Review of 'Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
While I enjoyed this comic a lot, my silly silly brain still insists that I should be admit right up front that this is quite literally feminist propaganda. No doubts about it, especially one you reach the end and run into the study guide. I even felt more then a little bit emotionally manipulated, but I am a sex-positive, intersectional feminist, so what exactly does that mean to my opinion?
I think that when people go whole hog on an idea, it's super easy to criticize. I wouldn't have minded if it was a bit more subtle about things, but could I have done any better? It seems kind of hypocritical to hold other people to a higher standard then I hold myself as a creative professional. The only thing that I feel like I can say is that while it is clearly an educational tool, a tool meant to …
While I enjoyed this comic a lot, my silly silly brain still insists that I should be admit right up front that this is quite literally feminist propaganda. No doubts about it, especially one you reach the end and run into the study guide. I even felt more then a little bit emotionally manipulated, but I am a sex-positive, intersectional feminist, so what exactly does that mean to my opinion?
I think that when people go whole hog on an idea, it's super easy to criticize. I wouldn't have minded if it was a bit more subtle about things, but could I have done any better? It seems kind of hypocritical to hold other people to a higher standard then I hold myself as a creative professional. The only thing that I feel like I can say is that while it is clearly an educational tool, a tool meant to convince people that intersectional feminism is still relevant, I'm not sure how many people outside the choir would pick up such an aggressively feminist book. If so, does that mean it fails?
As far as the story goes, it is right smack in the middle of the traditional feminist dystopian future. Is it a rip off of A Handmaid's Tale? No, not really. While they both depict a world ruled by patriarchy, the things they choose to focus on are completely different. The story certainly feels a lit out there right now because we haven't gotten that much background on what lead up to the creation of bitch planet, but at this point I do think that's a pretty weak critique. This is only volume one and there has been quite a bit of world building already, just because we have some questions doesn't mean it's the end of the world.
That said, I do think the setting for this book is more poetic then necessarily logical. It's not like the creators are trying to say that we will literally get shipped off to another planet for not complying, but rather that women see how the world we live in ostracizes and tries to re-educate women who in the present day are none compliant. This is a perfectly reasonable thing for them to do even if a lot of outsiders won't get it and it's not to everyone's taste.
Otherwise I thought that the writing for this book was really excellent. I really enjoyed the ads in the back of each issue (I used to do similar things when I was a kid). I thought that all the characters were pretty three dimensional and relatable to their intended audience. The plot definitely played around with me a little, and the dialog felt really solid.
As far as the art goes, while I felt like some of the panels were a bit overly simple, I really enjoyed the overall style. Their portrayal of the female body was super refreshing. Lots of nudity, but it never felt like any of the characters were being checked out (except as a plot point). And even though this book is packed to the gills with female characters, none of them felt redundant or forced.
It was pretty refreshing to see characters with at least some pubic hair. It was interesting for my ongoing study into the portrayal of female bodies to note that unlike Batgirl camel toe, the bush definitely interrupted the fuck me guide lines that often lead suggestively straight into a girl's crotch for the male gaze to fantasize over. Of course the women still didn't really have any hair anywhere else (at least as far as i remember) so I continue to be disappointed by the fact that feminism still generally ranks some pubic hair over others. Like how armpit hair has been popular recently and yet women still shave their legs.
To conclude I will just touch on one last criticism I've seen is that the male female dynamic in this series is too simplistic. Men = bad, women = good. Well, considering how many compliant women remain in the system I'm not sure how much this actually deserves a rebuttal. But to give it anyway, I have the same answer for Christians complaining about V for Vendetta. The characters in the story are evil, the only reason you have to worry about the comparison is because you actually feel like you are similar to these bad guys. You should probably be reconsidering your own life before you start pointing the finger at other people!
