| abstract
| - The evolution of Miss Piggy as a character has taken many twists and turns over the decades, but her self-centered traits have remained at her core. This has often been a source of conflict with the characters and actors she has appeared with, the results of which span a much wider range of interaction on the emotional spectrum than can be found with most other scripted characters. As a mirror for societal norms, the way fictional characters are portrayed often falls under sharp critique especially in regard to roles for women. Critics posit that media has a responsibility to provide more multi-layered female characters in comparison with what is generally accepted as an overabundance of roles for men. Part of this effort includes a healthy depiction of the relationships held by women with their peers of the same gender even when sensationalized press clamors for the adverse. For example, when Warner Bros. announced that Wonder Woman would appear in the male-headlined Batman v Superman movie in 2016, journalists immediately asked Amy Adams if she thought her character Lois Lane would wind up in a love triangle with Superman. Adams replied, “I hope that I can be involved with a woman on screen where we’re not in a love triangle. That would be fun. Maybe where we team up together and we work as teammates instead of adversaries.” Efforts to improve on these tropes have surfaced in pop culture by various means. For example, the Bechdel test, which sets the very low bar of determining if a piece of fiction has two named women in it that talk to each other about something other than a man. However, this doesn't account for the amiability of the characters -- a point of some significance in the case of Miss Piggy and her interactions with other women. Her situation is particularly unique as noted by the fact that she has always been performed by a man. Her originator Frank Oz has remarked more than once that the conception and execution of Piggy comes from his own warped view of women. Oz retired from the character in 2002, and was succeeded by another male performer, Eric Jacobson. In addition, Piggy has been written by male writers consistently up until 2015's The Muppets on ABC which employs a number of female writers on its staff. This article serves to chronicle the history of her relationships with women, and how she, the leading female star of the Muppets, has gotten along (if at all) with the women whom she has shared the screen, and in her personal life.
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