The Bronies Get Their Own Charity 417
blackbearnh writes "There's a long history of media fandoms organizing fundraising campaigns, donating blood, and doing other charitable activities. However, even large and well-established groups such as Trekkies/ers and Star Wars fans usually work with established non-fannish charities like the Red Cross or Toys for Tots. Some may see them as a plague on the Internet, the Brony community has taken their charitable endeavors to the next level by going to the trouble of creating a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity. The Brony Thank You Fund received word from the IRS last week that, after nearly a year of work, they had been granted tax-exempt status. The Fund is currently raising donations to endow a permanent animation scholarship at CalArts, and is the same group that made news last year when they became the first fan group to purchase commercial time on national TV, for a 30 second spot praising My Little Pony and encouraging donations to Toys for Tots."
Re: Can someone explain bronies? (Score:2, Informative)
is it a prank? rebranded furries? an ironic hipster meme collapsed under its own weight and is now self aware? inquiring minds want to know!
Yes, it's a form of Furry Fandom. Basically "Furries" as modern people know it were the same thing as bronies, except instead of being fans of My LIttle Pony they were fans of Robin Hood, Albedo, or Omaha the Cat Dancer.
These modern furries are just coming from the My LIttle Pony reboot, which apparently is a very good show (never bothered). They try to distance themselves from the "old" furry fandom, but there is an incredible amount of overlap in the two communities, both in members, culture, and themes.
One thing "Bronies" do have going for them is there are a lot (a LOOOT) of Internet savvy Bronies, most of which are connected with the kind of places where memes get started (Reddit, SomethingAwful, etc). This means that Bronies have, so far, avoided the same "Furries = Perverts" forced meme that SomethingAwful pushed out.
Re:Call me a neigh sayer (Score:5, Informative)
More like this AC.
"Anyone who's favored dive is so compulsive that it dominates their emotional lives, at the deficit of other interests and social interactions has a disorder."
In other words, when your devotion to an object of interest (sports, ponies, animated characters, Jesus, whatever) is so intensely overwelming that it overrides all other interests, and dominates your life, it is mentally unhealthy.
This is defined by the DSM.