Cartoon Ponies, Friendship, and the Power of Gender-Roles

October 10, 2010, the day My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic aired, and the day that my life collided with a hint of magic. An another animated show with Tara Strong(who has voiced for stellar shows such as Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Fairly Odd-Parents) and Lauren Faust (worked on The Iron Giant, Powerpuff Girls, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends as well), some of my childhood favorites, “Oh boy!” I thought, “this is practically a dream come true!” As expected, I totally fell in love with the show, which is where my problem arose. My Little Ponies are a line of toys started in the 1980s by Hasbro, and have specifically been marketed towards girls from the start. However, Friendship is Magic, a reboot of the old My Little Pony franchise, was a different beast entirely. With all-star quality voice acting, artistic style, and stellar musical numbers, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic had fans of cartoons flocking towards it from the get-go. Now there are tons of full grown men (in fact, the majority of the shows fandom consists of men ages 18 to 31) watching and geeking out over something that's always been written off as something for little girls, and many people did not know how to deal with that fact. I remember going into class one day at the start of my senior year of high school, super excited to wear my new pony shirt, custom made by myself the night beforehand. The ecstatic air I had about me was dismantled within the first few hours, with fellow classmates and supposed friends questioning me about my sexual preferences, merely because I had a shirt supporting a supposed “tv-show for little girls”. I was blown away by the fact that people were still intertwined with the concept of gender specific roles, and that they still have a major impact on society today. Is liking something that isn't considered to be part of your gender specific category really so frowned upon?

My suspicions were confirmed after Barbara Risman explained, “Most boys still very much feel the need to repress whole parts of themselves to avoid peer harassment”(qtd. in Hoffman 4). The idea that men and women have to wear specific things and play with specific things has been seamlessly integrated into our society today. Even my own parents reinforced this, unknowingly perhaps, by purchasing clothing and toys designed with boys in mind, such as plastic swords, guns, and robot action figures instead of giving me the option to choose for myself. It can, and is most likely occurring in homes all across America, forcing some into situations which feel less natural to them, while at the same time closing doors for opportunities they normally would have loved to pursue.

Now where do these splits start showing up amongst our children? Katrin Bennhold argues in Toys Start the Gender Divide that there is a connection between “ . . . girls playing with dolls and boys playing with cars, and the widespread segregation of labor markets into female and male professions”(1), meaning that this subtle flavor of brainwashing is taking place even as we're just starting the mental development of our children. Looking deeper into it now, I'm actually astounded at how I did not pick up on it sooner, still being left in awe after stories like that of Ceara Sturgis, a girl who, after wearing a tux instead of traditional black drape for her senior photo. “If you put a boy in a drape, that's me! I have big shoulders and ohh, it didn't look like me!” insisted Ms. Sturgis (qtd. in Hoffman 2-3), I never thought anyone in their right mind would have banned her from doing what felt normal to her, but after finally seeing how far back these ideals are sewn into our opinions on society, I'm no longer surprised.

I believe that the miasmatic cloud gender-roles are pushing on children and students can be lifted however, and so do both Ms. Bennhold and Ms. Laura Nelson. “Until the toys themselves and the marketing are tackled, there will always be pressure on girls and boys to pursue the route in life consistent with their stereotype,” suggests Ms. Nelson (qtd in Bennhold 2). My thoughts were following in the same direction, by shifting marketing towards gender – neutrality, perhaps people will be more willing to step out of their idea of what society wants them to be, and instead pursue their own hopes and aspirations. And I'm sure that when coupled Bennhold's plan to “break down the stereotype of the caring female and make space for the caring male”, the idea of gender-specific professions will just seem ludicrous while we gaze back upon them. Neutering the concept of gender-roles should have a universal effect on making people feel more comfortable with themselves and others, and more importantly, people will finally allow me to enjoy my cartoon ponies in peace.

-Mike Michaud