   In “Bitch Planet,” by Kelly Sue DeConnick, women are depicted to be in a society ruled by men. Kelly Sue DeConnick is a feminist and is well known in the comic book world. She wrote “Bitch Plant” in a futuristic society that is similar to the Earth we know, except that gender inequality is more obvious. The theme of gender inequality and patriarchy is supported in different ways through the visual context of the first panel in “Bitch Planet” including, the visual text, the color of the panel, the size of the panel, the symbols that are used, and the story being in the form of a comic.

Women feel judged by men because many feel that they are not the ideal women that men look for. The woman in the first panel has man-like features, she has big muscles, big hands, and half of her head shaved; this makes her different from the idealistic woman put forth in society. Society depicts the ideal women as medium sized, with curves, a pretty face, and long smooth hair. Penny is a symbol of everything that a man avoids, she is viewed as highly unattractive to men, and therefore instantly grabs the reader’s attention. Penny is wearing orange scrubs because she is in jail. The fact that she is unattractive and in jail symbolizes that she has been rejected by men in society and because of that, this has turned Penny to a life of crime. Penny talks about how she can feel people around her judging her, and although she does not physically see the men behind her, she still feels judged just like women feel constantly judged by men in our society.  

 The first panel is dark and ominous and highlights the idea that women have a dark future in a male dominated society. The darkness of the panels makes the audience fearful, and foreshadows that women are going to experience difficulties in life. In the first panel, Penny is darker than the men, this makes Penny look more upset, or that she is being picked on. With there being dark colors for Penny and light colors for the men, this panel represents how women are evil and the men are good in this futuristic society. Also, with Penny having darker colors to her appearance it makes her look more mysterious, that there is more to her that meets the eye. This relates to gender inequality because just by the appearance Penny is already being judged without the men knowing anything about her. The darkness and shading can also show that she is alone, and has no one. Although Penny is depicted as dark, she is surrounded by bright colors making her the center of attention. The use of color makes the audience feel sorry for the woman and shows the contrast between how men and women are viewed in this society.

Another element the author uses is the size of the panel to make Penny the center of attention and so the audience will listen to her. The author makes the whole page devoted to Penny and this makes her the focus of the panel. This aspect also allows the audience to know who the story revolves around. Penny is large, so she will stick out more to the reader, her size makes her an attention grabber. The size of the panel makes everyone pay attention to the woman, and also how she is being judged. There is also a panel inside of a panel with another illustration of Penny’s eye. The close up of Penny’s eye makes it seem as if she is looking at the reader, and the detail in the drawing shows her anger at being judged. The panel does not show men being judged, just Penny, and that can be a message that all women are continuously judged by men.

The author chose to write “Bitch Planet,” as a comic. This is aimed towards men, because in our society the majority of people who read comics are men. This connects to the theme of gender inequality because it is ironic that a feminist would choose to write a comic. In the comic women are not treated as equal and men are seen as superior to them. With a comic men are able to see how women feel unequal through the different panels, and it shows how the men promote gender inequality. Men are more interested in action so the fact that the story is presented as a comic allows men to see feminism in a different way. With this story being a comic it is not just for the attention of men, but also can be for the attention of women. This allows the author to get its audience of women because it provides them with their own story and something that they can relate to in their lives. The comic could also make women feel better about themselves in terms of being judged by men, and they will feel content with themselves.

In “Bitch Planet,” women feel judged by men because they feel like they are not the ideal woman that men look for, the illustrators use of colors show the mood of the whole comic, the symbols that are shown give deeper insight of what possibly could be going on in the story, the author writes this story in a comic strip to appeal to a certain audience, and the size of the panels and how they give attention to the main character to let the audience know that the character is important. All these elements work together in order to get the authors full message out to its audience.
