Review/Analysis: Queer Subtext in MLP? · 2:25pm Apr 17th, 2015
When I started getting into Pony, I decided to try watching and analyzing the entire series. Real life got in the way, so I only got as far as episode three... but I kind of like what I did write. so I thought I'd copy those reviews and commentary over to this site.
Queer Subtext in MLP
My Little Pony is a queer show. A children's show about ponies, built to sell toys, marketed to girls, which has mustered a large adult male fanbase. The success and popularity of Friendship is Magic can very easily qualify as queer, for the definition of strange.
But is it a Queer show?
First, a definition: when I say Queer in this context, I'm speaking in terms of identity, gender, and sexuality. It's also a word with kind of a complicated history of meaning, both as an insult and being reclaimed and back and forth, so I figure I should make my views on that topic clear from the start- I do not intend any offence in my use of the term. I am fully in support of equal rights and civil liberties. That being said, if there are members of that community who find my use of the term to be offensive, please, let me know. I liked it for the pithy opening, but I'd rather delete that than offend someone.
That being said... onto the essay.
In the second season of MLP, we witness Hearts and Hooves day, a pony-equivalent of Valentines Day, complete with couples , cards and gifts. The episode is about the Cutie Mark Crusaders using magic to force Cheerilee and Big Mac into being a couple, with them eventually realising that that's the wrong thing to do. It's a decent enough episode. But as I was watching it this time, I noticed an odd quirk in the language the characters use to describe their significant other:
"I don't have a special somepony at the moment".
The CMC spend the episode looking for a stallion for Cheerilee, and the end of the episode certainly implies that she is straight... but it's rather curious than Equestria doesn't seem to have different terms for male/female romantic partners. Cheerilee and Big Mac both refer to the other as their "special somepony", rather than agender-specific title like boy- or girlfriend.
It was an interesting enough observation to me, but it was compounded by another small quirk at the beginning of the episode. After the title song, we see Cheerilee's class giving cards to one another. There are some small flashes of funny moments, like the filly in the back who clearly discards their card once the colt she was going to give it to has recieved one... but what's unusual about the scene is a pegasus in the middle row giving a card to Diamond Tiara.
A pegasus filly.
Hearts and Hooves Day seems to be about celebrating love, in all it's forms; it's a safe bet, for instance, that the CMC are not harboring a group crush on Cheerilee; they present the card to her because they love her as a teacher. And yet, every other couple in the episode is a romantic pair. It can't even be that the pegasus is one of Diamon Tiara's friends, because the only friend Diamond Tiara seems to have is Silver Spoon, who didn't give her a card.
Did My Little Pony sneak a lesbian crush in past the censors?
As a show for children, MLP is unlikely to ever delve into an on-screen homosexual romance, let alone the most complicated aspects of identity (like asexuality or transgender). And yet, the theme of identity is an important one to the show, at least from the second season on.
To get something out of the way- the fandom has taken a lot of this into their own hands. In the show, for instance, Lyra and Bon Bon are often shown standing next to one another, because their color schemes complement one another well and they have distinctive character designs. There isn't any indication that they are anything more than friends; fan-derived works, however, often show the two in a romantic relationship.
Similarly, every member of the cast has been shipped with a character of their own gender, at some point. The show being what it is, it rarely delves into any form of romance, leaving lots of room for speculation, fanon and headcanon.
Rainbow Dash seems to get a lot of this. In fact, the idea that Rainbow Dash is a lesbian is fairly common in fanworks. Her mane (and name) echoes the Rainbow Flag associated with the LBGT movement. She's a very "masculine" character, with an awesome guitar riff instead of "girly" music, and an interest in sports. Lauren Faust actually responded to these comments, as well as the belief that the show seems to suggest that only "butch" women wear rainbows:
Rainbow Dash has rainbow-striped hair because of her name and because she is very interested in sports, specifically flying. She is a tomboy, but nowhere in the show is her sexual orientation ever referenced. As we all know, there are plenty of straight tomboys in the world, and assuming they are lesbians is extremely unfair to both straight and lesbian tomboys.
There is enough leeway in her response for a fan of the show to interpret Rainbow Dash as whatever-they-want her to be. Anyone who wants to view the character as homosexual has enough to go on to do that, while others who want to view the character as straight can do the same.
In fact, looking at the series as a whole, there aren't that many heterosexual romances as a contrast. The first season is building up a possible Rarity-Blueblood relationship, but the finale shows that Blueblood is a shallow cretin. There is Cheerilee and Big Mac, whose episode ends with them joking about being in a relationship, something ambiguous enough that the audience is left to decide for themselves whether or not they really are in one.
The only "consistent" romance story in the series has been Spike's affection for Rarity, which isn't a good example. For one thing, it's ambiguous as to whether or not Rarity recognizes (or reciprocates) his feelings. There is the age difference between them; there is the species difference between them.
There's the fact that Spike's story arcs are all about him finding out who he is, that his story is one about the quest for self-identity. He wants to find out what dragons are like and be like them (male), but rejects them to be a pony(female), even though he still ascribes to a personal "dragon" code of conduct. Even his color scheme is conflicted, with purple as an ambiguously gendered color. Would it be fair to view Spike, therefore, as a trans or genderqueer individual, or should he be thought of as a character following his own path, regardless of societal norms?
Societies norms also seems to play a part of this. Going back to Hearts and Hooves Day, a filly giving another filly a valentine card doesn't get undue attention. Rainbow Dash never shows romantic feelings (for stallions or mares) and no one comments on it. The rest of the Mane Six do not tease or encourage Rarity in her romantic pursuits. Spike's crush on Rarity is made fun of, but his concerns about who he is- both in regards to the dragon migration and his dragon code- are treated with the utmost respect by the other characters.
Equestria is a world which doesn't have different words for different genders; the most the show every goes into is "Fillies and gentlecolts", as a stand-in for ladies and gentlemen. It's a world built around the concept of finding your special talent, and finding out who you are, and what you can do. It doesn't directly address sexuality... and yet there is enough of an openness in the world the show has constructed and the characters inhabiting it that the audience can fill in the blanks.
And I think the fact that the audience filled it in with characters of such diverse traits indicates that, if there isn't an implicit equality among the ponies of Equestria, then the fans certainly think there is.
When discussing Heterosexual pairings, you completely forgot to mention Shining/Cadence and Cranky/Matilda.
Anyway, interesting musings here; gives me food for thought.
3196063
Glad you like! Though you're completely right; can't believe I forgot Cadence and Shining at least, considering their marriage was a huge promotional thing as well as being a straight relationship in-show.
I admit, I was coming from the point of "Yes it is," and probably trying to justify my position more than I "should" have in a fair analysis. Oh well. I still like my point, I guess?
Besides, the 100th episode basically confirmed Lyra and Bon Bon as a relationship, so...
3196883 Yeah, I was quite happy with the LyraBon in that episode.