Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Tag: bronies

May 14, 2021

Mass shooting shows 6 reasons for furries to worry about the causes.

by Patch O'Furr

Last month, Equestria Daily warned about blowback to fans: The Indianapolis FedEx Mass Shooter Was Apparently A Brony, and Obsessed with Applejack. The 19 year old shooter carried it out after posting online that he hoped to see the cartoon character in the afterlife. “Brony” stands out by the Man Bites Dog rule, but there’s more details. Previously he had a gun seized, and got confined for threats after visiting white supremacist websites. Half of those killed were Sikhs. (I REALLY hate that, because of learning about this at the birthday of a Sikh friend. Every one I’ve met is a sweetheart.)

Rolling Stone asked: “Do Bronies have a Nazi problem?” They say fandom isn’t inherently problematic, but it faces infiltration by problems. Being a fan of cartoons isn’t a threat, but there’s threats coming out of fandom. Maybe giving a heads up about negativity should also say…

1: It’s not the only incident.

  • (2020): In Texas, Daniel Perry killed a protester after tweeting about how to kill protesters. His FurAffinity page got far-right gloating.
  • (2020): Furry in Ohio shot up a school, thankfully just hitting the building and nobody was hurt.
  • (2017): Randy Stair, a Brony who made animated fan videos, did a mass shooting at his workplace that was predicted by his creations.
  • (2016:) 3 killed in Fullerton CA by 3 furries, they all mingled at furry events and might not have met without them.

Maybe this isn’t more frequent than in general society, but do they share context? And isn’t one shooting too many?

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May 9, 2017

Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony – review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016, by Sherilyn Connelly
Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Co., March 2017, trade paperback $18.99 (x + 254 pages), Kindle $8.99.
Order at McFarland’s Website – order line 800-253-2187

Ponyville Confidential doesn’t contain any artwork. That’s a tipoff that this book has not been authorized or approved by Hasbro, the copyright holder of the My Little Pony franchise.

Connelly emphasizes and re-emphasizes in her Introduction that although she is a fan of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic TV program and the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls movies, she is not a My Little Pony (note the lack of italics) fan. As a child in the 1980s, she hated being talked down to, particularly as a girl-child, and this included all of the girls’ TV cartoons of the time; Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake and especially My Little Pony ‘n’ Friends. She didn’t watch it. She didn’t start watching My Little Pony until Friendship Is Magic in mid-2011 (after Season 1 had finished its initial broadcast), when friends had told her, “Hey, it’s a girl’s toy commercial, but there’s something here.” By then Connelly was a film critic for The Village Voice and SF Weekly (an alternate newspaper for the San Francisco Bay Region, not science-fiction), so she was prepared to study the entire My Little Pony phenomenon, including the Bronies, as both a professional outsider and as a fan – of the post-2010 MLP:FIM, anyhow.

“This book is divided into five parts. Part 1, ‘Family Appreciation Day,’ looks at the history of the franchise from the release of Generation 1 in the early 1980s through the late 1990s, showing how long after both the toys and cartoons had ceased production, My Little Pony continued to be criticized in the media as the worst of children’s entertainment in a way that similar brands marketed toward boys were not.” (p. 4)

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March 16, 2017

What’s Yiffin’? – March 2017 edition of syndicated furry news.

by Louis Kohn

Good afternoon, Dogpatch Press readers. Last month was pretty big for us – it had our news satire show What’s Yiffin’? debut on this website. Nobody tried to kill us or call us mean names or whatever, so I guess that means it was well received. If that’s the case, then today ought to be a great day for some of you, because we’ve got the March edition of the series ready to go. Thank you for making What’s Yiffin’? a part of your entertainment routine.

AND NOW THE NEWS

More details and some additional insight from the show’s writers:

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February 7, 2017

Q&A with Sherilyn Connelly, author of Ponyville Confidential: the History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016.

by Patch O'Furr

ponyvilleRecently, I posted “The history of My Little Pony and thoughts about growing up with cartoons” to prepare for chat with Sherilyn Connelly.  Sherilyn is a journalist local to the San Francisco Bay Area Furries. (She has given them notice in publications like SF Weekly.) Her first book is out this April: Ponyville Confidential, a pop culture history of the My Little Pony media empire. (Please like the book’s Facebook page!)

Hi Sherilyn, thanks for talking about Ponyville Confidential!  Let me start by asking – who needs to read it? Will it be manely for fans?  Will there be parts to tempt furry readers?

“Manely!” I see what you did there. Obviously everypony needs to read it, and it’s by no means intended just for My Little Pony fans; I hope that people who are interested in pop-culture history in general will give it a look as well. And there are many references to the Furry fandom, including shout-outs to Frolic, Further Confusion, and Anthrocon.

