To be fair, and speaking as a brony who looks back on the (early) show fondly, furries gonna furry. There were definitely untoward elements in the fandom. But that's true for every fandom in existence. It's literally a rule of the internet. And it's directly proportional to the popularity of the media in question too. So ponies got popular, ponies suffered the consequences, male fans totally to blame. Go figure.

It's interesting. Media can pander directly to female pervs and nobody bats an eye. But male pervs make their own smut for media they're interested in and suddenly it's completely degenerate to like that thing. Once again, go figure.