MLP Rule 34 Update: April 2014 / The Binding of Wonder Woman · 10:55pm Apr 10th, 2014
[Disclaimer: While this blog post discusses Rule 34 statistics, it doesn't contain explicit imagery, embedded links to pornographic material or excessive coarse language. However, it does contain excessive horse language.]
It's the tenth of the month, so you know what that means. That's right! It's time for another in-depth analysis of clop! 
My previous Rule 34 blog posts are available at the following links.
August 2012 / At the rate things are going...
September 2012 / Famous Bronies
October 2012 / Digimon
November 2012 / Equestrian elections
December 2012 / Top 11 Hottest Animated Women
January 2013 / General porn statistics
February 2013 / Touhou review
March 2013 / Season three wrap up
April 2013 / Idolm@ster
May 2013 / OC woes
June 2013 / Ribald Rivalries
July 2013 / A major announcement
August 2013 / Rule 34 Origins
September 2013 / Equestria Girls Review
October 2013 / Three years of MLP:FIM
November 2013 / Season Three Episode Retrospective
December 2013 / Twilight Sparkle's Rival
January 2014 / Passing the Bechdel Test
February 2014 / CP Atone
March 2014 / Loli and Stitch
Without further ado, here's the latest data from Rule34.paheal.net!
As of April 10, 2014, here's the state of Rule 34:
Pokemon still holds the lead with 74,706 images. 1,321 new explicit images were added during March, giving Pokemon a 1.8% increase in porn from last month.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is in second place with 51,044 images. 1,511 new explicit images were added during March, giving My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic a 3% increase in porn from last month.
Touhou is in third place with 46,794 images. 854 new explicit images were added during March, giving Touhou a 1.8% increase in porn from last month.
DC Comics is in fourth place with 23,945 images. 172 new explicit images were added during March, giving DC Comics a 0.7% increase in porn from last month.
Street Fighter is in fifth place with 18,016 images. 173 new explicit images were added during March, giving Street Fighter a 0.7% increase in porn from last month.
Naruto is in sixth place with 17,521 images. 190 new explicit images were added during March, giving Naruto a 1% increase in porn from last month.
Marvel Comics is in seventh place with 17,110 images. 84 new explicit images were added during March, giving Marvel Comics a 0.4% increase in porn from last month.
Sonic Team is in eighth place with 16,041 images. 365 new explicit images were added during March, giving Sonic Team a 2.3% increase in porn from last month.
Digimon is in ninth place with 12,289 images. 207 new explicit images were added during March, giving Digimon a 1.7% increase in porn from last month.
Super Mario Bros is in tenth place with 10,896 images. 181 new explicit images were added during March, giving Super Mario Bros a 1.6% increase in porn from last month.
After a streak of unappreciated growth, My Little Pony failed to generate 2,000 new explicit images for a fourth consecutive month. It still managed to produce more new porn in March than any other series.
It's been three and a half years since the premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I've recorded 42 months worth of Rule 34 data. On Oct. 10, 2010, Pokemon had a total of 23,766 explicit images while My Little Pony only had 88 porn pictures. That meant that Pokemon had 23,678 more dirty drawings than My Little Pony.
Three and a half years later, on April 10, 2014, Pokemon has a total of 74,706 explicit images while My Little Pony has a total of 51,044 porn pictures. Pokemon currently has 23,662 more dirty drawings than My Little Pony.
This means that in three and a half years, My Little Pony has only managed to reduce Pokemon's initial lead by 16 explicit images. In fairness to My Little Pony, it took some time before the monthly amount of new porn could rival Pokemon's production. Just two years ago, in April 2012, Pokemon had a total of 44,653 explicit images while My Little Pony had a total of 8,042 porn pictures. Two years ago, Pokemon was beating My Little Pony by 36,611 dirty drawings. As of April 10, 2014, that number has been reduced to 23,678.
The bottom line: In the last two years, My Little Pony has made 12,933 more explicit images than Pokemon.
Now that we've gone over the monthly update for the top ten porn producers, it's time to analyze the latest data regarding Rule 34 images for the mane six.
As of April 10, 2014, here's the state of Rule 34 for the mane six, according to Rule34.paheal.net:
Twilight Sparkle
has 7,652 images. 201 explicit images were added during March, giving her a 2.6% increase from last month.
Rainbow Dash
has 6,431 images. 140 explicit images were added during March, giving her a 2.2% increase from last month.
