how to avoid fridging female charactershow to avoid fridging female characters

how to avoid fridging female characters how to avoid fridging female characters

So the thing to remember if you want to avoid fridging someone is that every character, no matter how small their role, exists as a unique person. Let her stay happy and single. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Hopefully I did okay. "This is a list I made when it occurred to me that it's not healthy to be a female character in comics," she establishes. Thanks!". He also attributed "the wholesale slaughter" of female characters being "easier" for writers to do because they are fewer in number, significance and are mostly "cookie-cut outs" of each other. I havent seen this misuse of the term myself, but as ever, any artistic term is vulnerable to creeping meaning. [] Some have been revived, even improved -- although the question remains as to why they were thrown in the wood chipper in the first place.". The sassy black woman, the Indian doctor/call center worker, the spicy Latina, the genius Asian girl, the Native American who is extremely connected to nature, and other racial stereotypes, The man-hating lesbian, the confused bisexual woman, the asexual woman who "just needs to get laid," the transgender woman whose existence is a joke to be made fun of, the, The greedy or hypercritical Jewish woman, the terrorist or victimized Muslim woman, and other religious stereotypes. 9. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. They still held high power over him. In most cases, main characters, 'title' characters who support their own books, are male. Could you give me a famous movie or book example where that happened? One way to invert this could be to place a strong woman in distress, only for her to save herself, and perhaps her would-be rescue party as well. That said, sometimes fridging, in its rawest state giving the protagonist an easy, compelling, sympathetic reason to hate the antagonist is just what a story needs. Diversity and Inclusion, Help Central Manage Settings Simone received numerous e-mail responses from comic book fans and professionals. In other words: expendable. Rather, empathy for men has to be created. Stories about women losing men in their lives are about grief and moving on. Approved. I'm writing a book about a girl who can "jump" into books. In my own defence, the character herself is well fleshed out, feels real and is not just a token female sidekick or love interest for a male hero. Its a classic pulp trope, and one thats incredibly common, as chronicled on Gail Simones site Women in Refrigerators, which chronicles its frequency in the media that spawned in. Thanks for commenting. If the writers intent is to kill off a character as part of their own journey but they fail to evoke emotion, that would be poor writing, but it wouldnt be fridging. This article has been viewed 41,659 times. Use Black Men. Unfortunately, her hunch about it being "disproportionate" proved correct. Their brother rather than their wife? Females are equal to males in both good and bad aspects, they can be as heroic, virtuous, powerful, inspiring and competent as any man. Required fields are marked *. Show women that are successful in other areas such as the arts, music, or literature. Nayanika (Geetanjali Thapa) - the actress and 'kept woman' of felon Bunty Shinde (Jatin Sarna) has to die to . Mary Sues can also be male. 1. The moment works because Mr. Crepsley is an established character there to do more than just die; his death isnt just a loss to the protagonist and a sympathetic cue to the reader, but a loss to the world and a tragedy in its own right. I just fucking hate when people use the word 'rape' in connection to this issue. Don't make her someone who lashes out at other people because of her religious beliefs or you risk demonizing all Islamic people. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); Copyright 2023 STANDOUT BOOKS Powered by STANDOUT BOOKS. Utilizing female characters as assets to their male counterparts contributes to the sexism women are subjected to their entire lives. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. In those cases, what can you do? The only reasons as to why he doesnt love the woman in the slightest is due to the fact that he was forced to marry. RELATED: Deadpool 2 Director Responds to Fridging Criticisms. In terms of specific meaning, fridging generally refers to death (or severe harm) that results not in a specific problem to be solved (like saving the character in question), but in creating or intensifying an antagonistic relationship. They may be murdered, raped, disfigured, beaten up, or forced to suffer through overall horrifying things just so the hero can be sad. Also, going back to the child who turned out to be bratty topic, the husband is still trying to learn how to properly handle the, practically, monster he created. Even when you're aware that it's an issue, it's difficult to make work. But if she rolls up in her wheelchair ready to kick butt and stop the villain, then she's awesome, not fridged. Try to figure out their personality (maybe look into something like Myers Briggs for ideas to keep each person unique and consistent). Often these responses contained arguments for or against the use of death or injury of female characters as a plot device. The simplistic nature of fridging has also led to many identifying it as a sexist trope. Chief of the Philippine National Police, retirement | 297K views, 1.1K likes, 812 loves, 1K comments, 873 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Radio. The main character of the film is male, and this act does end up propelling him to exact revenge in the film's climax. From this, we can split the trope into two subcategories. So, it doesnt necessarily have to lead to the protagonists rage, but its primarily a spur for another characters reaction. Theres