January 31, 2019

The Brony Identity

I can’t say exactly when it all began, but at some point in late 2010/early 2011, I became aware of the brony fandom.

My initial reaction was unfortunately typical: “What is this?! Well, it’s probably going to be like this one meme that just happened (The Big Lebowski re-written in a Shakespearean fashion) and will disappear/be forgotten in a month’s time like that one did.” When it didn’t vanish as I expected, I was more surprised than irritated at being wrong..and I became quite curious. There was something very interesting going on and I wanted to figure out what it was; I wouldn’t be satisfied until I found out why this particular show was able to appeal so strongly and persistently to a group so far outside of its ostensible target market. So I started observing and analyzing the nascent fandom, looking at fanart and reading comments/discussions, learning about the inside jokes, memes, and shibboleths and then I eventually persuaded myself that watching a few clips would be ‘harmless’..surely I wouldn’t be irrevocably drawn in as well. After the clips came a full episode and then the whole first season (this all happened between seasons 1 and 2) and at that point there was no choice but to accept that I was a brony. In retrospect, I had become one probably not all that long after I started watching the fandom..it just took several weeks to admit that to myself and then a few more weeks to come to terms with it.

Fast forward to early summer 2018..at this point, I’ve had a lot of fun over the years watching new Friendship is Magic episodes and related content; I’ve also attended pony fan conventions whenever possible. It was at this point that a certain topic returned to the brony zeitgeist..the idea that all bronies were also in fact members of the furry fandom as well and that to state otherwise was an act of denial. Of course, I observed the debate around this topic (honestly, I’d forgotten about the time when it first came up), noting the various arguments on either side. After the discussion faded, I gave it a great deal of contemplation. I didn’t agree with the notion at all but I also figured that I needed more information in order to make a more accurate conclusion; I was also curious as to why this was popping up again at this point (and quite strongly at that). Unlike what happened in 2011, I had been aware the furry fandom existed since the mid to late 1990s; if one was active on the Internet in that era, it seemed as if one couldn’t help but cross paths with furs on a fairly consistent basis.

I really hadn’t given them all that much thought since that time, though, so I began a similar observation and analysis of the current state of the furs. I was astonished at how well the fur fandom appeared to be doing in terms of convention attendance and just how many more of them there were compared to the 90s. Yes, the Internet/online communities in general were much smaller at that time but the furry population had apparently grown along with the Internet rather than remaining a small niche. At that point, I was just about to ready to conclude my research as there didn’t seem to be anything more to find out; this poll and discussion by Equestria Daily had convincing results: 4,837 total votes with 2,455 no, 1,383 no idea, and 999 yes. True, this wasn’t a massive sample size but I considered the matter closed.

Then came the announcement that the 2019 BronyCon would be the final one.

I was initially shocked but I saw the logic in it and respected the decision. What I didn’t expect were the reactions from various furs, ranging from “Serves them right!” to “Hey, let’s give the bronies a safe space within our conventions.” I read through this rhetoric and thought “Why are they so concerned about it either way?” That question was the impetus to resume the research; a new problem to solve. The various parts of this essay are the results of what I’ve found.

I’m going to preemptively answer a couple of questions that I’m fairly sure will be asked, based on earlier observation. First, I have nothing against the furry fandom whatsoever; I’ve seen furs at all 14 pony conventions I’ve attended and had no issues with them at all. At least from my perspective, it’s always been a peaceful co-existence. Second, I firmly believe that bronies are not necessarily furries, that it’s a classic Venn diagram of B, B+F, and F. I also believe that, whatever fandom(s) that an individual belongs to, it is their decision and their decision alone and they are allowed to change their minds at any given point. Whether it’s within fandom culture or elsewhere, I want everyone to be able to find that place where they belong and can truly be themselves. I will expand upon this and other related points later in this piece.

Part 1: Is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic a furry show?

I think this is the crux of the matter; if it is not, then there’s no way a brony would be automatically included in the furry fandom. The problem is that this is a purely subjective classification as there is no authority who can definitively state “This is furry/anthropomorphic media, that is not.” To use Zootopia as an example, I don’t think there’s anyone who could make a rational case that it’s not furry/anthro media; not only are all the characters anthro animals, their animal natures and the conflicts inherent to them are integral to the plot. For another example, the Netflix original show Aggretsuko is also anthro media, though the characters could be swapped with humans and everything would play out much the same. Friendship is Magic, though? Well, the characters are sapient animals with cartoonish character designs; they’ve built a somewhat human-like civilization with a mixture of magic and technology. Early in the show, the characters did act more like ponies than humans (neighing and snorting, rapidly stomping their hooves instead of clapping, pawing the ground, etc.), but that has changed over time with more human-like poses and gestures, along with more modern technology vs. purely magical artifacts being shown/utilized. Even then, they’re still walking on four hooves (most of the time) and look far more like ponies than humans.

What makes it different from, say, The Lion King, which is widely considered furry media, then? Well, from what I’ve read, TLK is more along the lines of the furry subgenre known as “feral”, where the animal characters aren’t nearly as cartoonish and more closely resemble their real-life counterparts while living in a completely humanless and non-technological setting; the only thing human about them is that they can speak and have formed basic societies. I don’t see how FiM falls into that category at all; there’s far too many advanced elements to pony culture to even compare.

