Bitch Planet--Penny Rolle

In the first three sections of Bitch Planet, we are introduced to several women of color. The first being Penny Rolle; she is a heavier set, African American woman that gets in a fight with the guards over the size of her jumpsuit they provided her. She is hit over the head with a baton by a guard, which sparks a brawl between the inmates and guards. Later, in part three of the comic, the story focuses back to Penny as a young teen. She flashes back to punching a boy in the hallway because he mentioned her grand mother. Next, she becomes enraged while working at her job because of the customers lack of respect for her. Penny Rolle is depicted as a stereotypical angry, woman of color. This appears often in books and movies because white women are so often seen as submissive or "compliant" therefore, women of color must be the opposite. I think this was a great example of how these stereotypes are still prevalent in today's culture. Colored women have been seen as undesirable in the past, because they are the opposite of the desired white woman. By depicting Penny Rolle as more violent than other characters it further backs up the claims that black women are still stereotyped as aggressive in our culture.

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