a vocal audience who want pulp fiction without harmful clichs. This is exactly why I dont like James Bond films. It's very normal, and you can revisit the character to grow them beyond their current characterization. for more on this topic. After their personhood is exchanged with property-based value, the women have to continuously die in order to motivate the two protagonists. The first scene of the series entails Dean and Sam's mother being . Men in adventure stories regularly sacrifice their lives to either save the world, the group or just give the protagonist a head start. Not in a vacuum, but in an environment where theres a pattern of killing off female character in a way that encompasses existing prejudices, its worth considering. One of the subtler pieces of advice about a protagonist/antagonist relationship is that each is rendered more interesting if their goal isnt to simply defeat the other character. This act is not meant as a way to spur the MC on a revenge rampage, but as a plot point that leaves the MC with a child, and an aimless future. Like any literary convention, fridging has absorbed context with its use, and its now a more complex and potentially damaging device than it might appear. Many curly-haired women and/or women of color like to see curly-haired female characters and/or female characters of color. His parents didnt even give him time to breathe after losing the wife he loved. With regards to whether you can/should do it with two women, or in reverse, well that really depends on the story. Consider a teen classic movie like Mean Girls. Technology consultant John Bartol edited the content. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. and as the plot stands now, towards the end of the film (spoiler) a major female character is murdered. So, before you start swinging the axe, take a look at these six times you should refrain from killing your darlings, and how and why such deaths should be avoided. This is more of a side character, but Im still developing his own story. He isnt even violent at all and never has been. But she told him him hes not a killer. Show that it's okay to wear skirts or dresses, and success doesn't mean becoming more masculine. As with other codifiers for sexist trends in media, like Alison Bechdal's more recent Bechdal Test, and Nathan Rabin's Manic Pixie Dream Girl, fridging began as an observation about a particular medium. Hmm, I know it can't be considered fridging if any female died, especially since I'll have to kill off girl characters too. More characters will not lessen the sting of seeing opportunities missed. This will help reveal those areas where you can make the story more about who your original character is. The men in these stories are wholly replaceable and their deaths have to work a lot harder to motivate the protagonists. Where does the male character feel thin, how quickly does the narrative stop mentioning them, etc. He tells them about the happiest moments the two have gone through together, and how she was as a person. Once you've learned about it, you'll have a much better understanding of what it is and how to keep from doing that to your . In fact, when he first fell in love with his past wife, he was a stumbling idiot who couldnt put a proper sentence together near her. In conclusion, she s is dying from the incident from the villain but the main character gave up his life to her so she can live (from a power he has) and then the main character dies but his special lives. Fridging offers easy character motivation, but its a device with a dark history. The fridging of women has, for generations, propped up a certain type of misogyny (one of many, many such props, of course,) while the fridging of men has never been common enough to have such a cumulative effect. The results of these problems can damage the social image of women and make it increasingly difficult to fight the gender equity issues concerning our world today. There is no right way to be a woman, and the more women you have in the story, the more clearly your story will convey this. These are superheroines who have either been depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refrigerator. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Women_in_Refrigerators&oldid=1148200018, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Brian Joines Writer of the independent comic, This page was last edited on 4 April 2023, at 17:43. Its not the sole motivation for the carnage that follows, but its a specific enough act that Wick pursues individual revenge against those who have it, killing multiple people during the opening of John Wick Chapter 2 in a symbolic reclamation. Gendered stereotyping helped pack Alex's corpse in with the meat and chilled vegetables -- a direct invite to the Kyle Rayner pity party. Furthermore, characters who are fridged often have little to no personality or backstory. Its the difference between valuing a characters presence in the story and just ensuring theyre unique while they act as a plot point. By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. Or let a woman save another woman. You can also subscribe without commenting. [7], In 2000, several national newspapers ran articles that referenced the site, generating discussion on the topic of sexism in pop culture and the comic-book industry. Some people will still have chivalrous make-ups. 1. Spoilers for Deadpool 2 below. (The stick up her ass had another stick up its ass.) We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. In 2013, for example, video game journalist Anita Sarkeesian adapted the term to fit the history of video games across hundreds of examples as part of her "Damsel In Distress - Tropes Vs. Women In Video Games" series. This article may contain affiliate links and we may earn a small commission when you click on the links at no additional cost to you. Fridging is the most simplistic, yes, and I