/mlp/
 | |
 /mlp/ catalog on April 14, 2025 | |
Type of site | 4chan imageboard |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Hiroyuki Nishimura |
| Founder(s) | Christopher "moot" Poole[1] |
| URL | 4chan.org/mlp/ |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | February 16, 2012[2] |
| Current status | Online |
| My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic |
|---|
 |
/mlp/ is a board on the English-language imageboard website 4chan dedicated to discussion of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The board serves as the gathering place on 4chan for adult fans of the series, commonly known as "bronies," to share and discuss artwork, videos, fan fiction, news, and other fan-created content related to the show.
The brony fandom began on /co/, the comics and cartoons board of 4chan.[3][4][5] As one of 4chan's specialized interest boards, /mlp/ was established in response to the growing popularity of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic content on other parts of the website, particularly /co/ and /b/—the "random" board. Due to the overwhelming amount of pony-related content flooding these boards,[6] Christopher "moot" Poole, the founder of 4chan, created the /mlp/ board on February 16, 2012. Following its creation, moot implemented "Global Rule 15" (GR15), which banned all pony-related content outside of a few select boards, directing all such discussions to /mlp/.[7] The board features typical imageboard functionality, allowing non-registered users to create threads with images and reply to other users' posts with anonymity.[4]
/mlp/ maintains distinctive community traditions and terminology that blend elements of general 4chan culture with specific references to the My Little Pony series. Many /mlp/ users refer to themselves as "horsefuckers" in a tongue-in-cheek manner; other terms include "ponyfag"[a] and "nor/mlp/erson".[9][10] Some board users also reject or distance themselves from the "brony" label, which they associate with fans who publicly display their interest in the show—a practice they describe as showing one's "power level"—preferring instead to keep their fandom activities confined to anonymous online spaces.[8]
Like /b/ and /pol/, /mlp/ has been the subject of academic research. A 2017 ethnographic study in Sexualities revealed how board users develop a collective identity around sexual attraction to pony characters while maintaining this should remain hidden offline, forming political orientations shaped by marginalization experiences even as they reinforce hegemonic masculinity through their own secrecies. /mlp/ has also been at the center of several controversies, including users creating white nationalist-inspired artwork during the George Floyd protests that replaced Black protesters with African-coded zebra characters using derogatory slurs.
Despite the original television series ending in 2019, the board continues to be consistently active, with discussions primarily centered around the original show rather than newer franchise entries.
History
[edit]
Early fan activity on 4chan (2010–2012)
[edit]Initial discussions about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic began on 4chan's "comics & cartoons" (/co/) board shortly after the show's premiere. These early threads featured positive reactions to the show alongside backlash from users who found the content inappropriate for the board. As interest in the series grew, pony-related discussions spread to other sections of the website, most notably the "random" (/b/) board.[4]
By early 2011, the prevalence of pony content had generated considerable conflict within the 4chan community, with many users expressing frustration over the high volume of Friendship Is Magic content appearing across the site.[6] On February 26, 2011, 4chan implemented a total ban on pony-related content, resulting in immediate bans for users who posted such material.[4]
Following this ban, displaced fans established dedicated websites outside of 4chan, including Ponychan and Equestria Daily, while also sharing fan-created content on mainstream platforms like Reddit and Facebook. This exile lasted nearly a year before 4chan administration reconsidered its position.[4]
After recognizing the substantial and persistent nature of the fandom, 4chan reversed its stance by creating the dedicated /mlp/ board on February 16, 2012, a year after the implementation of the initial ban.[4][3][11][12] Concurrent with the board's establishment, Poole implemented "Global Rule 15" (GR15), which confined pony-related content exclusively to /mlp/, effectively redirecting all such discussions to the new board while maintaining the ban elsewhere on the site.[2][13][11]
