stillvapors:

auxil:

There have been brony issues here and there and everywhere lately so lemme lay down a few things about the issues here. 

My name is Nathan, I am 18 years old, and I watch My Little Pony. I wouldn’t consider myself a brony because I have no interest in the fandom. Now I’m not one for rigid gender roles so I don’t care if some grown ass men want to watch a show for little girls, I also don’t care if you want to make a fandom about it and all draw fanart and discuss this. But here’s the problem:

This show. Is not. For you. Let me reiterate that: This show. Is not. For you. 

This show was created for little girls, it’s written for little girls, it’s drawn with an art style made to appeal to little girls, it’s marketed to little girls, and if you haven’t happened to notice it’s a pretty fucking good show for little girls if you consider other things marketed to them. Don’t. Take. That. Away. From. Them. 

I don’t care if you watch it, I don’t care if you like it, hell I don’t care if you jerk off to it so long as you keep that shit away from the kids. Make a warning page on your website telling kids they need to be 18 or older that usually is pretty effective at scaring them off.  

The biggest demographic for MLP besides little girls it seems is 13-24 year old men. Now, let’s think about what’s marketed for this demographic:

• 99% of videogames

• 99% of comic books

• Most blockbuster films

• A good percentage of TV shows

Now you might not like any of those things, and that’s fine, but you need to understand the intentions of MLP and the reasons it exists: namely to teach little girls about friendship and the tolerance and acceptance of others. 

So don’t whine and bitch about how derpy hooves was changed because her design and demeanor could have been seen as offensive and now her voice doesn’t fit your headcanon. Don’t make racist comments about other people’s art because Rarity isn’t drawn as a thin perfect example of the Master Aryan Race. Don’t make rape jokes about a children’s show and brush off the genuine arguments against this sick shit as “PC bullshit”.

You’re grown ass men. Start acting like it.

What you’re advocating is for public forums of discussion intended for adults like MLP General on 4chan’s /mlp/ board to take further steps ensuring minors don’t access it.

I’d point out that other sites have these warnings and comprise a bulk of the material you seem to be objecting to.  FiMFiction.net has a very specific flag for viewing mature material, which requires the user to submit they are over 18 and/or of legal age to view adult material.  The Clopfic directory at Heroku has a similar warning.  Paheal’s Rule-34 subsite has such warnings.  Though likely not enforceable other than in Internet Court, to click through when under 18 isn’t honest and in some cases comes close to perjury.

At least in the case of 4chan’s /mlp/ board it’s not going to happen because it’s not a designated Kid Safe Zone; in fact 4chan’s second rule is very stark:

If you are under the age of 18, or it is illegal for you to view the materials contained on this website, discontinue browsing immediately.

That is not ambiguous in the slightest.  Globally, across every board, it is an adults-only space.  Posters who intimate or who are even suspected of being underage get reported, and many times banned.

If this is about Google indexing or screen-scraping results or inappropriate or mature Image results, there are ways to flag or report what content doesn’t get picked up by its SafeSearch filter.  (Sometimes that works about as well as you’d expect.)

But overwhelmingly what I hear is that you want this mature content to not exist, or for this “bro-tastic” culture to not exist.  You want all derivations or discussion on a children’s show to remain in a child-friendly civil tone.  You want this show to remain the cultural property of its intended audience.

The first points simply won’t happen.  At least in the case of “cultural property” I think that’s disingenuous.  It’s a toy line and a show, it’s a literal property and commodity.  There’s enough content and inspiration second- and third-hand from the show to cater to its intended audiences and the brunt of brony culture, and I’d argue that’s exactly what’s happening.

No one’s taking anything away from anyone.  This is not a zero-sum game and I’m sorry you see it that way.

I know I’m in the minority…but I have to agree with stillvapors here.

Look, I’m not a big r34 fan, of ponies or otherwise. Yes, I personally think r34 and grimdark is kinda going against everything the show stands for, but I’m not gonna sit here and say that you can’t make it or participate in it, and that you’re wrong for doing so. I may think its wrong, but that’s just me.

And also, r34 is r34 for a reason. It is an inevitability. A sad, disturbing, inevitability. That’s why its RULE 34 OF THE INTERNET. If little children can gain access to this adult material, its the responsibility of the parents to make sure that problem is rectified. I have a 10 year old sister and my Mom is pretty damn adamant about keeping her on a short leash when it comes to media, so it ISN’T impossible. And that’s impressive when you consider she tries looking up stuff like Madoka Magica online because she saw Kyubey on my older sisters computer and thinks he’s cute.

I don’t like all the bickering, all the porn, all the grimdark, all the clopping, all the whining, all the complaining, and all the general bullshit that goes on in this fandom, but like…ITS THE INTERNET. That just…happens. Doesn’t make it right, but just because this show has attracted an older auidence and they (regretibly) have brought mature content into the fandom, doesn’t mean that the entirety of the franchise has been “appropriated” by that demographic and its now unfit for the intended audience.

Cuz, to be honest, most 5-7 year old girls aren’t following Princess Molestia, nor are they digging through FimFiction looking for clopfics. They watch the show on TV and buy all the inaccurate toys that we complain about.