Now, if someone considers anything at all with talking animals to be furry..well, that’s an arbitrary point and can’t really be settled one way or another. I think that that’s a very wide net to cast and it’s not how I delineate what is and isn’t furry media. It is a common perspective when reading “Just what is furry?” articles such as this one, but even with that in mind, I think that the case for FiM being furry media is borderline at most. It doesn’t have anthro or feral characters, though I recognize the argument that they could be something in between those categories. I always saw FiM more of a high fantasy show than anything; it never had a furry ‘vibe’ to it at all from my perspective. Keep in mind I’d known about furry for quite a while and whenever I saw something come out that was obviously in that genre I’d think “Oh yeah, that’s something the furries would like.” The only anthro-ish character I can think of in all of FiM and its related media is Capper the cat from the 2016 MLP Movie, and even though this opens the potential for anthro races to exist in the lands beyond Equestria, that’s not enough to prove the point.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Equestria Girls (a FiM spinoff), which has evolved into the genres of low fantasy and magical girl. The human counterparts of the main ponies (along with Equestrian exile Sunset Shimmer) gain pony ears (and wings if applicable) when they transform but that’s it; there’s no other anthro/furry aspects to be found.

Part 2: Comparing the brony and furry fandoms

An argument could also be made that the brony fandom is just about the same as the furry fandom in its overall structure, how they run their conventions, etc. While there are definite similarities, they are two different types of fandoms altogether. Brony is what I call a franchise fandom (others would be Star Trek, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc.) while furry is a genre/umbrella fandom (like anime, science fiction, fantasy and comic books). I think that one of the ideas behind the logic of the ‘brony=furry’ concept is that the brony fandom falls under the furry fandom in much the same way that Star Trek is part of the sci-fi genre while also having separate conventions and being a separate fandom. The problem with that analogy is that there’s not much uncertainty as to whether Star Trek is science fiction while it’s quite ambiguous (as I went over in part 1) whether FiM is furry.

It is true that furry organizations have created/run pony conventions (for example, the 2019 Vanhoover Pony Expo was organized by the British Columbia Anthropomorphic Events Association, which also runs the Vancoufur convention) but, to my knowledge, that’s not the case for most of the past/present pony conventions and even if all the organizers of a given convention personally identify as furry, that doesn’t necessarily mean that anything they do individually or collectively is furry as well.

Again, I’m not trying to deny the various links between the fandoms but I see them as separate and distinct entities. An analogy that I’ve come up with delves into music theory a bit; it’s like both fandoms are parallel keys that might superficially sound alike but really aren’t exactly the same. Take the keys of B major and B minor..B C# D# E F# G# A# and B C# D E F# G A, respectively. At first glance, they might look like the same notes in the same sequence. However, 3 notes in B major are sharpened (i.e. raised by a semitone) compared to B minor and that’s enough to make them distinctive. There are myriad and esoteric other ways in which these two keys differ, but they’re beyond the scope of this essay.

To delve into some of these differences (based on past and present observations), the first thing that comes to mind is art, of course. Both fandoms have the visual arts as fundamental aspects and have been producing them in various formats since the time they began. Currently, fandom art is easy enough to access on general art sites or ones created by and for various fandoms, so the brony fandom didn’t have to build out nearly as much infrastructure in the early days (as I remember them), and thus was able to hit the ground running. In the mid-to-late 90s, there were a few dedicated furry art sites around that I’d occasionally see in URLs pasted in IRC and on Usenet posts, but this was before Deviantart (which started in 2000) or anything else like it so that infrastructure had to be built from the ground up. Other than that, though, (as someone with no drawing/art talent whatsoever), I’m not nearly knowledgeable enough to be able to offer any detailed critiques/comparisons of the styles/artwork between the fandoms, so I’m going to call it a push.

When it comes to music (which I’m slightly more qualified to discuss, being an (inexperienced) musician), though, there appear to be a lot more prominent/practicing brony musicians and a wider variety of styles/genres represented versus the furry music scene. Both fandoms do have a strong affinity for electronic dance music (raves are common at both kinds of conventions, for instance) and a lot of brony music (especially in the early days) consists of remixes/covers of songs from FiM along with originals inspired by characters/situations from the show. However, it’s more difficult to precisely define just what is furry music (this article is a useful starting point) and I think that’s part of why it doesn’t seem to be nearly as prevalent as brony music (it could also be my biased perspective as I’ve been immersed in the latter for 8+ years and have only started to examine the former). Most importantly, I’m only talking about the numbers and not comparing talent in any way; both fandoms have very talented/hard-working musicians and I’m not saying anything about either one being ‘better’ than the other.