Notable events
[edit]- On May 27, 2013, Lauren Faust, the creator of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, hosted a Q&A session on /mlp/.[14]
- On November 11, 2014, an infamous incident known as the "Rainbow Dash Cum Jar" gained notoriety when images of a Rainbow Dash figurine submerged in semen left to boil near a radiator were shared on /mlp/. The images spread across various social media platforms and became an Internet meme.[15] Three years later, in 2017, the poster returned to /mlp/ to transfer the contents of the jar to "another, more secure jar". When asked by Buzzfeed News, the poster claimed he conducted the experiment out of "sheer curiosity and scientific research".[16]
- On April 1, 2017, 4chan temporarily merged /mlp/ with the politics board (/pol/) as an April Fool's Day joke, creating a hybrid board dubbed "/mlpol/."[17]
- In December 2017, a series of leaks were posted to /mlp/ reporting that the ninth and final season of Friendship Is Magic would air in 2019, and that an upcoming fifth generation of My Little Pony would be following it.[18][19]
- On January 20, 2020, anonymous posters from /mlp/ uploaded a book titled Horse Pussy[b] onto Google Books.[20]
- On October 10, 2020, M.A. Larson, a screenwriter for Friendship Is Magic, hosted a Q&A session on /mlp/.[21]
- On April 14, 2025, 4chan—along with its boards (including /mlp/)—was hacked and taken down by an anonymous user of soyjak.party.[22]
Culture
[edit]Terminology and Identity
[edit]Many users of /mlp/ distance themselves from the mainstream "brony" label, which they associate with openly expressing interest in My Little Pony—a behavior colloquially described on the board as revealing one's "power level." Instead of identifying as bronies, users often adopt self-deprecating or tongue-in-cheek labels like horsefuckers or ponyfag; when used as a term of identification, the -fag prefix carries a neutral connotation on 4chan. As one poster on /mlp/ wrote:
"The way I see it, bronies are those fans who don’t hide their power level in real life... In what way is someone a trekkie if nobody knows they like Star Trek? I’m a horsefucker, because I want to fuck pastel ponies but no-one will ever know."[8]
The term nor/mlp/erson is also occasionally used to describe the denizens of /mlp/.[9]
Fan fiction
[edit]On /mlp/, regular threads are devoted to My Little Pony fan fiction, where audiences follow works by "writefags". Like other 4chan boards, /mlp/ operates through anonymity and lack of user registration, with users commonly referring to themselves and others as anons. Self-insert fiction plays a large role, with "Anon in Equestria" being a popular format where a generic human character finds themselves transported to Equestria and interacts with the show's pony characters. These stories often function as wish fulfillment, allowing fans to imagine scenarios where they receive acceptance from or develop romantic and/or sexual relationships with pony characters.[8]
Horse News
[edit]Horse News is /mlp/'s fan news website. On May 23, 2014, Horse News released an exposé that revealed that the term brony did not appear in official Hasbro content until 2012 while the term was first used on 4chan in 2010, contradictory to Hasbro's attempts to claim the rights to the term.[23][24]
Pony Preservation Project
[edit]The Pony Preservation Project (PPP) is a fan-driven project on /mlp/ dedicated to preserving My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic by assembling and annotating large sets of voice data for artificial intelligence models. This work has been notably integrated into 15.ai, whose creator engaged with PPP contributors on /mlp/ to enhance the accuracy and variety of cloned voices.[25]
Waifus
[edit]>You will never hold Twilight Sparkle in your arms
>You will never keep her warm during the chilly winter months
>You will never tell her you love her
Members of /mlp/ commonly adopt the practice of having a waifu (derived from a Japanese pronunciation of wife), referring to a pony character from the show for whom they feel particular attraction or affection. Users openly discuss which characters they find sexually attractive and frequently designate one pony as their special favorite. Often, the term "waifu" designates not only a preferred character, but also an idealized romantic partner.
