Buckeyes and Bronies: what’s the difference?

A T-Shirt. A bumper sticker. A DVR setting to automatically record a set schedule. These all describe the build-up of your typical fanatic.

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, fanatics are not hard to come by. Each tend to proudly display what they associate with on their person, incorporating said items into their lives. But you may be asking yourself who I am talking about. For some, the idea of a fanatic might go to the idea of a person who is obsessed with a television show or other form of popular culture, like Bronies are with the television show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a television show about six cartoon ponies who have magical adventures to learn the meaning of friendship.

Others with the mentioning of my hometown might go to those who are Ohio State Buckeye fans, who name their dogs and children Buckeye after the poisonous nuts that grow around the college’s campus.

However I am here to tell you there are few differences between the two, and that neither side is out of the norm, which are the common misconceptions of both.

Yes, we find that a person who is a fanatic might live an unhealthy lifestyle— spending every waking moment dedicated to what they enjoy. Sometimes fights and arguments are brought to attention about their antics. But when you look past the obsessions and the negativity a few people bring to the group, I found the outlying factor that makes these groups of people stand above the rest is their sense of community.

When you hear a Brony is a fan of a television show that’s target audience is for little girls, there are common misconceptions about them. Whether it be that it’s strange for grown men to find enjoyment out of the cutesy animation about anthropomorphic ponies, or how they go out of their way to decorate themselves or their items in My Little Pony memorabilia. When you look past the strangeness of it all, you see that the actual fan base adores the show for the messages it portrays about life lessons and friendship. Bronies therein have their own tight knit community that welcomes all, accepting all types of people who share the same love and adoration for the characters and show. They even have their own speech patterns, for example instead of saying everybody, they say every-pony.

I have seen this same type of behavior in sports fan. If you’re ever in Columbus, a fun thing to always do is go into a crowded area and yell “O-H,” hearing the common people reply back with “I-O” at an instance, which is a chant that is done at OSU Buckeye games and among the community. And the university itself has made an effort in making Buckeye fans welcoming of other sports fans as an extension to good sportsmanship.

I’ve even felt this extension of community while sitting in the stands. Let the record show I don’t understand football, people have explained it to me. My dad even played for the Buckeyes, but the concept is lost. Despite this, the people I’ve interacted with while standing in sometimes 20 degree weather are kind and courteous, which can be amplified in the university’s Alma Mater, “Carmen Ohio.”

And there is one thing for certain, the one thing that these fanatics share more than a sense of community is their love for the television. Bronies are always responding to what they view on the show, even sometimes helping create and name some of the characters, as reported by Gawker. Often discussion of the show is brought up online, whether it be on social platforms such as Tumblr or on sites such as Reddit and 4Chan.

OSU fans are just as creative, creating their own lawn ornaments and decorative pieces throughout their homes. And let me tell you, game days are always the strangest to experience in Columbus because once the game is on, everything else in the city is on a standstill. Even the highways are clear due to people either being at the game or watching it from the comfort of their own homes. Lunch or dinner schedules are also designed around the game: you choose whether to eat before, after or risk the chance of running out during half time.

Of course, there are dark sides to every community. Bronies get pegged for sexualizing the female characters and sometimes OSU fans burn couches and riot. But these people should not ruin the image of an entire fan base by their actions. I’m no philosopher and I’m no scholar. I’m just a person who thinks that every community united by one significant factor shouldn’t be looked down because they’re deemed not normal or weird. People are defined by more than what they’re entertained by.

And if the great Dr. Seuss were still with us, I think he’d say something along the lines of “a fanatic is a fanatic, no matter how obsessive.”

Image courtesy of INFphoto.com