"Women in refrigerators" is a term coined byGail Simone in 1999 to describe aliterary trope which involves female characters facing disproportionate harm, such as death, maiming, or assault, to serve asplot devices to motivate male characters, an event colloquially known as "fridging". Simone's original list of over 100 affected female characters, published on the "Women in Refrigerators" website, sparked discussions onsexism inpop culture and the comic-book industry. The trope's influence extends beyond comics, with critiques of its presence in film and television franchises. Notably, authorCatherynne M. Valente, inspired byGwen Stacy's portrayal inThe Amazing Spider-Man 2, wroteThe Refrigerator Monologues, addressing the trope's impact on female characters in superhero narratives.
The term was coined by comic book fan (and later writer)Gail Simone in 1999, named after an incident in "Forced Entry",Green Lantern vol. 3 #54 (1994), written byRon Marz. The story includes a scene in which the title hero,Kyle Rayner, comes home to his apartment to find that the villainMajor Force had killed Rayner's girlfriend,Alexandra DeWitt, and stuffed her into a refrigerator.[1] It describes a trend that Simone had recognized in comic book stories where female characters would be killed, maimed, sexually assaulted, depowered, or would experience other "life-derailing tragedies"[2] disproportionately more often than male characters.[2][3][4] She also emphasized that while male superheroes typically experience noble deaths or resurrection, the violence against superheroines is most often for shock value and has permanent consequences.[4][5][6] It wasn't until later that the violence against women in these stories was recognized as a motivating incident, orplot device, for stories about male characters.[7][5][1] The event is colloquially known as "fridging".[1]
Simone originally developed a list of over 100 female characters who had been subject to various life-derailing tragedies, publishing it on a website called "Women in Refrigerators".[2][1] The site was designed by journalist Beau Yarbrough, maintained by Rob Harris and John Norris, and was originally hosted by Jason Yu, who had originally suggested publishing the list online.[8] Simone published email exchanges with respondents on the site. While some respondents found different meanings for the list, Simone maintained, until it was recognized as a motivating incident, that her initial point had always been: "If you demolish most of the characters girls like, then girls won't read comics. That's it!"[9]
In 2000, several national newspapers ran articles that referenced the site, generating discussion on the topic ofsexism in pop culture and the comic-book industry.[10] Some universities also list the content of Women in Refrigerators as related to analysis and critique of pop culture.[11][12]
Simone received numerous email responses from comic book fans and professionals, publishing many of them on her website.[13] Notable examples include writerMark Millar, formerDC Entertainment CCOGeoff Johns, and Ron Marz, the author of the incident that gave rise to the trope's name.[14] Marz's reply stated (in part): "To me the real difference is less male-female than main character-supporting character. In most cases, main characters, 'title' characters who support their own books, are male. ... the supporting characters are the ones who suffer the more permanent and shattering tragedies. And a lot of supporting characters are female."[15] He also further explained:[15]
I created her [Alexandra DeWitt] with the intention of having her be murdered at the hands of Major Force. I took a lot of care in building her as a character, because I wanted her to be liked and her death to mean something to the readers. I wanted readers to be horrified at the crime, and to empathize with Kyle's loss. Her death was meant to bring brutal realization to Kyle that being GL [Green Lantern] wasn't fun and games. It was also meant to sever his links with his old life, paving the way for his move to New York. And ultimately I wanted her death to be memorable and illustrate just how truly heinous Major Force was. Thus the fridge.
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In response to fans who argued that male characters are also often killed, content editor John Bartol wrote "Dead Men Defrosting", an article arguing that when male heroes are killed or altered, they are more typically returned to their status quo. According to Bartol's claim, after most female characters are altered they are "never allowed, as male heroes usually are, the chance to return to their original heroic states. And that's where we begin to see the difference."[16]
Site maintainer Harris argued a similar point as Bartol:[17]
Yes, male characters die, as do female characters - but my classic example isFlash andSupergirl, two beloved characters who were both killed off in the ["Crisis on Infinite Earths" storyline]. But Flash remained 'in continuity,' remembered and revered for his heroic sacrifice even asWally West took on his mantle; Supergirl was forgotten, and within several months was wiped from continuity completely - no memorials, no flashbacks, no legacy.
At the time, the rationale was to restoreSuperman's status as the "only survivor ofKrypton"[18] and several characters with other backstories replaced Kara Zor-El as "Supergirl". The Kryptonian character was finally restored in 2006[19] in order to simplify the title's origin story.
