“Forgive me for being so forward, but I'm a liberated pig.”—Frank Oz as Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show Season 1
Starting today, I will be doing a blog entry on everything that pops into my mind relevant to the course each day unless I think of nothing. This will mean shorter blogs but more frequent entries. Today’s theme is Jim Henson, the Muppets, and Miss Piggy.
As most people know the Muppets are quite on the liberal side of the fence (though their intention and function is to be enjoyed by all) and this can be said about sexism and feminism.
Now several of the male characters for most the original show made sexist jokes to her but this was a parody on how stupid sexism is. The Muppets are all about parodies and satire. However, the thing that is interesting is the character of Miss Piggy. Several of the main Muppet characters have fully fleshed out personalities just like any good character in a story and like a story there is growth and character development. What is so wonderful about Piggy is that she is the bridge the bridge between stereotypes, eras, and extremes. She is overly feminine in most of her actions—she loves make-up, fashion, acting sophisticated, and being helplessly in love with the frog of her dreams. However, the other side of her is strong, willful, independent, and determined. She knows how to defend herself and she knows how to get what she wants—and rather than use her looks and her body to get what she wants which is the typical way females in television series manipulate male characters (with sex and sex appeal), she uses her strength and her attitude. This was one of the gender stereotypes we used to hear about: men are more assertive and are more likely to get a job and a higher paying salary because they are driven and want to haggle and negotiate.
This is a wonderful message to send to young girls who watched the show and later the movies: that it is ok to be “girly” and feminine but that there are more traits other than those. People are more complex then stereotypes we all know that. Like one of the message of Citizen Kane, people are defined by their contradiction. Simply put, Miss Piggy taught the young audience, both boys and girls that it is ok for a girl to be strong and smart as well as liking glitz and glamour.
It's interesting that you would interpret Miss Piggy that way, because the way I viewed her since childhood was as the embodiment of everything I was told not to be. Loud, brash, fat, shallow, abrasive, intrusive, etc.
ReplyDeleteBut perhaps this has changed or my interpretation was already coloured by other stereotypes I was exposed to.
Remember that we tend culturally to a double standard with regard to personal qualities (he's forceful, well spoken, bold, assertive, etc., where she's pushy, loud, abrasive, aggressive...). Might be time to re-think Miss Piggy -- though I never cared for her exaggerated femininity.
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