
“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” (179). This is the thought that continually goes through the main character, Penny’s, head as she faces a room of oppressive men in the comic “Bitch Planet” by Kelly Sue DeConnick. Although Penny faces various hardships throughout her life being an overweight black woman, she constantly reminds herself that she is exactly who she wants to be because she does not let others break her spirit, even as she is imprisoned by a bunch of misogynistic men.

As the comic starts, Penny is shown standing in an orange jumpsuit looking very intimidating. She is standing amongst a large group of men on screens mounted to the wall. They begin judging her as she walks into the room. They refer to themselves as her “fathers” and try to make it seem as though they are there to help her. Throughout the story, Penny has flashbacks throughout the story of times that seem to define her as a person. She has memories of making muffins with her grandmother and then being captured; punching someone in the face; and finally breaking down and having a violent fit against all of the negative customers in the bakery that she worked in. Finally, Penny flashes back into the present and she is with the men once again. They then begin experimenting on her in order to try to see what she thinks the ideal version of herself would be. Finally, it is revealed that Penny is the exact person that she wants to be and she has no wish to change. 

In the beginning of the comic, Penny’s “fathers” feel like they can make any comment towards Penny and it would help her as though they were her actual father. In reality, they are just trying to change Penny in order to make her a more subordinate prisoner. Penny is shown clenching her fist while listening to the fathers discuss what they want for Penny (178 Panel 5). In the panel, there is a close up on Penny’s fist along with one of the “fathers” in the background. Her fist is tightly clenched by her side and none of the fathers seem to notice it. Penny’s body is shaded a little darker and mysterious, but the “father” has a white background and brighter coloring, which gives a stark and powerful sentiment. She seems to be holding back all of her internal feelings, even though, she wants to fight and defend herself against the patriarchy that she is facing. She knows that it is not worth fighting back because they will just continue to reprimand her and make her life even worse; although it goes against Penny’s being and belief, she remains somewhat subordinate. In the past, Penny’s first response is to use her fists and hurt the people going against her, but every time, she does not get a response, instead they reprimand her and make her more and more oppressed.   

Later in the comic, Penny is seen raising her fists towards the “fathers” after they begin to make a comment about her mother (183 Panel 5). The shot is a middle shot showing the upper half of Penny and her fists and the men on their screens in the background gasping. Penny remains the main focus of the shot with her anger burning through intimidating the men around her. This is how she normally reacts to being threatened, continually fighting for herself and the honor of her family. She cannot become a fully subordinate empty person, who does not express her anger for the injustices around her. Also within the shot, there is a close up of one of the fathers gasping in response to seeing Penny so offended. Based on his expression, he is not used to women not listening to him and respecting him. He seems to be confused why Penny is so mad at him, when he feels like he is just trying to help her be a better person. He does not realize that in reality Penny likes the way that she is living and does not need a man to tell her how to live.

Later in the comic, Penny has a flashback to a time when she punched a fellow student in the face after he makes comments about her grandmother (185 Panel 1). The author distinguishes the present and the past by changing the coloring of the comic and changing the color of the gutter to a beige color. Also, the panel has a cool color palette, but Penny is the darkest out of everyone in the crowd and anything in the picture; she sticks out amongst everyone and the readers eye is drawn to her. The comic uses a bug view in order to effectively show Penny dominating over the boy on the ground without any remorse in her face. The panel is also a far- shot in order to show everyone crowding around her with astonished faces. Everyone in the background is surprised that she would actually attempt to fight someone who was saying bad things about her grandmother. The boy on the ground looks just as surprised that someone would actually go against him and punch him. 

Penny goes through the comic being seen as a violent heathen who needs to be changes into a subordinate soldier of the patriarchy. However, she does not hold her fists up simple to be violent, but rather to stick up against the injustices around her that are trying to change her. She is not broken, the system that she is living in is. A bunch of white men are trying to tell Penny how she is supposed to live without knowing anything about her personality, feelings or thoughts and instead just nit- pick her visual appearance and violent tendencies. They do not stop to look at how they are oppressing Penny and just pretending like they are trying to help her. This theme is relevant in today’s American society, since there is an argument about what rights the government, which is made up of a majority of men, have to determine the rights that women have to decide what they want and do not want to happen to their bodies, in terms of rape and abortion. “Bitch Planet” is meant to empower women to rise up and go against the grain even if it means being different from everyone else.