Fluttershy
has 5,894 images. 187 explicit images were added during March, giving her a 3.2% increase from last month.
Pinkie Pie
has 5,571 images. 164 explicit images were added during March, giving her a 3% increase from last month.
Rarity
has 4,961 images. 135 explicit images were added during March, giving her a 2.7% increase from last month.
Applejack
has 4,837 images. 135 explicit images were added during March, giving her a 2.8% increase from last month.
March has currently been the weakest month for new pony porn this year, and these numbers reflect that. When Twilight Sparkle is the only member of the mane six to garner more than 200 new images, it's a sure sign of a dearth in dirty drawings.
Here's a list of favorite ponies as compiled in the State of the Herd 2014 report, which was conducted earlier this year by bronies throughout the world. 
This report was very interesting, since it seemed to correlate with the recent increase in Fluttershy porn production. Fluttershy has garnered more porn than Rainbow Dash for four consecutive months. How long before Rainbow Dash is surpassed by Fluttershy's sexiness?
In spite of Princess Luna ranking third place on the poll, she currently only has 2,940 explicit images on rule34.paheal.net. (For the record, Princess Celestia currently has 2,602 explicit images on rule34.paheal.net).
The State of the Herd 2014 report contains 87 pages of statistical data. Here are a few of the highlights:
Males are down to 81% of the fandom, continuing a trend of more female Bronies.
US Bronies now make up only 58% of the fandom.
Utah has the most Bronies per capita in the US, while Mississippi has the fewest.
10% of the fandom joined since Season 3 ended.
Special thanks to Infinion, who made these amazing graphs of the data I collected.
To start off with, here's the master chart of the top ten Rule 34 producers.
This chart represents more than three years' worth of Rule 34 data. In order to more closely examine the numbers, Infinion has broken the data into more manageable semi-annual charts.
Oct. 2010 - Mar. 2011.
Apr. - Sept. 2011.
Oct. 2011 - Mar. 2012.
Apr. - Sept. 2012.
Oct. 2012 - Mar. 2013.
Apr. - Sept. 2013.
Which brings us to Apr. 2014.
To get an idea of how far My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has come since its premiere, here's a chart highlighting the monthly numerical and percentage increase of MLP porn.
For those who desire a more consolidated look at the raw data, here's the numbers for the top ten porn producers, as well as their monthly increase.
Now let's take a look at the Rule 34 stats for the mane six. Here's their master chart.
In order to discover what these numbers mean, we'll need to delve deeper. In order to do that, we'll break down the data into semi-annual chunks.
Oct. 2010 - Mar. 2011.
Apr. - Sept. 2011.
Oct. 2011 - Mar. 2012.
Apr. - Sept. 2012.
Oct. 2012 - Mar. 2013.
Apr. - Sept. 2013.
Which brings us to Apr. 2014.
For those who desire a more consolidated look at the raw data, here's the numbers for the mane six, as well as their monthly increase
For this month's topic, I wanted to focus on one of pop culture's most enigmatic female icons: Wonder Woman.
If Superman is the body of DC's Trinity and Batman is the brains, then Wonder Woman is definitely the heart.
Examining the last 75 years of pop culture reveals a great disparity amongst DC's Trinity; with Wonder Woman being woefully underrepresented.
It's no secret that Marvel and DC have different views about risk taking with regards to their comic book movies.
Why is Wonder Woman treated like an outcast compared to Batman and Superman? Is it sexism, or is there more to the story? 
To better understand Wonder Woman, we need to study the events which influenced her creation. We'll begin by examining the life of her creator, William Moulton Marston.
Born in 1893, Marston graduated from Harvard in 1921 with a Ph.D in Psychology. With the assistance of his wife Elizabeth Holloway, Marston studied the relationship between emotion and blood pressure. His findings led him to create the Systolic Blood Pressure Test. Marston shared his research with John Augustus Larson, who invented the modern polygraph. 
Many have speculated that Marston's contribution to the creation of the "lie detector" played a significant role in designing Wonder Woman's signature weapon, the Lasso of Truth.
"While within the coils of Wonder Woman's magic lasso, all are compelled to speak the truth."
Marston's personal life deviated from contemporary societal norms and was considered to be downright scandalous in the 1930s. In addition to marrying Elizabeth Holloway, Marston fell in love with one of his students, Olive Bryne Richard. Marston asked his wife if Olive could live with them. Elizabeth said yes.
