were it not for one of my friends. He's been into ponies for about a decade, and he knows I like animation, so he suggested the show to me. He's a good friend of mine, and if he hadn't suggested it to me, I wouldn't have gotten into it. I don't dismiss anything my friends are into, so when he suggested I check it out, I didn't dismiss it as 'GUH FAW, ponies?!', I thought 'well, if he likes it, there must be something to it'. So I checked the show out. It was good, it was well animated, the characters were well defined, and the voice overs were really good. So I stuck with it. I said 'Ah, I'll just buy the Mane Six toys!', which lead to futzing with their hair. After had I finished the hair on the Mane Six playful ponies, I wanted more hair to futz with. I told myself 'Okay, I'll limit my collection down to what can fit on my speakers, and G4 only'. Now I have about 40 G3s, 20 G4s, and need a bigger shelf to properly display all of my ponies.

I wouldn't suggest it to any of my friends unless I thought it's something they'd be into. My friends know I'm into it, but I don't push it on people.

[kmlv23]

lol sounds like you and I got in to collecting in a very similar way! Haha.

[Shimmer]

I also get my share of passed judgment and told that I'm "too girly" and "childish"  It's not like I tried to force it onto them, I just casually said it after a conversation about collecting and that the new show is great. Somehow all my male friends/assosciates are alot more understanding and open to the idea than the women...
I appreciate animation and MLP:FIM is a fine example of it, I happen to like the movie medium overall but the cartoon part is the only one people react to. And I know alot of old women who collect things like santa figurines, proceline dolls etc. What's the difference?

Sorry for ranting, I'm done now 

[kmlv23]

I actually just got outright banned from my HvZ group for posting a picture of Rainbow Dash captioned "Mods are asleep, post ponies" as a joke. Maybe I was asking for it a bit, but I was just trying to be funny! *eardroop*

[Bee-chan]

To be honest, my own experience with people saying they hate ponies, or they think it's stupid for anyone but a kid to like ponies... they're jealous that they feel that they can't openly admit that they like something while YOU can and do. I've seriously had co-workers openly admit this to me.

I know this isn't the case with everyone, but it seems to be a big amount still.

I think I kind of lucked out, as most of my friends also happen to collect something, and others just write it off as, "oh, she's an artist, artists are all a little weird anyway". And at work, I know my bosses all looked at me like I had a few screws loose when they eventually found out about my collection ( like I really hide it from anyone. XP ), but they realize that I don't really give a fig if they think it's weird.

Usually when others realize how much I've invested in my collection, and how much ponies have meant to me as a kid, growing up, and into my adult life, they usually shut up, or start opening up about the fun and silly things THEY like. X3 Besides, I think they know that if THEY'RE going to tease me about my love for collecting plastic toys, then I can tease right back about their obsessions with football players, football teams, and knowing every single piece of information there is to know about a single players life like they're an obsessed little stalker ( ooooooh my gawd, you have NO idea how much my area is OBSESSED with the NY Giants... I really really REALLY cannot stand football season in Stanhope, Netcong, Budd Lake, Mt. Olive, and Byram, NJ. The fact that they're going to the Super Bowl... it's all I'm going to hear about until after the dang game is done and over with for the year! ).

Anyway, back on target here.

If people ( meanly ) criticize you simply because you like something, f' them. Their loss. They like what they like ( or have been told they have to like ), you like what you like, and if they can't accept that, well then they don't get to an awesome part of your life.

In my life, there are four things that people must accept if they want ANY kind of relationship with me, be it friendship, family, or romantically, because these four things are part of who I am, therefore, they are ME:

~my love for creating artwork
~my cat
~my art collection ( from friends and other artists I admire )
~my MLP collection

[hathorcat]

You ll always meet some "huh? you collect what?" people....that's life. Just about everyone knows I collect and I do still get the odd eye roll but once people realise I am serious about it then most will appreciate if for what it is - "a hobby". Lots of people collect odder things or do weirder things in order to have fun therefore I figure little plastic ponies from the 80s is a pretty innocent addiction. How you treat someone, depends on who is dismissing what you do how - sometimes I explain it as nostalgia and a "what were you into as a kid moment", sometimes I ask them to explain why collecting vintage/retro/current toys is a bad thing and sometimes I simply accept the fact that anyone who gets their own fun out of making what someone else enjoys is a bully and usually a waste of my time and energy. Love me, love my ponies!

[Pokestine]

I've never had any real problem with my friends and MLP, I've gotten quite a few into it and the others don't care either way. My sister however seems to think I'm really weird for liking ponies.

[kmlv23]

Bee and hathor, i really like what youve said! That makes a lot of sense.

I'm sorry your sister feels that way Pokestine.

[fingerpaints]

I would love to, but we don't have it on free to air tv over here, and I am not getting cable for one show lol. I would totally purchase the series and force friends to watch though if they release it on dvd

[kittybethy]

I wish that I could get someone hooked!

[mercynova]

I have male friends that got into ponies without my help. It's strange to see them talking about FIM on Facebook and stuff.

[OctoberFlash]

I like it, I shared it with many of my friends, most of which liked it and two of which watched every episode of season 1. one of those two was a guy.

If your friends are being mean to you, that's not cool - tell them you don't like being made fun of? I have a friend that doesn't like ponies, but she's never been outright mean to me about it. :/