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Blog #471: How I Feel About the Brony Fandom After Leaving it 5 Years Ago

Writer's picture: Jeffrey SnyderJeffrey Snyder

If you have been following me since Going the Distance was started over 3 years ago, then you will know that I was a devote member of the Brony fandom from 2011 to 2019 which served as a training ground for how to be a part of a community that teaches love and tolerance, how to be a good public speaker, being around people that have the same interest as me and most importantly, learning the importance of boundaries of others, both professionally and personally.

Lately though, there has been some rather distressing news that has been circling around social media regarding the current generation of “My Little Pony,” Generation 5. Apparently, there are several bits of news that came out that caught my attention and to me, shows just how far a community that I once was a part of is now falling apart.

The first bit of news came out of a convention in the Czech Republic where one of the voice actresses for Generation 5, Bahia Watson, was booed by attendees as she took the stage for opening ceremonies. Looking at this, there are several areas that I find to be appalling in this. For one thing, Bahia travelled a long journey to get to the Czech Republic and to come all the way and be booed simply because people don’t like Generation 5 is very much unacceptable.

The second bit of news didn’t come out of a convention per se, but it’s something that bothers me as a former brony and that the fans of My Little Pony Generation 5 had been getting death threats simply for liking it. Recently, I have been opening my eyes to all of this and it does raise the question of fandoms and whether or not it is a good idea to even be a part of them.

For one thing, yes, like all communities, the Brony fandom has some strange characters that join only to cause trouble. These people think that they can go into a fandom and cause trouble without limits. However, as we get more and more fads and fandoms out there, we as a neurodivergent society will sometimes have a hard time understanding the difference between what is right and what is wrong.

I mean, think of the Pleasure Island scene in “Pinocchio” (1940) where little boys that like to cause mischief are brought to do whatever they like without being told otherwise. That’s how I view some of the Brony community because the Bronies who are sending death threats and booing G5 voice actresses and staff are essentially some of those boys who would later end up becoming donkeys.

In fact, there are plenty of people out there in every fandom or community that are essentially boys one moment and donkeys the next. Sure, the Brony fandom had some really bad apples when I was a part of it, but at least we tried to have common courtesy for others. If you are going to be a part of a community like the Brony Fandom, it’s important to know your thresholds and boundaries. The trouble with some members is that they think that they can get away with anything.

Let me tell you that as a neurodivergent who would come to conventions across the country for practicing social interaction, sure I made mistakes at some of the conventions and crossed boundaries that I didn’t even know I was crossing, but I learned from them and moved on.

Some of these people don’t know when to move on with their lives because at the end of the day, “My Little Pony” is simply a cartoon meant to sell toys to little girls and we just happened to be along for the ride during Generation 4. There are some who just are so caught up in a cartoon reality, that they can’t really see reality from fiction.

In fact, what has been happening in the Brony Fandom recently has made me think that while members of the neurodivergent community are often so hyper focused on what they love and that’s okay, there is a time where we need to understand that sometimes our actions have consequences. When we go to a convention as members of a fandom, we are expected to treat fellow attendees and celebrity guests with respect at all times.

It is a privilege and not a right to be a part of fandoms which unfortunately is what the Bronies booing one of the G5 voice actors in the Czech Republic feel it is their right to do so. Most people often view fandoms as sort of the first communities that they are a part of and they take their social experiences into the real world to families and friends, schools and the workplace.

I mean, if you behaved like the Bronies who boo and send death threats in schools and the workplace, you would be in a lot of trouble to the point where you either get detention, expelled or even terminated from a job.

It’s behavior like this that made me strongly consider deactivating my fimfiction.net account and move all my stories to An Archive of Our Own because I refuse to tolerate people that have nothing better to do with their lives and feel that a show or fandom rules their lives over reality.

But in the end, I have long since moved on from the Brony fandom because my course was run after Generation 4 ended in 2019 and “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” is a show that not only ranks up there with “The Wizard of Oz,” but it also inspired me to pursue a career in public speaking and being an enormous part of the autism/neurodiversity community. For that, I am grateful.

Catch you all later!!

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