Who's Your Daddy?

The Wonderful World of Transgender My Little Ponies
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December 09, 2008
Who's Your Daddy: The Wonderful World of Transgender My Little Ponies



Ah My Little Ponies. If you were a girl growing up in the eighties chances are you had at least a few of these little vinyl wonders.

They were cute. They had accessories. They were ponies. They were everywhere.

Between 1982 and 1992, Hasbro released hundreds of My Little Ponies including Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Sea Ponies, Pegasus, Mermaid Ponies and Sweetheart Sisters to name a few. However, until 1986 brought the release of Big Brother Ponies there were no adult male ponies. This left those of us trying to form pony families before then with a bit of a problem.

So picture this: You're sitting down with your little friends, divvying out ponies, making little families to populate a pony world. Okay. We have a mommy, we have a baby, but who's the daddy?


(Ponies Pictured: Mommy and Baby Cotton Candy, Big Brother Slugger)

Obviously, someone is going to have to have a sex change. Below is a list of the ponies I used as stand in males in my childhood herd.

Apple Jack (1983)



This was my first "male" pony. I really thought she was supposed to be a boy. Really. Doesn't she just scream "I'm a guy?"

Medley (1983)



Medley was another pony I assumed was a boy. I mean, she was all blue and in my gender stereotyped little world, blue meant boy.

Blue Belle (1982)


Another bluish pony that got a sex change. We called her "Blue" for short, Blue Belle isn't a very masculine name, after all. I had a friend who had a Baby Blue Belle her gran sent her from England and when we played together, both the adult and baby were boys. It wasn't until 1988 that Hasbro would release the first commercially available baby boy ponies. Prior to that the only baby boy available was Lucky, the special mail order pony.

Butterscotch (1982)



I don't know why but we always made Butterscotch a boy as well. We also made him Scottish. He was, needless to say, the prime stud of our collection. Every pony wanted to marry Butterscotch. He also liked to go to the pony bar. Did I have a disturbed childhood? Nah, I just watched too many episodes of Cheers.

Starshine (1983)



Starshine was kind of a last-resort male. If we needed another boy, she was a boy. If not, she was a girl. She could easily swing both ways.

Tootsie (1984)



Ah, only years later when I saw the movie "Tootsie" would I taste the irony of making Tootsie a boy. Art imitates life in reverse. Anyway, tootsie was always a boy. She was also promiscuous. Because we were little, this meant 'he' had crushes on lots of ponies and was very fickle. We were just kids after all.

By My Little Pony's fifth year, Boy ponies were commercially available and the need to convert our ponies' gender subsided. Still, having been branded male, most of these ponies remained so. Big Brother Ponies looked very masculine, they were boxier, had furry 'Clydesdale' feet and boyish symbols like cars, trains and baseball mitts. What a blissfully politically incorrect world it was. No wonder I assumed the blue ponies were male. In fairness to their politically correct conscious, I must state that Hasbro did release several Big Brother ponies in more feminine shades of pink and purple.


Tex- Big Brother Pony

Even as a child, Hasbro's release of comparatively few male ponies astounded me. It was pretty obvious they didn't spend to much time actually watching girls play with their toys. If they had, they would have noticed us pairing the ponies up into families. Eventually, Hasbro did release pony families consisting of a mother, father and baby. But I never got one as a child. Nope. I had to make do with two big brothers (Slugger and Tex) and my transgender ponies.


Well, that's my list. Thanks for reading it.

I still swear Applejack is a boy...
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