All in all, it’s easy to see why this pig has become such a role model for so many women.

However, we can’t help but feel it’s a shame that all of Piggy’s tremendous qualities – her self-sufficiency, assertiveness, and that dazzling confidence – can only be explained away as defence mechanisms thrown up against her (frankly) disturbing childhood experiences.

We suppose it makes sense, though, that Oz might have felt the need to soften Piggy’s “aggressive” personality with a ‘damsel in distress’ narrative.

Why? Well, over the last few years, research has found that, for women, there’s nothing quite as terrible as being seen as cocky or too confident. And it seems as if our reasoning for this is rooted in some logic, despite being horribly depressing: women who are assertive or forceful (aka intent on pursuing their dreams and achieving their goals) are perceived as 35% less competent than non-assertive women, according to a 2015 VitalSmarts study.

And one Stanford University paper, which compared employees with certain masculine traits – like being “aggressive, assertive, and confident” – with feminine traits such as “acting like a lady”, found that a woman can’t step outside of her traditional role without making waves, or experiencing a backlash.

“To be successful, you must be assertive and confident, but if you are aggressive as a woman you are sometimes punished for behaving in ways that are contrary to the feminine stereotype,” the researchers theorised.

Hmm. When this statement applies to pigs as well as women, you know it’s time for the world to make a change and start embracing badass females – no matter what form they come in.

Images: Getty

Muppets director finally reveals Miss Piggy’s troubling past