Rationality: it’s becoming even more fashionable to evaluate things on their merits, rather than how others will see you as a result of the evaluation. It’s gotten to handicap principle territory — since the signalling is so negative, liking MLP must be due to rationality.

Of course this just reduces to another signal, but…

Feminism: Get in touch with your feminine side, signalling feminist credentials. This might be a tactic of betas, but betas don’t exactly see that as a downside.

10% rule: Now that I’ve seen several references to MLP in the internets, and Zack’s linked a particular episode, I have the urge to see what the fuss is about. So, advertising threshold.

Once that hurdle is passed — presumably by feminism/rationality signalling and suchlike — the show can deploy other tools.

The pre-OP part of Winter Wrap Up demonstrates MLP isn’t the standard treacly, anvilicious children’s show. Honestly, the not-idiot factor is pretty impressive — reinforcing the rationality signal. (Success, then, is actually many small successes in a row.)

Less cynically: to use anime terms, there’s good shoujo and pandering shoujo, just as there’s good shounen and pandering shounen. Dudes praising a good shoujo is pretty common. Making a show good enough to be enjoyable by many demographics is hardly impossible. Good shows are either becoming more common or the internet is getting them more exposure. As more people admit to liking a show that’s not ‘for’ them, it becomes weirder to condemn someone for doing so.

Last Airbender is somewhere around good shounen, for example. Tween boys probably enjoy it the most, but lots of other people do too.

This is one of the good points of progressive propaganda. Guilty pleasures rarely need to be, and progressives are effectively dispelling some of these guilts. “I can’t believe you watch MLP.” “So only girls can watch it? Sexist.” (Generally, anti-stereotyping fashions.) Hopefully they eventually get to, “Why do you care what I do in my free time?” but on this issue it’s good enough.

From another direction, why would anyone make Powerpuff Girls? Why that art style, why that name if you’re making a show that isn’t for girls? Something has to cause the show in the first place. I’d say it’s more or less the same things that cause it to be successful.

It gets weirder:

I can attest that Friendship Is Magic is an awesome show; don’t judge it until you’ve watched it.