dont like the sexist shadows it has acquired through constant use. I talk about that more in Improve Your Story By Hanging A Lampshade On It, but the basic idea is that you call something out so you can discuss it a little bit with the reader. This was taken quite literally in 2009'sBlackest Night #3, when Firestorm (Jason Rusch) is forced to watch helplessly as his girlfriend Gen is tortured, turned into salt and has her heart ripped out so that his anguish can power the Black Lantern Corps. If it is a love relatioship, I feel the audience would be upset if he didn't want revenge. His only goal is to keep his family name alive, and to properly raise his three children. Consumer Information. The idea for placing the list online originated with software developer Jason Yu, who also served as the original site host. With traditionally marginalized groups, it can be better to either restructure the moment or else take care to ensure the character appears as an equal. This isn't meant as, for example, a defense of the poor writing of the "come home to find a . I also highly developed his wifes personality.The thing is, of course, she died in the past. Generally, fridging refers to killing off a female character not because of anything to do with them, but because of how it will affect other (typically male) characters. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Deadpool 2 fridging debate was when one of its writers, Rhett Reese, confessed to not . The name was inspired by a storyline in 1994's Green Lantern #54, in which Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern) arrives home to find the dead body of his girlfriend Alex DeWitt stuffed inside his refrigerator. I can't tell you how hilarious it is to play a video game or read a book and someone gets the underwear wrong. A woman can still be traditionally feminine (dressing girly, liking pop music, dating) while being successful and awesome. He didnt know how to ask her out either, and whenever he got the slightest bit of courage to, he immediately backed out. Stories about men losing the women in their lives are about their world being shattered and seeking revenge with nothing to lose. How do I do that without starting or contributing to stereotypes? Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Ill be sure to go through all the points you made . At a certain point, you could almost guarantee each comic book film would feature a character who presumably dies only to return later on. The mythic gods and folklore champions that superheroes are descended from frequently went through hell because drama and tragedy go hand in hand. I'd bet it happens to children more than adult male characters as well. Im sorry for my mediocre grammar in this comment, and if everything seemed too confusing. First, Ill say that like most considerations of this type, fridging is something writers should be aware of so they can make informed decisions, but its not the death knell for a book. The name Women In Refrigerators, usually shortened to just fridging or fridged, was coined by comics writer Gail Simone in 1999. Its worth noting here that there is a deeply unpleasant tradition of using the rape of a woman to motivate a male character in a way that dehumanizes the actual victim and trivializes a serious real-world issue. The love interest who dies has her own story, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. Female characters don't always have to win or succeed in everything. Some writers jump to "female" issues, like pregnancy or abusive men. Their son should be properly disciplined and taught right from wrong. Sure, that's fine. The golden rule is that, as long as its a conscious decision, it can work. Often, these characters keep repeatedly thinkinghow common and boring they are compared to other people, noticeably their romantic interest, and how said romantic interest "could have literally anyone else but chose me!" This means that for the vast majority of readers, your story will get to make its own case, and theyll decide on the basis of the narrative rather than just the presence of a death whether or not they consider this plot point a fridging and whether that hampers their engagement. They don't even have to be developed (Debbie from Savage Dragon) or be introduced before something bad happens to them (Mal from Inception) to be used as a way to emotionally scar the hero. the issue with fridging is not that a woman is killed but that she is killed/exists for no reason but to motivate the male character. As the Women In Refrigerators site proves, women are more likely to be fridged through a combination of the trope's roots in damselling and the aforementioned explanations offered by Geoff Johns and Marv Wolfman. In the movie John Wick, the premise is simple: the title character is the most capable assassin ever, forced out of retirement to right an unforgivable wrong. So if you have a cast of 10 characters and 7 are male and 3 are female, if you kill 1 female character is killing a third of all the females in the book! Youre quite right I think the most apt metaphor is grazing land. 3 June 2016, 1:00 am. RELATED: 10 Most Overrated Superhero Films From The Last 5 Years. That's it! Similarly,Earth 2's Lois Lane's death appeared to have been crafted solely to amp her husband up a few gears towards his noble self-sacrifice, but wound up giving her new robotic life as Red Tornado. Gamora's murder in Avengers: Infinity War successfully builds Thanos into the mournful maniac that the Russo brothers promised us he would be. Different respondents had different interpretations of what the trope's existence meant, and Simone herself wasn't after definitive answers at the time. There has been some error while submitting the form. 6 Ways To Hook Your Reader From The Start (UPDATED AND IMPROVED), 6 Things You Need To Know About Character Development (UPDATED AND IMPROVED), 6 Insanely Good Dialogue