As for fursuiting, the numbers/situation appears to be reversed; it’s definitely present in the brony fandom, but it’s not nearly as ubiquitous as in the fur. When comparing pictures from social media between the two types of conventions, there are a lot of fursuit pictures from fur cons and hardly any from pony cons. I’ll admit that, at first, I thought “Wow, I had no idea so many furries had fursuits since I’ve heard how costly they are to obtain and to properly maintain.” I learned later that this is a common misconception (it’s actually a minority of furs who actively suit) but when anything with a furcon hashtag is almost completely comprised of fursuit pictures, one can see how said misconception came to be. Also, brony suits more often tend to be characters from the show vs. original characters while it’s vice versa for fur fandom suits. There are those in the fur fandom who suit as a character from anthro media, but the great majority are representations of an individual’s fursona or fursonas (I’ll get more into definitions/comparisons of ponysonas and fursonas later in this section). In my opinion, based on what I’ve read and observed, this is a much more personal form of suiting in that the fursona is something that the fur very closely identifies with versus a character who is just that; a character that one is playing as.

Here’s a personal example; one of my favorite characters from FiM is Sunburst; I identified with him immediately as I’m also rather nerdy, extremely knowledgeable in various subjects (and not knowledgeable at all in several others) without always being able to effectively apply said knowledge..we’re also sometimes overly pedantic. However, even if I had the means/desire/skill to create/maintain a Sunburst fursuit and also be able to utilize it effectively, at no point would I ever have nearly as strong of a personal connection as, ultimately, this is a character someone else created that I just so happen to connect with. This is a subtle difference, but I think it’s worth noting.

Next is creative writing; there’s a considerable amount and variety of fanfictions of FiM/EG and of anthro/furry media, so there’s not much to compare there. In my experience, though, there is a discernible difference in the amount/variety of original works between the fandoms. Of course, this is due in part to their differing natures, so it’s rare to find something written in the style of FiM without it being a derivative work in some way, while there are many original and several successful original furry/anthro stories and authors. Off the top of my head, I can only recall one piece of FiM fanfiction that had enough original characterization/plot/settings in it so that all the references to FiM characters/settings could be changed without any significant impact to the story. Even pieces using exclusively original characters are still set in Equestria/in and around the Equestria Girls’ high school/city, so that’s still not a completely original work. Again, I’m not comparing quality here, just that this is a significant difference between the fandoms and it is primarily due to the fundamental difference between what types of fandoms they are.

The last point that I’m going to compare in this section are fursonas and ponysonas. From what I’ve seen, there’s a lot more emphasis on fursonas than ponysonas in their respective fandoms in that (and I could be completely wrong with this supposition) not having a ponysona isn’t frowned upon nearly much as lacking a fursona is. I remember that there was a bit of a rush to obtain ponysonas in the early days of the brony fandom, but even then it wasn’t as emphasized as it currently appears to be in the fur fandom, where it seems as if one isn’t taken all that seriously without one. That is, either drawing one yourself or commissioning an artist to do so is a necessary rite of passage. I’m not judging this one way or another, just pointing it out as a perceived difference. Even if I’m mistaken on this aspect, there’s still definitely a far greater percentage of furs with sonas (sometimes multiple per individual) than bronies.

There are other aspects that could be examined, but these are the major ones in my experience. While all of these differences may seem tenuous at first glance, I think their cumulative effect is sufficient to demonstrate how a brony is not necessarily a furry.

Part 3: Comparing brony and furry convention statistics

Before I get into the statistics, another (convention specific) difference I’m going to highlight is how pony conventions (I’m using this term to avoid confusion with BronyCon while referring to FiM fan conventions in general) typically have many guests of honor from outside the fandom who are voice actors/writers/directors/talent agents/comic book artists who all work or have worked on FiM/EG or the various comic book series published by IDW. The GoHs at furry conventions are almost always distinguished members of the fandom (there have been notable voice actors who have made appearances, but it’s not common..to my knowledge, Lee Tockar and Trevor Devall have appeared at both types). Of course, pony cons get fandom members as well (there’s usually quite a few guests overall between fandom and show talent) but the emphasis is on guests from the show.

For this comparison, I’m going to go year by year with the top 3 conventions by attendance in each fandom along with unofficial counts as to how many fandom events were held. 2011 was the first full year of the brony fandom but there were only 4 events overall, 2 of them (My Little Pony Fair and UK Ponycon) having been conventions that preceded FiM by several years. The other two were the first two BronyCons (then known as BroNYCon due to its New York City location), which were held in June and September of that year, drawing ~100 and ~300 respectively. The top three furcons that year were AnthroCon (4,400), Further Confusion, (2,801) and Midwest Furfest (2,600) with 23 events overall.

2012 was the first year there was a definite pony convention ‘scene’ as 15 events were held, versus 30 furcons/large meetups. The next iteration of BronyCon was that January, with around 850 attending. Another BronyCon was held that year in the summer with 4,000 on hand, a staggering amount of growth for any convention with the caveat that it was taking place twice a year at that point. Everfree Northwest, EquestriaLA, and Canterlot Gardens (which was a one-off) all opened with >1,000 attendees, which is uncommon for first year conventions, from what I’ve seen.

2012 Top 3 Pony Conventions Attendance 2012 Top 3 Furry Conventions Attendance
BronyCon Summer 4,000 AnthroCon 5,179
Canterlot Gardens 2,182 Midwest Furfest 3,216
Everfree Northwest 1,500 Further Confusion 3,021

2012 had been a great year for pony conventions but 2013 took it to another level with 35 cons and BronyCon (now an annual event) attracting 8,407 in its first year at the Baltimore Convention Center..I remember I was flabbergasted by that number when it came out and I still am today after comparing it to other trends. 2013 was also the first year I attended a pony convention, Fiesta Equestria in Houston. The fur conventions were growing in size and number as well (33 that year) and the other returning pony conventions had more typical gains but I’m not sure if a leap like the one BronyCon took will ever happen again.

