The brony fandom—the adult fandom of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic—has been the subject of extensive peer-reviewed academic analysis and scholarly examination since its emergence in 2010. Researchers across various disciplines, such as media studies, psychology, gender studies, sociology, theology, and digital culture, have studied the fandom's unique characteristics, community dynamics, and cultural impact. The brony fandom has attracted particular academic interest due to its challenge to traditional gender norms through adult male participation in media marketed toward young girls, its distinctive online community structures and community vernacular, and its prolific creative output spanning music, fan art, and fan fiction.

The brony fandom has been recognized as major case studies in digital participatory culture and hegemonic masculinity. Academic analyses have examined both the community's positive contributions to online culture and its more problematic elements, including the creation of adult-oriented content known as clop, instances of exclusionary behavior toward female fans, and extremist ideologies.

Demographics

In 2012, two informal surveys involving 2,300 and 9,000 participants, respectively, revealed that the average age of adult fans was around 21, approximately 86% were male, and 63% were currently pursuing a college degree or higher qualification. The surveys estimated that there were between 7 and 12.4 million people in the United States who would identify themselves as bronies in January 2012. As of 2018, 53% of bronies were younger than 20 years old.

During the same period, a more detailed study called the Brony Study was conducted by Dr. Patrick Edwards, a psychology professor at Wofford College. Edwards had initially compiled one of the aforementioned informal surveys and presented the results at ongoing brony conventions, noting that the brony fandom provided "the opportunity to study a fan phenomenon from its inception" and planned to continue the survey to watch the evolution of the subculture. The 2012 edition of the Brony Study (with 1,300 respondents) found that 86% of bronies were male with an average age of 21; 84% identified as heterosexual, 10.3% as bisexual, 1.7% as homosexual, 3.8% as asexual; 62% were college students or graduates, and 35.2% were in high school; 70% were students, and 32.7% were employed; 69% were from North America, 22% from Europe, and 5% from Oceania; 96.4% were single and 2.9% were married. A subsequent 2013 survey with over 21,000 respondents reported that the majority of fans were in the 15–30 age range with an average age between 19 and 20, and over 65% were heterosexual. The survey revealed that approximately 27% of respondents fell into the "INTJ" classification of the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, which normally only occurs in 1–3% of the population according to the surveyors. That same year, Hub Network's CEO and President Margaret Loesch, who was the executive producer of the 1980s and 1990s animated My Little Pony television shows, noted that there were male fans of those past shows, but there are considerably more for Friendship Is Magic due to the quality of the show and the influence of social media and the Internet.

In September 2019, Edwards published the book Meet the Bronies, which summarized the results of the Brony Studies from 2012 to 2018. Across 19 surveys involving over 50,000 participants, bronies were found to be predominantly young adult males with an average age of 21 in 2012 and 26 in 2018, showing an upward trend over time as fans aged with the show. Approximately 86% of participants identified as male in early studies; later research revealed greater gender diversity, with 5.4% identifying as transgender and 3.6% as non-binary or genderqueer by 2016. The studies consistently found that around 70% of bronies identified as heterosexual, 10% as bisexual, 2% as homosexual, and 9% as asexual, making them approximately twice as likely to identify as LGBT compared to the general population of similar age. Female bronies were significantly more likely to identify as non-heterosexual than their male counterparts; 79.5% of male fans identified as heterosexual compared to only 47.9% of female fans. The majority of participants (62–63%) were pursuing college degrees or higher education, with 30–70% currently attending college and 40–60% enrolled as full-time students; 15–30% were working full-time, 20–25% part-time, and 18–20% were unemployed. Bronies were primarily from English-speaking countries and predominantly resided in larger cities with populations over 500,000. The studies also found that 94% were unmarried, though relationship patterns improved over time, with early studies showing many single participants but later surveys indicating the majority were in non-married dating relationships by 2016. Most bronies reported joining the fandom around the second and third seasons of the show; by 2016, bronies had an average of 3.7 years in the fandom.

Identification with the term brony

The term brony, a portmanteau of bro and pony, emerged in 2010 from 4chan as a reflection of the predominantly adult male fanbase of the show and became widely used as a gender-neutral identifier despite its masculine linguistic origins. The alternative term pegasister was created specifically for female fans, but the majority of female fans of the show dislike the term and prefer to identify as a brony over pegasister. In 2016, 93.4% of fans of Friendship Is Magic identified as a brony; 95% of male fans and 79.3% of female fans used the label to describe themselves. In a 2021 study published in the Journal of Gender Studies, female fans described the term pegasister as "isolating" and viewed brony as more inclusive, with one stating: "I hate when people call me a pegasister, 'cause I don't like to separate myself by gender."

