Gender Roles in Equestrian Society A.K.A. a really long, in-depth blog that's probably worth reading =D · 3:53am Apr 22nd, 2013

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New Chapters' Progress
~ Equestrian Earth the MMORPG - 0%
~ Blowing Through the Pages - 46.55%
~ Luna Plays - 0%

What I'm currently listening to:

The mare and the stallion. Both are of the same species, but have very different aspects and details that contradict each other. The question on the day is this though: Which one has the stronger standing in Equestria?

Well, let's first take a sneak peek into the inner workings of the nation's government. Like any huge dog packs in a large neighborhood, these ponies need an Alpha to take care of them. A leader so to speak. To fill that purpose, the citizens of Equestria turn to the most highly respected, powerful goddess to ever grace their land: Princess Celestia and Luna.

The Royal Sisters pair are the esteemed monarchs of the harmonic land of Equestria, and both proudly own the title of being Princesses. Despite the fact that the rank of a King or Queen exist in the land (ex: King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis), the two mares were modest enough to settle for the term of Princess. Don't let the word's nature fool you though. Celestia and Luna are both very capable of running a nation; especially if they work together to bring peace and balance over all the ponies in their homeland. However, this is where the question of gender kicks in. If there isn't male figure with the same amount of power as them in terms of politics, does that mean Equestria is under the law of the mare? Is Equestria really just an Amazonian empire hiding under the veil of friendship, and they're really just have the stallions under their hooves, doing whatever they please with them?

Fortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case. So far, we can clearly see that the Royal Guard (Equestria's military force?) has a large amount of stallions in their formation. I'm willing to bet that if you were to scour the entire castle, you will not find a single mare in armor, doing her Royal Guard duty. Of course, this is what we assume from the canon show's perspective. In the sea of artworks, fan fictions, and sometimes music, you'll find a multitude of mares in golden or Lunar armor, equipped with some hefty weapons and gear. Here are such examples.

I'm sure you have noticed that Equestria is filled to the brim with mares, and we uncommonly see a stallion show itself in the show. When we do, we would see them doing work that mares wouldn't normally do, or work to assist the mare leaders of Equestrian society.

So maybe stallions aren't really doing better off, are they? I mean, they're seemingly stuck to hold onto jobs that doesn't place them in a role of leadership. King Sombra once held that position of power, but he was ultimately put down by mares. Do you see where I'm going with this? We're at the point in the blog where we have to accept that stallions will probably never become a notable figure in society, and the mares will always have the final laugh.

Or do they?

In political terms, they're most likely unstoppable. But in a social sense? Well I can tell you this: Stallions have a chance. We don't see it often, but there are a few prime examples in the community that shows a stallion to be a well-respected member of society, with deeds worthy of merit or mention. Not sure where I'm getting at? Well let us take a look what we have here.

Perfectly fine, upstanding stallions of Equestria. Not exactly the stallions I would call to be main characters, but they've certainly done a lot of things in their lives to get to where they are. After all, I can imagine Fancy Pants to be a notable figure among nobles, Soarin has proved his worth to be in the Wonderbolts, Rich's grandfather has built up a nice little shop that helped set up the foundation for Ponyville (and Filthy Rich maintains that legacy), and Shining Armor is the driving force behind the defenders of the Equine land. Surely they have not gone unnoticed? Obviously not. But still, we have to wonder whether if there are more stallions like the four above. Maybe the mayor titles in the other pony cities have been donned by stallions? It's unlikely that we'll find out until the MLP team will give us episodes that explores this realm.

However, we're not done with this blog yet. Not by a long shot. There's still one mane question left unanswered (see what I did there?). This question is related to the breeze of spring time. The birds that flies with the bees. The golden bands that tightens the connections. The unstoppable force that not even the great Twilight Sparkle isn't immune to!
Of course, I'm talking about love. The specifics though are this: Who usually makes the first move? The mare or the stallion?

So far in the canon binoculars that we have, there has been only one episode that showcases a romantic relationship between ponies. Hearts and Hooves Day is the seventeenth episode of the second season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the forty-third episode overall. The Cutie Mark Crusaders (who are somewhat the main troublemakers of the episode) create a strong love potion, or love poison, as they later find out, in hopes of making Miss Cheerilee and Big McIntosh each other's "special somepony", but when they discover the serious side effects of the concoction, they quickly regret their actions.

However, we have yet to see anypony really make the "first" move. We can see the couples at the cafe tables as clear as day, but we can most likely assume that their relationship with each other were already established before the episode.

So where do we go from here?
... Oh come on now. You know which place I'm talking about.
The brony fandom.
In most cases (in terms of fan fiction), the stallions are left with the duty to be "the one" to make the first move. After all, they must be the gentlecolt of the pair and make all the impressive moves, right? Well, yes and no. Don't get me wrong, stallions must be very respectful towards their spouses. A relationship where the stallion is the complete jerk would probably end before it even starts. You know who I'm talking about.

Sigh, I liked Bringing Up Blueblood's Blueblood better...

Anyway, let's not stray from the road. As I was talking about earlier, stallions shouldn't have to be the one to make the first move. Sure it has been expected in the show (thank you sooo much, Rarity) that stallions should be the charming prince, but with the large amounts of mares, with a quite a large hoofful of them in the role of leadership and power, should it be the mares that makes the first move? Should the mares be the one to ask stallions out on a delightful date with them? Should they be the ones to put on "the pants" and defend their spouse's honor should they be insulted by other ponies? Honestly... I think the answer is yes. After all, we rarely see a stallion in the position of authority. Most likely they would be treated as the more "delicate" gender in Equestria, and mares would be the ones to be there for them. I'm not saying that stallions aren't strong on their own, but we have to take into account that stallions are seemingly severely outnumbered by mares, and that the gender roles in Equestria are reversed compared to our society. Personally, I think it's very cute and awesome for the mares to be the ones to have the main hoof in the relationship. Although, if the mare messes up big time, then the stallions gets to kick her out of the bed and have her sleep on the sofa.

Although, Equestria is pretty much the very image of a utopian land, and the possibility of full gender equality is not out of reach. However, it doesn't make a very good plot device for writing. In fact, I believe the reversed roles between a mare and stallion are quite... interesting.

Still, we shouldn't ignore the fact that relationships are formed because we all yearn for companionship, and that both spouses should always support each other and treat the other as equals. That's how it works... right?

To see prime examples of the reversed gender role concept being used as the plot, check out these amazing works of fan-fictions down below.
Xenophilia