In “Bitch Planet” by Kelly Sue DeConnick, she explains a futuristic world where men practically rule all that happen and only accept women if they have good figure. The main character Penelope is a black overweight woman who gets arrested for assaulting people who were mocking her figure in the bakery shop that she worked at. The fathers that ran the country wanted to give her a second chance and see if she wanted to make improvements to herself, turns out she did not. This story seems to be a retro futuristic story of the 1950’s and 60’s when men actually did these things, and some men still do. Also, Penelope seemed to be judged for trying to be an independent woman by not following the rules which was also frowned upon back in the 50’s and 60’s. Finally, the only African Americans in this comic were Penelope, her mother, and her daughter which seems to imply some sort of racial oppression. DeConnick does a masterful job at subtly referencing these ideas throughout her story. Kelly Sue DeConnick was born in 1970 and is a comic book writer. Her best known works are “Pretty Deadly” and “Bitch Planet”.

In “Bitch Planet”, the story takes place where men rule the country and women are only worried about their figure for the men. For example, heavier set women are looked down on while skinnier women seem to be the standard. This seems to have some sort of implication of the 1950-1960 era in American history where this exact scenario took place nationwide. For example, even though this takes place in some sort of futuristic world, the women are constantly worried about their figure, and the men are extremely judgmental of the women and have the sense like they run the world. Back in the 1950’s, women were only allowed to have certain jobs like a secretary or a cook like Penelope, the only difference seemed to be that women were news anchors in the comic which was not very prevalent in the 1950’s. Also, the only leaders in the comic were all men; which in the 1950’s, all the world leaders were men or controlled by a nation that had a male leader. This still holds true today in present day America because no female has been elected president of this country. However, that has changed with some smaller forms of government like in South Carolina where our governor is a woman and in Germany where their chancellor is also a woman. 

The second way that this seems to be a comparison to the old days seems to be that Penelope seemed to be judged for not conforming to the ways of ‘normality’ that they accepted (Deconnick 194 panel 1). For example, Penelope had her head half shaved and looked very intimidating. This makes it seems like the Fathers of the country feared her because she was different. In fact, the Fathers even tried to give her another chance to conform or else it seemed like they were going to punish her because she seemed like a threat to their power. Also, in the fight that she had at school, the principal told her that she was sorry that she had failed her (DeConnick 187.). It seems like the principal’s job is to make sure that everyone in that in the school conformed to the way of society. Then the principal subtly hints that Penelope has something wrong with her when she was brushing Penelope’s hair. However, Penelope stays true to her independence by telling herself that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” (DeConnick 187). 

The final example is that there were only three African American characters in the comic. In “Bitch Planet”, the only people in a position of power are white people. Racism was a problem in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and is still somewhat prominent in todays world as well. With the racially charged comments and the fact that Penelope is the only black person in jail that we know of, a reader can somewhat infer racial oppression in the comic. For example, when Penelope’s mother and daughter were in the kitchen, Penelope’s mother goes outside to see police dresses in what looks to be riot gear coming to the house. Accompanied with the fact that no one in the bakery was black the reader can infer some type of racial oppression. 

Reading “Bitch Planet” was like taking a trip back in American history, there were very subtle and obvious references to the era where white men ruled the world and women just catered to a man’s every whim because they felt like it was their job. That being said, it outlined some problems with today’s society in that men still judge women and that women who seem to be too strong in their opinion and independent are frowned upon by some people. Also, it pointed out that racial oppression is still a problem in today’s society, and that is a shame. 
