It's easy to degrade bronies as horsefuckers, but if people took a second to understand why the horses are sexually appealing in the first place it makes a lot of sense.
First note that 90% of the characters are built on the same generic flash puppet. It is colored differently and hair and eyes and whatnot are interchanged like in a simple character creator. The designs are stylized and over simplified to a point where it's easy to project many details you want as a viewer onto them.
On the flipside the abstraction and stylization confuses feminists and others wishing to attack bronies as the cry of "Impossible beauty standards" the use against most animation just doesn't work here.
And from the creator's perspective as you pointed out, the stylization, the 90%+ female cast, and the very young target audience meant that they can't rely on physical characteristics, girl power, sex appeal, sexual traits, or any of that surface level bullshit to sell the character. Instead they went in and actually gave the characters, rich, distinct, flawed, and feminine personalities. They are a litlle bit clichéd on the surface, but the writers used those clichés as a starting point and actually built them out into well rounded characters.
And here we arrive at the crux of the issue, it's the same as with anime waifus. There are thousands of young men who are desperate to find something feminine to throw their affections onto and invest emotional attachment in, but all that current culture is offering them is Girl power feminists who don't need or appreciate them, and thots who will leave as soon as there is more reward to be had with another guy.
I'm not saying that good women don't exist, just that they aren't represented in culture as roll models or sex icons anymore. And then here we have a show that has to fill out an ensemble cast of characters to play role models to young girls, and in the process created 6 well rounded, likeable characters, with very different expressions of femininity, and dreams and interests and asperations that one can relate to.
Now imagine some sort of speed dating/ princess Kaguya thing, where you interview a bunch of girls from the other side of the screen, and pit female characters from different franchises against each other. In this situation I feel it could reasonably be expected that one of the ponies would come out on top against almost all other modern western media.
See how this is different from rating them as a character, plenty of excellent characters would be horrible people in real life.
Sure it's strange to seek a soulmate in fictional media, but once you get past that, is it really so strange to think that a pony might be closer to someone's ideal than anything that the modern leftist media is trying to sell. There's a reason this phenomenon occurs so readily with Anime and MLP, but is fairly rare elsewhere. (At least with men, I know there were weird superwholock, and twilight girls around that time, but I'm not going to attempt to explain or claim to understand the female perspective on this sort of thing.)
Bronies are just another subset of men that would readily settle down and start a family, if not for the incredible destruction that the internet, social media, and leftist thinking has wrought on gender relationships.
If you won't let men objectify women, they will womanify objects to suit their purposes instead.
Even pornographers have tended to notice that specific features do genuinely attract a, real, no shit, "male gaze". In animation and art, these features can be accentuated for story-telling and audience rapport purposes. The most commonly understood one is eyes that draw focus and express emotion. All humans are drawn to looking at eyes for communicative purposes. Both men, and women, can reference eyes for sexual desire as Jordan Peterson notes.
For these MLP characters, no seduction is present as it is in the Lion King, but the ability to emote through facial expressions (especially through the animators particular use of vector animation which generates very smooth movements) is very important for story telling purposes, because fluid facial movement is very good at conveying expression and emotional state.
Now, if you wanted to destroy MLP's ability to convey human emotion properly, the easiest way to do it would be to use actual horse pupills, which are horizonal ovals. In reality, it's excellent for enabling the horse to see behind itself without turning, and it gives it a nearly 180 degree cone of vision, which is absolutely stellar in the animal kingdom. But humans have no real capacity to read horizontal eyes for emotional information.
Now, as for the concept of the characters themselves, the characters are designed to be at least relatable characters with genuine personalities, though they are still stereotypes that can be used as a frame of reference for story telling purposes. Frankly, this is just basic bitch character development. The problem, as you pointed out is that the Left uses cultural mechanisms to either preach ideology (which allows for unrealistic portrayals: see Falcon-Winter Soldier), or preaches Mary Sue Power Fantasies (Captain Marvel). Neither of these are relatable characters to all but the most ideologically possessed individuals.
The more the Left harps on it's ideology and identitarianism, the less capable it is of telling genuine stories. When Feminism is pushing the concept of how women should be portrayed, men get repulsed. So, in MLP you have genuine and affable female characters promoting strong values, and low-and-behold, men are drawn to that more than being a degenerate slut, an angry bitch, or a Mary Sue.
If you won't let men objectify women, they will womanify objects to suit their purposes instead.
I absolutely agree. I don't remember where I've heard a version of this before, but that's precisely what's happening on a socio-cultural scale.
I think it was something more like: men don't want to objectify women, it's that the closest thing to women that men have are objects.
The point is that the destruction of women's femininity has actually damaged men along with women.
Yeah, I can't remember where I heard the line about objectification, but I can't take credit.
But it is definitely true that it is a deeply and instinctually meaningful thing for men to provide resources to and defend something, whether that's a woman, a tribe, or a country. Now in the age of feminism and globalisim, it's sexist to provide for a woman and racist to support your country in any but the most superficial way.
It really shouldn't be too surprising when men spend their time, money and affection on an anime or video game character, a pet, a car, a motorcycle, a boat, or any other number of things they are passionate about instead of chasing women.
I think it has something to do with the concept of an animus that Jung talks about. Effectively, the optimal thing for a man is to basically transform his female lover into his animus, which he then uses to drive himself forward. Part of the interesting feminine aspect of this relationship, is that women have to actually figure out if they could, or should, become a man's animus to drive him forward for her and their family.
Simping is effectively a way of a woman being a man's animus with zero actual responsibility to him, which is why it is an inherently abusive relationship.
It's easy to degrade bronies as horsefuckers, but if people took a second to understand why the horses are sexually appealing in the first place it makes a lot of sense.