A 2017 ethnographic study of :/mlp/ (the My Little Pony board of 4chan) found that some adult male fans of the show who use /mlp/ explicitly rejected the brony label in favor of more transgressive, self-deprecating, and tongue-in-cheek labels like ponyfag and horsefucker. These fans viewed bronies as fans who publicly displayed their interest in the show, while they preferred to maintain anonymity and secrecy about their fandom participation.

Discrimination and anti-fandom ("anti-bronies") In a 2021 analysis of brony discussions on Reddit, sociologist Steven Dashiell found that bronies experience stigma and discrimination due to graphic stereotypes portraying them as "disgusting weirdos who are sexually attracted to animals from a children's television show" or "some combination of gay, socially incompetent and perverted." Dashiell wrote that mainstream media has actively stigmatized the community, such as a 2011 Adult Swim ad that included bronies in their "all-time list of creepy weird things that scare [them]." Dashiell found that the potential for ridicule and discrimination leads many bronies to hide their identity in public spaces, only feeling comfortable expressing their fandom in designated safe spaces like brony conventions and online communities. The study also found that bronies are frequently mischaracterized as having sexual interests in the show's content and are often incorrectly grouped with furries.

The association with the brony identity has been documented as an additional source of online harassment. On /r/The_Donald, the identification of an anti-Trump protestor as a brony led to further stigmatization and attacks, with one poster writing: "His family should be ashamed of his degeneracy, so low can't even be called a faggot." Bronies have received ridicule in other places, including Fox News and 4chan, with attacks on their gender, mental health, sexuality, and maturity being frequent. In a 2015 article published in the Journal of Popular Television, Bethan Jones wrote that while most anti-fan discourse at the time revolved around the merit of the work (e.g. the Twilight series and Fifty Shades of Grey), the brony fandom was unique in that their anti-fandom ("anti-bronies") revolved around the fans and not the show itself.

A 2016 study surveyed 118 fantasy sport fans using a feeling thermometer test to quantify their attitudes toward furries, bronies, and anime fans on a scale from 1 (extremely negative) to 100 (extremely positive), with 50 representing neutral feelings. Fantasy sport fans rated themselves significantly above neutral but rated bronies, furries, and anime fans significantly below neutral, with bronies and furries receiving equally negative ratings that were lower than those given to anime fans. A subsequent 2018 study of over 3,500 participants from various fandoms found evidence of a psychological phenomenon called "denial of personal discrimination." When researchers asked fans two separate questions—whether their fandom as a group faces discrimination and whether they personally have experienced discrimination—participants consistently gave different answers. Fans acknowledged that their fandom faces discrimination but reported experiencing less discrimination themselves individually, a pattern that occurred across bronies, furries, anime fans, and general interest fan groups.

Psychology The 2013 edition of the Brony Study found that bronies' initial reactions to Friendship Is Magic fell into two categories, with negative reactions being stronger than positive reactions, as represented by responses ranging from "I thought the idea that I might like MLP was strange and creepy" to "I thought it was cool and something I could be passionate about." The study identified two main behavioral patterns: a Social Factor characterized by high engagement and visibility, and an Isolation Factor marked by secrecy and withdrawal from the community. This led to a four-type classification: Social Bronies (37.5% of subjects) who were openly engaged with the community; Secret Bronies (12.6%) who were engaged but hidden from family and friends; Hidden Bronies (39.6%) who were both disengaged and secretive; and Independent Bronies (10.2%) who were open about their identity but not community-focused. The study found no systematic mental issues and difficulties, and identified personality traits like absorption, extraversion, and conscientiousness as key predictors of whether individuals fell on the social or isolation spectrum.

Participatory culture

Academics have characterized the brony fandom as a participatory culture, where fans actively engage with the source material by creating their own content rather than simply consuming it. The fandom produces a large quantity of Internet memes, fan art, fan fiction, fan music, and fan animations. Some fan works, like the 2D fighting game Fighting Is Magic (which would later become Them's Fightin' Herds) and the album Love & Ponystep have achieved professional quality and recognition.

The brony fandom's strong participatory culture is credited for creating the character of Derpy Hooves, a background pony with crossed eyes from the first episode.

Hegemonic masculinity

The brony fandom has been studied as a major case study in hegemonic masculinity and its subversion.

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