Microaggressions

By Mn27

Introduction

In this article, I want to give a little background on the subject of microaggressions and provide references to more formal studies, for the topic has recently been the center of several heated debates on DeviantArt and image boards.

One caveat: I will not euphemize any pertaining terms. For further information on the use-mention distinction, see Wikipedia and Language Log. A trigger warning may still apply.

Definition

Pierce et al. (1977) observed that “the chief vehicle for proracist behaviors are microaggressions. These are subtle, stunning, often automatic, and nonverbal exchanges which are ‘put-downs’ of blacks by offenders,” which is probably the first use of the term. Since, the definition, specifically of “racial microaggressions,” has been widened to “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color.” (Sue et al., 2007) They observe furthermore that “perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware that they engage in such communications when they interact with racial/ethnic minorities.”

This definition can be further expanded to include a wider range of minorities. Kevin L. Nadal, author and associate professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, adapted the definition to “Microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults toward members of oppressed groups.” (Emphasis added)

I doubt that mules are oppressed in Equestria, but apart from that, there are two instances in which two of the mane six inadvertently insulted a mule (in Applebuck Season and Hurricane Fluttershy). Of course they promptly apologized (“No offense.”) when they noticed their faux pas. What this example, by analogy, also shows is that, as Burn et al., (2005) put it, “heterosexuals, deprived of seeing whom their comments ultimately harm, are not inclined to carefully monitor their colloquial speech (Thurlow, 2001).”  (The mule was voiced by James Wootton, by the way.)

Sabrina “Sibsy” Alberghetti on EverFree Radio

By CTB-36

EverFree Radio strikes again—this time surprisingly surprising, as they didn’t post a teaser a few days prior to the interview release. Sibsy has been storyboarding for My Little Pony from early on, with her first episode being Dragonshy according to Raven’s list of storyboard artists per episode, for which Sibsy herself provided a great chunk of the data. Sibsy, as well as Raven and Dennis Hu, were interviewed before during Bronyville’s Happy New Season Celebration Mareathon 2011 (recordings here). You can follow her on DeviantArt and Twitter.

• She explained how her name “Sibsy” developed while she was in her teens and stuck afterwards. (0:34)
• Then she went on to describe her path into the storyboarding business, and in particular how, being from a town near Toronto, she applied for animation courses at Sheridan College and afterwards moved “out west to Vancouver.” (1:27)
• The storyboard artists are the second stage in the development of an episode. They “get a script from the writers” and “have to conceptualize everything visually that is written down on the paper in the best way that we possibly can to tell the story effectively.” (2:27)
• When she started working in animation professionally, “it almost felt like everything I learned at school I had to through out of the window,” “it was pretty harsh, but it was very educating at the same time. I learned a lot at the first studio I worked at, and I wouldn’t give up that for the world.” (3:18)
• This first studio was probably A.K.A. Cartoon, who appear to have a domain, but only for email, without a web server behind it. It also looks like Jim Miller (there is also an interview with him), Scott Underwood, and Joel Dickie worked there for a while.
• She had to delegate Lesson Zero to Raven to work on some Darkwing Duck for a few weeks. (6:32)
• In EverFree Radio’s episode review of MMMystery on the Friendship Express, Final Draft seemed very confident that the switching of the hats between Twilight and Pinkie Pie was not scripted. I wondered about that at the time, but maybe they had already recorded the interview at that point, because here Sibsy explained: “A lot of those little gags are put in by us storyboard artists.” (9:13) [Nope, they hadn’t; they just have the superior hunches.]
• There is a certain trademark Sibsy motion where a pony lifts one of their hooves up. (10:45) It’s a cute and slightly coy gesture that other storyboarder may also have picked up. [Thanks, EverFree Radio, for the clarification.]
• She’s the one who turned Berry Punch into an alcoholic during the cute-ceañera in Call of the Cutie. (10:54)
• She frequently uses our pony names, but many of her colleagues are not as fluent with them. (12:40)
• She likes The Mysterious Mare Do Well for its action scenes, which are challenging for her. The same goes for The Last Roundup, but her favorite episodes are the finale episodes (which haven’t aired yet): “Visually, musically, just all around, … we’ve set the bar so high with that episode” (or these episodes). “I’m so excited for it to air! I wish it was next week!” (14:12) Another indicator that the recording took place at least a week ago.
• She enjoys our feedback, preferably that of constructive nature. (16:22) Also, our “creative outpouring” (Final Draft) is overwhelming—in a positive way of course. (17:18)
• “There is so much more story left to tell. We finally have these characters figured out; there’s so many places to go with them, so many ways to develop them even further, and I really look forward to that.” (19:04)
• All those visual references to Star Wars, martial arts movies, or James Bond are also the work of the storyboard artists. (20:54)
• Flat hierarchies rock. “Jayson and Wootie, we’re friends first. It’s kind of stage having them as a boss, because … they’re my friends.” (22:20)
• She doesn’t think that it “always the case” that references are woven into the show for the fans, but if we love them, “that’ amazing!” (23:41)
• Storyboards usually remain black and white, but sometimes colors need to be specified or are used to let elements “[stand] out on the page.” (25:00)
• Here she inserted a shoutout to OtakuSquirrel, who made a custom of her OC for her as a gift, and is generally a great artist or craftsperson. (27:29)
• She hopes that in the future she’ll be able to post drawings online, e.g., of Raven’s OC, but she’s not allowed to at the moment. (31:24)
• More confirmation that Twilight Sparkle is best pony! (32:36)
• She’ll be “moving on to Pound Puppies for a little while, and then hopefully back to more ponies after that.” And there may also be more comic work from her, related to The Disney Afternoon. (34:20)
• Sonic CD, with the American soundtrack, is her favorite Sonic video game. (35:20)

