First of all, let it be said: ABC's The Muppets are hilarious. Irreverent, irresponsible, and even somewhat irregular, yet above all irrepressibly hilarious.
Except for this one scene.
On Tuesday night’s show, an episode titled “Hostile Makeover,” much of the drama surrounded Miss Piggy’s lack of a date for the People’s Choice awards. The group went into crisis mode, frantically searching their Muppet minds for a suitable one-night suitor for their leading lady.
Until one Muppet made the case for a certain singer, in a very awkward way:
>> Hey! Let's call Josh Groban next. He's single, he's got a great voice, and he gives me the feels.
>> He gives me the feels, too! What? He's a handsome man, and gender is fluid.
No, you heavily-accented bag of fur. Gender is not fluid. How you “self-identify” in no way alters the chromosomal biology that makes you a man or a woman. You can change your perception of yourself as much as you want. But just like the seemingly unstoppable force of oceanic fluids break upon the immovable object of rocks on the shore, so too does your concept of gender fluidity shatter when confronted by the rock-solid biology of what makes you who you are.
However, the Muppets seem to shatter their own gender logic later in the show, when Miss Piggy is confronted with the billboard for her talk show with Josh Groban, a sign that offends Piggy’s apparently non-fluid gender sensibilities:
>> Listen, guys, I wanted to do something to make up for how I acted. See, I-I realize that, Josh, you do have vision. And do you know what word you can't spell without "Vision"?
>>"Visions."
>>No. W-well, yes, yes, yes, that's true. But -- but I was going for "Television." And, piggy, your television show has changed for the better because of this man. And that kind of contribution should not go unrewarded, right? Okay, guys. What do you think?!
>> I-I love it. Right?!
>> Oh, and, piggy, the best part is that even though you're the only female host on late-night, it shows you're brave enough to say, "I can't do it without a man."
>> Hmm.
>>Bye-bye.
>> Sometimes, with couples, when one person is very powerful, they make the other person change who they are. That's what I was doing to Josh. So I let him go. Next!
So, gender is so “fluid” that a person can change it based on their own concept of themselves. Yet, gender stereotypes are so iron-clad they can’t be broken? If one can change their gender, why can’t they break or change a gender stereotype?
No worries though, I’m sure the Muppets will address this discrepancy in coming episodes. I’m sure of it…
