“Bitch Planet” vs Exploitation Films

In their Dictionary of Film Studies, scholars Annette Kuhn & Guy Westwell define the exploitation film as: “A film designed by its producers to ‘exploit’, via clever marketing and promotion, the notoriety of certain sensational current events and trends and/or taboo subjects…” 2/12

“Exploitation films are usually low-budget and calculatedly commercial… The term… implies an objective on the part of the producer to ‘exploit’ base audience desires to see more explicit descriptions of sex, violence, or drug abuse than are available in other films and media.” 3/12

Per Kuhn and Westfell, the term exploitation film was coined by Variety magazine in 1946. But the concept has a longer history, with roots in early cinema (the “cinema of attractions”) and the risqué short films that were widely available in early 20th century penny arcades. 4/12

The 1934 Motion Picture Production Code temporarily limited Hollywood’s ability to cash in on the exploitation market. But it resurged in the 1950s and 60s, with studios such as American International Pictures (AIP) (home to director/producer Roger Corman) specializing in exploitation fare. 5/12

Per Kuhn and Westfell: “Sexual liberation in the 1960s… fostered the rise of the US sexploitation film, which emphasized sex and nudity. Russ Meyer’s much copied The Immoral Mr Teas (1959), about a man who can see through women’s clothing, is considered formative.” 6/12

The 1960s also saw the rise of the problematic but powerful subgenre of Blaxploitation, wherein common exploitation themes (sex, drugs, violence) are paired with African American cultural contexts and aesthetics, with widely varying degrees of accuracy and appropriation. 7/12

In every era, exploitation films purport to offer forbidden pleasures that are neglected (and/or considered taboo) by mainstream culture. As such, while these films often spectacularize sexism & bigotry, they also offer opportunities to rebel against conservative norms and censorship. 8/12

Exploitation films’ indulgence in lurid spectacle can also encourage rebellious reading. Whereas classical Hollywood cinema attempts to suture viewers into particular perspectives, exploitation cinema’s more freewheeling excess is conducive to contradictory pleasures & tantalizing tensions. 9/12

Which finally brings us back to “Bitch Planet.” DeConnick and De Landro’s comic both parodies exploitation films and embraces them. Take this cover of issue #2, which pairs promises of sexploitation with the thrill of violent rebellion against oppressive gender and sexual norms. 10/12

The exploitation context lets the women of Bitch Planet rebel against competing social norms, like strictures of modesty imposed by both well-meaning cultural forces (those wanting to protect women from objectification) and ill-intentioned ones (those wanting to benefit from objectification). 11/12

In short: the simultaneously parodic & genuine exploitation context & aesthetics of Bitch Planet enable provocative engagements with the politics of objectification. We’ll keep exploring these themes in our next thread, delving deeper into the subgenre of “women in prison” exploitation films. 12/12