MLP In National Geographic

[aquamarinemolly]

Thanks for posting about this! I'm interested in the sociological and psychological implications of play and entertainment, so this article is right up my research alley...http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/01/children-explain-how-gender-affects-their-lives/

[Galactica]

Not much is said abut MLP except that one of the kids collects MLP

Judging by the captions, it's an article about gender.    The girl with the pony collection (which does seem to have a lot of customs in it, good eye!) is intersex (meaning having private parts which have both male and female characteristics) and identifies as a girl.

My guess is that the second picture, of the half-blue / half-pink room, isn't the room of a real kid, but is set up to show how things are marketed to kids . . . Blue is "for" boys, pink is "for" girls.

I actually feel that the split between "girl stuff" and "boy stuff" has gotten worse since the 80s.  MLP FIM is pretty good about including adventure and excitement, but a lot of "girls shows", especially the ones aimed at younger girls, make it obvious that the writers have no respect for their audience. 

Incidentally, this is why the brony meme of "You know, for little girls" infuriates me.  Yeah, how could a girl ever enjoy action or adventure? Cra-za-zy!

That part of the article (photo) was talking about how little girls when they are a certain age group like pink- and as they get older their tastes change and they like other stuff.  That kid they featured with the half pink room was at the age where she was starting to change her preferences...

They were talking also about how due to marketing, (mostly from America and mostly due to Barbie and other childhood staples that I'm forgetting) PINK has become the defining color for girls/femininity etc.  and  Blue for boys.

[LadyMoondancer]

I always identified as a tomboy, but even so I loved MLP and Care bears, but felt like I couldn't share that because I was a tomboy, and tomboys couldn't be that girly. It'd be like destroying my own identity by being myself, as weird as that sounds. Then when I did come out of the pink closet, I felt bad liking masculine things like I was going back on myself. It shouldn't be an issue. Kids should be allowed to like what they like, without feeling like those feelings are wrong.

I share so much of that struggle!  I too was a tomboy as a kid.  And even though no one came out and said it to me, I felt like there was such a segregation between "the girly things" and "the non-girly things" and that I had to choose one or the other.  I rejected a lot of toys that, looking back, I know I would have liked--Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, anything too fluffy and frilly and anything draped in pink.  My Little Pony was the ONLY 'girls toy' that I accepted.

The other girly toys, I sort of felt they were attempts to 'trick' me, that if I wanted them I wouldn't be allowed to like, for example, my beloved collection of plastic dinosaurs or my Matchbox cars.  Looking back it just makes me feel sad for smaller-me and every other kid who thought they had to 'choose'.