slowly,comes light

When Big Mac believed Applejack could not do something, he told her why in gender-neutral terms and without condescension (“one pony plus hundreds of apple trees just doesn’t add up”). He didn’t believe that she personally could not do it— he believed that no one at all could have done it alone.

When Applejack learned that Big Mac played with a doll, she did not react with shock or derision— in fact, she didn’t say anything about it at all. Her reaction was outrage that someone had published an article about him in a tabloid meant to humiliate others.

When both were upset about appearing in the tabloid, they talked and comforted each other. Neither scoffed at the other for displaying emotions or behaving in a way that either upheld or went against the prevailing gender stereotype.

Applejack and Big Mac are feminists, and they are egalitarian. They do not define each other by gender, nor do they expect things of each other based upon gender.

We have many Applejacks and Big Macs in the fandom, and I’m so glad for that. I love to see their messages of positivity. I see them in many forms— sometimes it’s a stated political message, but more often it’s just expressed through who they are. They show their accepting natures through the art they make, the words they say, and the people they surround themselves with.