Tropes vs. Women: #2 Women in Refrigerators

This is the second of a six part series created for Bitch Magazine - http://bitchmagazine.org

Women in Refrigerators is a trope identified by comic book fan (and now comic book writer) Gail Simone because she was sick of seeing "superheroines who have been either depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refrigerator."

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• Women in Refrigerators
• Tropes
• Feminism
• Green Lantern
• Superheroes
• Gwen Stacy
• Stephanie Brown
• Green Goblin
• Comics
• Batman
• Spiderman
• Big Barda
• Dead Men Defrosting
• Superman
• The Flash
• Captain America
• The Hulk
• Nick Fury
• Lost
• Splinter Cell
• Heroes
• marvel
• comic

[ZombieDaisuke]

The show Supernatural is so guilty of this trope it's embarrassing.

[luser279]

all of these criticisms can be said about minority characters in just about any medium

[lovelylostlady]

I love Supernatural and everything but it after its over in future TV shows I will always try and see if there is any misogynistic storytelling in shows I watch before I become attached. I think up female characters and give them proper story arcs in my own head.

[oywidapoodles]

@ZombieDaisuke Yep. I suspect part of the reason they killed off both Cas and Bobby is cause they're both white dudes, and they thought it might make it less obvious. And of course both of those characters will, I'm sure, be back eventually.

[carleyb81]

@ZombieDaisuke and i am a massive fan of this show, but this is one of the reason why i hate it... no female character has survived

[GraysonBabs4eva]

@ZombieDaisuke I love Supernatural, but oh god you're so right, the writers' take of female characters is so embarrassingly guilty of this trope.

[lovefromeponine]

@ZombieDaisuke The first time I heard of both this and the bechdel test all I thought of was supernatural...

[AbraCadaveric]

Aww, I don't know if Raven deserves to be on that list. Her reasons are sometimes evil and sometimes dead. The sometimes evil thing is an integral part of her character, and her deaths are treated most often as rebirths as she usually comes back each time either cleansed from her demonic influences or more powerful, so I don't think it's negative.

[bloodyinkpen]

@marysullivan The problem is how much it doesn't make sense in a universe with such a wide array of amazing technology and powers for this one character to be singled out for permanent disability when such an enormous number of male superheros recover fully from significantly worse injuries on a regular basis.

[AdrienneOrpheus]

I agree with this video but to be honest the #1 example that popped into my head was when Willow's (a female, lesbian character) girlfriend in Buffy was killed off. That added NOTHING to the story at all, Tara's death was completely random, and happened 100% purely as an incredibly lame plot device and as a reason for Willow to get revenge. It was really frustrating for me to watch even though it didn't involve a man

[SunnyHappy2008]

@ZombieDaisuke To those of you who don't watch Supernatural, ZambieDaisuke isn't exaggerating. Pretty much every woman who appears on Supernatural is in or will end up in this trope.

[puellanivis]

@marysullivan I think her note of bringing up Barbara Gordon was not to say what happened to her was bad, but rather to contrast it with the situation of Batman later suffering just as severe (if not more so) of a spinal injury, but coming back fully healthy. If Batman had suffered a permanent injury like Barbara Gordon and had to reinvent himself that would have been awesome, but no. He goes back to normal, and only Batgirl has to change. What's the difference here? Gender of the character.