Update 2012-04-14 17:08Z: Updated with a bit of inside scoop from EverFree Radio. Thanks!

William Anderson on EverFree Radio

By William Anderson

Lo, pony lovers! EverFree Radio recently published a new interview with our BGM god, William Anderson, and I’ve finally found the time to summarize it. Head over there and listen to it. I only summarize the bits that are interesting to me, after all. (By the way, the interview is co-hosted by Final Draft and MandoPony!) Also, I’ll try to use breaks more sparingly. Have fun.

• It all started when about five composers were invited to score an animation sample, and he won the pitch. (0:34)
• After 1:50 but more so 3:36, he reminisced about the indirect way by which he ended up as as composer for animation. Some of that is also covered in a journal entry entitled “Giving up” he since deleted. (There’s still a copy in the Google cache.)
• He’s using a particular guitar riff that has become emblematic of Rainbow Dash less now, but not because anyone told him to. Hasbro has just approved his scoring for the last fifteen to seventeen episodes without any notes, while the directors are often “more exacting.” (5:56)
• He agrees with Daniel Ingram that “weekly episodic animation scoring is the hardest gig in the business.” (7:55)
• That most of the time his work needs to be invisible to work its magic is actually something he enjoys. (8:44)
• At around 10:00, he describes his approach to character themes.
• Sometimes he first makes musical sketches of the scenes and then fills in the details, sometimes he gets struck by inspiration and composes the whole cue right away. The approach varies greatly from scene to scene. (12:40)
• He enjoys MondoPony’s music! Who doesn’t! /)^ε^(\ (16:09)
• Now 17:24. You really need to listen to this. It’s almost ten minutes of verbalized data sheets, which means it’s amazing! The parts where he describes his computer equipment made me nerdgasm all over the place. I can only imagine what it must be like for someone who also knows about audio equipment! You can get a small impression of what I’m talking about in this post and this photo of his.
• He, and everyone else in post production, only starts his work “in earnest” once they have the locked print, where every frame of the animation and all the voices are exactly where they’ll be in the broadcast version. (26:05)
• He only recently, during this season, noticed that we are “a really vibrant community,” when he made an DeviantArt account to thank an artist who had ponified him, and was overwhelmed by the response of the thousands of people who subsequently frequented his page. (29:57)
• Everfree NW (August 17–19, 2012) is “right in the middle of season three,” so he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to come, but he’d love to. (31:47)
• The famous CMC theme is actually a piece of his score that likes least. He went on to speculate about why the music one is most proud of and has put the most effort into is often scrapped or ignored, while little tunes one churns out in a few minutes are loved and get famous. (34:47)
• MandoPony especially loves a certain tune at the end of Lesson Zero. (37:26) I think he was referring to the one starting at around 19:36 in the episode.

