Miss Piggy Has Been Honoured As A Feminist Icon With A Surprisingly Legit Award

The Sackler Center for Feminist Art was the world’s first exhibition space devoted exclusively to female artists and, since 2012, the prestigious organisation has also hosted the First Awards. An “annual event honouring extraordinary women who are first in their fields”, the awards are presented by art historian and activist Elizabeth Sackler and journalist/feminist luminary Gloria Steinem. They’re basically the real-life version of the Dorothy Everton Smythe Female Empowerment Awards.

In the past few years this accolade’s been given to many impressive women including Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison; the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller; and the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

But for this year’s ceremony that took place this week, they went in a slightly different direction. Though the main recipient was certainly renowned in her field as a “performer, actor, and writer [with] more than 40 years of blazing feminist trails with determination and humour”, she was also a pig. More specifically: a pig-shaped puppet whose character has long-been voiced by men.

'Twas an honor seeing @GloriaSteinem at the #sacklercenterfirsts tonight. She's lovely and a fan of moi, naturally! pic.twitter.com/7ChGIXptz5

— Miss Piggy (@RealMissPiggy) June 5, 2015

However this didn’t stop her really bringing the power. Miss Piggy was awarded the Sackler Center First Award in a ceremony on Thursday night which featured a 20-minute retrospective of her career with a supportive Kermit by her side, and an in-depth discussion about feminism between the iconic Gloria Steinem and the karate-loving Muppet.

“[The award] is for your spirit, for your determination, for your grit, for your humour, and for your confidence,” said Sackler during the presentation. “[It’s] because you have taught millions of us what it is to have a dream and to go after that dream.”

Upon receiving her prestigious accolade, Miss Piggy even penned a surprisingly compelling opinion piece for Time. “I believe that any woman who refuses to accept society’s preconceived notions of who or what they can be is a feminist,” she/an intern at The Muppets Studio wrote. “I believe any woman who is willing to struggle, strive — and if necessary learn karate — to make their mark in the world is a feminist. And, yes, I believe that any woman, who cares about her appearance, her star billing and most especially her percentage of the gross, is a feminist. Moi is all of these things.”

“As a young woman born on a farm, I was told that my life would be nothing but mud, sweat and tears  … Now that may have been enough for some, but not for moi. I refused to accept someone else’s definition of my life and my future.”

In full third wave feminist style, she then made a case for a more inclusive definition of the social movement taking a stand as a strong “Porcine American” who embraces her stereotypically feminine side by choice.

“It’s true, I did not march in women’s rights parades down Fifth Avenue in the early 1970s; that was long before I was born,” she said. “However, today, in solidarity with my feminist foremothers, I go shopping on Fifth Avenue whenever possible … Moi is now and has always been an ardent feminist and champion of women’s rights.”

More power to her.

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Feature image via Miss Piggy/Twitter.