Tips From Your Future Literary Agent, Improve Your Story By Hanging A Lampshade On It. The main character sees his loved ones being hurt and then he rages and almost kills the villain when he relies he stops by her love one. It would be nice to see different motivations, even more complex ones, but there is a danger in reaching a point of complexity that pushes the character and the story out of genre channels. [11] Additionally, arguments on the merits of the list were published on comic-book fan sites in early 1999. Which, is valid. The fridging trope, first coined for comics in 1999, has grown to encompass all of pop culture, its very definition changing along the way. HoennDude 3 yr. ago. ). Her focus, rather, was oncollecting information and insight. ", How to Avoid Creating Female Character Stereotypes in Your Writing, https://misslunarose.home.blog/2019/05/24/why-readers-like-glitter/, https://misslunarose.home.blog/2020/04/25/mary-sue-test/, Tasha Robinson: We're losing all our Strong Female Characters to Trinity Syndrome, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test. "Fridging" is a term which is used to describe the death of a female character to further the development of and advance the plot for a male character. The precise nature of their suffering stops mattering, stops being about them, so long as it upsets the protagonist. The Joker shows up at Barbara Gordon's apartment, physically and sexually assaults her, and as a direct result Batman is finally pushed over the edge (or so it seems) to give readers what is considered to be one ofhisgreatest stories. The issue with something like fridging is that it plays off assumptions that are normalized in everyday society most authors who use fridging dont hate women, theyve just absorbed the sense that killing a female character is a perfectly fine way to motivate a male character so reading through with these societal pressures reversed can help things stand out. 8) Stop 'Fridging' Female Characters Short for 'women in refrigerators' , this trope was named by comics writer Gail Simone. It depends on these existing narratives in order to function.". In real life you would have to be a narcissist, or for a male, some sort of chauvinist, to believe that the world is spinning around you, but in fiction it's really true. Does it have to lead to a protagonists rage? Choosing to dig deeper, to do more with the source of their motivations, will usually leave you with a stronger story. Or let a man be in distress for a change, so the woman can save him. (You must log in or sign up to reply here. Dont go too far with this sounding too defensive wont help, and its easy to go too far but if you have a clear point to make, this can be a good way to signal to the reader that youve thought about what youre doing and they can trust your judgment. Read articles and essays on fridging and what it really is and what the most egregious examples of it are in media. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window). If you are writing a story for a mixed-gender audience, your cast should be about 50% female, and the women should get about equal screen time. However, her husband keeps a necklace around his neck, and the inside locket on it holds her wedding ring inside.He was also left to raise their son. While Simone's original study had to do with quantity more than anything else -- quantity being what gives something trope recognition in the first place -- these revisions and additions are important. She received a B.A. And yet, Simone's original question still hangs in the air, unanswered, as to "why they were thrown in the wood chipper in the first place. Last night, St. Louis voters, or should I . Plus, given the frequency with which women have seen female characters (wives, daughters, sisters, mothers) fridged to give male protagonists some motivation, theres a genuine sense of gratitude towards writers who deliberately dont make that choice. Is it better to fridge a protagonists father than their mother? Happiness is not always a man. Fridging is also specifically when a character is killed off (or maimed, tortured, ect) for no other reason than to cause emotional pain to a different character. Hence, his parents didnt give him time to at least get therapy before forcing an arranged marriage onto his shoulders. A list of some responses from comic book professionals is included on the site. (Source: Annecy Festival, edited) Attention is often called to the Mary Sue, sometimes at the expense of the plot. These cookies do not store any personal information. Kill Bill is another example of effective fridging, but it kinda subverts your seismic narrative. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with our cookie use. Unfortunately, despite the film's post-credits retcon, the image was already done, and no amount of jokes in the opening credits can make it go away. Yes, they should have a goal, but why is that goal so important to them? Since protagonists in general fiction (and especially the pulpy, action fiction where fridging is most commonly used,) are so often straight men, women are often the most obvious tool for cheap motivation. Well, fridging refers to a character (usually female) getting killed off solely to further the story of a (usually male) character. As with most other tropes. In this case, 87% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. Given traditional story structure, this arrangement can even end up positioning a male protagonists journey as recovering from damage done to his property using violence. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/4\/4b\/LR22-D-Past-Pipers.png\/460px-LR22-D-Past-Pipers.png","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/4\/4b\/LR22-D-Past-Pipers.png\/728px-LR22-D-Past-Pipers.png","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":306,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":485,"licensing":"