In case of errors, please comment. Thanks.

Update 2012-03-31 19:02Z: Had to replace a link because of this. Thanks for letting me know, Johnny.

Lee Tockar on EverFree Radio

By Muramasa91

Our friends from EverFree Radio just interviewed Lee Tockar, the voice of Snips and Steven Magnet. The interview starts at 44:26; have fun listening to it. Usually I listen to those interviews at almost twice the speed, but this one I could hardly even speed up to one and a half. Get ready for a bucking verbal roller coaster!

As usual, you can find my summary below, after the break.

Cathy Weseluck on EverFree Radio

By Viper998

Cathy Weseluck, the voice of Spike and Mayor Mare as well as lots of nonce ponies (who she has all given souls of their own), has been interviewed by EverFree Radio. Head over there and enjoy the interview.

Additionally, you can find my summary after the break.

Jayson Thiessen on Bronyville

By BronyFang

In my summary of the Animation on Display panels with Jayson Thiessen (posted last Thursday), I already hinted at it: Jayson Thiessen also gave an exclusive interview for Bronyville. This interview took place in between the two panels he gave. It’s some forty-seven minutes of pure Thiessen, brought to you by our podcast wizards at Bronyville. Enjoy!

Then, of course, there is also my summary after the break.

Derpy Hooves

[Scroll down for Amy Keating Roger’s wonderful response.]

This post doesn’t start with “Her death has shocked many,” not because it’s a hackneyed phrase, but because we can’t give up on her so easily.

Some see her already as martyr of the disabled or the fandom at large, but I had rather that she live on—in that realm beyond mortality that is fiction—as the beacon of self-determination that she is in our fanon. Be it as mailmare, strong-minded pegasus with an ocular disease, time traveler, loving and courageous mother, or mother of the year, she has always been an endearing, lovable character, but also one deserving of the utmost respect—and upon her ascension to the canon, she lost nothing of what made her Derpy Hooves to us. Now a higher power is trying to take our daughter from us. I hear her crying out to us.

To save Derpy, sign this petition. The email submission system is currently blocked, so please send snail mail instead. The instructions are on the page. [Outdated. See update below.] Additionally, you can also sign Andrew Holt’s older petition, “Hasbro Studios/The Hub: Do not change Derpy’s name,” if you haven’t already, and the new petition “Save Derpy (and Hasbro's creative process).”

Storyboard Artists of All Episodes

By MutatingRaven

For several weeks now, MutatingRaven alias Raven Molisee (@Raveneesimo on Twitter), storyboard artist for our beloved show, has been putting up journal entries on her DeviantArt account in which she listed the two (senior and junior) storyboard artists of the upcoming episode. (This information has since also been incorporated into the episode info boxes on mlp.wikia.com.)

Now she has obtained the same data for the past episodes, in particular all from season one. She “just had to talk to Sibsy!” They can be found in this one huge journal entry. Thank you!

For more background on the names, check this crew page or the IMDb. Here is the Derpy Hooves News post on the topic. “Seeds of Chaos” must’ve been the working title of The Return of Harmony.

I have reproduced the listings after the break, taking liberties with a few typos. Please tell me if I changed anything in error. I’m also planning to keep it in sync with Raven’s journal, so check back from time to time. (I won’t add an “Update” note for each addition. Seems pointless.)

Jayson Thiessen at Animation on Display

Jayson Thiessen, photo by Jodi's Goodies

Breaking! Humans really exist! They are not just a figment of Lyra’s imagination. Apple Cider linked me that photo; the description says “Jayson Thiessen … about to nom on a Pinkie Pie bonbon,” in case you were curious.

Over the weekend, Jayson Thiessen was guest of honor at Animation On Display, an animation convention in San Francisco. Chef Sandy and Apple Cider of Bronyville moderated a Q & A panel, and Jayson did another panel all alone and on his own. NorthCalBronies filmed both panels and put them up on their YouTube channel. The videos I’m about to summarize—after the break—are Animation On Display 2012 – My Little Pony Creative Panel and Animation On Display 2012 – How Ponies Are Made Panel, in that order, though the chronological order is the opposite.

