Fall 2017 Gender, Identity, and Literature

Penny Rolle’s reasons for being on Bitch Planet aren’t explicit, and even more ambiguous is what happened to her parents. There are some hints in number 3, however. It would appear that Penny is biracial, her mother black and her father white. Her mother was probably taken into custody when Penny was very young, and her father is still on the run (raising the question; what happens to men who break the law in this society?). When Penny is at school, and the teacher/administrative woman is talking to her and “fixing” her hair, Penny asks what is wrong with it. The woman says “it’s not black or white, good or bad. Folks don’t know what to make of it because they don’t know what it is .” Penny then asks “why folks gotta say what I am, mother? Ain’t it enough to know who I am?” This implies that not only is Penny biracial, but that this isn’t normal in this society. We later learn about Penny’s father when we see Penny working in the bakery, and turns on the feed. The reporter is talkin...

Bitch Planet is graphic comic filled with strong ideas, patriarchy, stereotypes, and much more. Throughout this comic, women are portrayed in ways that are stereotypical for their appearances. For example, Penny Rolle, a full figured, woman of color is viewed as angry and aggressive. Meiko, a woman of asian descent, is seen as being smart and witty. While women such as Hailey and Kailey are illustrated as being ditzy and useless.   While this comic does focus on women, men are also seen acting in a stereotypical fashion. The “Fathers” are depicted as white men, wearing suits; their speech bubbles are even drawn in a more uniform and bland form. As well as being illustrated in a more calm style, their background are also full of ‘masculine’ colors, such as blues, blacks, and greens. The dialogue between men and women are also written in a cliche way, having a male broadcaster referring to his female co host as, “Sweetheart.” While this book claims to be written for feminist,...

As I was reading the article about the Three Waves of Feminism, a few things stood out to me about each wave: First Wave: This wave is categorized as diverse forms of intervention that have continued to inspire later feminist movements. I thought it was really interesting how the lower middle-class women represented themselves as they protested near the White House. The text says that these well-educated women " Dressed in their Sunday best, they offered no resistance to the police and thus both appalled and appealed to the public. They personified White, middle-class femininity, while engaging in very unfeminine and less-than-bourgeois practices." This tactic was described as confrontational but clever. What I also thought was very interesting is that one (of the many) things that sparked this was that during World War 1, Germany had already granted Women Suffrage.  Second Wave: This wave of feminism focuses more on women's oppression. I find the things that these...

          The entirety of the comic book Bitch Planet seeks to belittle women and their value. The second page of the book states that women who have been placed on Bitch Planet were "cast out for their gluttony, pride, weakness and wickedness." Essentially women are the source of all problems on earth and in order to mitigate those problems women have to be sent away. Women are, "beyond correction" and are "like a cancer that must be excised from the world." Women have a "sickness," and thus need to be removed from the planet to keep the world healthy and clean.           The first case presented regarding the determination of a woman going to Bitch Planet was because she got upset after her husband cheated on her. The man was not at fault whatsoever for committing adultery, it was concern over the fact that his wife got upset about it and therefore to remove the issue she needed to be sent away. Men can do no wrong, it's exclusively w...

Throughout the entirety of Bitch Planet, I really focused in on the “Hey Kids, Patriarchy!” and “Advice for Ladies” sections at the end of each chapter. One specific advertisement in the “Advice for Ladies” at the end of chapter four really caught my attention on Tuesday. They tell women to “be the you HE likes”. They say that you are “more fun to be around” “without thoughts, feelings or inconvenient opinions”. This forced me to ask myself: who are we when we take away the very essence of our personality? They are essentially telling these women that it doesn’t matter who you are on the inside. What matters is how you look physically and that you are compliant to the man’s wishes; it doesn’t matter what you want. In the “Hey Kids, Patriarchy!” at the end of chapter one, one of the articles is titled “Let Us Change Your Personality!”, persuading girls to get new signatures to create a new identity. Yet again, this tells the reader that we should recreate who we are in order to better ...

As I was reading Bitch Planet, in class we noticed that women in the comic are very aggressive bad violent in the story. I think that this comic wants to not only portray women as violent but also bad asses too. Bad ass women who are fighting for their rights instead of treated not as equals.  As I was reading the three way of feminism, I found it particularly interesting to   go through each wave and see where women have made some accomplishments. The first wave was more about women rights movements like Seneca falls and colored women right movements. The second wave was focused more on the oppressed groups like black and homosexuals. The third wave challenges universal womanhood. This article has opened my mind to man things about women during this time and all the rights they had to fight for like voting.  The Bitch Planet novel also times back to the three waves of feminism.  What I found most interesting about this read was tha...

Something that I would like to touch on in Bitch Planet  is the reasoning for why the women ended up being sent to Bitch Planet. While I believe that all of these are crude reasons, there are several that are more inhumane than others. All of them reflect stereotypes that would deem a woman to be imperfect. Even prior to reading Bitch Planet , you can see a whole section on the back cover that asks the question, "Are you too ___________?" (fill in the blank) and then "You just may belong on Bitch Planet." Just this alone sets the tone for the whole entire comic book. This statement represents the societal pressure that women receive every day. Society tells women that they must fit a certain compliant mold and the women on Bitch Planet clearly do not fit within it. For example, race and the negative stereotypes that unfortunately go with them is touched on. Penny, a noncompliant African American woman is portrayed as being angry and violent. Additionally, women'...

There is a quote that says, “when a man gives his opinion, he is a man.   When a woman gives her opinion, she is a bitch.”   I think this quote applies to Bitch Planet well, and I would even go as far to say it encompasses the entire premise of the progressive comic.   While Bitch Planet is not yet perfect, it does do a good job at highlighting the ridiculous and unfair treatment of women that still exists in today’s society.   As the quote suggests, the slightest misstep can send any woman into the derogatory category of “Bitch.”   This is mirrored in the comic in that any type of misbehavior can be labeled as noncompliant.   For example, women are sent to Bitch Planet for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from murder to simply being fat.   “Chromosomal imbalances” such as down syndrome and being a monozygotic twin can also land you a spot on this other planet prison.   I think the author decides to include these characteristics as...

    Reading Bitch Planet brought me back to my Women and Gender Studies class I took last year. Every class we discussed topic like this. The differences between how men and women are portrayed within society and how unfair and upsetting it can be. The most interesting part of this all is that these differences are till around in our society and after reading the book it made me more upset. At the beginning of the book the first thing I realized was the black lady, Penny, was portrayed as the stereotypical angry women of color. The book clearly depicts whites are more passive and Penny as more violent and that blacks are meaner and more tough than white people. The more I read, the worse it got. At first its just the differences between whites and blacks and then they bring Asians in. The book was the most stereotypical and divided book I have ever read. The author depicts Asians as the smart, math and nerdy type. The asians are the ones that build the planet again stereotypin...

For my fourth forum post, I would like to address the women’s crimes that placed them on Bitch Planet. I feel it is important to address what the fact that even though these crimes were completely dramatized, we could still find much lesser stigmas relating to these crimes in today’s society. First, In the beginning of the comic when Marian Collins, is charged because her husband cheated on her. And she defends her husband by saying she neglected his needs. In modern society this can apply because many times today women consider their partner cheating on them to be their own fault. In nursing classes, students are taught that a partner who is abused even emotionally will defend their abuser until the end. I believe this twisted idea has come about because since the beginning of time in mass media since the women are considered the cause to the problems in the relationships. Next, I can especially see this concept being exemplified through multiple women I know. For exampl...