2013 Top 3 Pony Conventions Attendance 2013 Top 3 Furry Conventions Attendance
BronyCon 8,407 AnthroCon 5,577
Everfree Northwest 2,272 Midwest Furfest 3,904
EquestriaLA 1,500 Further Confusion 3,380

Going into 2014, there wasn’t another huge increase in number (39) and BronyCon didn’t grow quite as much but still hit 9,607 (I was there and it was a tremendous, unforgettable experience). While BronyCon’s growth was still impressive (along with the initial BABSCon getting 2,350), the trend of BronyCon having a disproportionate share of the pony convention scene was becoming apparent, while the fur cons were still showing steady growth in attendance and in numbers (50).

2014 Top 3 Pony Conventions Attendance 2014 Top 3 Furry Conventions Attendance
BronyCon 9,607 AnthroCon 5,861
Everfree Northwest 2,500 Midwest Furfest 4,571
BABSCon 2,350 Further Confusion 3,560

2015 was the peak of pony conventions, both in numbers (41) and attendance. BronyCon broke 10k and 10 conventions drew at least 1,000. True, there were 15 furcons with that distinction (53 overall) and their flagships were still in excellent shape (although there was the chlorine gas incident that occurred at the 2014 Midwest Furfest) but at this point, I remember that it seemed as if there was no stopping brony fandom/pony conventions, that it had gotten through the early growing pains/controversies/failures and had a bright future, both short and long term.

2015 Top 3 Pony Conventions Attendance 2015 Top 3 Furry Conventions Attendance
BronyCon 10,011 AnthroCon 6,389
Everfree Northwest 2,767 Midwest Furfest 5,606
BABSCon 2,648 Further Confusion 3,527

2016 was the beginning of the (still ongoing) decline both in attendance (especially BronyCon) and the number of pony cons/events, overall. I’ll speculate about the potential causes of this later, though it didn’t seem all that worrisome at the time. As one might expect by now, furry cons/events continued their slow, steady expansion, with the only significant change being BLFC taking over the #3 spot:

2016 Top 3 Pony Conventions Attendance 2016 Top 3 Furry Conventions Attendance
BronyCon 7,609 AnthroCon 7,310
Everfree Northwest 3,000 Midwest Furfest 7,075
BABSCon 2,100 Biggest Little Fur Con 3,651

In 2017, the attendance trends on both sides remained along with Midwest Furfest becoming the new #1 furcon and BLFC continuing its rapid growth. One possible explanation of BronyCon having another down year was that it occurred on the same weekend as the anime convention Otakon in Washington, DC, but considering the numbers from 2016 and 2018, I don’t think that it was all that much of a factor. The number of pony events fell to 23, continuing that trend as well..I began to see that I was mistaken in my earlier assertions.

2017 Top 3 Pony Conventions Attendance 2017 Top 3 Furry Conventions Attendance
BronyCon 6,319 Midwest Furfest 8,771
Everfree Northwest 2,625 AnthroCon 7,544
BABSCon 1,772 Biggest Little Fur Con 5,138

2018 had BronyCon falling back even further, which was likely one of the key factors in the announcement that the 2019 edition would be the last one. I remember watching parts of the concert livestream from that convention and wondering “Why aren’t there more people there?”, an inkling of what was to come. There wasn’t as much of a falloff from 17 to 18 as there had been from 16 to 17, but it was apparent that several conventions wouldn’t be coming back for 2019 and FiM (according to rumors based on leaks) was likely airing its final season in that year as well. The fur fandom had a tremendous year in comparison, with MFF shattering 10k and coming very close to 11, a (unofficial) record number of events and (arguably) more public awareness than ever before.

2018 Top 3 Pony Conventions Attendance 2018 Top 3 Furry Conventions Attendance
BronyCon 5,465 Midwest Furfest 10,989
Everfree Northwest 2,700 AnthroCon 8,407
BABSCon 1,663 Biggest Little Fur Con 5,435

In summary, these numbers aren’t all that surprising, though I hadn’t known just how top-heavy the numbers were on the brony side; all this time, I’ve been overestimating the size of the #2 and 3 cons. Also, the fur numbers were a bit more than I expected, especially in how the number of events per year has kept on growing. I want to note that, in 2019, the number of scheduled pony events is fewer than in 2012.

Now, the spreadsheet I’ve been using as a source for pony convention information lists 10 events for this year, though High Roller Pony Con will not be returning and they don’t have Ponyville Ciderfest or the final MLP-MSP listed as of this writing. Even so, that’s still quite a descent from the dizzy heights of 2015. It is very early to speculate about 2020, but, if the ponycons that have been running for at least a few years and have not announced their discontinuation are held in 2020, there would be 6. If all the first year cons in 2019 come back as well, then that’s 9. According to the FurryCons 2019 calendar, there will be 6 events by the end of January and 11 by the end of February.

I’ll just leave that there.