In this photo, Marston takes his wife Elizabeth's blood pressure. She's seated and fitted with a breathing mask. Their life partner Olive stands in the doorway and takes notes.
Marston lived in a happy polyamorous relationship with Elizabeth and Olive and fathered two children by each of them.
A 1947 group portrait. Standing left to right. Byrne Marston, Moulton (Pete) Marston, Olive Byrne Richard. Seated left to right: Marjorie Wilkes, Olive Ann Marston. William Moulton Marston, Donn Marston, Elizabeth Holloway Marston
William Mouton Marston died of cancer in 1947 at the age of 53. Elizabeth and Olive continued to live together after Marston's death for another four decades until Olive passed away in the late 1980s. Elizabeth Holloway Marston lived to be 100 years old and died in 1993.
The Creation of Wonder Woman: In October 1940, the "Family Circle" magazine published an interview with Marston entitled "Don't Laugh at the Comics," in which Marston discussed the untapped potential of comic books. Maxwell Charles Gaines, a pioneer in the comic book industry, saw the interview and offered Marston a job as a consultant to what would eventually become DC Comics. Realizing that strong female role models in comics were virtually nonexistent, Marston sold Gaines on the concept of a superheroine. Marston began writing stories under the pen name Charles Moulton, combining his and his publisher's middle names.
In a 1943 issue of "The American Scholar", Marston wrote: "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."
It should come as no surprise that the two most important women in Marston's life were the primary inspirations for Wonder Woman. The Amazon Princess's personality was inspired by Elizabeth's independent nature, as well as her intelligence, strength and self-confidence. Wonder Woman's appearance was based on Olive.
Olive Bryne Richard had jet black hair and blue eyes. She also wore long bracelets on her arms, which were incorporated into the design of Wonder Woman's costume.
Marston was an avid feminist who wanted Wonder Women to be the means through which he would expose young boys to the concept of a strong, dominating women. Marston believed that submission to "loving authority" was the key to overcoming mankind's violent urges, and that strong, self-realized women were the hope for a better future. 
"Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world," Marston said, "When women rule, there won't be any more [war] because the girls won't want to waste time killing men... I regard that as the greatest - no, even more - as the only hope for permanent peace."
"Give them an alluring woman stronger than themselves to submit to, and they'll be proud to become her willing slaves," Marston said.
Marston enjoyed binding women, being bound by women and watching women bind each other. Marston's Wonder Woman comics were filled with male and female bondage, spanking, slave girls, cross-dressing and playful domination.
"Women are exciting for this one reason -- it is the secret of women's allure -- women enjoy submission, being bound," Marston said, "This I bring out in the Paradise Island sequences where the girls beg for chains and enjoy wearing them."
When exposed to Kryptonite, Superman becomes weak and helpless. In a similar fashion, Wonder Woman loses her super strength if she allows a man to subdue her.
It was no secret that Marston was an enthusiastic advocate of bondage and domination, and he did not escape controversy. The Child Study Association of America accused Marston of being a sadist.
It may seem like Marston was trying to masquerade his personal BDSM fetish fuel as a comic book, but beneath all the ropes and chains was a sincere desire to see the world shake off the bondage of barbarism and transform itself into a utopia ruled by women. The peaceful pleasures of Paradise Island were at odds with the violent bravado on display during World War II.
"The only hope for peace is to teach people who are full of pep and unbound force to enjoy being bound," Marston said, "Only when the control of self by others is more pleasant than the unbound assertion of self in human relationships can we hope for a stable, peaceful human society."
"Giving to others, being controlled by them, submitting to other people cannot possibly be enjoyable without a strong erotic element," Marston said.
"Tell me anybody's preference in story strips and I'll tell you his subconscious desires," Marston said, "Superman and the army of male comics characters who resemble him satisfy the simple desire to be stronger and more powerful than anybody else. Wonder Woman satisfies the subconscious, elaborately disguised desire of males to be mastered by a woman who loves them."
Given what we've learned, one could view Wonder Woman's boyfriend Steve Trevor as a self-insert character for Marston.
Check out this clip from Batman: Brave and the Bold and watch Steve Trevor's expressions. It's almost as if he's turned on by watching Wonder Woman beat people up.
After Marston's death in 1947, the bondage and most of the feminist elements disappeared from the Wonder Woman comics. Marston's mantra of submission to a loving authority failed to resonate with society. 
