My Little Pony is for boys too....

[Strawberry Swirl]

This is so awesome! I remember possibly reading someplace that Zacherle herself wanted pony to be considered to be more gender neutral. Sort of like Care Bears I'd guess. Maybe that's partially why they made the Big Brothers and other male characters.

Of course, we know that anybody can like anything regardless of their gender identity, but I think it would be cool for pony to be seen as more neutral earlier on than it was. As in during Gen 3 even, when it was arguably the most ""girly.""

[Zapper]

I for once am tired of the debate if MLP is for boys or not. It's a freaking horse toy.
If parents feel some type of way about that they better never let their sons watch Sea Biscuit, War Horse or all these other movies that praise men for their special friendship with horses.

If you are a woman and like horses, you always get pushed into the kids/teen category. Even books are mostly YA. Serious movies with big budgets are male-dominated, even the horses that appear in them tend to be all stallions.

Even when you are a girl and like horses you are often considered a stupid "horse girl" and hardly get any praise for it. People infantilize your interest and you get subjected to weird psycho-analysis and ridicule. You don't want to know the weird crap people have come up with in the past to explain why girls like horses... 

[WaterDraw]

Awww that's so cute! I know my friend's little brother has a bunch of ponies he likes to play with (although they're knock-off MLP). He'll run around going 'Orse! 'Orse! (he can't say horse correctly, it's the cutest thing) I'm sure if he grows up to start collecting MLP he'd appreciate this.

[Taffeta]

I for once am tired of the debate if MLP is for boys or not. It's a freaking horse toy.

It's not really being debated, though. The UK comic unequivocally said that pony stories are for boys and girls and encouraged boys to write in and send photos as well as girls. Which has to be a good thing, right?

[Leave a Whisper]

I for once am tired of the debate if MLP is for boys or not. It's a freaking horse toy.
If parents feel some type of way about that they better never let their sons watch Sea Biscuit, War Horse or all these other movies that praise men for their special friendship with horses.

If you are a woman and like horses, you always get pushed into the kids/teen category. Even books are mostly YA. Serious movies with big budgets are male-dominated, even the horses that appear in them tend to be all stallions.

Even when you are a girl and like horses you are often considered a stupid "horse girl" and hardly get any praise for it. People infantilize your interest and you get subjected to weird psycho-analysis and ridicule. You don't want to know the weird crap people have come up with in the past to explain why girls like horses... 

I've never heard anything derogatory about being a horse crazy girl.

I'm not saying it doesn't ever happen, I'm just saying my friends and I never encountered that sort of stigma or negativity from it from others. So our experiences are quite different.

[SpacePinto]

The UK comic unequivocally said that pony stories are for boys and girls and encouraged boys to write in and send photos as well as girls. Which has to be a good thing, right?

I'd say it's a very good thing if you ask me!

[BubbleTea]

I'm really glad that they did this because I wasn't allowed to have mlp when I was little. I remember one time a loooooooooooooooong time ago my mom finally gave in and bought me a little tube of fakies while we were grocery shopping. I had a blast with them until my dad got home and they all mysteriously vanished.....

[Nemesis]

I'm really glad that they did this because I wasn't allowed to have mlp when I was little. I remember one time a loooooooooooooooong time ago my mom finally gave in and bought me a little tube of fakies while we were grocery shopping. I had a blast with them until my dad got home and they all mysteriously vanished.....

I’m so sorry that that happened to you, BubbleTea. I just don’t understand why some people are so caught up in gender stereotypes, to the point that they would not allow a child to play with a toy pony...

[BubbleTea]

I'm really glad that they did this because I wasn't allowed to have mlp when I was little. I remember one time a loooooooooooooooong time ago my mom finally gave in and bought me a little tube of fakies while we were grocery shopping. I had a blast with them until my dad got home and they all mysteriously vanished.....

I’m so sorry that that happened to you, BubbleTea. I just don’t understand why some people are so caught up in gender stereotypes, to the point that they would not allow a child to play with a toy pony...

Thanks Nemesis. 

The thing that still bothers me is that they weren't even that girly. They weren't even PINK (they had a strict no- pink rule ) They were just green and purple. I already had green and purple things. The only thing that made them "unsuitable" for me was the brand recognition and mlp being " for girls" .

That doesn't mean that I didn't get to play with mlps though. My cousin had them and I would always play with them when I was over. 

[Nemesis]

I'm really glad that they did this because I wasn't allowed to have mlp when I was little. I remember one time a loooooooooooooooong time ago my mom finally gave in and bought me a little tube of fakies while we were grocery shopping. I had a blast with them until my dad got home and they all mysteriously vanished.....

