Miss Piggy, a recurring and beloved character in Jim Henson’s “Muppets” universe, has received a Sackler Centre First Award from the Elizabeth A. Sackler Centre for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.
Previous honorees include Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison, retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Muriel Siebert, the first female trader on the New York Stock Exchange.
“This week moi is being honoured — and deservedly so,” Miss Piggy explained in a Time editorial “... Isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t it about time?”
“She is definitely her own self,” activist Gloria Steinem said. “She isn’t trying to be either totally masculine or totally feminine, she’s human.”
Kermit the Frog tweeted an image of Piggy in conversation with Steinem.
“Quick shot of @RealMissPiggy and @GloriaSteinem in conversation at the Sackler Centre First Awards,” someone purporting to be Kermit wrote. “So proud!!”
The Sackler Centre First Awards, presented by Steinem and Elizabeth Sackler, a historian and activist, “is an annual event honoring extraordinary women who are first in their fields,” according to the center’s web site.
“She has spirit. She has determination. She has grit,” Sackler told USA Today. “She has inspired children to be who you are — and this squares very directly with feminism.”
In an interview with Newsweek in April, Sackler explained why Miss Piggy had been chosen as an honoree.
“Kermit and Miss Piggy have been very much a part of my children’s generation’s lives and as a result, a part of mine,” she said. “I have always seen all of the Muppets as extraordinary examples and incredible characters that teach all people - including children, of course — about the different aspects of life: the great parts, the hard parts, the challenges, the beauties.”
Sackler recalled an occasion in 1979 in which Miss Piggy showed heroism, saving her beau Kermit from bad guys in The Muppet Movie.
“I thought, ‘My god, she has transcended. She has brought to life the kind of defense and survival mechanisms that human beings truly have,’” Sackler said. “I think part of what Miss Piggy brings is the essence of different aspects of humanness.”
“Move over, Taylor Swift,” the Huffington Post wrote. “Miss Piggy is here to claim her rightful place as a modern feminist icon.”
Only the Onion’s A.V. Club, reporting the award when it was announced in April, seemed suspicious.
“The brassy and commanding porcine is set to receive the award in person at a ceremony on June 4,” the publication wrote, “if by ‘in person’ it’s clear that we mean someone manipulating a puppet will pretend that the puppet is actually able to move and talk.”
