     Gender and racial inequality is still a major problem in America, even after MLK and all of the equality movements. Gender inequality is especially still prevalent in the work place, where statistically women are paid less to do the same jobs as men and are treated as underlings instead of as equals. Women are also considered weak and not as important as men. Even Kelly Sue DeConnick, a writer of famous Marvel super hero comics, experiences this inequality. She wrote a comic with all female versions of super heroes and she was greatly criticized for it. The critics felt that the super heroes must continue to be males because the female versions are weaker and not as good. She then decided to write a comic exemplifying gender and racial inequality. Kelly DeConnick’s Bitch Planet shows the contrast between how the actual woman looks and acts and how the ideal woman should look and act to show the public that inequality is still a problem.

      DeConnick first shows the contrast between how an actual woman looks and how an ideal woman should look. On page 188, where Penny’s “mother” is trying to fix Penny’s hair. This panel depicts Penny’s “mother”, the ideal woman, in contrast to Penny, the woman that needs to change. It shows the mother in a sort of voyeuristic gaze with a picture of the mother and her husband happily in the background on a pink wall. This exemplifies the ideal relationship of a woman being happily married. The mother is also talking about how a woman has to see herself “through the father’s eyes.” This shows where this expectation of looks comes from, and implies how they should look. The mother is skinny, white, has straight hair, is quiet, and wears makeup and clothes to show off her skin. This is how the “fathers” want women to look. Penny is black and is shown as complacent and ugly in contrast to her mother, and is being forced by her mother to change and conform to be an “ideal woman”. It seems as if the mother is doing this not because she wants to but because Penny will be punished if she does not. 

     Throughout the entire comic Penny is never shown wearing makeup. She is always shown as overly muscular and fat with a very chubby face. Her hair is shown as curly and all over the place and her eyebrows look very similar to a man’s eyebrows. Her face is generally shown as being very masculine. The other women always have an absurd amount of makeup on, wear earrings, and have “perfect” straight hair. They all are also wearing V-neck shirts and skirts that do not go below the knee. This all shows the contrast between the women, but also shows a similarity to men. This is what truly creates the inequality. The women are not allowed to have any features that resemble a man’s. The men believe that only they can look like that but that is not true. There is a sign where Penny works that says “born BIG” and this really brings up the idea of the natural self. The men are allowed to be their natural selves but women all have to go out of their way to look presentable and wear all of these things to make them “perfect” for men.

     The whole scene is shown in an over the shoulder shot, but not in an ordinary way. The over the shoulder shot is not of the two in a reciprocal dialogue, they are both looking away from each other which shows the contrast between the two even more. Throughout the page, Penny is looking down and away from her mother and her mother is sometimes standing over her and looking down at her. The mother is actively changing Penny’s hair to make it more ideal. This view is also at a slight upward angle and makes the mother seem bigger than she is. This shows that the mother is being controlling and therefore Penny is being submissive, for now. It is also implied that the mother is being controlling in order to prevent Penny from being punished by the fathers for not conforming and being an ideal woman.

     Later in the comic the contrast between how an actual woman acts and how an ideal woman should act is further exemplified. Penny makes a mistake in forgetting to turn the feed on and one woman tries to momentarily stand up for Penny’s mistake and defend her from the accusatory manner of a man. The woman is quickly corrected and controlled by the man. She rolled her eyes and the man told her she was not allowed to do that (193). The man did not let the woman express how she felt and did not even take her feelings into consideration. The men show no courtesy to others in any way. Penny then defuses the situation by giving the man a free muffin. This shows that women are generally very afraid of men, implying that there must be a reason like there is some kind of punishment involved with defying a man’s orders. Then they are forced into acting ideally, but not because they want to but rather because the men want them to. The men are taking away women’s free will. 

     On the next page a conversation on the feed between two “ideal women” and Penny’s reaction to the conversation are depicted (194). The ideal women are shown again wearing specific clothes and make up to please men. The difference in this panel is that what women do to become ideal women is exaggerated in a very extreme almost ridiculous way. In the reporter’s conversation on the feed they speak of wishing “you had a gastrointestinal parasite” which shows how far these women go to become an ideal woman. They want so badly to be an ideal woman that they infect themselves with a potentially harmful and deadly parasite to lose weight and stay skinny. This shows what the expectation is for how women should act, they should be doing everything they can to be very skinny and please men. Penny is shown in outrage to this as she lets her anger out on a ball of dough. She is also shown in complete contrast to the ideal woman, she does not conform to how she is supposed to act and she actually shows her emotions instead of falsely covering them up and hiding them. Yet she still does not truly speak out and defy men, for if she did she would be letting her anger out on the men and not on the dough. The way these images are shown are in an objectifying way, which again, further enhances the differences between the ideal woman and the real woman. 

     The contrast between the ideal woman and the real woman support the comics overall message of how bad gender and racial inequality really are. The comic as a whole does this in an exaggerated dynamic that is hyperbolic and almost ridiculous. This exaggeration actually makes the message more powerful in a way and it makes the inequality more clear to readers. This makes the contrast very important to the comic as a whole, without it the meaning would be unclear. The contrast shows many examples of how women feel in the real world. There are many women who feel that they have to dress a certain way in order to please men. There are also some who are so afraid that they will be punished for voicing their opinions or doing what they want that they conform and do as they are told. 

      This comic is a great example of inequality, although slightly unrealistic, it shows that if society continues to progress in this way of treating women that it could very well turn into an epidemic where all women are forced to act and look a certain way. Kelly DeConnick uses this comic to show inequality in hopes of changing it. She does this not only for herself but to show the public how poorly women are treated so they will realize that the way women are treated is unfair and wrong and that it needs to change.