Miss Piggy, feminist diva
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How old is Miss Piggy and what does her age say about her cultural role?
How old do you think Miss Piggy is? Oh,
that is such a good question. I would say it's a little confusing because her relationship with Kermit and her kind of yearning girlishness for him. would suggest a younger woman, right? But on the other hand, her empowered rage and over the top stylings would suggest a woman in full flourish So, you know, I I would say a ripe woman in her 40s or 50s, maybe.
From hacks to the housewives to pluribus, on-screen depictions of women in middle age and later life are more three-dimensional and unapologetic than possibly ever. What's Miss Piggy got to do with that? Coming up on today Explained from Vox.
This is me today explained. Being aloof? Interesting range of emotion. Fix up!
My name is Angelica Jade Bastian and I am a critic at New York magazine and its site Vulture.
You are, my view, one of America's leading critics at this point in history. Why are you writing about Miss Piggy? What's going on?
I take femininity seriously. I find femininity a fascinating art form, a tool, a guide, an exploration and experimentation. And I believe Miss Piggy, over several decades, since the mid-70s, when she came into being. has been such a fascinating window into how American culture looks at women who are larger than life and refuse to be anything else.
Okay, before I ask you about her arc. Who is Miss
Piggy? God, how can you sum up Miss Piggy? Uh, Miss Piggy, you know, in the beginning was seen and played as a delusional woman. Who comes from like a a hard background, who decided to launch her career through beauty pageants and make her way, you know, into the limelight, so to speak.
Small time girl trying to make it in the big city. And then I come home. And found her you found her in a small club, I suppose. No no, oh no. I I picked her up in a bus terminal. And in the Midwest on a farm. Yes. Yes. How was that? But this this is humorous? Yes, yes, well.
Everyone had to grow up somewhere. She has definitely Become an emblem not for a woman being delusional, but for a woman making the argument that her most interesting art piece is herself.
One knows what you want to see. You want glamour, you want pizzazz. Well, you have come to the right
big. And so now the star she was delusional about being she actually is.
What does Miss Piggy represent for feminist and larger‑than‑life women in media?
Hmm. Hmm. When did Miss Piggy first appear on the Muppet Show? And what was her what was her job back then?
When Miss Piggy first first appeared, she didn't have a name and she showed up in the mid seventies sort of pilot for the Muppet Show called Muppet Sex and Violence. Ladies
and
gentlemen, presenting the end of sex and violence on television. Which you wouldn't think they would have something like that. Nope. Um, and she was just a beady-eyed sort of chorus pig. But in a couple years, like I would say by 78, 1978, she had coalesced into a more formidable figure.
This is for you, Herbie. Unicorns!
She had the you know opera length gloves, the feather boa. This
is me reckoning grandier. Being a loo?
She actually had, you know, these big eyes with eyelashes and an iris. So it gives her an interesting humanity. She had her blend of arch aggression and like put upon whispery femininity. And one of her early appearances in 1978 was on this British TV show called. called Parkinson?
Well, I'm gonna make a special introduction, in fact, to Miss V, 'cause uh say I think she's so sensational. I mean, the really most beautiful, beautiful creature that I've ever set eyes, and I really mean it.
And she is so, so funny.
You you have such deep blue eyes.
Yes, and you have Bedronize. And you see this blend of innuendo and just like confidence that I think has become the signature for Miss Piggy. So even though like in 1974, 1975 she was just a beady-eyed chorus pig, she within a few years became the Miss Piggy we've grown to love today.
And then how does she evolve from there? So we go from the late 70s up into the present day. We're talking about a 50-year time span. What kinds of changes have we seen in the character in the last five decades?
Those fifty years are really fascinating. We have, you know, images of Miss Piggy in things like the Great Muppet Caper.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How old is Miss Piggy and what does her age say about her cultural role?
0:00–3:16
2
What does Miss Piggy represent for feminist and larger‑than‑life women in media?
3:16–7:25
3
When did Miss Piggy first appear and how did her character evolve in the ’70s and ’80s?
7:25–13:07
4
How have Miss Piggy’s traits (glamour, aggression, femininity) changed over five decades?
13:07–16:53
5
What parallels exist between Miss Piggy and modern reality‑TV housewives?
16:53–20:20
6
How have portrayals of middle‑aged women on TV shifted from the Golden Girls to today’s shows?
20:20–22:58
7
Why do critics argue that shows like Hacks signal a new respect for older women?
22:58–23:56