Apologies and an Explanation Regarding Yesterday · 11:45am Oct 27th, 2017
Hey everyone,
So, I don't know how many of you saw my blog post from yesterday. I want to apologize for being so angry and dramatic about what happened and I shouldn't have gotten so worked up about it. I'm not going to incorporate what happened in my personal life into a story. But I will explain what happened to those of you who want to know:
I attend an all-women's liberal arts college. I love my campus, I love my professors, I love my classes, I love my peers. I've made several friends on the campus and been given several opportunities in the classes...without this school, I never would have been able to go to Cuba and Poland.
But not everything is perfect. This semester, I'm taking a class called "Intersectional Media Studies" to fulfill a requirement for graduation. I realized that taking the class was a mistake during the second week of the semester. We had to turn in research papers on the production history of our favorite television show. After the assignment was handed in, my professor asked the class, "When you were doing research, what did you find out about the sexuality of the shows' creators?"
And I thought to myself, "Oh, crap, it's going to be one of these classes..."
One of my classmates is this horribly prejudiced, racist girl. Some of the things she has said, word for word, include:
"White people are too scared of getting jumped to go into an Ethnic Care Center."
"People want me to look like a slave because I'm dark-skinned."
“Stephanie Meyer’s book Twilight has several subliminal messages against dark-skinned people. Jacob is portrayed as sexually aggressive because he has dark skin, and the readers are being told that this is bad and that dark-skinned people are bad.”
"All white people are oppressive predators."
Three of my classmates decided to do a presentation on unexpected fandoms connected to various shows. One of the shows they talked about was, you guessed it, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Yes, there were a few classmates who were like, "Ew, the show with creepy old men!" This didn't bother me too much, because I had heard this stereotype before and I know that it isn't true: not everyone who watches the show is a "creepy old man". But my prejudiced classmate had some choice things to say about the characters:
“Well, the rainbow one seems butch to me...she’s flying around with boys all the time. And she doesn’t talk like a girl.”
“The apple one is gay.”
“The extravagant one is obviously targeted towards gay men.”
You can take the fun out of the real world. You can even take the fun out of watching movies. But you will NOT take the fun out of the one thing that gave me hope for humanity when I was in high school.
I overreacted, obviously, regarding her comments on the show...but part of why I overreacted has to do with her racist comments from this semester.
I'm still upset about this girl and I need to calm down, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on what she said about the ponies. Do you think Rainbow Dash is butch? Is Rarity's target demographic gay men?
Of course Dashie is butch. She'd be the first to tell you so, as long as you told her it was furless-ape-slang for tough. And awesome.
Rarity is targeted towards anyone with an eye towards fabulous raiment? So yes, but more than just them?
I really don't see AJ as gay, at all, though. That there's a country cowpony with a hankerin' for family fit to fix a thousand-year sisterly spat in twenty minutes. Could she be? Of course. But I don't get that vibe.
I'm a lil offended they didn't have anything to say about the smart one, though. She's worth at least a mention, ya know!!
Fluttershy is probably thrilled to be left out of the whole debate.
Pinkie probably popped out of their pyjama drawers to plan a party congratulating them on their honorary brony status, though: they totally had an academic discussion about pretty pastel pony people!