"You can't jail the revolution"
'President Bitch', now there's a title not to be resisted. So much meaning to it. Not to mention timely.
Most recently, I'd been reading some of the sequels to comic volumes I've liked in the past. Mostly they were disappointments. However, 'Bitch Planet, Vol. 2: President Bitch' is a sequel that I found to be as good if not better than its predecessor. It's as fierce, uncomfortable, unapologetic, enraging, and as politically-relevant as ever, and even more clever, thrilling, devoted, emotional, cathartic, and diverse than the first volume. There is hope here; never dying, and never buried for long.
There's transgender representation in a facility on Bitch Planet (because of course trans women are considered "non-compliant", and they'd be put in their own section in the prison system), which includes Kam's sister Mo and her girlfriend Rose. It adds further points for LBGTQ inclusion; a vast improvement on the first volume. There's no question of 'Bitch Planet''s intersectional feminism now, set in a highly misogynistic society brought on by misogynistic men. All in a satirical, in-your-face, B-movie-type backdrop.
The first issue of 'President Bitch' explains Meiko Maki's backstory, albeit mostly told from her father's perspective. Mr. Maki is represented as a man who is unhappy living in the extreme patriarchal nightmare dystopia of the comic. He wishes for a future where his two daughters can be themselves, therefore non-compliant, and his wife is angry and expressive in demanding her rights (dismissed as "hysterics" by "professional" men around her, who are also racist). He's not perfect, and that's good since it's human. But he is yet another example in fiction of the "only men with daughters can see women as human beings" BS mindset.
Social commentary on cultural approbation and fetishizing the exotic "Other" are included as contemporary issues explored in the series. They are so, so relevant.
Could have had more of Penny being awesome, however. I also have reservations on the story's use of violence and murder as solutions to problems, and as tools to start a revolution. It goes against the founded idea, with real life examples to back it up, that the world would be a peaceful place if women ran it. But I couldn't ignore - no one should - the unstoppable force of female power this comic exudes on every heart-jumping page. The anger, the rage, is completely justified; there are women on earth - not just on the riotous, chaotic Bitch Planet - who are mad as hell and won't take it anymore! The oestrogen is fantastic!
Femininity isn't vilified, either. But it becomes a problem when make-up, youth, and beauty standards and such are used by the patriarchy to keep women in their place and compliant; when femininity is twisted into a commodity to be bought and sold, and into a weapon wielded against women, threatening to pacify them, even dehumanize them.
The velocity of the volume only gets better, and the rep more powerful still, once "President Bitch" herself shows up. She doesn't disappoint. She is absolutely amazing; exactly what the world literally needs right now...
No spoilers. 'Bitch Planet' is a series that just needs to be read and learned from immediately. It needs to be experienced and believed in. And it's a quick, addictive read. Highly recommended.
Final Score: 4/5
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