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At 7 he's old enough to know My Little Pony isn't a "boys' show", so hopefully he has the social skills to not go around asking other boys about it. At the same time, he shouldn't be bullied if it somehow slips out, but boys will be boys. He'll most likely outgrow it.
My younger son watched iCarly until he was maybe 13, and believe me, his older brother let him know that it was inappropriate for boys!
P.S. I wouldn't label a 7 year old boy a "brony". That's a term for otherwise grown-up "men".
My son is 7...not her's. And sorry, but I didn't notice the "Girls only" labeling on the show series And not sure why you are worried about him asking other boys about it when the other boys are talking about My Little Pony, Shopkins, Pokemon, Minecraft and everything else in between.
There is for sure a huge part of the whole brony thing that is terribly creepy and I love how Hopes expressed it. Hopes is totally right.
FWIW, the Furries were weird like this before the Bronies were a thing. As a kid who grew up enjoying things like the musical "Cats" (and drawing animal-people) when a group of these Furries approached me to do some logo art for their social group, I was cool with that. I did the art, it wasn't suggestive, it was just some nice drawings. And I went to meet up with the people to deliver it and collect my money for the job. The guy who led the group was in his upper-20's, a strapping big dude, who repeatedly asked me when I was going to come back and hang out and bring my kidsto play. Then his boyfriend came home. BF was an adult, but he was built like a 14 year old. Then I overheard him talking about how it was cool that when he wore his fox suit, he could go to parks and parents would trust him playing with their kids.
That was easily the creepiest person I had ever met. Snooping around his social contacts in the web page for the group, lots of young teens. Pics from conventions showed a big mix of younger and older people. So then I move down here and when a friend tells me her teenager daughter is into this...I want to be accepting when she says there's nothing nasty about her hobby, and nothing wrong with drawing animal people and wearing costume ears and tail and whatever...but I have warnings.
I think that gatherings of these social fringe subcultures are magnets for sexual weirdos who are using it as a cloak for their other "unusual hobbies." Whether they are ruining a good thing, or the thing was wacky to start with, doesn't matter.
He's 11, hardly a concern. I problem Brony is the one that's 35 to 45. If he sticks with this for 30 more years, be concerned and post again. otherwise, he will likely grow out of it.
He's 11, hardly a concern. I problem Brony is the one that's 35 to 45. If he sticks with this for 30 more years, be concerned and post again. otherwise, he will likely grow out of it.
Yes. Except he needs to not have any unsupervised internet interactions.
We do not know where he heard the term "brony." It could have been he told a classmate that he liked MLP and said classmate said "You're a brony!" or something. But if he's online, and got it from there, then he could be talking to anyone of any age, let alone the shockingly adult imagery out there.
Otherwise, him watching the show is no big deal.
I think I might caution him about letting enjoyment of one TV show become a huge part of his identity. It's also just fine to enjoy a show, even enjoy it a LOT, without needing to slap a label on oneself.
Unless that show is Doctor Who. In which case, buy him an oversized scarf and tell him to have a fun time as a Whovian.
We do not know where he heard the term "brony." It could have been he told a classmate that he liked MLP and said classmate said "You're a brony!" or something. But if he's online, and got it from there, then he could be talking to anyone of any age, let alone the shockingly adult imagery out there.
The OP said he learned about Brony online when he looked up My Little Pony.
Where we raised our kids (First, in a make-do-but-published 'penthouse' we cobbled together from a warren of pigeon coops and storerooms atop one of our buildings, then in a time and place called 'Fashionable Northeast Jackson', then in the whiteopian Mississippi exurb, 'Posh Little Madison'), any girl over five who had 'My Little Pony' was considered "Not our kind of people", and shunned, in the way that people with framed Disney or sports memorabilia hanging on their walls were shunned. 'Low-brow', 'downmarket', 'tacky', 'cheap'.... those were the terms kids would hear and repeat. Then again, we know people who have never lived down the shame heaped, in that locale, upon families who had those big, expensive, framed color photos, textured to look like oil paintings. Decades later, people remember, and will say of them, "Well, I can remember when they had one of those big Baptist fake-oil 'family portraits'. They were all 'color-coordulated', dressed in white, and on the beach in Destin. They're just Rednecks. They might have sent the kids to Saint Andrews and drive nothin' but S-class, but they're nothin' but Rednecks." And the shame of a Mustang or a Camaro lasts for several generations, in our old neck of the woods.