In spite of these setbacks, or possibly because of them, Wonder Woman has become a popular symbol for gays, lesbians and other people whose sexual identity deviates from mainstream conventions. One of the recent writers of Wonder Woman comics, Allan Heinberg, is openly gay. He discussed the Amazonian Princess in an interview.
"You know, as a gay man, you would think I would be principally attracted to characters like Batman or Superman or Robin, but for some reason I identify most strongly with [Wonder Woman], because even within the superhero society she's a bit of an outsider," Heinberg said.
I wish Marston could've lived to see My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I think he would've be a brony.
Long before My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic came along, Wonder Woman was championing for universal love and tolerance.
Now that we've studied the origin of Wonder Woman, let's take a look at a couple of odd moments from her history. Did you know she was in a crossover with Jerry Lewis? That actually happened.
Also, can I talk about how phallic this cover is? You have Jerry Lewis hold his phallic symbol sword at crotch level. Jerry's been emasculated by a more muscular man who swings a thicker club between his legs. Speaking of phallic Wonder Woman covers...
In one of Wonder Woman's lowest points, she was almost turned into a She-Ra knock off.
In 1992, DC collaborated with Mattel to make a Wonder Woman cartoon which had nothing to do with her history or character. Her name was included mostly for brand recognition. The series looked like a cross between She-Ra and Captain Planet, since there was a prominent environmentalist message. A promotional comic book was made.
The ice-themed character is named "Ice?" The water-themed character is named "Dolphin?" With names like that, I'm surprised this idea made it as far as prototypes of the dolls, which were revealed at the 1993 Toy Fair.
An animated pilot was apparently in the works, but the ill-fated concept was put out of its misery before it could be completed and the toys never made it to store shelves.
That wasn't the only Wonder Woman show which failed to launch. In 2011, there was a Wonder Woman TV pilot which was so bad that it never made it to television.
And just for the record, as of April 10th, 2014, Wonder Woman has 3,608 explicit images on rule34.paheal.net.
Wonder Woman laid the groundwork for all female superheroes who would follow her. More than fifty years after Marston's death, Lauren Faust and her husband created the Powerpuff Girls. A trio of female superheroes who would help to define cartoons which transcended gender barriers. At one point, the Powerpuff Girls even got to appear alongside Wonder Woman.
Lauren Faust also has another link to the Wonder Woman universe due to her involvement in Super Best Friends Forever.
Here's an excerpt from an interview Lauren Faust did regarding the SBFF shorts:
"I started with each character's most notable physical power and tried to combine it with an aspect of their personality. Batgirl is not as physically strong as Supergirl or Wonder Girl, but she is extremely agile, so I thought of gymnasts and how they are so often rather short and compact, like a coiled spring. In SBFF, she's also a very high-energy character, so this spring-like quality, and her small squirreliness also speaks to this.
I made Wonder Girl tall and lanky for two reasons: first, she's an Amazon, who I like to think are unusually tall, but she's also a teen, so she hasn't "filled out" yet. Second, she's the stoic rule-follower of the group. Designing her with lots of straight lines and angles, combined with her height, makes her literally straight and narrow.
Supergirl is the most obvious. Her power is strength, so I wanted her to be all muscle. A lot of girls carry their strength more in the lower body than the upper body, so I put it mostly in her legs. Giving her this bulk brought in a lot of round shapes, so I carried that out into her face, eyes, hair and even her hands." -- Lauren Faust, 2013
Hopefully someday Wonder Woman will get her own movie, as opposed to only appearing as a cameo in Batman vs Superman or The Lego Movie. Don't get me wrong. I liked The Lego Movie, but Wonder Woman deserves so much more.
The events which inspired the creation of Wonder Woman would make for a compelling film in a similar style to Saving Mr. Banks.
I'd love to see Marston, Elizabeth and Olive assist in creating the polygraph. The three of them could discover the intricate intimacies of a polyamorous relationship and bondage. We could watch Marston use the creation of Wonder Woman as an outlet for his sexual fantasies and feminist ideology.
What's this? Has someone brought the real life story of William Marston to the stage?
I'm elated that the world premiere of a stage play about William Marston occurred while I was compiling research for this article. I hope more people are able to see this play.
Thanks again for reading to the end of the article! I hope everyone learned something new about Wonder Woman. I know I did! Please feel free to discuss this month's topics in the comments. I'll be back May 10th with another Rule 34 update. With any luck, I'll have a new story published before then!
Click here to see Wonder Woman scissoring!
