Pigs in Space

Tonight on Project:Runway All Stars, the guest judge and client of the sewtestants was Miss Piggy.  Some of the dresses were lovely, some sucked. Miss Piggy was funny and the person I wanted to win, didn't. The person I wanted to be sent home, wasn't. All of this was common though, other than the Piggy angle. And it was the Piggy angle that struck me the most.

You see, people talked about this muppet like she was a real person.  They weren't faking it either. They seemed really, honestly thrilled to be making dresses for Miss Piggy.....who has been a major influence on their lives.....and happens to be one of their idols.

I want you to understand, I'm not judging them here.  I feel the same way. I've always adored Miss Piggy.  She was vain and full of herself and driven and funny as hell. Traits than in other people would be annoying somehow work for her, mostly because, of course, she is a character created from many people who probably acted a lot like her, but with less charm. I guess it goes without saying that in my head, I see her as a real person too. Rationally, I know she's a muppet. I guess I really don't care if she is.

This is a fact of our culture. Try as we might, rational as we want to be, many of us, perhaps all of us, have a blending of the real and fictional that comprises our perceptions.  They marry inside of us to create reality as we see it.  We may not like to admit it, but for many of us, it's very much there.

For instance, there are a lot of people who live their lives by the Jedi code. And I'm not talking about cosplayers of even people who others would consider "geeky." I'm talking about otherwise ordinary people who probably don't even think about how much these ideas influence their choices.  Some people would list only fictional characters as their heroes, people who dedicate more waking moments to theories about these characters. It shapes a large part of what makes their lives happy places.

Is this a problem?

I know a lot of people would say it is. However, I think, if those people are being honest, most of their objections stem from their desire to replace other people's perceptions of reality with their own. Hence the WBC's anger at people who go to comic book conventions.

Do I personally think it is a problem.

Well, no. However, and this is a big however, I think it CAN become a problem when we stop facing the fact that as fun as our own created realities are, there is an actual reality going on. Bills still have to be paid. Babies still have to be fed, that kind of thing. Otherwise, go for it. Make reality whatever you want.