i’ve been obsessed with Miss Piggy since i was a wee piglet. But the first time i really knew in my 5-year old rhinestone heart that she had something to teach me was she put on one of the most memorable and iconic stage performances i have ever (and still in all my 33 yrs of performing) seen.
It was her fantasy scene in The Great Muppet Caper and She. Was. Flawless.
From her entrance onto the red carpet to her high heels IN THE WATER to her iconic sparkling crown to this pink dress (and tights!), this one scene alone taught me everything i needed to know about being a star. In a world where every other girl i knew was obsessing to be Barbie, i wanted to be Miss Piggy. Miss Piggy was bold, brash, charming, decisive, radical and totally empowered on her own.
Even now at 40, Miss Piggy is the first person i turn to when i need an extra dose of fierceness or a reminder of what a little belief in oneself and talents can do.
As a tribute to the most flawless bitch in the world — and in honor of her birthday — here are the top 3 lessons i’ve learned from over three decades of being her life-long student.
- Real fierceness and beauty come from embracing one’s self.
Miss Piggy is anything BUT cookie-cutter. In a world full of Kardashians, this pig keeps up only with herself. She knows she’s stronger when she’s rooted in ideas and a style that are all her own and she won’t let anyone — not even a very public and messy breakup — keep her from being exactly who she is. If any of us are wondering what her secret is to over four decades of flawlessness, this is it. - If a pig can do it, so can we.
This is perhaps the biggest and most profound lesson of them all. She’s a pig — and a puppet. But she hasn’t let that one tiny detail derail or stop her from achieving everything on her goal list. Miss Piggy has been on the cover of Elle, Love Magazine, and the Sunday Times Style Magazine, photographed in right-off-the-runway Marc Jacobs and Jason Wu, written books, recorded an album waaay before it was cool, penned a feminist article for Time Magazine, and won the Sackler Center First Awards for her feminism. If a puppet pig can accomplish all this greatness, so can we. Period. - You can be everything everyone thinks you can’t.
Contrary to the popular misnomer, you can be beautiful AND smart, witty. You can be career driven AND be in love. You can be “lady-like” AND powerful. What i love about Miss Piggy the most is that she is all those things that society has told us as women don’t go together. You don’t have to give up your power for the sake of beauty. You don’t have to choose between being in love and loving your career. The truth of the matter is this lesson circles back to the very first one: all we need is a little belief and whole lot of love (and understanding and acceptance) of ourselves. Cheers to that!
BONUS for all us female drag queens!
- The proof is in the pig
In a society that tells us what we can and cannot be from trolls on social media to the comments of RuPaul herself, Miss Piggy is proof that female-identified beings — in all their inclusive forms — can not just be drag queens, but be iconic and legendary ones. Miss Piggy is the original female drag queen so when someone tries to tell you that what you do isn’t drag or that you haven’t been around long enough or that you’re appropriating gay culture tell them you come from a lineage of queens that dates back all the way to 1974 — and beyond.
xo-
