So, word reached me that APM got hit with a C&D after enough people prompted Hasbro to take action on the subject. This is likely to be the only thing I will say in response to it, unless I get prompted for more, so here ‘goes.
Folks, the fandom is changing.
We can no longer conduct ourselves as though we’re part of some indie, underground, cultist movement. “Brony” is now a word in mainstream cultural vernacular, and whether we want to admit it or not, there are a lot of eyes pointed toward us now.
You are a lot more visible than you think.
This really hit home for me when I was at the most recent Bronycon in August, and a girl, no older than 8, came up to me, and told me she knew who I was.
While the roots of our isolated little culture may have been on 4chan once upon a time — the veritable, scummy “good ol’ boys club” of the internet — we have long-since evolved past that, and can no longer adamantly cling to our ribbing, inside-joke laden, adults-only behavior of yesteryear. The days of being able to openly share adult materials has ended.
That said, I do not, personally, want to see the abolishment of porn, or fetish art, or silly Gmod videos of ponies making out doing dumb shit, or whatever else have you — these are things that I feel people are entitled to enjoy at their leisure, however is it also my belief that, in order to continue sharing these things, it is imperative we construct safe spaces to do so.
As adult fans of a children’s show, we are obligated to be responsible stewards for our content. This is a duty that can no longer be ignored or skated around.
While most of the DWM rhetoric that went around this last tear had a lot of people rolling their eyes, we can’t ignore that it is all-too-easy for kids to accidentally stumble across suggestive, or even explicit pony images, even with safe search on. So while I’ve come to disagree with most of the talking points of the DWM/PARC bunch, I cannot easily fault them for at least wanting to try to make the public face of the fandom cleaner, and more kid-friendly. While, yes, there is also a certain element of parental responsibility that should come into play as well, I’m not certain how reasonable it is to expect parents to be diligent about filtering porn out of something that ought to be pretty benign, like My Little Pony.
We’ve really been on borrowed time since day one, and the removal of the APM comic should serve as indication enough that we, collectively, need to be more cautious about how, and where adult materials are shared. I’m all for letting people enjoy what they want, even if it’s subversive fetish pony porn, or weird, rapey jokes (whatever floats your boat, man,) but we can no longer remain ignorant of people accidentally coming across those kinds of things, especially when the people that might accidentally encounter it belong to the show’s main demographic.
This whole thing should be clear proof that the show’s target audience matters more to Hasbro than bronies do (as it should,) and they will protect them.
These are just my 2 cents.
~*~