Part 4: Comparing brony and furry demographics

There hasn’t been a comprehensive survey of brony demographics since the 2014 State of the Herd Report and the most recent furry one I could find, Furry Poll, is from 2016, so deriving an accurate picture of the current demographic state is going to be difficult at best; take all these figures/comparisons with the proverbial grain of salt. Also, while there are several categories that have ‘apples to apples’ data, there are a few that aren’t all that close (due to missing data) so I’m not going to try to compare any of those to avoid making any egregious logical errors. For the record, I will also be using data from FurScience in these comparisons.

To begin with, there is a definite correlation between both fandoms in terms of how old the typical member is; the majority of furs and bronies are 18-25 with sharp declines afterwards. This matches what I’ve seen at pony conventions/observed online. The male/female ratio is also similar though bronies have a higher number of males/people identifying as such (80.6% vs. 72.4). When it comes to race, both fandoms are close in their percentages of those who identify as white (85.28 for the furs, 79.2 for bronies). The United States is currently at 61.3%, for the record.

Relationship/marital status, though..this is where I wish that the same group had conducted it and asked the same questions as the categories are close but not exactly the same (much like these two fandoms). The issue is that the brony survey only asked if one had been in a relationship in the last 12 months, which leaves the obvious hole of anyone who had gone through a breakup in the past year, so I’m not sure if the 74.9% who said they hadn’t been should be regarded as a fair approximation of single bronies or if it’s actually higher. The furry data was much more detailed and came out to 59.95% single, so that’s likely a difference right there but the numbers aren’t clear enough to say for certain. (The married numbers were about the same; 4.7 for bronies and 4.03 for furs).

The question about sexual orientation also had more options in the furry survey, but here there’s a drastic difference between the fandoms; bronies identify at 84.81% as totally or mostly straight while furs are 25.15. I’m not going to delve all that much into this and will only say that this is consistent with my personal (possibly biased) observations over the years. As I’m straight* and cisgendered, I can’t say with any authority how welcoming/friendly the brony fandom is to LGBTQ individuals compared to the furry due to my tendentious perspective. (It’s a difficult thing to quantify, regardless).

(* At the time I wrote this, I considered myself to be straight but have now realized (June 2020) that I am, and always have been, bisexual. I might need to revise this paragraph in the future as now I’m an LGBTQ individual and I’m going to find out how I’m treated as a brony.)

Another difference that I found (and was surprised by) is the percentage of fandom members living with their parents/parental figures: 72.1% brony, 45% furry. Since the age demographics are so similar, one would think that these numbers would be a lot closer as well, but I think this could have something to do with the brony survey not being nearly as recent (and thus, the economy wasn’t doing as well as it was when the furry survey was performed). That’s still a significant difference, even if that’s taken into account. Furscience does note that this percentage falls off sharply after age 24 and it’s likely a similar case for bronies.

I wanted to compare incomes as well, but the numbers can’t be correlated; the furry data is an individual average ($31,772) while the brony report broke it out as a median household income based on zip code of $61,578.87. Due to it being apples to oranges, I will admit that I don’t have the skill to make any kind of accurate/fair comparison, so I’ll leave it at that.

The last thing I want to go over in this section is how each fandom views members of the other within itself..from the brony perspective, 21% consider themselves furries as well, which is consistent with the aforementioned Equestria Daily poll. The percentage of furs who consider themselves bronies was 16.5 (according to a 2012 survey) In 2019, the furs have become a significantly larger fandom but when these numbers were taken, the populations were much more similar and thus the numbers roughly correspond. However, the same survey also asked the furs how they regarded the brony fandom, with 22% stating that they are separate fandoms, 28% thinking there is an overlap and 50% saying that bronies are a subset of the fur fandom. I find the discrepancy here quite interesting and I wonder how much these numbers have changed since they were taken..it does go back to my point in the first section about how subjective all this is and how two related yet different groups can look at each other in such dissimilar ways.

However, I vehemently disagree with this passage from this FurScience page:

While the data have shown that there are small differences between furries and bronies, the vast majority of analyses revealed that, for the most part, furries and bronies share most things in common. There are no age or sex differences between the groups, nor are there differences in sexual orientation, relationship status, relationship satisfaction, or education level between furries and bronies. The groups do not differ in the extent to which they identify as a furry, identify with other furries, or identify with their fursona species. Furries and bronies do not differ in the extent to which they believe they are less than 100% human, nor are they differently likely to wish they were 0% human. Both furries and bronies in the furry fandom hold the furry community in equally high regard, and they do not differ in terms of their psychological well-being or self-esteem.

In sum, with only a few minor exceptions, furries and bronies are relatively indistinguishable from one another beyond the differences in the content of their fandom.

No differences in sexual orientation or relationship status? No pointing out the immense difference in the percentages of those living with their parents? No differences in the extent to which individuals in each fandom identify themselves as a furry or their fursona species?! This section doesn’t reference any hard data to attempt to justify these illogical and groundless statements; I’ve analyzed the numbers and while the fandom demographics are similar, similar is not the same. I don’t know where whoever wrote this got the idea that the brony fandom has a similar percentage of those who identify that strongly with their fur/ponysonas/believe they aren’t totally human/etc. as I have very, very rarely seen anything like that in my brony fandom experience..the great majority of the ~80% of the fandom who does not identify as furry also doesn’t likely identify in that way with their ponysona (if they have one) and they most likely believe that they’re 100% human. Speaking for myself, I love the show, collecting pony toys/memorabilia, participating in the fandom, and going to conventions..and that’s it. If I ever obtained a ponysona it would be as an online avatar only.

