Bitch Planet
I recently started reading the comic book Bitch Planet after seeing Ta-Nahesi Coates tweet about it several times, and it's a must-read for fans of dystopia. The premise is a future patriarchy in which women, particularly women of color, are jailed for various acts of being "non-compliant." These non-compliant women are sent offworld to the Auxiliary Compliance Outpost, or "Bitch Planet," a term which the patriarchs inevitably respond to by saying "we don't like to call it that." The patriarchy itself reads like a much smarter, much edgier take on the New Founding Fathers of America.
Aside from recommending it as a very powerful read, the story is still in its early stages, so I don't want to get too deep into an analytical reading, but I wanted to highlight one element that has emerged early in the story and is near and dear to my heart, the dystopian spectacle. In Bitch Planet, the spectacle is a game called Megaton. I will let readers discover the details, but the comic does an excellent job of explaining the social function of the dystopian spectacle, and I wanted to share a couple panels on that topic for readers of my previous article.
Meanwhile, what are you waiting for? Go buy it! (Not safe for work.)
Click to enlarge pictures.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61ed6315-01c4-4bcf-9217-1b26e697605d_400x230.png)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F888588a9-b02f-4d90-be37-1cfc400f1841_400x280.png)