Within the first five minutes of Civilization (all you can eat), the audience is introduced to Big Hog; DC favorite Sarah Marshall’s intricately crafted and cunning pig character. Big Hog makes his way through the piece consuming everything in his path from the English language, images of the vast American landscape, to maybe even something larger than that… (no spoilers!) This brave pig’s journey through the arc of Civilization is interspersed with scenes of humans trying to find their way and stake their claim at the dawn of the Obama age. Or is it the other way around? Whatever the case may be, there is room for interpretation as to what Big Hog signifies or represents. Are we Big Hog? Is Big Hog a victim of our economic system? Is Big Hog the American Dream?
I find it interesting to explore the symbolism and iconography of pigs in our own culture. Pigs—when you really think about it—pop up EVERYWHERE.
There’s Piglet from A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh – the loyal sidekick of Pooh himself. In Disney stores there are often t-shirts and other merchandise that depict Piglet as being shy, sweet, and oftentimes a bit clumsy. I know when I was younger my best friend and I used to refer to ourselves as Piglet and Pooh.
To turn the tables, there’s Miss Piggy, the sex icon of The Muppets cast. She’s fabulous, she has a great sweeping sense of style, and her boyfriend is Kermit the Frog. She clearly has the upper hand in that relationship.
Just when you thought Miss Piggy was the only pig in the cultural sphere who would wear lipstick… A popular idiom in American politics is, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” referring to dressing up a political issue (or something in general) but not acknowledging its underlying nature. Barack Obama drew some heat in the 2008 election campaign when he used this phrase referring to John McCain’s policies—except critics said it was offensive to VP candidate Sarah Palin.
More often than not, our instincts lean towards thinking about pigs as a symbol for greed or gluttony, as is represented in this political cartoon about Obama’s 2009 stimulus plan.
What are some of your favorite representations of pigs in our culture? Do you have a favorite pig character in the media?
~Melanie Harker, Connectivity Assistant