Now, I’m not attacking the premise of ‘brony=furry’ itself, but rather the lack of evidence to back it up; if someone can come up with more than this type of baseless conjecture to try to justify their reasoning (this twitter thread is another case in point in not coming up with any evidence beyond “Because I said so!”), I will definitely listen. I would counter with what I’ve written about so far (and anything else I’ve found in the interim) but I hope that it would be a reasonable discussion. While this isn’t something that can be definitively proven one way or another, I think that I’ve found sufficient evidence to cast reasonable doubt on the ‘brony=furry’ assumption, which I also disdain due to my belief in individual free will (pertaining to fandoms, in this case). It’s not my place to tell anyone else what they can and can’t be just as no one else can state what I identify as.

Part 5: MLP G5 speculation/Why is the brony fandom declining/furry fandom expanding?

While the immediate and long-term future appears bright for the furry fandom (though it certainly has no shortage of incessant issues/ongoing drama), the brony fandom has no collective idea if it will even exist in any kind of self-sufficient form in the next few years. Indeed, whether or not there are any noteworthy brony fandom conventions left by the end of 2021 depends entirely on ‘G5’ (the currently unnamed and ambiguous series/media that will accompany the next generation of My Little Pony toys) and how it is received. Possible G5 character designs/storylines were leaked in December 2017, along with plans for a movie to launch the G5 franchise followed by the first season of a new series in fall 2020/spring 2021. Hasbro has neither confirmed or denied this and has only (as of this writing) said that FiM will return for a ninth season. It might not happen the way the leaks have stated, but the end of FiM/beginning of G5 is quite likely to occur in the next 2 years.

I’ve thought of three possible scenarios, albeit broad in scope. The first would be the best case for the brony fandom; G5 is an enormous success, bringing in fans new and old while revitalizing the fandom in general. Conventions start growing again in number and size, the scene is healthy and stable as long as G5 lasts (which, in this instance, would be all or most of the 2020s). G5 wouldn’t be a universal hit (nothing is) and the bronies that aren’t fans of it would likely eventually leave the fandom (I might be one of them, if I can’t get into it) but the overall population would return to a viable point. Overall, it would never be as large as it was in its prime, but it would have enough momentum to be a separate, self-sustaining fandom.

The second would be more neutral/status quo..G5 doesn’t really catch on outside the existing fandom and the show only lasts a few seasons. Fandom population keeps decreasing although the first season somewhat staunches the bleeding. Just a few conventions remain and only the diehards (like me) keep attending. After G5 finishes its run, the conventions close and what’s left of the fandom goes almost completely online. Art, crafts, and fanfiction are still created and there are a few sporadic meetups but it’s otherwise indistinguishable from the many other small fandoms on the Internet. Perhaps at first there are a few brony-oriented panels at large furcons, but that eventually fades due to gradual lack of interest.

As bad as that sounds, the worst case would be for G5 to be a complete flop/creative failure, which would likely cause a general fandom collapse along with all conventions closing in short order. It would have to be so bad that hardly anyone would want to associate with it at all; it would be similar to the ‘quality’ (I use the term very, very loosely here) of MLP G3.5. This would cause a literal and figurative stampede for the exits; there would be very little left at all.

Thankfully, this is the unlikeliest of the outcomes; the most likely is something between the first and the second where the fandom is able to keep existing as a separate entity but much smaller in scope, overall. If it shrunk to the point where it would have to go under the furry umbrella just to survive, then and only then would the remaining bronies have to associate much more closely with the fur fandom. (Even if one feels as if this particular outcome is inevitable, I don’t see the point of acting like it has already occurred). Should this happen, though, the fur fandom would likely be so much larger that its brony portion would be relatively insignificant in size. Also, all of this is moot if Hasbro doesn’t continue its laissez-faire approach to the brony fandom (which made it possible in the first place). Not being subject to the whims of one corporation is another point in favor of the furry fandom’s longevity and viability.

I’ve shown in this essay the brony fandom’s decline in convention attendance, which also implies a decrease in overall fandom population, but I’ve also thought a lot about the reasons why this happened. In my opinion, it’s not any one person or group or event that caused it, but rather a gradual accumulation of factors. The foremost one is that there is only one way into the brony fandom; be a huge fan of FiM. If that passion diminishes/disappears, there’s usually not much of a reason to stay in the fandom, especially since the 18-25 year old majority is more than likely still maturing/finding themselves so it’s quite plausible that their interests would also be sufficiently malleable. Then there’s the fact that the show itself changes (sometimes dramatically) from season to season and that by itself has driven people out of the fandom. Someone could also still be a fan but not have nearly as much time to devote to fandom activities..I know that feeling well.

