Shortening the gender gap? More male ponies?

[LadyAmalthea]

I'm all for more boy ponies, in terms of future generations. LadyMoondancer did have some good points, though, about not encouraging the romantic interest-type of storyline. Girls have many years ahead of them to hear those types of stories play out, and I've never been a fan of the whole 'well, we need to have a prince for every princess', 'a Ken for every Barbie' kind of rationale that Disney and its ilk have made so commonplace.

G1 did have a good handful of boys, but they didn't come along until later. The big brothers were just being introduced as my interest in ponies was starting to wane; towards the end of my childhood. So we just had to use our imagination. Plenty of our 'girl' ponies were boys...Posey, Skyflier, Gusty, babies Shady, Heartthrob, TicTacToe and Quackers, for some. Most of our storylines weren't revolving around dating-type scenarios (that didn't even cross my radar at 8 years old), although Posey and Lickety Split were a married couple. Honestly, I guess I almost wish that ponies were made a bit more ambiguous as far as gender goes, to leave that decision up to the child who owns it. Obviously if there's a TV show that accompanies the characters, this is impossible, g4 being an example, but g1 could have gotten away with it a bit more, I think.

[Leave a Whisper]

I would have liked to see more G4 boys if they gave them a good head of hair like they used to.

[Ponybookworm]

Another two G1s who totally should have been boys were Sugarcake & Gametime. They were even promoted in boy poses!!!

Re newborns: the fact they are so young means the difference between males & females won't show on them yet (at least not on a child's toy), so in my Ponyworld Shaggy is a boy... Same with Teeny Tinies, so the twins Bootsie & Teeny Tootsie are also male in my Ponyworld.

The fact that G2 males also look a lot like G2 females (maybe another stage, like early puberty where the females temporarily take on male traits???) means I can make G2s like Snowball & Majesty Star male as well.

For G3s, aside making them go along with the G1s partly (thicker hair on the back of their hooves), I added more subtle details, like using the Core 7 pose, only giving their eyes one colour (the girls had two) & giving some freckles.

G4, agree completely with Taffeta: we should have had more brushable G4s AT ALL!!! Not just Mane 6 ad nauseum...

Back to G1: to me Sportstime & Schoolbag are both girls, while I've Customised Family Friends Dads in furry-hoof poses. I've been one of the biggest buyers of HQG1C male pose Ponies, blanks included, just to add more boys to my herd. Not so they can marry necessarily, but just so my Ponyworld has male characters in it.

Everybody has their own interpretation of who's a boy & who's a girl though... I'm just stating my opinions. I like male toys to mix in with the females, just to add variety

[Leave a Whisper]

There is ReUnicorno-(I'd be satisfied with a custom of him.) A South American alternate Baby Ribbs who is a pegasus. And the Mexican Prince Ponies.

[BethyVic]

I enjoyed the Big Brothers and baby brothers because they were a bit bigger and I liked that.  I also appreciated their lovely hair.  This isn't related, but I thought the G4s were too small.  I had a harder time styling their hair. I agree that making them into couples is not what young girls need to see.  I think Big Mac's character was great in that sense. 

[LadyMoondancer]

If future lines have molds that are used for both males and female ponies (like G2 or G1 Sportstime) then they could have some toys that just don't use pronouns on the backcards (like banditpony mentioned) and kids could decide for the themselves . . . That would be pretty neat.  It would also open up the path for nonbinary ponies, which would be neat.

[brightberry]

If future lines have molds that are used for both males and female ponies (like G2 or G1 Sportstime) then they could have some toys that just don't use pronouns on the backcards (like banditpony mentioned) and kids could decide for the themselves . . . That would be pretty neat.  It would also open up the path for nonbinary ponies, which would be neat.

I think that would be neat too. 

One of the reasons why I love G1 is that there are a lot more of the toys than TV characters.  So, they could be any gender a kid wanted them to be. 

When I see a cute cat, dog, animal or plant... my first thought isn't what gender it is.  I tend to feel the same way about MLP toys.

However, I prefer that in MLP cartoons girls are the main protagonists having adventures and solving problems together because there aren't a lot of shows that do that.  Usually there is a boy somewhere nearby either being the hero or being the clever helper.  Rarely is it a group of only girls working together.  Having some shows of girls working together is good for girls.