If you are at all interested in, you know, ponies, and also information, and Jayson Thiessen, I suggest you stay tuned to Bronyville. I don’t know how much I can reveal, so just subscribe to their feed, wait, and listen.

Now, the panels!

Update on Our Relationship with Hasbro

DerpySquad and Plaster of Derpy Hooves News took part in a press conference with Markarian, Bejoty, and Roy G. Biv of EverfreeNW; Klisk of BronyCon; and Sethisto of Equestria Daily, organized by Chef Sandy and Apple Cider of the Bronyville podcast, concerning a conversation Markarian had with the head of Hasbro’s PR and marketing. Of course we only know what this Hasbro official has told Markarian. Anything beyond that, be it Hasbro’s underlying strategy or further steps, is necessarily speculation.

After the break you’ll find a short summary of the conference call, purloined from Plaster’s post on Derpy Hooves News. He also points out that “the Derpy problem is not settled 100%” and that you should kindly “disregard AC’s comment at the very end of the video.” Nothing said in this video should be construed as having anything to do or any bearing on the Derpy situation. Save Derpy!

Cathy Weseluck on the Dennis Daniel Show

This the radio interview was originally planned for last Friday, 2012-02-03, but somehow Cathy didn’t call in, possibly because of some mixed up dates (4:20). Perhaps she thought the interview was on March 2. (Just use ISO 8601, please.) All Taste Explosion recorded it at some point on the 3rd or 4th and uploaded to YouTube just now.

After the break I list a few interesting points from the interview that concern My Little Pony, but they also spend a lot of time discussing other shows she’s worked on. Just listen to the whole thing.

Derpy Hooves’s Canon Party

By microgrid

When the seminal scene in The Last Rounderp stirred so much controversy among fans, many wrote detailed, careful, and honest commentaries about their concerns, but some individuals also decided that the most prudent course of action was for them to send spiteful emails to the artists at Studio B. Luckily, in anticipation or reaction, other fans opted to offset those with kind thank-you emails of their own.

For lack of time, I posted the following on my Miscellanea page several hours ago, shortly after Derpy Hooves News reported on it. One of the fans of the latter group, Kelven486, received an answer from Tabitha St. Germain (who, as we know thanks to iStricer’s tweet and Jayson Thiessen’s answer, voiced Derpy in the episode):

A small sidenote: I didn’t know Derpy was female. (No one said ‘she.’ I never saw a drawing.) I started this character with a neigbor’s son in mind. Kid grew a foot in a year, and was constantly sleeping and clutzy, and he spoke at the speed of a tree. Far from mocking him, I found it very dear. – that you can pass on to your Bronies.
all my love, sweetness,
tabs

Rarity, Granny Smith, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, Photo Finish, Mrs. Cake, Pound Cake, now Derpy Hooves, and the one with the cookies, you rock!

Some boring opinion foo after the break.

News from BroNYCon

By midori-no-ink, via bronycon.org

Thanks to EverFree Radio who livestreamed almost the whole BroNYCon, I was able to take part in that marvelous event. Thanks so much! Many thanks also to anyone who made the event possible in the first place.

At the moment I can only draw on my memory, my notes, and the raw recordings on Justin.tv for compiling this post. However, I’m looking forward to EverFree Radio putting up wonderfully edited recordings of all the important events, and then I can also add the seconds based on the authoritative source material.

Update 2012-01-12 16:48Z: The final recordings are up. EverFree Radio collaborated with Barnard Film (who will soon start the production of a live-action Friendship is Magic movie, Ecce Bronies) in compiling a complete recording of the voice actors panel. Their recording of the interview with Daniel Ingram is available too. These are the basis for the minutes I give in parentheses.

The events I’m focusing on here are the Q & A session with the voice actors and the interview with Daniel Ingram. Enjoy my trademark unordered lists after the break.

YouTube Takedowns by Hasbro

Oh well, this is bad. Even the “Habsro” typo was their’s!

DerpySquad, a speedy transcriber, has posted the letter from Hasbro, and points out that this “kick in the nuts” might also affect the many abridged series.

Minutes later, Seth also put a post up. He also has proof that these claims are legit but is legally required to keep the emails private. However, he did insert a few paragraphs worth of his opinion, which I would like to quote after the break.