So, actually, I think it's lovely that other people in this world can live without the rules and prejudices that started being drilled into my head, when I moved out of a tarpaper shack as a 17-year-old. I organized an Economics study group as a college freshman, full of ambitious white kids from poor-but-ritzy families. They made me their 'Pygmalion', and taught me how to move in their world. My Decorator (who,working without pay, took over the aesthetics of our homes when we were still all penniless students) would not have allowed 'My Little Pony' into our apartments.
The Brony Folk seem to be really gentle souls. And I wish we could replace the populations of entire parts of the WORLD with them. I know of an entire CONTINENT which would be vastly improved, if I could make the current population disappear, to be replaced with Bronies (Bronys?). I mean, they're not stoning women to death for the 'crime' of being raped - and telling. They're not blowing up buildings, or planes. They're not burning people alive for being 'witches', as is currently happening in at least two parts of the world. They look unlikely to pollute the world with redundant offspring. They're not abducting women from the Ukraine, and selling them as brothel-slaves in the 'Holy Land'. Bronys are not buying children for use as slaves in the Chocolate Industry, as is happening right now in Africa. They're not buying children to be among the three hundred thousand Restavec Slaves in Haiti. I wouldn't cross the street to avoid them. I would be relieved to see a herd of Bronys behind me in a dark alley.
So, up with Bronys! (I just worry that your son may be bullied-to-death, for being one) Two of my high school classmates WERE bullied-to-death. And schools have gotten far worse than they were in the early Eighties.
I have a 12 year old son so I fully understand the age group you are talking about. I don't know what you should tell him honestly. But yes, he will be outcasted for this, he will likely be bullied and he will probably feel badly about himself at a critical time in his life. I have a very sweet, sensitive boy who is pretty immature and is still obsessed with Pokemon. But when I asked him if anyone he knows likes MLP he laughed and looked at me like I was nuts. I'm all about encouraging my kids to express themselves, I encourage uniqueness ect but they also need to be prepared to face the consequences of their choices. I'm going to guess your son has spent some time online trying to justify this and has found others like himself? Because I saw the MLP convention in Baltimore (by pure accident) and it was beyond bizarre and perverted if I'm being totally truthful.
I would not allow it, and will not allow it when my boys get older. Boys who follow these types of cultural trends tend to end up as outcasts. You will not get grandchildren from these types of kids. The brony phenomena also evolves in to some pretty sickening and perverted stuff as the bronies get older. Google the word "clopping" if you want to know what I'm talking about. I understand your son's interest is probably perfectly innocent but the innocent and sinister sides of this culture tend to intermingle, especially online. Even the youngsters end up getting exposed to some very disturbing people.
Your SN is well earned I imagine. By your logic, no one should ever question the dominant culture. That would make the resistors against the Nazis "evil" as they were doing something against their dominant culture.
You do realize you are comparing innocent children to adults right? And not all adults are creepy, freaky about it. Some people are, some aren't. Way to put everyone into the same box though
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic_Spork
There is for sure a huge part of the whole brony thing that is terribly creepy and I love how Hopes expressed it. Hopes is totally right.
FWIW, the Furries were weird like this before the Bronies were a thing. As a kid who grew up enjoying things like the musical "Cats" (and drawing animal-people) when a group of these Furries approached me to do some logo art for their social group, I was cool with that. I did the art, it wasn't suggestive, it was just some nice drawings. And I went to meet up with the people to deliver it and collect my money for the job. The guy who led the group was in his upper-20's, a strapping big dude, who repeatedly asked me when I was going to come back and hang out and bring my kidsto play. Then his boyfriend came home. BF was an adult, but he was built like a 14 year old. Then I overheard him talking about how it was cool that when he wore his fox suit, he could go to parks and parents would trust him playing with their kids.
That was easily the creepiest person I had ever met. Snooping around his social contacts in the web page for the group, lots of young teens. Pics from conventions showed a big mix of younger and older people. So then I move down here and when a friend tells me her teenager daughter is into this...I want to be accepting when she says there's nothing nasty about her hobby, and nothing wrong with drawing animal people and wearing costume ears and tail and whatever...but I have warnings.
I think that gatherings of these social fringe subcultures are magnets for sexual weirdos who are using it as a cloak for their other "unusual hobbies." Whether they are ruining a good thing, or the thing was wacky to start with, doesn't matter.
The fandom/subculture are things he should avoid though. There's way too much really vile porn on the internet for this show, and he is bound to get exposed to it, even if only accidentally.
The cartoon itself is fine and safe though. Other bronies are the problem. This is why talking about it with kids at school is also a problem. His close friends though? That's okay. If he starts buying merchandise and wearing it and wants to meet other people online into the stuff? Red flag.
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And not sure why you are worried about him asking other boys about it when the other boys are talking about My Little Pony, Shopkins, Pokemon, Minecraft and everything else in between.
