In a male’s eyes, they have their ideal woman. Tall, but not too tall, skinny, but not too skinny, and pretty, but not too pretty. These females that the guys want have great hair and great nails, and they have the perfect nose and the perfect eyes. But in all actuality, that girl doesn’t exist. Men drill these thoughts into women’s minds so that they want to become that “perfect female” that these men desire so much. In Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet, her main character Penelope Rolle, otherwise referred to as Penny, whom is an African American woman, is depicted as an abnormal stereotyped perfect female that has been “raised” by the societal fathers and is being ridiculed because she does not look like what the “fathers” want her to. She focuses on themes such as gender inequality and patriarchal oppression to help relay what her main argument is: what feminism truly is and to show how females are being treated.

For a man’s ideal woman, she must be thin, not too thin that you can see bones, but just thin enough that there’s no excess weight. In DeConnick’s Bitch Planet, Penny is depicted as a rather large woman which was quite the opposite to her other character, Ms. Marvel, who is often referred to as “sexy”. In the first splash panel (Carolina Reader 176), Penny is shown in a full shot, giving one the ability right away to see her body. For the most part, Penny looks relatively manly with her hair half shaved. From Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, that most comics are not complex to allow the reader’s imagination to help fill in the characters and place it takes place. In some comics, the illustrator can make the main character noncomplex to allow the readers to have free expression in what the character looks like but in Bitch Planet, DeConnick keeps Penny’s character relatively complex to make sure that the reader doesn’t change the way Penny looks. Penny is purposely depicted in the way that she is to emphasize the “fathers” point which is that Penny is considered a bad case because of her appearance. In the scene where Penny is in the “Mother Siebertling’s” office, Mother starts to brush Penny’s hair and says, “You need to see yourself through the Fathers eyes,” (CR 188). No woman is safe within the world of the “Father’s” and their ridicule just emphasizing the themes of gender inequality and patriarchal oppression.

In Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet, the “Fathers” essentially rule over all females.  They are equivalent to like the President, Supreme Court, and Congress combined into one. They make the rules, execute the rules, and decide whether the rules are right and wrong. Everyone aims to please them. Into further reading of Bitch Planet, the entire plot of the comic is that the “Fathers” send noncompliant women to an off-planet jail. DeConnick shows themes of gender inequality and the struggle against patriarchal oppression (CR 175) within this entire comic by focusing on just “noncompliant” females being targeted by the “Fathers” and that sole power in the “Fathers” hands with no change allowed.  On page 188, four out of the five panels are scenes with the “Fathers.” They are ridiculing Penny, talking about how her mother was a sad case and how they fear that Penny is going to go down the same path. The theme of patriarchal oppression is present in the fact that everything is ruled by the “Fathers” who are all white men that are taking in certain measure to try to not to have Penny end up like her mother.

In the panels that I described above, DeConnick uses a relatively dark color scheme. The colors used as background panel colors and for clothes and skin tones are cooler and duller due to the fact that Bitch Planet has a negative concept to it. The “Fathers” are depicted in a uniform black and white suit in a white background. DeConnick differentiates between the flashbacks with a beige background and gutters whereas the present strips are a white background and gutters. She does this to show the darkness of Penny’s past. Her color scheme suits this comic well because it represents the mood and attitude for Bitch Planet exceptionally well.

In Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet, her themes of gender inequality and patriarchal oppression are very relative. She shows gender inequality by the way the “Fathers” degrade females from constantly imprisoning and punishing them by how they look and how they act. She also shows in by only sending “noncompliant” females off to an off-planet prison. The theme of patriarchal oppression is present in the fact that everything is ruled by the “Fathers” who are all white men. DeConnick also sets a negative mood and attitude within the comic by using dark, cool colors. Overall, DeConnick uses great comic techniques between colors and panel design in Bitch Planet to help get her themes across.