A notable aspect of this waifu culture is the simultaneous acknowledgment of its impossibility. A common trope on /mlp/ is frequently expressing wistfulness about the fictional nature of their desired relationships.[8]
Controversies
[edit]
Since its inception, segments of the My Little Pony fandom, particularly parts of the /mlp/ community, have faced scrutiny regarding the presence of far-right and extremist elements. Due to the fandom's early roots on 4chan, some users introduced politically radical content to the community.[3]
In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, The Atlantic reported that the My Little Pony fandom was experiencing an "all-out civil war" regarding racist content. The article noted that some /mlp/ users mocked the protests with racist art, many of which was posted to Derpibooru—the fandom's primary fan art repository. On Derpibooru, artwork mocking the protests received substantial upvotes while pro-Black Lives Matter artwork was heavily downvoted. This conflict led to the site's first significant moderation policy change, with administrators banning images "created for no reason other than to incite controversy" and temporarily removing content mocking the protests. The article specifically identified Derpibooru as having "became a playground for the right-wing posters [from /mlp/] who could upload their art."[3]
One controversial image described in The Atlantic article was a modified version of a white nationalist meme that juxtaposed SpaceX astronauts with Black Lives Matter protesters. In this adaptation posted on /mlp/, the artist replaced the Black protesters with cartoon zebras—characters that have African-coded representation in the Friendship Is Magic universe. The article noted that these zebra characters are commonly referred to on /mlp/ using the word zigger—a portmanteau of zebra and nigger. The article quoted a user's comment on the image praising it as "perfect for subtle messaging."[3]
Analysis
[edit]/mlp/ has been the subject of analyses and academic studies. In a 2017 eight-month ethnographic study of /mlp/ published in Sexualities, sociologists John Bailey and Brenna Harvey found that its users constructed a collective identity around sexual desires that positioned them outside normative heterosexuality.[26] Unlike mainstream "bronies" who emphasize the non-sexual nature of their fandom, they found that /mlp/ users incorporate their sexual attraction to pony characters as a central element of communal identity, while maintaining that this aspect should remain concealed offline.
According to Bailey and Harvey, users of /mlp/ engage in continuous self-policing, distinguishing themselves from "bronies" who openly share their interest in the show. This secrecy serves not to contest the abject status of their desires but to contain it within an anonymous context where identity performance is untethered from offline consequences. The politics emerging from this shared experience often position women as advantaged and men as victims, particularly in sexual and social contexts, directly contradicting feminist analyses of gender power dynamics.
Bailey and Harvey noted how /mlp/ exemplifies how online communities organized around stigmatized interests can develop distinct political orientations shaped by shared experiences of marginalization, even as they simultaneously reinforce hegemonic notions of masculinity through practices of secrecy and self-policing.[8]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ When used as a term of identification, the -fag prefix carries a neutral connotation on 4chan.[8] See -fag.
- ^ According to its description, "[it] was written in a week by a large (and unknown) number of anonymous writers who banded together on a thread on the /mlp/ (pony) board of the site 4chan". There were no rules to what could be included in the book; as a result, "there are vomit-inducing sections of the book, as well as subtle romances, racist sections, anti-racist sections, rape scenes, wholesome scenes, and philosophical sections, all of which may even occur at the same time."
References
[edit]- ^ Lagorio-Chafkin, Christine (2 October 2018). We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of REDDIT, the Internet's Culture Laboratory. Little, Brown Book Group. p. 323. ISBN 978-0-349-41635-9. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
- ^ a b "4chan/History - Bibliotheca Anonoma".
- ^ a b c d e Tiffany, Kaitlyn (2020-06-23). "'My Little Pony' Fans Are Ready to Admit They Have a Nazi Problem". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^ a b c d e f Schimpf, Kaitlyn Elizabeth (October 2015). "Straight from the Horse's Mouth: A Case Study on the Adult Male Fans of My Little Pony". MacEwan University Student eJournal. 2 (1). doi:10.31542/j.muse.192.
- ^ Jones, Bethan (1 April 2015). "My Little Pony, tolerance is magic: Gender policing and Brony anti-fandom". The Journal of Popular Television. 3 (1): 119–125. doi:10.1386/jptv.3.1.119_1.
