
What does it mean to be beautiful? Does that opinion reflect the one portrayed in society? Kelly Sue DeConnick attacks these questions in her comic Bitch Planet which is the story of a misunderstood big boned, occasionally violent, african american woman named Penelope who is living in a dystopian society that is constantly screaming at her to change her image and conform to what the men call of the culture define as “beautiful”. DeConnick is a female comic book writer who has openly confessed her frustration of working in a career field dominated by men. However she makes the claim that this struggle is not very different from a  regular woman in society nowadays (175). Implying that today’s society revolves around men and they shape the culture and get to define what beauty is. After becoming aware of this societal flaw, she decides to create the comic Bitch Planet  to portray in perhaps an extreme way, what it is like to be a woman who does not “fit the standard” of beauty in society. The comic really brings to life how scrutinizing men can be without batting an eyelash. Deconnick does an extremely good job capturing this idea of men having dominance over women especially through the use of her specific color scheme and use of Penelope’s appearance, she shows how women in today’s culture should respond. 

In the opening scene of the comic, Penelope is standing before a group of men referred to as her “fathers” who are casted on monitors with big white backgrounds. The white background is in contrast to Penny, whose face is shaded and dark. This contrast immediately establishes the dominance of men over women as the white light portrays the men as angelic or truth figures. While Penelope’s face and body is shadowed and darkened, Deconnick did this to show the clear disconnect between her and the fathers. Penny is imprisoned for having a violent outburst and is now wearing an orange jumpsuit, but Kelly Sue Deconnick uses that to show as metaphor of how all women are actually imprisoned by men in today’s society.

 The next scene the reader sees is a flashback between Penelope and her grandma. The flashback is a positive childhood memory and as the scene changes from the previous one with Penelope and the fathers, so does the color scheme. The memory is one with Penelope baking with her grandma and they end up making a huge mess and getting cake batter everywhere including Penelope’s hair. The color scheme of the scene is bright vibrant, innocent colors that represent the mind of a young child. This scene is important because it gives the audience a chance to see Penelope came from a loving mother and that the two had a good genuine connection. The flashback scene ends with armed men charging to the door to most likely abduct Penny and remove her out of her mother’s custody. The color scheme in this image goes back to very dark, shadowed images to display not only the dominance of men but the misunderstanding of the men and women. 

Another important feature DeConnick uses to portray this flaw is through the physical appearance of Penny. As stated earlier Penny is a large, powerful, masculine, black woman and would not fit the idea of beautiful in todays society or in the one from the comic. There is a scene later in Bitch Planet where Penny gets in trouble for “misbehaving” for striking a man who was talking about her grandmother. She is forced to go council with a lady who is blonde, white, skinny, and feminine. After talking about her misconduct the lady tries to impose her influence over Penny by telling her that she is not ugly she just needs to change if she wants to be beautiful. The lady then proceeds to guilt trip Penny into letting her cut her hair telling her she needs to learn to “see herself through her fathers eyes” (188). This shows that men have become so dominant that even the women subconsciously conformed and accepted the fact that the men have all the power. 

The last scene of the comic seems to be the most powerful as Penny finally confronts her inner angst and stands up for herself to her fathers. Going back to the orange jumpsuit standing before her fathers scene the conversation continues. The fathers start to tell Penelope that they have finally figured out the way to “cure” her. The fathers have created a way to hook up Penelope’s brain to sensors that can accurately depict what Penelope’s ideal version of herself looks like. Their goal is to try and see what Penelope’s goal is and to work towards that. When they hook her up to the monitor and see the results the fathers are astonished beyond belief. Penelope’s ideal version of herself is a mirror image of her current self. This means she is not only content with her big body, half shaved head, and masculine figure but thats her idea of perfection, or beauty. Penny finally has the chance to defend herself by showing her heart and mindset to the fathers who have been struggling to understand why she is so different. The last line of the comic is Penelope telling the fathers, “If it aint broke, don't fix it. / I aint broke. /… and you bastards aint never gonna break me” (199). This is the response DeConnick wants women in todays society to have, a confident persona, or swagger about their image and to not let the men of the world tell them if they are pretty or not. 

In conclusion Bitch Planet may be a bit radical or extreme, but Deconnick was intentional about that because she wanted to bring to the surface these issues in a big way because they are rarely discussed in society today. Beauty and body image are two huge struggles in culture today and the pressure that is put on women especially to look a certain way to be considered beautiful. Its unfair and men get the privilege of being the ultimate judge that dictates it for women. Surely Kelly Sue DeConnick wanted to paint this picture for the reader and also to encourage everyone to keep their heads up and to not let the men of the world tell them they are not beautiful. 
