Recently, the television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (MLP:FiM) has gained considerable popularity in the United States. A Brony (or its female counterpart: a pegasister) is a viewer or fan of this television series. Since the show’s release, there has been an increase in the population of Bronies in Second Life. Multiple sims like BronyTown, EverFree Forest and Trotsdale have been a hot spot for thousands of these SL Bronies.
Many Bronies choose to use pony avatars while in these sims. These players typically are avid MLP:FiM role-players. You can even see some players that have “mane” pony cast avatars running around the sim. It is largely in part due to this, that so many Bronies have been receiving hate from supporters of the anti-furry community.
Because many people are not big fans of the Furry community and because of this, rumors often spread throughout the grid like wildfire. Recently, many anti-furry advocates have been accusing the Furries of using the Brony community as a ploy to gain support. Upon hearing this, I was led to question the accuracy of this insinuation and began to wonder how much the Furry and Brony communities overlap in SL.
Firstly, I consider myself to be a Brony and would personally disagree with the anti-furry accusations. However, I am relatively new to the SL community, so I am not yet familiar with the popular opinions of many SL users.
Deciding to investigate this issue, I traveled to Bronytown and the EverFree Forest in my Pegasus pony avatar. BronyTown is one of the largest role-playing Brony communities in SL, while the EverFree Forest is one of the biggest pony sims. Once there, I was sure that I could find a few Bronies who would be more knowledgeable than me on SL Brony politics. Thus, I began to interview several random Bronies to obtain some insight.
SydVicious11: Do you think that there is an overlap between the furry and brony communities?
Pegasus Colt: I do not speak for all of either comunity, but my personal experiences there seems to be
Pegasus Colt: at least on S:
Pegasus Colt: SL*
EverFree Forest Pegasister: Somewhat. I mean, I'm sort of a furry. And I've seen other furries running around here aswell
SydVicious11: Do you think there is much of an overlap between the furry and brony communities?
BronyTown Rarity: There is a HUGE overlap. Almost every pony I meet here is a fur.
Brony Role-Player: personally to me there isn't really much over lap brony is brony and furry is furry
Shukie Galicia: the brony and furry fandoms do overlap abit. i myself am a furry for the past 8 years, and a brony for the past year or so.
It appears that to the knowledge of most SL Bronies, there is a relatively large overlap between the Brony and Furry community, yet that does not seem to bother many of them.
SydVicious11: Do you think this is a source of conflict within the brony community?
BronyTown Rarity: Not that I've seen. People, whether furs or not, tend to leave their other interests out in the Pony sims. Especially as the sim is PG.
One Brony who I interviewed explains the situation the best.
Earth Filly: There's overlap, but only among certain people. It depends on the individual, not the whole community.
Furthermore, when I interviewed a role-player from BronyTown about the Brony/Furry overlap she simply replied.
Brony Role-Player: does it matter if it does?
Thus there is a clear overlap between the two communities. Yet, when I asked if they thought that if the Brony community was a ploy by the Furries to gain supporters, many scoffed at the anti-furry accusation.
SydVicious11: many people who are anti-furry think that bronies are just a fur ploy in order to get more support
SydVicious11: do you think that is true?
EverFree Forest Pegasister: No. Some people who are bronies are also furries, but they are two completely different fandoms
One girl made a logical comparison between the relationship of Bronies and Furry fans to that of anime fans and Furry fans.
Shukie Galicia: the same way the anime fans overlap with furry fans and so on. like furrys go to anime cons
I even had a discussion with the owner of the EverFree Forest sim, zedmastermind, who agreed that there are some Furries that are Bronies in SL. He also thought the accusation by anti-furs was ridiculous.
While I do not have exact numbers and statistics, the general consensus is that there is a definite overlap between the Furry and Brony communities in SL. However, that does not imply that Bronies are Furries are mutually exclusive.
Shukie Galicia: many non-furs picked up on MLP. i personally am female so i'm just kinda into ponys because its adorable and makes me laugh :33 and the toys look cute on my desk xD
It seems that many SL Bronies enjoy My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for the show and community rather than for the alignment with the Furry community. Furry or not, the SL Bronies are brought together by their love for the show, and most don’t care where your interests lie outside of that.
Maybe the anti-furry community needs to get past the Brony stereotype and take a lesson from the show. To quote Twilight Sparkle in her letter to Princess Celestia in the end of the episode Bridle Gossip:
“Dear Princess Celestia,
My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; It's the contents of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle. “
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