- ^ a b Hagen, Sal (October–December 2023). "No Space for Reddit Spacing: Mapping the Reflexive Relationship Between Groups on 4chan and Reddit". Social Media + Society. Sage: 1–19. doi:10.1177/20563051231214060 (inactive 18 April 2025).
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of April 2025 (link) - ^ Abraham, Kavi; Marlin-Bennett, Renee (2013-08-22). Cyberplace: Conceptualizing Power and Politics in Extended Reality. American Political Science Association 2013 Annual Meeting. p. 26. SSRN 2301241. Retrieved 2025-04-13.
- ^ a b c d e f g Bailey, John; Harvey, Brenna (2017). "'That pony is real sexy': My Little Pony fans, sexual abjection, and the politics of masculinity online". Sexualities. 22 (3): 325–342. doi:10.1177/1363460717731932.
- ^ a b "Mandopony releases song that gives suspicions of his nor/mlp/ersonness". Horse News. 2014-04-30. Retrieved 2025-04-13.
- ^ Miller, Samuel Clark (May 2016). Friendship Is Manly: The Brony Fandom and the Challenge of Masculinity (PhD thesis). Grand Forks, North Dakota: University of North Dakota. p. 105.
- ^ a b Erasmus, Dennis (August 2017). "Containment Breach: 4chan's /pol/ and the Failed Logic of "Safe Spaces" for Far-Right Ideology". boundary 2. b2o: an online journal. Retrieved 2025-04-16.
- ^ Edwards, Patrick; Chadborn, Daniel P.; Plante, Courtney N.; Reysen, Stephen; Redden, Marsha Howze (September 11, 2019). Meet the Bronies: The Psychology of the Adult My Little Pony Fandom. United States: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 134. ISBN 9781476663715.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Ling, Justin (2023-06-05). "Inside 4chan's Top-Secret Moderation Machine". Wired. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
"All pony/brony threads, images, Flashes, and avatars belong on /mlp/," the rules read.
- ^ Connelly, S. (2017). Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 183. ISBN 9781476662091. LCCN 2016044897.
- ^ Broderick, Ryan (2014-12-01). "What This Guy Claims To Have Done To A "My Little Pony" Figurine Will Horrify You". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2025-04-05.
- ^ Notopoulos, Katie (2017-01-12). "A Guy On 4chan Has Completed His Disgusting Mission To A My Little Pony". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 2025-04-14.
- ^ Rudd, Mackenzie (2019-03-18). "My Little Nazi: The Curious Link Between the Alt-Right and the My Little Pony Fandom". Medium. Retrieved 2025-04-13.
- ^ Antonelli, William (2019-09-12). "Friendship was magic: How Bronies are preparing for the end of My Little Pony". Polygon. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
- ^ Lopez, Ule (2017-12-19). "My Little Pony Seasons 8/9 and G5 Info Leaked". Geek Reply. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
- ^ Y mous, Anon; Anony mous (January 12, 2020). Horse Pussy: /mlp/'s Fanfic. Independently Published. p. 310. ISBN 9781659313123.
- ^ Scotellaro, Shaun (2020-10-11). "M.A. Larson Did a Q&A On 4chan, Revealing Cancelled Scripts, Early Show Discussion, and More!". Equestria Daily. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
- ^ Cunningham, Andrew (2025-04-15). "4chan has been down since Monday night after "pretty comprehensive own"". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2025-04-16.
- ^ "Hasbro Claims Rights to word "Brony", C&D;'s usage". Horse News. 2014-05-23. Archived from the original on 2014-07-27. Retrieved 2025-04-13.
- ^ Cox, Carolyn (2014-06-17). "Lock Up Your Bronies, Hasbro May Be Claiming Creative Control Over My Little Pony's Adult Fans". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 2025-04-13.
- ^ Temitope, Yusuf (December 10, 2024). "15.ai Creator reveals journey from MIT Project to internet phenomenon". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 28, 2024. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
- ^ Sert, Ebru (August 2021). Gamergate, SJWs, and QAnon: Context for the Digital Perspectives Directing Political Discourse (Bachelor's thesis). Purchase College, State University of New York.
