Ponies ‘R Us

As he walks up to me I can’t help but stare at his shirt. “Hey, I’m Trey.” Trey Love seems like any normal Tech student. He has on a Tech ‘Goin’ Band’ jacket but underneath that first layer is something some might find out of the ordinary.

Trey is wearing a My Little Pony shirt. It might seem odd to others, but ‘Bronies’ (like Trey) could find it quite stylish and in.

“A brony is an older, avid male fan of the new My Little Pony Franchise,” he said.

“The new My Little Pony wasn’t just for little girls like it was in the 80’s,”

The senior music education major from San Antonio is not only a fan of My Little Pony, he is also the president of the Lubbock Brony Society. Love said Lubbock is not the only area is that is interested in the phenomenon. He said the show is known on a worldwide scale. Love said he knows people in Argentina who have bronie conversations and nation-wide meet ups.

Love said it’s on a broader scale than people like to think. He said he thinks people view bronies as an uncommon demographic.

“There will always be those people, well, to put it bluntly- ‘Oh you’re gay,’” he said. “Strangely, they’ve done surveys on bronies and it turns out that only three percent of them are gay which is actually less than non-bronies. That’s a perfect retort.”

Currently, Love said the Lubbock Brony society has 60 members on their Facebook page, and 20 average members who show up to meetings. He said the most they have had at a meeting was 30 people.

Even though Love is the president, he said he was not the brain behind creating the group.

J. B. Felipe, a senior College of Media and Communication student, said he started the Lubbock Brony Society. Felipe admitted to being a huge nerd and loving comics. He said he is a fan of fandoms (a community that surrounds a TV show/movie/book etc) and wanted to get a group of people together who liked My Little Pony.

Felipe said he was a huge fan of the TV show and he wanted to bring it to Lubbock. He said he discovered Love was equally interested in the show and wanted him to be the president of the society.

“As each episode progresses they learn something new. They kind of get a summary of the lesson learned at the end of the episode. So you go through all of these really funny adventures and to me it’s like South Park but more appropriate.”

Love said there are many benefits to being a brony. He said people have the opportunity to meet others with similar interests and have the potential to become fast friends. He said a typical meeting consists of watching the newest episode of My Little Pony, playing the new My Little Pony card game, and going to dinner afterward as a group.

Meet the Bronies. J. B. is in the center and Trey is to the right.

“The creator even said that the new My Little Pony wasn’t just for little girls like it was in the 80’s,” Love said. “That’s the ungodly version. You’ll see a lot of younger kids, I know my trumpet professor’s, that are both boys, watch it. It’s kid friendly and it’s adult friendly.”

Love said the only downside to the Lubbock Brony Society is there is an abundance of men in the group compared to women. He said this makes dating within the community difficult.

Love said he doesn’t see this fan base crashing and burning any time soon. If anything, he said the show is on for a fifth season, so he thinks it can stand on its own.

“I know it’s going to have its heyday,” he said. “We’re in the middle of it. Sort of like Tech football in 2008, that was our heyday. We’ve just maintained steady popularity. Another cultural fad to compare it to would be a rubik’s cube. Remember when those were the rage? Now they’re just there and not as popular as they once were.”

The Lubbock Brony Society’s next meeting is this Saturday from 9-5 in the Double T Room in the Student Union Building. You can learn more by looking at their Facebook group.