I agree with your point about Marvel Comics releasing a film with a talking space raccoon soon, but let's not forget: Black Widow was one of two members of the Avengers who didn't have a solo film about her before the group debut.
And who still doesn't have one.
This isn't intended as a dig to Marvel specifically, just an acknowledgement that the current playing field sucks.
Even though films that pass the Bechdel test make more money, on average, than films that don't
You know, it's when sexism starts affecting efficiency and performance in the private sector that I get really worried
Thanks as always for the insightful and interesting blog post!
1998291
It's funny that you would mention the Bechdel Test.
I get upset whenever I here someone talk about how "shows for girls are unprofitable." What's 'unprofitable' is treating the female gender as inferior. We'll finally be making some progress when Hollywood starts writing characters as opposed to the current mindset of writing genders.
1998327
You're welcome. I sometimes worry that there's too much content. I don't want people to zone out when faced with a wall of text, so I include lots of pictures.
Even with all of that, though, would you prefer to see these updates include shorter segments?
Not necessarily true. The top ten grossing films of all time, save for Frozen, fail the Bechdel test. Which isn't really a bad thing, since the "test" doesn't take into account films with only one central female character. The Bechdel test wasn't really meant to be a real test of a movie's "feminist value" or whatever, it was a one-off joke in a comic strip.
But, whatever. I agree with the main point that we need more female heroes in out movies. I'm personally hoping for a Team Spider-Lady movie featuring Black Widow and Spider-Woman.
1998477
Which is why I specified on average, not at the tail end of the bell curve
Plus, I could counteract the argument with the fact that movies that pass the Bechdel test have been slowly increasing, percentage wise; in the past, there were less films with female presences in them, meaning that male dominated (okay, it's a misleading term, but please work with me here) have had a longer time to produce huge hits.
And I heartily agree with you that
.
What it also is, though, is a very easily measured metric which we can agree correlates (although very imperfectly) with a very, very hard to define quality, that is, whether something is...I dunno, containing a modicum of females?
Social concepts are hard
As always, fascinating discourse and lots of lovely statistics. I'm a sucker for charts and graphs. Thank you for another month's analysis, Bronystories.
1998291 Actually, didn't they just recently confirm a Black Widow movie is coming up (I believe after Avengers 2)?
Still, I agree with your point - as the sole girl on the team (so far) she's appeared in a lot of movies but needs her own.
Whoa...
1999213
When you say "whoa," what is it in relation to, specifically? The data? The facts about Wonder Woman?
1998542
All I was really trying to say was that the Bechdel test shouldn't be considered the only metric of how "feminist" a movie is.
Nicely done. As a Wonder Woman fan, I appreciate the time put into this.
Though, I will point out that both Dolphin and Ice pre-date the WW and the Star Riders concept. Ice was created in the late 80's, and Dolphin dates back all the way to the 60's. The other two were new concepts, though. (I've actually always kind of liked Dolphin...)
1999220
All of it, really. I never actually checked out your blog all that much, and I'm kinda baffled that there is such a detailed analysis on the subject of clop...
how do you know more bronies per capta are in Utah than any other state?
1998414
Personally, I love your long, in-depth posts. You explore some really interesting issues in ways that I'm not sure would be possible with a much shorter format.
That said, at the end of the day, it's up to you. If you'd prefer to write less, or a topic just doesn't seem to have more to give, don't feel obliged - I'd like it long or short - but I certainly don't view it as a detractor.
The pictures are very helpful for illustrating your points, I think - I find them invaluable to help me ground my understanding and imagination. They do also help to break up what would otherwise be a wall of text very effectively.
In all, do what you want to do, but I certainly have no problem with how you are currently doing things. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Goddamnit, that last picture...
1999666
Which last picture? Are you talking about the Lasso of Truth poster?
1999674 No, the one about Wonder Woman scissoring. Your wordplay... it exasperates me... You are too clever for your own good.
I don't understand why movies do so good nowadays personally I wouldn't want to see a wonder woman movie because I'm sure they will mess it up and I'm not against movies with women as the main role its just seems all the same now like think of hunger games (I didn't like to long winded for me) well I saw divergent and the whole concept seemed the same to me but both those movies make a lot of money I'm worried that if they make a movie mainly about wonder woman they won't do her justice my point is if they make a wonder woman movie it won't be as good as it could be
>dat Faust pic
D-damnit BS, I came here for porn, not feels!
We miss you, mom
All I can take away from this is the year of Marston's death is when Roswell, New Mexico became a tourist hotspot.