Male characters.

[Bramble Rose]

Well, first let me say:  I don't really have a problem with there not being more 'front line, developed' male characters.  FIM as a whole has not done much character development past the mane six, the CMC, and Spike.

Second:  I don't entirely agree.  Big Mac has gotten some decent development as well, even before he got his own episode this season.  And, of course... Spike is male, and he's gotten characterization.  My main problem with the male characters in this show is they're all so stereotypically male.  they're mostly jocks or nerds.  Spike and Fancypants are really the two less stereotypical ones.  I was so annoyed with Spike's "I'm gonna have a Hoofball day with Big Mac!" And that convinces Fluttershy to go on the quest.  I admit, I would have felt much less annoyed with it if Dash had followed that up with, "Oooo!  Which one?" when Spike was talking about the card he wanted to trade for, but instead it felt like, "hurr hurr!  They're boys."

But third, to actually answer the question:

Because Lauren Faust wasn't allowed.  She said, in an interview, that she wanted more main male characters, but Hasbro put their collective foot down and said, "No!  Girls cartoons can't have male main characters."

And here's where I get a problem with a lot of responses in this thread.  A lot of responses are going "Oh, but there aren't any developed female characters in boy's cartoons" or "You don't complain so much when it's the other way around!"  And that's just not right.  That's just as sexist as a lack of good female characters in male-targeted shows.

Incidentally, the accusation that there aren't developed female characters in boy's cartoons is also inaccurate.  In fact, Lauren Faust said, herself, when first developing FIM, that she was frustrated because to get good female characters, you pretty much had to go to boy's cartoons - almost all the girl's cartoon characters were so flat.  With FIM, she wanted to help bring girl's cartoons up to the level that boy's cartoons had developed to.  And since modern boys cartoons frequently have a mix of male and female characters that are well developed, she really wanted to be able to do that.  To have only female developed characters still leaves girl's cartoons behind boy's cartoons in the whole lineup of things.  I think the general goal is not to have 'boy's cartoons' and 'girl's cartoons' but just to have 'cartoons'.

Now, I don't personally care.  I don't NEED male characters to enjoy a story, or make me feel involved in it.  I love the characters and I can relate to them easily, even though I'm not female.  I think that FIM is a magnificent piece of work that has done just a magnificent job to advance not just girl's cartoons but cartooning in general ... But looking at it from entirely an analytical perspective, yes, this is technically an issue, especially given the goal of the creator, and the reason they're not there is because Hasbro was using their usual sexism - and this sexism that girl's cartoons can't have significant and developed male characters hurts girls as well as boys.

[brianblackberry]

Well we need to remember that as a show, we can have only so many major characters, otherwise things become muddled very quickly.  In FIM’s case we have the main six, plus Spike, and to a slightly lesser degree, the CMC.  As this show was originally aimed at and still has as its primary audience, young girls, it should be no surprise that the main characters are also all female, which in turn makes the characters easier to relate to on a personal level. 

 

Would it be nice if they had a great gender mix with the main characters?  Perhaps, but to be honest I am fine with a primarily female cast as long as the characters themselves are deep and well-rounded.  That is far more important than what sex a character happens to be.  Besides I would find it hypocritical to complain given that the majority of cartoons out there have the majority of their major characters, male.

 

Focusing on FIM itself and looking at male characters that are not entirely background, I think we have adequate representation.  We have Spike who is pretty much a main character.  Sure he is annoying at times, but that doesn’t make him a bad character, just a character with a major flaw, but this is a good thing, although it appears at times the writers really struggle with him when he is the focus.   Big Mac, who is threatened with flanderization, really came through as a character in Brotherhooves Social as a caring brother who would go to extremes and possible humiliation for his sister’s happiness.   Shining Armor is caring, devoted, disciplined, and courageous.  Braeburn, while often goofy, is shown to be reasonable, as well as a frontiersman and entrepreneur.

 

So for me, it isn’t an issue, because so few shows have a primary female cast and that same cast are made out of developed, three dimensional characters instead of walking paper thin stereotypes (an old and common problem with ‘girls cartoons’).