My multi-talented sister-in-law, Nicola Humphrey, recently wrote a great article for Vancouver Magazine on the phenomenon of the "Brony", as non-7-year-old-girl aficionados of the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are known.
"'There is always an initial stigma that pretty much every male fan of the show has to go through before they get into it,' says Scotellaro from his home in Arizona.... 'People want to know why guys like it. Why is that weird? It’s a good show,' says supervising director Jayson Thiessen."
Know Your Meme traces the birth of the brony on 4chan:
Any day now, someone's going to write their PhD on gender identity and My Little Pony fandom. In fact, a Wired article cites a study that may lead to exactly that...
"I recently attended a Siena college presentation about the sub-culture of bronies. The speaker cited data collected recently that showed that the majority of bronies are between the ages of 18-22, attend college, and are heterosexual. Ah…I think we hit on something here. Is watching My Little Pony a sign of being gay? There’s a reason the question of sexual orientation was asked. Many bronies keep it a secret because of cultural reactions against boys liking “girl” things. 'The pink and sparkly factor.'"
Pink and sparkly and cute. The Japanese have a word for it: kawaii.
PBS's Ideas Channel discusses the performance of gender:
Wikipedia tells us that:
"The word "kawaii" has the root word "kawai" which is formed from the kanji "ka" (可), meaning 'acceptable', and 'ai' (愛), meaning 'love'. The term kawaii has taken on the secondary meanings of 'cool', 'groovy', 'acceptable', 'desirable', 'charming' and "non-threatening'.... The original definition of kawaii came from Lady Murasaki's The Tale of Genji where it referred to pitiable qualities. During the Shogunate period under the ideology of neo-Confucianism, women came to be included under the term kawaii as the perception of women being animalistic was replaced with the conception of women as docile."
Rocketboom on fan art and gender-swapped characters:
But as Wired's history of the concept goes on to explain, the definition evolved:
"According to Sharon Kinsella, a Cambridge University researcher who has written on the subject, the cute craze began around 1970, when a fad for writing notes and letters in rounded, childish characters began to catch on among teenage Japanese girls. Scholars who studied the phenomenon dubbed it Anomalous Female Teenage Handwriting. Kids called it burikko-ji, translated as 'kitten-writing' or 'fake-child writing.' At one point in the mid-'80s, some 55 percent of 12- to 18-year-old girls were using it. Magazines, ads, even computer software picked up the style, which soon broadened into a general fashion... Sanrio's Hello Kitty character, which first appeared on accessories for kitten-writing, has grown into a 50-creature line of in-house characters and goods grossing more than $1 billion a year from sales and licensing.'"
Rachel DiNitto, co-director of the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Program at William & Mary University, studies the influence of Hello Kitty and other avatars of Japanese popular culture:
"Students tell me all the time they feel American popular culture is kind of tired and worn,' says DiNitto. 'Japanese popular culture is offering them possibilities and alternatives that they find more appealing. It’s a way for them to reject or resist American popular culture they feel really isn’t speaking to them anymore.' One example is video games, says DiNitto. She explained that American video games tend to be very masculine and often military-oriented. By comparison, Japanese video games have more intricate plot lines that incorporate more fully developed characters, attracting more female gamers."
Ah, boys will be girls will be boys...
PS: Want some kawaii in your eye? I've started a Pinterest board.
Posted by Alison Humphrey at June 30, 2012 09:54 PM