Contribution to these threads never earns me any progress attempting to convinced the absolutely ridiculous opposition exactly what's going on, but I'm going to talk about this anyways. Whatever male first watched the show was likely watching it out of boredom, or flat-out curiosity. After the first episode, the initial reactions of the male viewers was likely something along the lines of "Oh, wow, that was actually pretty decent." Word spread that this show was actually enjoyable, and more people started watching it. It's the exact same process that allows for any show to gain popularity, it's not like MLP: FIM was abstract in any regard except demographics. The inability for 90% of the people on this site to wrap their heads around such a simple concepts is both astounding and disappointing. The show is well-made. It's a decent cartoon with likable aesthetics, characters, and concepts. The fact that these positives have been layered over the My Little Pony franchise is simply a matter of coincidence and, for a large number of people, this is something that they can look past. For another group, it's too much, and they can't look past the girly exterior. That is fine with me, and it should be fine with everyone. What is not fine is the lack of understanding from non-fans onto fans. They like the show. Although I'm sure that there exist individuals who watch it to be "hipsters" or to feel "accepted," that isn't the majority. The majority of male fans of this show enjoy the show because its [i]enjoyable.[/i] It has all the qualities of an excellent television program, the only wall separating it from total acceptance is its premise. Is it bizarre? Sure. Is it weird? You might say so. But stranger things have happened, and of all the things I can see people judge each other on, TV show preference has to be one of the most pathetic and insignificant. A ton of people on this site have social problems, so it doesn't surprise me that they target a "lesser" community to outlet their insecurities. It's low-tier bullying, at best. Let people watch the show if they enjoy it, you aren't being forced to do the same, so don't act as if you are. There exists a section of the fandom that may be annoyingly vocal, but you can't judge the entirety of a fan-base on the vocality of one group (This is something that occurs all the time on Bungie.net, whether it pertain to fandoms, politics, or religion).

My best guesses are: 1. Hipsters 2. Somebody was bored and decided to watch it upon discovering it on TV. 3. Somebody saw it when watching it with a younger sister/daughter/niece. The whole thing reminds me of that "Love Ducks" episode from Arthur.

One of the 7 Wonders of the World Wide Web.