Pramaggiore, Maria
(2015)
The Taming of the Bronies: Animals, Autism and Fandom as Therapeutic Performance.
Journal of Film and Screen Media, 9.
ISSN 2009-4078
Abstract
In defining and defending the Brony fandom, scholars and journalists emphasise the way these
primarily adult male fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic challenge traditional gender norms. These
accounts fail to examine the significance of the horse to the Bronies’ bid for non-normative masculinities. This
article focuses on the implicitly therapeutic function of the animated equine, reading the fandom’s discourse
about itself in two documentaries within the context of a contemporary (and often antifeminist) rhetoric that
links adolescent masculinity to forms of disability that are ameliorated through Equine Assisted Therapy. This
therapeutic resonance—based on the characteristic movement of horses—is situated within a broader history of
cinema and visual culture in which horses have typically been recruited as vehicles of physical and psychic
transport.
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Altmetric
Altmetric