I’m so sorry that that happened to you, BubbleTea. I just don’t understand why some people are so caught up in gender stereotypes, to the point that they would not allow a child to play with a toy pony...

Thanks Nemesis. 

The thing that still bothers me is that they weren't even that girly. They weren't even PINK (they had a strict no- pink rule ) They were just green and purple. I already had green and purple things. The only thing that made them "unsuitable" for me was the brand recognition and mlp being " for girls" .

That doesn't mean that I didn't get to play with mlps though. My cousin had them and I would always play with them when I was over. 

It makes me so sad to hear about little kids being stuffed into gender stereotypes... I hope that toxic aspect of our culture is fading away. Hasbro recently featured a boy on the back of a “Guardians of Harmony” box (front and center!) playing with ponies alongside a girl. It’s been so nice to see various “boy” or “girl” brands including both genders in advertising over the last few years.

I’m glad you got to play with your cousin’s collection, though! At least now, you’re free to have all the MLPs you like.

[PoserBeachball]

I'm really glad that they did this because I wasn't allowed to have mlp when I was little. I remember one time a loooooooooooooooong time ago my mom finally gave in and bought me a little tube of fakies while we were grocery shopping. I had a blast with them until my dad got home and they all mysteriously vanished.....

That is so sad

and ironic as in real-life horses have been associated with both males and females for millenia across many many cultures

[SpacePinto]

I'm really glad that they did this because I wasn't allowed to have mlp when I was little. I remember one time a loooooooooooooooong time ago my mom finally gave in and bought me a little tube of fakies while we were grocery shopping. I had a blast with them until my dad got home and they all mysteriously vanished.....

I can't believe some parents could have this much problem with toy horses The world would be a way better place if more boys were allowed to play with ponies when they were little.

[Taffeta]

Yeah. Not to bring my geeky academic ramblings onto the pony forum, but I just basically wrote a whole PhD about the relationship in warrior literature between Japanese warriors and their horses and the one instance there is in that of a woman on a horse, she's basically depicted as the men are, like a 'warrior' with the 'warrior spirit'.

On top of which in traditional Japan, pink isn't a feminine colour as it's associated with the cherry blossom, which may just be a nice pretty flower these days, but which was a symbol of a short and flourishing life (ie, like that of the warrior) and often appeared on the breastplate of warrior armour.

So all these stupid stereotypes in the modern age of girly horsy ridingy pink things are just nonsense.

And parents who stop their kids having the toys they like for gender reasons make me angry.

I was lucky as a kid, as a girl I could;ve just been swamped with barbie but I was allowed to choose my toys. I had ghostbusters, ponies, fraggles, an electric railway (and several other railway sets) and I loved all of them because my parents didn't think they needed to make me choose a toy based on which aisle it was in.

I feel genuinely sorry for those people who didn't have that experience and esp. with the pony collecting guys - I'm really just glad you made it here in the end and got to make your own choices.

It's kind of why I wanted to post that comic thing, because even as a kid I remember the boys in the playground singing my little pony, skinny and bony, and throwing the ponies up on the roof - but we took them in hand and scared them stupid and then there were boys who were more happy to join in playing ponies with us. I mean, we played pony zombie warlord empire games anyway...so just judging based on "it's a pastel pony" is really lame...

[PoserBeachball]

Taffeta, your PhD sounds fascinating. I know very little about Japanese equestrian culture - are there parallels with the European traditions of the horseman?

Sorry if going off topic a bit (though it is relevant as this 'ponies are for girls' is a very very modern phenomenon and far from universal)

[Taffeta]

Taffeta, your PhD sounds fascinating. I know very little about Japanese equestrian culture - are there parallels with the European traditions of the horseman?

Sorry if going off topic a bit (though it is relevant as this 'ponies are for girls' is a very very modern phenomenon and far from universal)

Yeah, although the way horses are used in the warrior literature is a lot more than just as a weapon of war ;D
The traditional term for the Japanese way of the warrior is not bushidou but the kyuuba no michi - the way of the bow and the horse - which is what defined warrior culture back before the Edo period. Most people think of samurai with swords and in terms of bushidou and Hagakure but that was all constructed much later and somewhat in a time when there was no real warrior activity. So there are all these images of the mounted warrior that blur with legend and become really powerful symbols and even propagandistic.

But that is as much as I'm going to take that off topic. Suffice it to say that in some ways, a warrior is defined by the horse he keeps, and in the case of the female warrior, Tomoe, when she loses her horse, she also loses her equal status as a feared warrior.