Brony

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Bronies at BronyCon 2014 in the USA

Bronies are followers of the animation series My Little Pony, which ran from 2010 to 2019 . These are mainly male, but also female people who are outside the actual target group of the series - girls between the ages of 4 and 9. The idea behind the show came from the film animator Lauren Faust .

etymology

The name is a suitcase word from " bro " (colloquial short form for "brother", ie brother or like-minded) and "po ny ". In addition, the term “pegasister” (suitcase word from “ pega sus” and “ sister ”, meaning sister) was used especially in the early days for female followers , but is now rarely used.

history

Shortly after the broadcast was published, edited excerpts from the series appeared on the 4chan platform , which originally served more for fun than to display a real fandom . However, by 2011 at the latest , an international fan scene with conventions and noteworthy works developed via the Internet and based in the USA . The fandom also influenced the series itself: it was through their initiative that the pony Derpy got its name.

Even before the show was released in 2010, there were fans of My Little Pony ; However, these are trailers of the old programs that were filmed from the mid-1980s.

The almost one and a half hour documentary Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony and the 80-minute film A Brony Tale , in which several speakers from the series also participated , were released via fandom . In 2014, the term Brony was included in the book Words that will probably never make it into the Duden . The episode The Equestranauts from the animated series Bob’s Burgers pays homage to the Brony fandom.

There are also radio stations for the Bronies on the Internet that broadcast music created and edited by fans. Since January 1, 2015, Brony Radio Germany has also been a radio station for German-speaking countries .

The peak of the movement can be located in the period between 2011 and 2013 after an initially steep increase in popularity from the end of 2010. For a number of years, however, there has been a slow decline in public interest, which is due not least to the general, relatively short-lived trends in Internet culture .

Attitude and interests

A wide variety of personalities and lifestyles can be found within the scene . The sexual attitude, such as the homosexuality , gender or age, often clichéd from outsiders , play no role or only a subordinate role. The works created by some fans often go beyond the actual scope of the show. From so-called pony music videos - based on anime music videos and commonly abbreviated as "PMV" - with various musical styles, fan fiction and creepypastas (fictional horror stories) to pornographic content , a range of media content can be found within the fandom.

Political influence

The Pirate Party Germany uses episodes of the My Little Pony program to ease the mood in heated discussions and to calm the members involved. The term pony time has established itself for this purpose. After an application by a member and a successful vote, an episode that matches the topic is played.

pendant

Around 600 bronies from German-speaking countries took part in the Herd Census 2014, in which a total of around 20,000 people, mainly from Anglo-American countries, took part, with a significantly higher number of German-speaking bronies in the four to five-digit range. The German-language Bronyforum “Bronies.de” has a good 15,000 registered members (as of June 2019).

Positively opposed to fandom are, among others, Mojang founder Markus Persson and Valve co-founder Gabe Newell , and pop star Miley Cyrus , all of whom confirmed that they were Bronies. Another fan of the series is comedian Mirja Boes .

Internationally as well as in German-speaking countries, there are regular conventions and numerous fan meetings (“Meetups”). One of the largest events in Europe is the GalaCon in Ludwigsburg , which has been taking place every summer since 2012, with approx. 1,300 participants. Anniversary "celebrated. Several, mostly regionally operating associations have been founded in Germany to organize meetings.

Web links

Wiktionary: Brony  - explanations of meanings, word origins , synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hey, Bro, That's My Little Pony! Guys' Interest Mounts in Girly TV Show ( Memento December 1, 2011 on WebCite ) ( WebCite , accessed January 12, 2015)
  2. ↑ UniSPIEGEL 4/2014 ( Der Spiegel , accessed on January 12, 2015)
  3. ↑ BronyDoc Movie Official Site. bronydoc.com, accessed January 18, 2015 .
  4. ↑ A Brony Tale (2014). IMDb, accessed January 18, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Duden editorial office : words that will probably never make it into the Duden . 1st edition. Bibliographisches Institut, 2014, ISBN 978-3-411-71129-1 , p. 13 .
  6. ↑ Bob's Burgers Review: “The Equestranauts”. Paste, April 14, 2014, accessed January 18, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Bob's Burgers: “The Equestranauts”. AV Club, April 13, 2014, accessed January 18, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Brony Radio Germany (accessed January 12, 2015)
  9. ↑ "My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic, Brony - Google Trends" at [https://trends.google.com/ trends.google.com , accessed on July 9, 2017.]
  10. ↑ 'Brony' fandom carves out space for young men to enjoy friendship ... and cartoon ponies (net, English, accessed January 12, 2015)
  11. ↑ Pony break with the pirates. Deutschlandfunk, December 15, 2011, accessed on January 2, 2014 . Section borrowed from this
  12. ↑ 2014 State of the herd report (PDF, English)
  13. ↑ Bronies.de : German-language Brony Forum
  14. ↑ Markus Persson on Twitter : "@adambombtv of course I am a brony."
  15. ↑ Gabe Newell Just Made My Little Pony Fans Extremely Happy (English)
  16. ↑ Here's Proof That Miley Cyrus Is A Brony on mtv.com
  17. ↑ Finanz.net : My Little Pony turns the Spielwarenmesse into a pony farm / For over 30 years the original and vital as never before
  18. ↑ Bronies.de: List of Brony clubs