Clop (erotic fan art)

Clop is erotic or pornographic fan art, fan fiction, fan films, fangames, and other fan labor based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, and further generations of the My Little Pony franchise.

The term "clop," based on the onomatopoeic hoofbeat sound, also means masturbation in this context. Clop content emerged on the web around 2010 and typically focuses more on character romance. A study suggests about 19% of bronies (My Little Pony fans) have engaged in "clopping". Although the fan base is primarily in the US and UK, most clop content is consumed in Slavic Europe. Critics view it as a problematic aspect of the fandom, fearing it might taint the fandom's reputation.

Etymology
The word "clop" itself is a pun or wordplay based on the slang word "fap"; both are onomatopoeia, 'clop' referring to hoofbeats. The word is also used as a verb, to refer to masturbating as "clopping". Other related terms include clop-fic for erotic fiction/slash fiction centered around My Little Pony characters, and clopper for a person who enjoys this type of material.

History
Clop is considered to be either a subset of brony fandom, furry fandom, or both. When compared to other fandoms' fan art, the Friendship Is Magic fan art more prominently features homosexual ships. The topic has received scholarly attention. To some in the fandom, "clopping" (masturbating to clop) is frowned upon. On the other hand, in 2015, The Guardian reported that in the Brony community on 4chan, having sex with a real person was seen as a negative, and not clopping as a form of heresy. , the most popular character in My Little Pony–related pornography was Rainbow Dash, followed by Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

Demographics and geography
According to internal studies, 19.05% of bronies have engaged in clopping, but it is assumed that the percentage is actually larger. A different survey by Pornhub in 2015 revealed that most participants were millennials aging from 18 to 24 years old and that men are 37% more likely to search for My Little Pony–related pornography than women.

Most My Little Pony–related pornography is watched in Slavic Europe, with Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic being the top four, with Puerto Rico being the fifth.

Reception
Baltimore Sun journalist Gianna Decarlo condemned erotic art as one of the problems of the My Little Pony fandom, as it became an "unstoppable force of sexual deviancy" and that "not even a simple Google search is safe." EJ Dickson of the Daily Dot wrote that enjoyers of the erotic art are "black sheep in the community," meaning that the rest of the brony fandom fears that cloppers will give the whole fandom a bad name.