All forms of our media are influenced by the world around us, our movies, books and more.  The case is the same for Kelly Sue DeConnick’s comic Bitch Planet.  In this fictional possibility of a near future world, the author portrays what could happen to society, and specifically women, if we keep up with the current trends of attitude that we currently have towards others.  DeConnick specifically uses cultural impacts on society to shape her comic, Bitch Planet, by commenting on cultural topics like woman, weight, and our judicial system.

The biggest points of concern in the comic is that it talks about how women are treated poorly now, and the comic shows how in the future it could get to an even worse degree.  In the fictional world of the comic, women are treated more poorly than men.  The men rule this dystopian world.  They have the title of Father and imprison many females, especially ones who don’t cooperate (The Nation).  In the fictional future, the world is designed for men, showing mostly sports and other masculine media, while women are forced to watch.  This would be an unhealthy future, and it possibly comes from a future we might be starting to hear to today.  In our current culture, women still don’t have all the rights men do.  They are frowned upon when they want to break out of the traditional feminine style.  It could also be representative of our history.  A century ago, women couldn’t vote, and before that they couldn’t own land or have many other basic responsibilities either.  In Bitch Planet, the society kind of goes back to that, where women have less rights and the men do as they please and reign supreme.  The author is commenting on this fact, how our society and the way it treats women impacted her work and the future within it.

Another place that Bitch Planet is impacted by our society and history is with its commentary on weight.  Long ago in our history it was considered a good thing to weight a lot.  It mean wealth and security, and also meant you were fed.  Heavy set people were usually in positions of power.  But that is the case no longer.  As time has passed, up to our current society, it is now frowned upon to be heavier.  People who weigh more are looked at as disgusting and unhealthy by many.  Bitch Planet reflects many of these same qualities.  In our day and age we expect women to meet a certain standard of body type and size.  If they don’t reach that, some will unfortunately become undesirable.  In Bitch Planet, one of the reasons the main character goes to jail is becomes of her size (Human Rights).  She is considered too large and is therefore sent to prison.  The possibility of this stems from our cultural attitudes of today.  As society need to be more accepting of all people of different backgrounds and characteristics.  In the comic, Penny is humiliated because of her size.  All the girls at the muffin store are talking about shaving calories and keeping skinny while the TV in the background is talking about a treatment to cure body fat.  These possibilities of the future come from our culture today.  In our current world, many girls and women starve themselves dangerously or become bulimic in order to conform to societies needs and wants.  This unhealthy habit and style of life is just one of many ways that our culture today impacts how this comic was written and how it shows us what we could become.

A common theme in the comic is that of the judicial system and the prison that many of the women are held at.  The theme of the comic is that many of the women are sent to the prison simply because they aren’t what the male leaders consider desirable.  Take for instance Penny, who goes to prison simply for her weight.  Once in the prison, the Council attempts to use inhumane methods to cure her, like reading her mind.  The judiciary style of the dystopian future of the comic is not a desirable one, and its ideas come from current cultural influences and our past.  In both the past and present, prisons and captivity have always been a topic of outcry and disagreement.  The system has many flaws and issues, most of which are never solved.  The issues we have in our current world shape how the judicial system works in the book.  In our lives, people are sent to prison wrongly or for little to no reason.  Once there they are not treated well and decline in attitude rather than improve usually, which is not the goal of a prison.  The goal show be to help the prisoners so they can rejoin society.  The same takes place in Bitch Planet.  The women are incarcerated for virtually no reason.  There they are punished for doing nothing wrong, and taught to behave in a way that they might not feel is right for them.  The council tries to mold these women into what they think is right, instead of letting women improve in a better fashion.  Take for instance Penny’s Grandmother, who takes care of her at the beginning.  The government takes her away from her child just because they deem her not fit for raising someone.  As a result, Penny grows up in probably what was a worse lifestyle.  These issues in the fictional future of the comic resemble what we do with our prisoners now.  Our culture and history impacts the way that the author designed her comic.

Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet is a social commentary on our society today and what we could become.  It is designed to use outside influence and be shaped by how our culture acts and behaves.  The dystopian future resembles many of the things we currently do, and most of them aren’t necessarily good.  The comic comments on how we currently treat the topics of women, weight, and our judiciary system poorly and how we could become even worse.  The author tries to convince us to look at what we are, what we could become, and make a choice on what kind of society we want to be.
