SagebrushPony

These are the folks (your name may be on this list!) that have entered into my amateurish drawing.  A winner from each pool will be posted momentarily.

Status:
Honey Mead - Complete
VulpesOpaca - Complete
ImperialDreamer- Complete

DeviantArt
1. Blue-Thrush
2. CosmicObserver
3. ImperialDreamer
4. KeinZantezuken
5. VulpesOpaca
6. ArcCahlon
7. tn-scotsman

FimFiction
1. maskedferret
2. elmagnifico
3. Ether Echoes
4. Akouma
5. Autumn Wind
6. Spectrumancer
7. Honey Mead
8. Mr. Bitey
9. Georg
10. BlankFlankBrony
11. lordelliott

Edit: Livestream of the drawing - livestre.am/4qCed Congratulations, Imperial!

Did you think this blog post would be about writing?  Well, then, psyche!  It isn't.

What it is is a chance to win a piece of pony art, to be completed sometime between the end of this month and the heat death of the universe (probably sooner than later), unfortunately by me.

It could be cover art, it could be your OC, it could be a mock cover of OC Weekly.  The only stipulation is that it have a 'simple' background, no more than three characters, and that it not be gore, porn, or gorn.  Pores might be acceptable, although I'm not sure why you'd want a drawing of one.

To enter, all you need do is respond to this blog post (with an account at least four days old) and express your interest in entering, some time between now and 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on Friday, April 19th.  You'll then be entered into a drawing, which is a slightly more official-sounding way of saying that I'll be using random.org to draw a number.

Good luck!

For those not in the know (I doubt there are many that'd be reading this journal), there was a release of the current design iteration for the Equestria Girls property:



Regarding Equestria Girls, one could say that reactions have been mixed, and I suppose this would be spot on if you considered a mixed reaction akin to, say, baking soda and vinegar, or, more likely, rubidium and water (YouTube it if you have the chance, it's quite entertaining).

Folks have exploded over them.

A lot of folks don't like them, feeling that these designs lack the charm of the ponies we're used to.  Others worry about the story directions that may be taken with them, though I don't know anything about this and cannot comment.  Some folks are optimistic, wanting to see what kind of show may be developed with them.  Some folks are apathetic.  These are all opinions, and everyone is entitled to one. Plus I'm about to give my own, so it'd be hypocritical of me not to afford others my respect.

I do not like these designs.

It is not because of their skin tones, their lack of skin tones, their wings, their lack of horns, although these do seem to come up in argument quite a bit.  No, what I hate is their waistlines.

One of the nice things about Friendship is Magic, a show for little girls et al., is that the problems and questions addressed in the show relate very well to the human experience without needing to address the human body type and all of the shapes that it comes in.  There is no idealization, intended or inadvertent, of a particular body type, because all of the show's story lines are handled with colorful, quadruped creatures (terms like allegory and parable ring at the periphery of my locution).

Then we're shown Equestria Girls, where all of the characters have a uniform, stick-thin body type with waists that taper in like an Otter Pop with a rubber band twisted around it, looking almost, but not quite human.  I think this is insidious.

Here are some facts from sources far more knowledgeable on the subject than me:

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that in the age group of children 12 and under, hospitalizations for eating disorders jumped by 119 percent between 1999 and 2006.

Researchers at Arizona State University (Stice and Shaw, 1994) related the thin-ideal in the media to an increase in bulimia symptomology.

Field et al. in a 2001 paper reported that media influences are linked to an increase in body image and weight concerns.

I don't imagine this surprises many folks.  So why do we keep doing this?  Why do promote this (quite frankly impossible) body type to such an impressionable age group with no celebration of alternatives?

As has been said and is worth echoing:  "There's more than one way to be a girl."

Why don't we act like it?

Hey, ever heard of ponywallpapers.com?  Apparently they allow their users to submit others' content (signatures removed, edits made) as their own, and they find this acceptable because 'Hey, it's not like they're the ones doing it.'  I recently discovered this: www.ponywallpapers.com/princes… (an edit of fav.me/d3g2wku)

They have all kinds of links for submitting copyright complaints and well gosh, would you believe it: none of 'em work!

So, I'm thinking of perhaps making a weekend project of letting other artists know that their work is being taken without citation.  Spread the word if you're keen on doing so.