Lauren Faust FAQ

By Enyoiyourself

Lauren Faust has published an FAQ on her DeviantArt journal (via EqD). She is always getting swamped with questions over questions from fans, and probably has close to no time for answering them. If she does, her answers are quickly washed from the first pages by the influx of new comments. With this FAQ, a large chunk of the more frequent questions and their answers is now easily accessible right there on her journal.

The answers don’t contain any major revelations as far as I can see. Since she hasn’t been involved in the show’s production since April, she has only limited knowledge of future developments, and of course doesn’t give away anything she does know about the second season.

The questions and answers are grouped into the four categories “Animation Job FAQ,” “MLP:FiM FAQ,” “More technical MLP:FiM FAQ,” and “Me FAQ.” I’ll skip over the first section, but have a concise summary of the latter sections after the break.

Cease and Desist Against Pony Archive

By EuropaMaxima

Pony Archive has received a cease and desist from (alleged) law ponies claiming to act on behalf of Hasbro. BronyFarm [new link] and BronyNews have reported on it, including the full letter (with a few gaps) and Pony Archive’s great response to it. If the letters should vanish there, I can reproduce them here in full. Equestria Daily did’t post the letters themselves, but I though I might include the link anyway.

Update 2011-12-15 08:44Z: Derpy Hooves News has posted a great article on the topic.

More after the break.

Madeleine Peters on EverFree Radio

By Veggie55

Again, EverFree Radio has endowed us with a brilliant interview. This time Madeleine Peters has joined them, the voice of Scootaloo, our Rainbow Dash 2.0 alpha. Toward the end, she has Scootaloo sing Jingle Bells, and as if that weren’t awesome enough, AcousticBrony and MandoPony have already created a this version of the song, released on EverFree Radio almost simultaneously with the interview.

Maddy is also trying to raise $10,000 for World Vision. She wants you to donate! The link opens in a new window or tab, so click it. Click it now.

Have a summary after the break, but be sure to listen to the full interview nonetheless!

Nicole Oliver on EverFree Radio

By Paraderpy

Nicole Oliver, the voice of Celestia and Cheerilee, was interviewed by EverFree Radio. As always, the interview is topnotch: You should definitely listen to it. Have a not-so-concise summary after the break.

Michelle Creber on EverFree Radio

By Karzahnii

EverFree Radio has done an interview with Michelle Creber, the voice of Applebloom and the singing voice of Sweetie Belle. Amazing job, ponies!

The interview is brimming with intriguing insights into the life of a voice acting prodigy, so listen to it. After they break, I’ve compiled find a few of the points that directly concern the show.

Jayson Thiessen on Fictional Frontiers

By edvedd

As Jayson Thiessen has indicated, he was interviewed by Fictional Frontiers a few weeks ago. Today, the interview aired, and I of course took notes and ripped the stream.

• “She’s a student of Princess Celestia, who is the ruler of all of Equestria, which is like the world they live in.” This seems to ever so slightly qualify his statement made on BroNYcon in September that “Equestria might have a border.” But there is the “like” and the “might,” so don’t rewrite all your fanfics just now.
• He talks about us bronies.
• He loves it when we recognize his/their hidden jokes and allusions. Well, who wouldn’t.
• He gives useful lessons on pacing in storytelling.
• He calls Friendship is Magic “award-winning” but then takes it back and states that, no, he doesn’t know something we don’t, that it was maybe just “wishful thinking.” But Friendship is Magic did win an award.

Have fun listening!

Update 2011-11-14 23:17Z: The interview following the Thiessen one is with Daxiong a.k.a. Guo Jingxiong. Check out his Wikipedia article! I can upload that interview too, though I’d much rather link to the folks at Fictional Frontiers. Do they currently publish their shows anywhere on their website?

Update 2011-11-14 23:30Z: Done uploading the Daxiong interview. I do hope that’s OK with you Fictional Frontiers ponies. Many thanks!

Update 2011-11-16 21:19Z: Paraspite on Ponychan has transcribed the interview. Give them some love the next time you head over there!

Update 2012-04-04 12:37Z: Slightly touched up the article.

Update 2012-04-04 20:12Z: Oh, cool, a YouTube version.