[Gator]

I think we need more male ponies, especially pegs and unis in the G1 style.  After receiving HQG1C's Tradewinds, and seeing how well they added a horn onto the Dancing Butterflies mold, I'm hoping male unis may be in the near future.  Then, maybe, add wings to a brother mold?  Could you just imagine, a green male pegasus, with mane and tail almost the same shade of neon green as Surprise's, with two blue alligators as his symbol?  I'd put him on the shelf with my happy tails ponies, who all have similar animal duo symbols.

[Leave a Whisper]

I think we need more male ponies, especially pegs and unis in the G1 style.  After receiving HQG1C's Tradewinds, and seeing how well they added a horn onto the Dancing Butterflies mold, I'm hoping male unis may be in the near future.  Then, maybe, add wings to a brother mold?  Could you just imagine, a green male pegasus, with mane and tail almost the same shade of neon green as Surprise's, with two blue alligators as his symbol?  I'd put him on the shelf with my happy tails ponies, who all have similar animal duo symbols.

[northstar3184]

Regarding G3, about a third or so of my herd are boys in my headcanon. That works for me.

[Taffeta]

However, I prefer that in MLP cartoons girls are the main protagonists having adventures and solving problems together because there aren't a lot of shows that do that.  Usually there is a boy somewhere nearby either being the hero or being the clever helper.  Rarely is it a group of only girls working together.  Having some shows of girls working together is good for girls.

This is a good point. It reminds me of the episode of Jem where the train goes out of control and Rio steals a motorbike and has this whole action sequence to catch up to it just to tell 5 grown women to pull the emergency cord to stop the train. Even though one of them alreadt used the emergency cord earlier in the story for another (valid) reason. And one of the five is a company CEO.

I guess it depends if MLP is a girl's toy or a kid's toy overall.

[glitterball]

However, I prefer that in MLP cartoons girls are the main protagonists having adventures and solving problems together because there aren't a lot of shows that do that.  Usually there is a boy somewhere nearby either being the hero or being the clever helper.  Rarely is it a group of only girls working together.  Having some shows of girls working together is good for girls.

This is a good point. It reminds me of the episode of Jem where the train goes out of control and Rio steals a motorbike and has this whole action sequence to catch up to it just to tell 5 grown women to pull the emergency cord to stop the train. Even though one of them alreadt used the emergency cord earlier in the story for another (valid) reason. And one of the five is a company CEO.

I guess it depends if MLP is a girl's toy or a kid's toy overall.

OMG *shakes head at male action hero / helpless damsels trope*

As Gator said earlier, Boys with wings (G1 brother/daddy moulds) could look amazing!

[SpacePinto]

Personally I never really cared that much about male ponies but I'm okay with some amount of them, of course as long as they don't serve the role of the saviors or romantic interests. I think the Filly Funtasia cartoon had a good approach to it: the main cast of five characters has three girls and two boys, which is relatively balanced without making boys the majority.

[Tropical_Sunset]

I'd love more boy ponies. Still very annoyed that they made a few different boy molds for the G4 movie reboot poses and only used each one for one character (unicorn = Shining Armor, earth pony = Big Mac, pegasus = Soarin, young earth pony = Sandbar). Put 5 more characters in each of those molds, please. Put 'em to good use!

[Zapper]

I'm only for more male ponies if they don't take away the leader positions or uncommon jobs for the female ponies. Like, I absolutely detest when people say there needs to be a king for "balance" and RD and AJ should be genderbent to become boys in the next gen, because it would erase the female ruler, the ungirly girl and the worker girl and replace with bottom of the barrel male archetypes you can find anywhere, including real life.
No shame in having a mare-triarchy Fantasy ponies don't have to replicate RL human gender roles.

As for toys, I am all for male ponies who get to have manes and look colorful. I always praise G2 for not having sexual dimorphism or characteristics even tho I think it was just done as a cost cutting measure.

The point of MLP is fancy ponies, not fancy mares and boring, brown stallions who all get buzzcuts because they have to go to military school. That look will never be MLP for me. MLP is technicolor, girly and bright. Otherwise it would just be Spirit Riding Free