Discussing the site in his bookDangerous Curves: Action Heroes, Gender, Fetishism and Popular Culture,Bowling Green State University professor Jeffrey A. Brown noted that while male comic book heroes have tended to die heroically and be magically brought back from the dead afterwards, female characters have been likelier to be casually but irreparably wounded or killed, often in a sexualized fashion. To support his claim, he cited theJoker shattering the originalBatgirl's spine just for fun, resulting in her being written as a wheelchair user for over a decade. He also cites the torture and murder ofStephanie Brown by the villainBlack Mask.[20]
Outside of the comic book medium,Marvel Entertainment andMarvel Studios have been criticized for their continued use of the trope in film and television franchises. NamelyGwen Stacy inThe Amazing Spider-Man 2;Thor's mother,Frigga, inThor: The Dark World;[7] In 2016'sCaptain America: Civil War, an elderlyPeggy Carter dies offscreen after suffering fromAlzheimer's disease. Her death fuelsCaptain America's actions during the film, though she is later seen again in theMarvel Cinematic Universe franchise in 2019'sAvengers: Endgame, when Captain America travels back in time to marry her;[21]Peter Quill's mother inGuardians of the Galaxy;Gamora inAvengers: Infinity War, which was also used as a motivating tragedy for Quill inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.[7] Gamora's death and storyline has also been criticized for its problematic suggestion that her abuser, the villainThanos, cared for her despite his abuse;[22]Natasha Romanoff inAvengers: Endgame;Maria Hill inSecret Invasion;Aunt May inSpider-Man: No Way Home; andQueen Ramonda inBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever.[7]
In the original cut ofDeadpool 2,Deadpool's girlfriend,Vanessa, was initially killed and used as a plot device to motivate Deadpool. Due to negative fan reactions duringtest screenings, a newpost-credits scene was filmed and added. The sceneretcons the character's death by use of time-travel, avoiding the trope, as her death is no longer permanent.[23][22] Nonetheless, the deaths ofCable's wife and daughter are used as motivating incidents for Cable's story arc during the film.[22]
Brian Tallerico ofVulture, when reviewing "The Whole World Is Watching", an episode of the 2021 live-actionDisney+ miniseriesThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier, was critical of the death ofLemar Hoskins, a black person, as an example of racial, rather than sexist, fridging, to further the story arc ofJohn Walker, a white person.[24]
Courtney Enlow, editor atYour Tango, criticized the death ofKathy Stabler, the wife of detectiveElliot Stabler inLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit, as an example of the "tired, sexist" trope.[25]
Christopher Nolan has been criticized for repeatedly using the trope in his films.[26]
During the 2009DC Comics storyline "Blackest Night", Alexandra DeWitt was one of many deceased characters temporarily brought back to life as part of theBlack Lantern Corps. While she appeared briefly, she was seen inside a refrigerator construct at all times.[27][non-primary source needed]
Catherynne M. Valente was frustrated with the portrayal of Gwen Stacy's death in 2014'sThe Amazing Spider-Man 2, inspiring her to write the novelThe Refrigerator Monologues, named in part after the "women in refrigerators" trope.[28] She said of the portrayal of the character's death:[28]
[I]t blindsided me in a way that Gwen Stacy taking her dive should never blindside anyone born after 1970, and it was a sucker punch, because more or less the last thing Emma Stone [as Gwen Stacy] does before she quite literally flounces off to meet her doom is snit, "Nobody makes my decisions for me, nobody! This is my choice. Mine." ... [S]omeonechose to give her those words. ... To make those powerful words the punchline to a sad joke about female agency by punishing her for them, by making sure that no matter how modern and independent the new Gwen might seem, everything is just as it has always been. That old, familiar message slides into our brains with the warm familiarity of a father's hug: when women make their own choices, disaster results.
The story chronicles the afterlives of characters who had died as a result of their associations with male superhero characters. The protagonists are parodies of famous characters who have suffered fridging in DC andMarvel comic books.[29]
In December 2018,Deadline Hollywood reported thatAmazon Studios was developing a television series calledDeadtown, an adaptation of the Catherynne M. Valente novelThe Refrigerator Monologues. The story centers upon five recently deceased women who meet in a purgatory-like location called Deadtown, where they discover that their entire lives, including their deaths, were merely in service of providing emotional backstory for male superheroes.[30]
