Did you prefer MLP over Barbie as a kid?

MustBeJewel

MustBeJewel

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Hi everyone!

I'm in the middle of a brief paper for one of my film classes illustrating the differences between the Barbie fandom and that of My Little Pony, in preparation for the in-depth documentary I will be shooting this coming year.

I just finished watching Barbie Nation (Susan Stern, 1998 ), and came upon the realization that one of the reasons I always preferred ponies was because I just never felt I could identify with Barbie.

Not that I consider myself a pastel-colored equine more than I do a human LOL but Barbie's role in society felt both too concrete and too unattainable to little chubby introverted me, and already being under pressure to conform to those roles, I think at times I felt repelled by it.


Which did you like more as a kid? Why?


Also please note that if you choose to watch Barbie Nation, there are some adult themes that will not be appropriate for children. Then again, I suppose you can always skip that chapter. The rest is quite interesting.
 
Haha I was all over MLP and GI Joe. I didn't make sense. But I always preferred them because I've loved animals since I was a tiny baby that my mom took pictures of at the county fair touching the animals. I don't know why, but I always felt more connected to animals than people, maybe it was because I grew up an only child and always wanted a pet.
 
i always prefered mlps i think basically b/c ive always loved horses but i did have quite a few barbies since i needed riders for my horses :)
 
I had horse riding barbie and working out barbie and those 'practical' dolls that could ride my horses! But I just plain loved horses, and my dolls were far and few between... I related to animals more than people and other children, probably because I was an only child!
 
I had both MLP and a Barbie doll with her horses Dallas and Dixie. I much preferred my MLP and rarely played with the Barbie. I was also a horse and animal lover. I was an only child and was very happy playing with my toys alone. Some girls didn't play with ponies the way I liked to play. I had two friends who would come over and play ponies and we played the same.
 
I was MLP ALL THE WAY. Get me a Pony, I was happy. Didn't care for Barbie, baby dolls, etc. I was waaaay more into animals. I guess my mom loved horses, so maybe that's why I liked Ponies so much - but I've loved them, literally, since I can remember.
 
I didn't like Barbies as a kid, my ponies may or may not have enslaved all of the barbies at some point in time....
I was always a pony kid. As far as the idea that you couldn't relate to them, I may have felt similarly. The only barbies I liked were the "Kellys". I had two little girl Kellys and a Tommy XD They lived peacefully in coexistence with the ponies. I always like the ponies better but I did like the Kellys.
 
yup def preferred ponies for as long as i can remember
theres just so many variations!!!! you could never have them all
and colors
and breeds!
barbie was never magical to me
although if they had fairytopia and the mermaid ones i wouldda been all over those! but again, theres only a hand full and then the facination is over...

MLP POR VIDA!!!!!:*******:
 
I preferred MLPS over e v e r y t h i n g. I hated all Barbies except my dancing lifesize barbie and my talking barbie that knew my name and birthday, it was sweet :)
 
Lol, Beckie. :p

I had a few Barbies I played w/, too - mainly w/ my Ponies (and they were generally the villians, although I never had a Megan, so sometimes a Barbie was like Megan and helped out the little Ponies).

I played Barbies w/ my sister sometimes... mainly so she'd play Ponies w/ me in return, lol.

'Course, I did the same thing w/ Hot Wheels w/ my brother, heh.
 
Hmm, this is an interesting topic!

I think I preferred MLP mostly, but as I got older I moved on more to Barbie, Lady Lovely Locks and Jem. However, MLP never lost my interest but my dolls did, because as soon as I was grown up enough I didn't have to live through my dolls anymore :p I used to really love Barbie, though, especially Skipper and Shelly... and my Barbie horses, lol.
 
I prefered most things over Barbie. There are only like 2 or 3 Barbies I can remember really wanting. MLP however, I wanted so many I can't remember all the ones I wanted as a kid. lol. The one doll set I was really into was Strawberry Shortcake. I liked He Man too.
 
Sadly, I was a Barbie child =/ When I was really really young my toys were limited to stuffed animals and the toddler "look! shiny things and noisy buttons!" platforms.
I think the main reason I was a Barbie kid was because by the time I was old enough to start picking my own toys it was well into the 2nd generation.
And those things are creepy -shifty eyes-

Course that doesn't mean I didn't have a love/hate relationship with my Barbies XD I have more than a few that have lost their heads... (But the heads are still somewhere in my boxes. As... trophies? lol!)
 