First note that 90% of the characters are built on the same generic flash puppet. It is colored differently and hair and eyes and whatnot are interchanged like in a simple character creator. The designs are stylized and over simplified to a point where it's easy to project many details you want as a viewer onto them.
On the flipside the abstraction and stylization confuses feminists and others wishing to attack bronies as the cry of "Impossible beauty standards" the use against most animation just doesn't work here.
And from the creator's perspective as you pointed out, the stylization, the 90%+ female cast, and the very young target audience meant that they can't rely on physical characteristics, girl power, sex appeal, sexual traits, or any of that surface level bullshit to sell the character. Instead they went in and actually gave the characters, rich, distinct, flawed, and feminine personalities. They are a litlle bit clichéd on the surface, but the writers used those clichés as a starting point and actually built them out into well rounded characters.
And here we arrive at the crux of the issue, it's the same as with anime waifus. There are thousands of young men who are desperate to find something feminine to throw their affections onto and invest emotional attachment in, but all that current culture is offering them is Girl power feminists who don't need or appreciate them, and thots who will leave as soon as there is more reward to be had with another guy.
I'm not saying that good women don't exist, just that they aren't represented in culture as roll models or sex icons anymore. And then here we have a show that has to fill out an ensemble cast of characters to play role models to young girls, and in the process created 6 well rounded, likeable characters, with very different expressions of femininity, and dreams and interests and asperations that one can relate to.
Now imagine some sort of speed dating/ princess Kaguya thing, where you interview a bunch of girls from the other side of the screen, and pit female characters from different franchises against each other. In this situation I feel it could reasonably be expected that one of the ponies would come out on top against almost all other modern western media.
See how this is different from rating them as a character, plenty of excellent characters would be horrible people in real life.
Sure it's strange to seek a soulmate in fictional media, but once you get past that, is it really so strange to think that a pony might be closer to someone's ideal than anything that the modern leftist media is trying to sell. There's a reason this phenomenon occurs so readily with Anime and MLP, but is fairly rare elsewhere. (At least with men, I know there were weird superwholock, and twilight girls around that time, but I'm not going to attempt to explain or claim to understand the female perspective on this sort of thing.)
Bronies are just another subset of men that would readily settle down and start a family, if not for the incredible destruction that the internet, social media, and leftist thinking has wrought on gender relationships.
If you won't let men objectify women, they will womanify objects to suit their purposes instead.
Oh, you're actually talking about the concept of anthrophomorphized characters given human traits and personalities.
To be honest, that should be obvious to anyone.
Animators and artists know precisely what they are doing with the concept of developing any anthrophomorphized character in an aesthetically alluring way. That doesn't mean that Tex Avery here wants you to fuck gazelles and reptiles. In fact, it shows the opposite: you want to fuck traditionally attractive human females. ... but you knew what you were doing, animators...
Even pornographers have tended to notice that specific features do genuinely attract a, real, no shit, "male gaze". In animation and art, these features can be accentuated for story-telling and audience rapport purposes. The most commonly understood one is eyes that draw focus and express emotion. All humans are drawn to looking at eyes for communicative purposes. Both men, and women, can reference eyes for sexual desire as Jordan Peterson notes.
For these MLP characters, no seduction is present as it is in the Lion King, but the ability to emote through facial expressions (especially through the animators particular use of vector animation which generates very smooth movements) is very important for story telling purposes, because fluid facial movement is very good at conveying expression and emotional state.
Now, if you wanted to destroy MLP's ability to convey human emotion properly, the easiest way to do it would be to use actual horse pupills, which are horizonal ovals. In reality, it's excellent for enabling the horse to see behind itself without turning, and it gives it a nearly 180 degree cone of vision, which is absolutely stellar in the animal kingdom. But humans have no real capacity to read horizontal eyes for emotional information.
Now, as for the concept of the characters themselves, the characters are designed to be at least relatable characters with genuine personalities, though they are still stereotypes that can be used as a frame of reference for story telling purposes. Frankly, this is just basic bitch character development. The problem, as you pointed out is that the Left uses cultural mechanisms to either preach ideology (which allows for unrealistic portrayals: see Falcon-Winter Soldier), or preaches Mary Sue Power Fantasies (Captain Marvel). Neither of these are relatable characters to all but the most ideologically possessed individuals.
The more the Left harps on it's ideology and identitarianism, the less capable it is of telling genuine stories. When Feminism is pushing the concept of how women should be portrayed, men get repulsed. So, in MLP you have genuine and affable female characters promoting strong values, and low-and-behold, men are drawn to that more than being a degenerate slut, an angry bitch, or a Mary Sue.
I absolutely agree. I don't remember where I've heard a version of this before, but that's precisely what's happening on a socio-cultural scale.
I think it was something more like: men don't want to objectify women, it's that the closest thing to women that men have are objects.
The point is that the destruction of women's femininity has actually damaged men along with women.
Yeah, I can't remember where I heard the line about objectification, but I can't take credit.
But it is definitely true that it is a deeply and instinctually meaningful thing for men to provide resources to and defend something, whether that's a woman, a tribe, or a country. Now in the age of feminism and globalisim, it's sexist to provide for a woman and racist to support your country in any but the most superficial way.
It really shouldn't be too surprising when men spend their time, money and affection on an anime or video game character, a pet, a car, a motorcycle, a boat, or any other number of things they are passionate about instead of chasing women.
Seems healthier to me than simping, in any case.
I think it has something to do with the concept of an animus that Jung talks about. Effectively, the optimal thing for a man is to basically transform his female lover into his animus, which he then uses to drive himself forward. Part of the interesting feminine aspect of this relationship, is that women have to actually figure out if they could, or should, become a man's animus to drive him forward for her and their family.
Simping is effectively a way of a woman being a man's animus with zero actual responsibility to him, which is why it is an inherently abusive relationship.