A few weeks ago, I came across this quote by Aoka Matsuda;
“And so, the woman dies. The woman dies so the man can be sad about it. The woman dies so the man can suffer. She dies to give him a destiny. Dies so he can fall to the dark side. Dies so he can lament her death. As he stands there, brimming with grief, brimming with life, the woman lies there in silence.”
It made me think how this is a recurring pattern in media from movies, tv shows and books to video games. I also wondered if there was a specific name for it and the closest thing I could find was this term “Women in Refrigerators” coined by the writer Gail Simone, inspired the Green Lantern comic where Kyle finds that his girlfriend, Alex has been brutally murdered and stuffed into a fridge. Gail also pointed how this plot device is used disproportionately on women through physical harm, sexual assault, death, or loss of power; a phenomenon commonly known as "fridging."
So, women in refrigerators basically refers to the unfortunate fate of female characters who are subjected to brutal violation or untimely deaths that serve as a plot device for the development of the male leads’ story arc.
I also remember professor mentioning in class that during the 80s the worst role for a woman in a Bollywood movie was to be the male lead's sister because as a character she would always get raped, sparking the hero to enact revenge; this is another very fitting example of the trope. Often it is done for cathartic effect; to evoke strong emotional responses like anger, grief and vengeance.
While Gail Simone went on to make a website with over 99 female characters who have fallen victim to this trope, let us look at some other famous examples:
1. Gwen Stacy, The Amazing Spiderman
Despite our beloved spidey heroically swooping in and catching her, she snaps her spine. One of the most shocking character deaths I've ever witnessed but hey! at least peter's arc has an extra layer of complexity now.
2. Grace Burgess, Peaky blinders
Tommy needed more emotional depth as a character so let’s shoot his wife and send him into a spiral of manic rage to avenge her death.
3. Tina, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
Umm....who wants to be killed off to serve as a catalyst for their partner’s realisation of their true love? Sorry tina, you deserved better.
4. Allison Argent, Teen Wolf
If like me, you had the unfortunate experience of watching this as a 12 year old, you probably remember how tragic it was to see allison die in scott's arms.
Such treatment of women to add shock value or to give the male leads more interesting character arcs, can be dehumanising. It gives the message that women exist solely for the purpose of advancing the male protagonist's plot and overshadows their individuality and potential for growth as characters. When we remember their deaths we mainly think of them in relation to the effects they leave behind on the men. On the surface it may be unnoticeable but It is also indicative of broader societal views; that women are disposable and their lives are less valuable than those of their male counterparts.
So let me know how you feel about this trope. Or if you can think of any other women in refrigerators, share them in the comments below.
Loved this blog. Thanks for introducing us to the term of 'fridging'. Glad my fav superhero is free from these cheap plot devices 😤 love u batsy 🦇
Super interesting article! I've never thought about the trope like this, but the pattern becomes pretty clear now. It's almost always the death of the female character that's used to drive the male lead forward. What's more upsetting is that these women are usually killed in disturbing and traumatic accidents—they boil female representation in these movies to mere plot enhancers who are disposable. The worst case is in these traumatic deaths, there seems to be a sort of torture porn that is always used. It's use began in 70's slasher horror films and has since been used to enhance the intensity of a female character's death, whereby they are tortured and gruesomely killed. It feels like it normalizes violence, murder,…
A very interesting read, definitely added to my knowledge. Although it sounded as a unique concept first but just a few lines into the blog, I realised that this trope is used extensively, even more than it should. As long as I remember, most of the dramas and films capitalise on the female' s death to push forward the narrative. From the top of my head, I remember this one Bollywood film "Badlapur", starring Varun Dhawan. Although I've not watched the film myself but from its trailer, a few scenes and songs all I could witness was that the hero had lost his wife and son and the story followed his quest taking revenge for that and developing as a…
If we take Allison Argent's character, she was actually super strong, had amazing crossbow skills, was never afraid of anything, always ready to fight but then when she dies she says something along the lines of that she is happy because she is dying in the arms of her first love, so then it really just limits her role to love interests and towards furthering the plot. Derek's past with the girl and his changed eye color is another example of giving a kick to his story. There is so much more to Allison's character but then media just portrays such women as less important and as those who can be easily removed from the script, emphasising gender gap.
If you've read any Wattpad, it's a common thing for the male love interest to have lost a love before which makes him not want to love anymore, which causes problems between him and the female lead when they catch feelings but he pushes her away and stuff. There's also this idea of women in refrigerators that became a trend on Tiktok, with women recording themselves as those angelic 'flashback' moments of the 'dead wife,' in movies, as well.