MLP for me! Barbie didn't even exist to me when I was a child- I was too pre-occupied with ponies- both MLP and real!
 
i was more of a barbie girl. i was never really all that interested in ponys sadly, but in my house, between me and my sister we ended up with over 100 barbies (she took them to school once for the 100th day of school project actually). idk why i wa into barbies more...probably cause they were people (and the similarity to my name) and well i was also big into action figures! we had zillions of Power Rangers and Comic Book characters due to having 2 girls and 2 boys and a father who did comic book shows. and despite being smaller, the barbies and action figures would party.

plus i was born in 88; the end of the MLP reign really. sure i got a bunch from yard sales, but there was never any in stores i could get until the 2nd gen when i was what...7? when i was litteler it was all barbies and wedding stuff. i probably wouldn't've gotten any mlps if it wasn't for the bride pony.

i was never really into baby dolls either; i liked stuffed animals more. but plastic animals...idk, i guess they weren't as appealing then :shrug: then again, none of my siblings ever wanted to play ponys with me, but we were always ready to play power rangers so that could be it too.

:reaper: Kat :reaper:
 
I was way more interested in MLP than Barbie, although we did happen to have more Barbies than ponies growing up. I remember bringing at least 1 or 2 Barbies to play as "us" (my sister and I) when we played ponies. They were like our Megan, who we never had. They went to Ponyland, met the ponies, and helped them get rid of the bad guys. Hah!

Here's why I preferred ponies to any other "girl-geared" toy out there:

Ponies were pretty without clothes or make-up (I didn't know about the ponywear or any of the lipsticks that came with ponies at one time, I'm speaking of my ponies and the early G1 movies.) I felt uncomfortable with things like that as a kid, as I was always a bit more of a tomboy. I liked being outside and exploring, not being inside, dressing up.

Although we played with pony Moms and babies, there wasn't this whole theme of being a mother, and feeding your baby doll, or changing her diaper. That never interested me, and to this day I still wonder why there have been so many baby dolls made. Please, no one take this the wrong way, as I mean no harm, but I felt like Barbies and baby dolls were made to help girls grow into a role that was created by society- to teach girls to want to cook, clean, look pretty, and care for a baby. It's like the main thing you could do with those toys- dress up, drive in your convertible, meet your boyfriend, wear a bikini. I understand there was also the family aspect, which was great, however. Not that the make-up and everything else is wrong, but ponies seemed to create so much more in my mind when I played with them, or thought about them. Firstly, all the colors stirred the imagination. Then you had the magical quality about them- they could fly, they had magical powers, they could do anything.

Then there was Ponyland, as I called it, I guess Dream Valley would be the appropriate term? Maybe not... I forgot about Flutter Valley, and other areas of Ponyland. That was a place you could go as a child only- no adults, and guess what? Instead of needing make-up, or needing clothes, the ponies actually needed you? Who? Me? A child who everyone else just kind of brushes aside, or pats on the head? (This is where I'm going to sound like a nut, LOL) Basically, you felt like the ponies needed you to help them as a kid, so you weren't helpless, but the opposite. You were strong and able to help, and they liked you for you.

So I guess, in a nutshell, I liked ponies better because you (at least me and my sisters) weren't always thinking about boys, make-up, or babies (how I imagine other girls toys to be), but about being a help to the ponies, and living in their magical world for a little while. :)
 
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Ponies all the way. And little plastic zoo animals. I hated barbie and GI joe and pretty much any human toys. I had a couple of barbie horses and dogs..and LLL's horse, but none of the dolls. If I got one for christmas from a relative...I would trade it to some friends for some sort of animal toy.
Why? I loved animals. I did not love people.
LOL!
 
Absolutely ponies. Barbies and dolls didn't appeal to me. The whole 'playing dress up, putting on make-up, taking care of a doll as though it were a baby' just did nothing to stir one's imagination. Not for me anyway. And why would one want to play with a doll doing the whole feeding, changing diapers, putting it down for a nap when one had younger siblings who you actually helped do that with? So no 'playing mom' just was not what I called fun as a child. Ponies could do anything, go anywhere and there was no focus on having to be 'just so' for anything. There was no right or wrong way to play with them. If you wanted them to go into the backyard and slay dragons, perfectly fine. On the other hand if you wanted them to stay inside and bake cookies, nothing wrong there either. They just seemed a lot more diverse in what they could do. Plus not requiring clothes there was no fear of losing anything or having brothers do heaven knows what with them and you never find them again. So yeah, ponies all the way. :)
 
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