In comparison, the furry fandom has many ways in due to the wide variety of media that can lead people to it along with its distinctive style of art, its culture, the various spiritual aspects and several other facets. If something similar happened in terms of a loss of affection for a given medium, the individual would likely have gotten into several other media/aspects and thus have something to keep them in the fandom. I think that’s a difference in general between franchise and umbrella fandoms (though members of any fandom will likely have less time for it as they age beyond their 30s).

Another important factor is that, at the beginning of the brony fandom, it was a massive Internet phenomenon and that alone attracted a considerable number of people, which drew more people in and a positive feedback loop was established. Over time, though, the ’newness factor’ has worn off and a lot of the people who had gotten caught up in it initially have quietly moved on..and as this decade has gone on, the amount of possible media that one could become a fan of keeps on increasing which decreases the chances for any given franchise fandom to acquire and retain new members. The fur fandom, being an umbrella with decades of..relative stability isn’t nearly as susceptible to trends/phenomena and the increase in available media has created even more avenues for people to find it.

I also wonder if the differing trajectories of the fandoms have made it more palatable for bronies to either also become furries or change fandoms completely, especially if they’ve lost interest in FiM. I have seen references to FiM/the brony fandom as a ‘gateway drug’ to the fur fandom and while I think that’s not all that common a case, I have noticed a few individuals taking that path and thus I consider it conceivable. I also think that the presence of furs within the brony fandom has likely facilitated any such transitions, though I haven’t directly observed any instances of this.

All of these (and likely other) factors don’t seem all that daunting by themselves, but when they’re combined and given enough time, the result is as we’ve seen; an anxious present and a nebulous future for the brony fandom. I’ve tried to stay sanguine about it all, but big changes are coming in 2019-2020 and I think this relates to possibly why the concept of ‘brony=furry’ has gained so much strength in the last several months; it’s a solid identity in a sea of uncertainty. (There’s also the possibility of a bandwagon effect, but I haven’t seen any direct evidence of that). While researching past work on this topic, I came across a pair of videos from August 2013 by the brony analyst DrWolf along with his furry brother: Part 1 and Part 2. I found myself agreeing with a lot of what they had to say and appreciated the civil manner in which they had their discussion, but I wonder how much of the consensus they came to is currently applicable versus when it was created.

I’ve gone over why the furry fandom seems to be able to keep more of its members over the long run, but over the last several years it appears to have significantly expanded, as evidenced by the convention statistics. I also noticed that a number of “popufurs”, i.e. outstanding/popular/noteworthy individuals within the fandom (“Horse famous” is the equivalent among bronies) are coming from outside the normal furry demographic..it’s simultaneously quite interesting and puzzling. Is it just the ever-expanding reach of the Internet/overall increase in media that has allowed for people who would have otherwise never been aware of the fur fandom to find a connection with it? And/or has something changed about the nature of furry itself that I haven’t been able to discern that has made it more accessible/relatable?

All that said, it’s time for the final part. I want to address exactly how I feel about this particular subject and have it be accurately understood not just by anyone who happens to read this, but to give myself a firm foundation upon which to go forward regarding this matter.

Here goes.

Part 6: My personal feelings about the furry fandom

To expand upon what I wrote about this in the introduction, the first thing I want to make totally clear is that I have nothing against the furry fandom, I disagree with the idea that members of it bear a stigma of any kind, and there’s no past grudges involved. As I mentioned, it had been a while since I’d taken any kind of look at furry in general. Fortunately, some of my preconceived notions were cleared up and I was able to gain a much more coherent view of where it’s been, what it’s about, and where it might be going.

It also became absolutely apparent that it’s just not for me.

The best analogy I’ve been able to come up with that it doesn’t ‘click’ for me the way that FiM did immediately. I did very much the same things regarding the fur fandom that I did for the brony back in 2011, i.e. the same comprehensive personal analysis of art, people and culture. I will freely admit that it took a few months for me to accept just how strongly FiM clicked for me, while I’ve been doing this research/examination of furry for the last several months now and there’s just…nothing there. How to describe it, hmm..when I started looking at pony fanart, there was something there that I immediately latched on to and identified with, something internal that said “This is really cool and not only do I want to see more of it, I want to see where this is coming from and why this is happening and to connect with the people who feel the same way.” (I could have saved myself some grief if I’d listened to that voice sooner..) When it comes to anything furry though, all I hear is “Well, that’s alright/awesome/very well done, but it’s just that. Whether this was anthro/furry or not, I’d have the same reaction to it.” It’s completely hollow..there’s nothing to grasp.

To change subjects momentarily..I am a fan of Doctor Who and have enjoyed..well, a decent portion of the modern era. Even before I stopped watching for a few seasons, though, I never considered having anything at all to do with the Doctor Who fandom..whatever that connection is, that intangible thing that’s the difference between being a fan and from having a desire to engage with a fandom..it was there from the start with FiM and I’ve never really felt that with anything else. In my life, I’ve been a fan of/enjoyed video games, TV shows, and movies that definitely fall in the anthro/furry category, but that particular aspect of them isn’t why I liked them; it was always some other characteristic that I connected with.

