So as an Exec member for a university society devoted to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, there’s a question that I ponder every now and again. This question is what my post is going to be all about.
The question: “Is it justifiable to have an official university society for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the brony subculture?”
My answer is yes, but I suppose that’s obvious considering my position. It’s certainly an interesting question to ask, and I’m going to cover a few musings about it.
Firstly, it’s good to consider that ‘official university society’ is a difficult thing to define. Does a MLP: FiM society fit the basic, ground-level minimum to become a university society? Scanning the tiny Wikipedia article on the subject, it’s encouraging to see a line explaining that “many universities also find themselves home to societies for many obscure hobbies”. The MLP: FiM subculture certainly fits into that theme, as it’s not a society which any random student would see and be drawn to.
A society needs, fundamentally, to have enough members to function. Even if a society has a good concept and appears valid, it will not be a functioning university society if it has no people to go to it. It is hard to draw out numbers and make estimates on whether a brony society could survive for any number of years, but I present mine as an example.
Gathering for Lancaster University Ponies (or GALUP) is an official Lancaster University society, and has been for about a year and a half now. We have a small group of members, numbering about 27 on paper with any ~15 turning up each week. This is definitely a good basis on which to found a society. I don’t know very much about universities outside of the UK (or even outside my own), but I imagine that large universities within the US and the UK would have enough of a proportion of young people who are keen about Friendship is Magic to have a comfortable level of society members.
To have a society twinned with a specific piece of media is a dangerous business, since students typically only stay at university for three to four years. Most committed society members will still move away at the end of their degrees and leave the society. Within a few years it would be expected that all established members of the society will have gone. If new students were uninterested in the piece of media, the society would run out of members and be unable to function.
I was worried, a year ago, that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic would not be recommissioned for a fourth season. If it were not, the society would have no new official shows to base its socials around. Fan content on the internet would become less ubiquitous and the society would flounder, gasping for air and rewatching memories of the past.
I’m still a little worried about this, but it looks like MLP: FiM isn’t going anywhere for a few years now. This means our little society should last for a decent span of time. Eventually the weariness of the years will claim it. That’s okay. It’s the way of many societies. Since students come and go, student societies vary wildly from year to year in terms of membership and how viable they are. The legitimacy of a society should not be removed if there is a chance it will die several years down the line. This is simply how societies exist.
So based on all this I think that a brony society would probably have enough members and interest to exist in most UK/US universities. Of course, some universities may not have enough fans who want to attend a society about the television program they like. Others may have specific rules about setting up a society, or not have many societies at all. We’re lucky here – Lancaster has over 170 official societies, so GALUP fits right in.
I haven’t yet given any good reasons as to why a MLP: FiM society should exist, and I should really do that. Number one is community. As stated above, given the current internet popularity of Friendship is Magic it is likely that there will be a number of students in many universities who like the program. To share that interest with a group of like-minded individuals is a strong reason for any society existing – it’s all about meeting people who like what you like, and making friends from that.
As MLP: FiM is a television program, watching the episodes in a group is an event which ties a society together. A few universities I’m aware of have an anime society, and societies devoted to film viewing are also common. Basing a society around a particular piece of media also seems fine, there was precedent within Lancaster University with a Harry Potter society. On a more negative note, a society focussed in this way limits potential member interest and takes a gamble that the piece of media will have new content produced for it and remain popular, as mentioned above.
Lancaster University allows official societies to use lecture theatres. This use of the theatres and their projectors allows GALUP to fulfil its basic function – namely, to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This was a good incentive for GALUP to become an official society and is a justification for its legitimacy. In making use of the lecture theatres it does something as an official society that an unofficial group of people cannot do.
A university brony society is primarily social. It does not follow the paths of other societies which may play sports (climbing), give students a chance to do something that requires a group (acting) or compete with other societies (debating). As a result it has less well-defined reasons to exist than many other societies.
A very valid argument is that brony societies are unneeded. There is a very large online community devoted to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and there is no need to let this community spill over into a real-world university, where those interested in MLP: FiM are fewer and farther between.
My retort to that is there are things which can be done in reality which can’t be done in an online community. In exactly the same way that a video gaming society might point to games designed for multiple people to play in the same room, I point to the socials and charity work that GALUP has arranged.
Let’s talk about the charity stuff first, since it makes me happy and is a great reason for GALUP to exist. We decided from the get-go that three times a year, once a term, GALUP should put on some kind of charity event. It made complete sense that we should aim to replicate the kindness of the program that the society was based on.
This is very much an individual perspective, since a brony society could exist doing no charity work at all. I would say that it is a good activity for a society to undertake, however, and any MLP: FiM society incorporating an element of charity work has a definite reason to exist.
Since we started, we’ve held three bake sales, done a day’s worth of gardening work at an old people’s day centre and participated in the Lancaster University Run Against Domestic Violence. We raised £332 at the run, a huge amount of money for such a small society and significantly more than larger and more established societies. It may not have been apparent that we had a good reason to exist when we began, but we have strong evidence now.
The other half of real-world activities which gain something by not being on the internet is our socials. Social events cannot be easily replicated in an online community, and GALUP has run karaoke, gone out for meals, held drawing tutorials, quizzes and parties and travelled to watch a fireworks display. A university society loses out on the large community of the internet, but it gains the ability to hold interesting and fun social events.
Do I need to comment on the sensibilities of the internet as they transfer over to reality? Perhaps I should, since I have GALUP as an example to offer.
An argument against a university society about MLP: FiM is that the internet mindset surrounding fans of the program would lead to nothing more than a negative, uninspired and meme-focussed group of individuals. In my experience there is nothing to worry about on this point.
GALUP has a variety of members, who study a range of degree schemes. When meeting people in real life as opposed to on the internet, you realise that people are real, three dimensional individuals. People in our brony society are also involved in a range of other societies, they have different hobbies, likes and dislikes. The gender ratio, happily, is more balanced than many would imagine. This year, in terms of official signed-up members, we have a ratio of 13:14 male to female.
In short, and as you might expect, the group of people in GALUP are very varied since they’re brought together solely because of their enjoyment of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. If the society didn’t exist, the friendships formed within the society would likely have never come about. That thought makes me sad.
A chief objection that I have heard against the existence of a university brony society is there simply isn’t a point. Talking to other people who like MLP: FiM is great, but it doesn’t have to be the centre of a society.
There are a few points which work well as a counter argument. Our university gives us room rental, which we would not have otherwise. There are a large number of people who are very invested in the program – meetings and conventions occur, showing that there is a pre-existing desire for fans of MLP: FiM to meet and chat. For those fans who are looking for others with the same interest, a society is visible enough that they would be able to gather underneath our banner.
I would say, as a basic wrap-up to that argument, that whether or not a society should exist is determined by the number of people who want it to exist. If a group of students with any related interest that the university deems appropriate feel that they should become a society in order to better arrange social activities and use any perks which the university grants official societies, there is no reason why they should not be a society. It does the university no harm to show prospective students that they have an engaging and welcoming social aspect to student life.
Fundamentally, the reason a society based around My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic should exist is the exact same message that the program itself makes very clear. Friendship is very important and the ties to other people we create are a major reason we are who we are. A society seeks to create those ties that bind and from what I’ve seen up here in Lancaster, a brony society does that very well indeed.
Your faithful blogger,
DB
P.S. If you have any views on the subject, positive or negative, I’d love to hear them. Drop a comment below!
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