A few weeks ago, I wrote a huge diatribe about how much My Little Pony: Friendship is Magical undermines the causes of feminism and anti-racism etc etc. I made a point about how MLP encouraged girls to follow “faith” rather than, you know, using common sense, reason, or problem-solving.
Well, I have to scale back my MLP ire-ometer from an 8 to a 6 or so, because I’ve since discovered that the whole “blind faith is great” trope is pretty common in kid’s shows. There’s an even an episode of my beloved Spongebob in which Spongebob and Patrick are rewarded for believing in a magical conch and Squidward is punished for doing things like finding shelter and creating a fire.
So MLP gets demoted (or upgraded) from “strenuously disappointing” to “equally as sucky as everything else.” My kids recently discovered JEM, which is basically a cartoon soap opera with occasional music videos thrown in, so these days? I’m kind of missing Ponyville.
I haven’t seen more than 30 minutes total but I’m pretty sure Sponge Bob is the devil.
We as a family truly love Spongebob. It’s probably my favorite kid’s show. So I was really bummed to see this episode. Now we just skip it if it comes on. You should watch the hilarious Pizza Delivery episode to enjoy the best of Spongebob (or the Jellyfish party ep, which is Jen’s favorite).
You know Lauren Faust, the creator of FiM, is also a feminist and has written on many occasions how she concentrated on moving away from girly stereotypes with this creation of hers.
Link! http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/12/24/my-little-non-homophobic-non-racist-non-smart-shaming-pony-a-rebuttal/
>inb4 this comment is not approved
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Thanks for the link. I have read it. I admire Faust and her vision. But I think it has not been fulfilled in a few ways. Hey, part of the fun of being a blogger — especially a critical and smart ass blogger — is ranting and nitpicking. I have since revised my stance on the show (at least the smart shaming stuff), and I hope you read my replies to other comments here. I really promise, I’m not a close minded jerk. I appreciate the comments here that offer me a different perspective on the show. Thanks!
Again missing the point of that episode it’s about having faith in your friends not an unknown being, also Twilight did Scientific research on pinkie’s twitching so it’s was proven her twitches could vaguely predict the future.
Seth,
OK, I have seen a few people say this but it’s so buried in the show that it’s hard to see. If we want to get super sciency about it, “vaguely predicting” isn’t emphasized as hard evidence (nor does it tell why that happens — plus it never happens again, so I’m not sure what lesson that teaches?). I see that it is different from the setup in Spongebob.
Hey, I get that I missed the fine points that might make an adult clear on the “vague” science of this ep. I just don’t think it’s worth watching with my kids, especially when there are other kid’s shows that focus on actual science, and other episodes of MLP with better lessons.
Thanks again, Seth.
In response to your argument about “Feeling Pinkie Keen,” that it encouraged girls to follow faith rather than reason, I believe you may be taking the meaning the wrong way. The faith shown by Twilight is different than religious faith. Religious faith is based completely on belief, and moreover there is little to no observable data to suggest it is true. Twilight knew that Pinkie could predict the future from observation, she just didn’t know why. The episode isn’t saying to ignore reason and blindly follow faith, just that some occurrences can’t be explained, but are still true. Take, for example, earthquake lights: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light
These are aurora-like patches of light that can form in the sky during earthquakes, and have been documented in numerous photos and videos. We don’t know what causes them, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible for the lights to form. That is the lesson of the episode, that something can be possible even if it seems there is no reason for being so. This is an issue frequently encountered in the field of science, such as explanations for dark matter, the Theory of Gravity, and other accepted, but not proven, existences.
Regardless of whether you agree with my reasoning or not, you also made a factual error in your last response comment, with “plus it never happens again.” Pinkie Pie also uses her Pinkie Sense in “The Mysterious Mare Do Well” and “It’s About Time.” I would recommend watching the second season on Youtube before making any further judgement.
Thanks for your comment, Paul — I’ll have to check that episode out.