I know you as a committed, active fan who comes to Furry events and writes journalism about them (and movies, and more.) Can you give a brief intro about your background and writing?

I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I was old enough to want to be anything at all. I started writing professionally for SF Weekly in 2011 — within a few months when I started grad school and began watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, so it was a momentous year in retrospect — and wrote quite a lot about the the local Furry scene at the time. I began contributing film reviews to the Village Voice in 2012, and became the Weekly‘s permanent film critic in January 2013.

I hear this is your first book, congrats – how excited are you? Would anything surprise you about how it might be received?

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May 8, 2015

Thanks to Furry Force fans, Orlando’s soccer mascot, vampire squirrels: Newsdump (5/8/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Tips are always welcome. 

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Furry Force’s surprising Ursa Major Award.

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CollegeHumorFurryForceLogoFlayrah has the details about all winners.  Furry Force stole an expected win from My Little Pony.  It showed appreciation from targets of the gently teasing “fursploitation” parody.  I suspect two influences made a difference – support from this site (it’s a small site, but the Ursas linked here for voters!) and CollegeHumor’s own video appealing for votes.  There was said to be a rise of 150% more voting over previous years.  It caused some protest, but popular demand for truly funny stuff spoke. I saw a furry fandom founder (SySable) commenting that it was very positive to get more notice for the award.

Fred Patten, Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association Secretary:

The creators of “The Furry Force” have been very enthusiastic in e-mails that they won, and want to know how they can get their trophy since they weren’t at the Morphicon to get it in person. I don’t recall that the creators of “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” ever gave any sign of caring about their win.

Writer Adam Conover told me:

Thanks again for all your support Patch! I am so, so thrilled. 🙂

Furry Force’s animation director gave me a Q&A I can post soon.  He told me:

Amazing!!! I am so happy about this you have no idea. Thanks for nominating us in the first place! I’m so glad the community loves it and glad Smiley Guy was able to be involved. I’ve also been able to animate MLP and FF is way more fun! Adam Conover, rules.  Thank you to the fans of Furry Force!

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Mainstream sightings

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Photo by Moop.

How Weird Street Faire photo by Moop (on the right.) I’m the Husky, of course!

San Francisco’s How Weird Street Faire features fursuiters.

(Look for a longer article about the furmeet soon.) SFGate posted an article with fursuiter photos:

Groups of festivalgoers in furry mascot costumes looked on, seemingly unfazed by the effect of seasonably warm weather on their body temperature inside fuzzy suits.  “No matter the heat, there’s always a big furry contingent. It’s like having cartoon characters here…”

Playboy visits the land of Brony-o.

What the hell is a Brony? Playboy investigates.  Their visit to a convention made a warm, positive article:

“Don’t people make fun of you guys for being so genuine about your love of a little girl cartoon show—and how you dress up like ponies?”

As they remember people making fun of them, I feel like an asshole for even asking the question. There’s an awkward silence.

Dave says, with a hint of sadness, “Honestly, people do make fun of us outside of here.”

I recover. “Well, dude, I’m super-impressed by how genuine everyone is. It’s pretty fucking cool. Bronies are kinda like punk rock but with pink ponies.”

Kingston, the Orlando City Soccer Club mascot, gets a furry facelift.   Read the rest of this entry »

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August 31, 2014

The news is full of fursuiters and animation: Furry news dump (8-31-14)

by Patch O'Furr

Here’s some news curated from a Furry view.  Enjoy a big sloppy bowl of news bites, scoops, and Snausage links.  Tips welcome- I’d love to post yours!

brony2

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Media attention is very active recently…

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– Fursuiter in San Francisco magazine. 

This feature page about bronies has local furry “Quinnton Fox” in pony suit.

– Bronies in San Francisco’s The Bold Italic.  

A photo project documents Bronies, and what being one means.

– Wall Street Journal’s furry Photo of the Day.

A police officer halts traffic as delegates arrive to Eurofurence in Berlin.

– Meetup.com’s Furry group made the cover of San Diego Reader.

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September 8, 2012

Andrew W.K. to join panel at Brony convention; let’s discuss furry con guests

by Patch O'Furr

Flayrah news: 9/8/12

Bronies: are they furry? Skipping that topic, let me just say this makes me like Andrew W.K.:

The unruly, boisterous rocker will be part of a panel answering the question, “What Would Pinkie Pie Do?”… The king of partying hard claims that he is the living embodiment of the positive, party pony.

In this interview, the rocker known for a bloody-nosed image discusses why he’s a Brony, his love for cupcakes, and ponies with “nice, fragrant hair.”
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