Monday, April 19, 2010

Never Before ... and Never Again

Girl power. Think it originated with the Spice Girls? Wrong!!! I don't know when or where it began, but I can guarantee it existed before 1997. (is that when the spice girls were popular?) How do I know it existed before that time? Simple. Because the concept of Girl Power was manifest in a single Muppet long before the Spice Girls came to exist. That Muppet? The one and only Miss Piggy.

Miss Piggy began as a background character in the Muppet theater. No one was aware of the diva hiding within until she came out of the woodwork, chasing frogs, karate-chopping rivals (or anyone who dared insult her, really), and trying to out-sing monsters. If you were worried about having a strong female role model in the Muppet universe, worry no more. This porker wouldn't put up with Link Hogthrob's sexist comments in Pigs in Space, and proved she was just as competent (if not more so) as her comrades on the "Swinetrek". When a purse-snatcher dared to steal her bag, she ran him down on Gregory Hines' roller skates, eyes (hilariously) ablaze with mad power. She easily tossed ill-fated bystanders into lakes, single-handedly dispatched Mel Brooks' thugs, and performed her own stunts (climbing up a building, crashing a motorcycle through a window).


But don't let her actions fool you. Despite her manic behavior, Miss Piggy never let people forget she was a lady. If you follow her fashion sense through the years, she never strayed far from the trends in how she wore her hair or the outfits that graced her person (well, person in a manner of speaking). Her relentless pursuit of poor Kermit were just expressions of how well a woman can love, even if she doesn't do so very wisely. And she was always quick to return to prim and proper behavior ... once her violent rampages had passed.

Don't worry, girls. You can learn a lot from Miss Piggy about being a woman. Well, maybe you shouldn't absorb absolutely everything that Miss Piggy can teach you (losing your temper is definitely something you can omit from her instruction). But no matter what kind of woman you want to be, Miss Piggy can give you a valuable push in the right direction, because she definitely believes in Girl Power.

-Me

"Next time they want stunts, they get a double!" -Miss Piggy

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