The Fractured Fandom Book

My project all started with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. In 2010 a new animated series was released based on the old toy line (I had these toys as a kid). What amazed everyone is that a toy line and series meant for girls started to develop a following of adult men, who took […]

My Little Pony on The Pop Culture Lens

In the fourteenth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher and I are joined by Aaron Kashtan of Miami University in Ohio (https://ogresfeathers.wordpress.com) to discuss the gendered and transmedia nature of the long-surviving and recently rejuvenated franchise, My Little Pony. Our discussion focuses on the distinctions between the earlier manifestations of this franchise and […]

Men Watching Sex and the City, My Little Pony, and Oklahoma

The most recent issue of Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies contains an article I wrote based on the study I conducted for my dissertation. I wrote this article with the help of one of our fine undergraduate students at Dominican University, Kevin Miller, who is now pursuing his graduate school career. The article’s […]

The Fetishistic Turn in My Little Pony

This blog post originally appeared at Clearance Bin Review almost a year ago, in consideration for the then upcoming release of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic movie Equestria Girls. Given my research on that topic, I decided to bring it here as well, under the umbrella that is the fractured fandom project. Almost […]

Sexist Tensions in Geekdom: Why? Just, Why?

The title of this blog post could well have been “______ Tensions in Geekdom: Why? Just, Why?”, but I think that would’ve messed with the URL and broken the WWW. Honestly, tho, “sexist” could just as well be “racist” or “ageist” or “homophobic” or any other “-ism” relevant in our divided and catalogued world. It […]

When Audiences Collide: The Fractured Fandom of My Little Pony

This post comes from a presentation I will be giving at the Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago on April 18th, 2014. This presentation comes from the beginning of the research I am doing with the help of my research assistant, Elizabeth Robinson. It is also an expanded version of the presentation I gave at […]

Support Grayson and All Young Bronies

If you are a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan, and you have not heard of Grayson Bruce, then you need to do some reading. And not just about Grayson, but about all the other young male fans of the series who are being bullied, by kids and adults alike, just because they have […]

Equestria Girls Sequel: Rainbow Rocks

The first was apparently a big enough hit (in home video sales at least) for the hit animated series that a follow-up is coming this fall. My Little Pony‘s Equestria Girls are returning in a sequel called “Rainbow Rocks.” The trailer went out online a couple days ago, and Hasbro released it on their MLP:FIM Facebook […]

Everypony is Somepony

This April is going to be all My Little Pony all the time, as I present my research on the fractured MLP:FIM fandom over the Equestria Girls movie. A long time ago — a year before the movie was released — I started looking into the fandom and the phenomenon of bronies. This post originally appeared over at Clearance Bin […]

Equestria Girls: A Reaction to the Film

After a summer spent learning about, reading about, and writing about it, I finally tonight sat down and watched My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Equestria Girls. Given that I will be presenting on the topic of fractured fandom surrounding this movie’s marketing and release, I wanted to form my own opinion on the movie. […]