Gabrielle Zuniga

Killing Joke and Bitch Queen Reactions

What is your reaction to the text you just read?

            Bitch Planet #6 incorporated very believable story elements into a fictional story. Sexist men and the little and big things they do it women that I have heard or experienced or witnessed in my life. Seeing a young girl get murdered was the only element in the story that surprised me. But the constant sexist comments and actions both angered me and reminded me of it existing in our own world. The women in the story are still trying to survive and thrive in spite of it. Even though it angered me, I am glad that the sexism was blatant enough to be noticed, but still delivered in the way that it usually is today; as a normalized part of society.

What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which you were able to connect. This is calling out everyday sexism for what it is, in my opinion.

            Bitch Planet #6 had parents who wanted to do whatever they had to, to protect their family. A daughter killed in order to protect hers, and ended up in jail, getting groped and almost assaulted by a guard. It shows how men will use blackmail to get women, and how the coworker wanted to blackmail the father into being basically given one of his daughters, like they are nothing but pawns. I often face men who refuse to acknowledge that there are still men in the world who view women as sexual objects. The men who wanted to use Meiko for sex Bitch Planet both sounds believable. The sexist doctor who justified detaining Mirai because she’s of the “fairer sex” also reads as totally believable because I have encountered men who believe the same thing in my life. Even more outrageously, there are men who either refuse to believe that they still exist, or refuse to believe that that point of view is at all sexist or wrong. Every time a woman stood up to a man, she was called hysterical, and her reasons, though legitimate, were ignored. (Not that I’m saying that the murder of the blackmailing coworker was justified.) Meiko’s mother was rightly outraged at not seeing her daughter for 45 minutes, and when she became angry, she was immediately called hysterical. And when she voiced her outrage further she was thrown to the grown, until her husband came. When Meiko defended herself against the guard who was sexually assaulting her, he acted as if he was the one who should be outraged. He called her a bitch, and somehow wanted to justify his actions by claiming his own loneliness, as if his loneliness is enough to justify rape. The author brings up things that I have heard throughout my life in regard to women, “She’s hysterical, it was a compliment, they all want attention…” I also find it funny that the guard almost raped her, and yet it’s the other guards that are acting as if he is the victim.

What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

            I would adapt this story into a movie. I would still use the flashback, and start the movie with the scene of the guard groping and undressing Meiko. The narration in those first few pages would be narrated in a voiceover by Meiko. Toward the end, I would cut between shots of Meiko playing the violin for the blackmailer with close up shots of the violin, and of Meiko being restrained by the guards. There would be a voiceover of Meiko talking about the parts of a violin and how men compare them to the body of an attractive woman, and it would turn to the things said about women, as reflected in the last few pages of Bitch Planet #6.