Every Wednesday when I work from home and sometimes on weekends, I am subjected to the worst kind of televised torture any grown man has to endure — my daughters watching “My Little Ponies.”

Years ago, I thought “Blues Clues” was bad when our toddler son was addicted to it and made us watch the same episodes for hours, but “My Little Ponies” is so much worse. The rainbows, the bright colors, the high-pitched horsey voices — all of it makes me wanna scream!

I would have thought that all people of the male persuasion shared my hostility toward “My Little Ponies.” But sadly, there is an entire subculture of post-pubescent boys and men who adore the fictitious creatures. They call themselves “bronies,” and they’re getting plenty of media attention.

All of which raises this question asked in The Washington Post: “Isn’t there something a little weird about grown men playing with rainbow-hued ponies?”

The paper quoted a psychological expert who said it’s no big deal. “They’re just a fan base revisiting childhood and some of the things they have left behind. … It really is just different ways people have of fulfilling these very fundamental human needs.”

But little girls like our 10-year-old have enough common sense to realize that explanation is bunk. When I told her about bronies the other day, she shot me a look that said, “Are you serious? Are they crazy?”

I’ve now robbed her of a piece of the childhood innocence that bronies refuse to forsake. Hopefully that means I won’t have to watch “My Little Ponies” much longer.