I recently finished volume one of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet. I read (and loved) the first issue when it came out earlier this year, but hadn’t been able to make it to the comic shop regularly to keep current. So when I saw the first few issues had been collected in a trade, of course I grabbed it. For those unfamiliar, Bitch Planet is a take-off on 70s exploitation, women-in-prison movies. It’s set in an alternate/dystopian universe where non-compliant women are sent off to a prison planet and pretty much left there to fend for themselves. Life is highly regulated and run by men – doing anything that makes the establishment remotely unhappy is what gets you dubbed “non-compliant”.

Now, I’m not a hardcore feminist by any means. Of course I’m in favor of equality, diversity, representation in all walks of life, but I’m not the vocal, protest-about-anything-you-disagree-with type. I don’t feel that’s necessary to create change. But I am most definitely what would be considered “non-compliant”. I have little patience for social niceties and small talk. I am not, nor have I ever been, a girly-girl (often to my mother’s dismay). I am a hardcore geek, free thinker, intellectual explorer. I have a non-traditional marriage and am a very sexual person (I’m sure some who know me were thrilled to read that bit of tmi!). So yes, I would be sent off-planet in a heartbeat.

But these days, are there really many women who are compliant? In Western cultures, I would guess the majority of women are not. We have so many free thinking, intelligent females who aren’t afraid to show it. Feminist or not, women are doing their own thing, regardless of what they’ve been taught to believe regarding independence. Even those raised in more traditional, male-dominated cultures are finding ways to express themselves and create change. (And btw, men can be non-compliant too. It’s typically less obvious and much less noticeable though. But none the less, it’s something of which to be proud.)

This is not a takeover (as some male-dominated cultures fear) – this is a leveling off, an equalization.

To the men reading this: Get used to it!

And to the women: Do your thing! Be non-compliant!