If I had felt that for an extended period while doing the research, I wouldn’t have denied it. I probably would have waited a few days/a week to see if it lasted but after that, I would have publicly admitted it and then said..“Umm..what do I do now?” The reason that I didn’t want to do that unless I was absolutely 100% sure is that..one of my greatest mistakes in life was when I was much younger and pretending to be someone and something that I wasn’t. I never want to do anything like that again as it will always end badly for everyone involved. I also had the thought that, when I’m at a pony convention or ‘fandom space’ in general, I’m a lot more open, relaxed and sociable because I feel like I don’t have to hide this part of who I am from anyone there. It seems likely that that’s a common feeling in the fur fandom and I would not want to be in that equivalent space when I don’t genuinely belong..that would be horribly disrespectful to say the least. Yeah, I could have ‘faked it until I made it’ if I had wanted to..but that’s an inevitable path to a bit of short term gain and a lot of long term pain.

(On a side note on this line of thought, I noticed in the previously mentioned Twitter thread the sobriquets ‘diet fur’ and ‘furry lite’ in reference to bronies. To be honest, I couldn’t tell if these appellations were meant merely in jest or as epithets..either way, it’s like..so, I’m not only being erroneously labeled as a fur just for being a fan of one show in particular but it’s also being insinuated that I’m not a genuine fur because I’m a brony..?!)

I remember at the start of this research that I felt like “Well, this might be where the brony fandom is heading, so I might have no choice in the matter..” but then I stopped and thought “Even if that happens, nothing says that I have to go along with it. I have to be honest with myself here; I’m mostly invisible in this fandom anyway, so it’s not going to matter if I stick around or not if it does happen to go completely under the furry umbrella.” That lead to a lot of self-reflection about whether I belong in any fandom at all..and I’m still not really sure about that. I recognize that I’m a demographic oddball within fandom culture while being a majority in society in general due to being a middle-aged white straight* upper middle class married liberal Christian father. No one has ever said it to me directly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone has ever wondered what I’m doing at a pony convention instead of doing the ‘mainstream’ things I’m ‘supposed’ to do..yet, I don’t feel like I belong all that much within conventional culture.

(* As mentioned in part 4, now I’m a middle-aged white bisexual upper middle class married liberal Christian father..and I have a much better idea why I felt like I didn’t belong in conventional culture.)

It does make me wonder whether any fandom at all is the place I’m meant to be in long-term..no one has ever told me directly I’m too old/‘mainstream’/whatever but that meme image of Steve Buscemi comes to mind sometimes. I don’t feel too old to do this or anything like that, but when I looked at the demographics of both fandoms, I could see immediately that my profile only matches a very, very small percentage of either fandom, which appears to be a factor in how difficult it’s been for me to connect with others. It’s a common saying that one gets out of something what one puts into it and it’s true that, aside from attending/sponsoring conventions, I haven’t contributed all that many creative endeavors and have been much of an observer than an active participant, but that tendency is something that I’ve always had to deal with and always will. Thus, it’s likely nothing intrinsic to any fandom but rather my own idiosyncrasies that are the root cause of the cool receptions that I tend to meet with.

A point I want to emphasize is that I’m not closing myself off completely to the possibility of someday feeling that impalpable something that gets someone into the furry (or some other) fandom at some point. It is exceedingly unlikely at my age and my life situation, but if there’s anything that my life has shown me, it’s that whatever is to come is likely nowhere close to how I thought it would happen. I have been able to accomplish a lot of my long-term goals over the course of my life and things are..well, generally how I thought they might be. The brony fandom and my involvement with it are just one of the many things that I never saw coming, though..and these unexpected changes* just keep happening to me and my family. It’s nothing we can’t handle at this point, thankfully, but if I sent a note back to myself just a couple of months ago with what’s happened since, it would have come back with “WTH?!?!” Thus, I’m not going to shut that door completely..it just doesn’t seem likely to ever open as of this writing.

(* Unexpected changes have been the theme of 2020 in general so far.)

Conclusion

Ultimately, while I was able to demonstrate to my personal satisfaction in this piece that bronies are not necessarily furries, I don’t think I completely solved the original problem that I wanted to..namely, “Why are the furs concerned about the brony fandom at all?” The other ones that came up for me during the research were “Just what makes a furry a furry?” and “Why and how is the fur fandom seemingly also expanding outside of its usual demographic?” I feel like I can understand the fur fandom purely from an intellectual standpoint but that’s it; the emotional and spiritual aspects are complete mysteries to me as I’m apparently incapable of relating to them. The former question, though..I tried to look at it from their perspective and all I could come up with schadenfreude on one side and compassion on the other. Again, I couldn’t figure out why that would be the case intellectually since it seems as if the course that the fandoms have taken are mostly irrelevant to each other, so why should either side be all that bothered about the other? Another question I was able to figure out was to see just what I was being told I ‘should’ be and I’m glad I was able to gain enough clarity to figure out where I stand.

I have no real idea what’s coming next, either for myself in relation to fandoms or the brony fandom in general. A lot of it depends upon things that are completely out of my control, so all I can do is keep my mind open, try to make connections when possible, and (as hard as it is for me to do) accept that no amount of planning and preparation are going to be sufficient for whatever is to come and that I must accept and deal with it the best I can.

It is my hope that, if we haven’t found it yet, we all can find that place where we can be accepted and loved just the way we are, no matter who or what we identify as.

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