by Emily Towsley
WOMEN IN THE REFRIGERATOR
Ladies, have you ever noticed that it doesn’t take very long
for your favourite super heroines to fall victim to their nemesis’ plot? Or how
about you fellas, have you noticed how many ladies your favourite superhero
goes through because their girlfriends just keep turning up dead?
Gail Simone noticed this, and she is doing her best to make
sure everyone else notices too. The “Women in the Refrigerator” list started
when Simone was reading the 1994 Green Lantern, and for no apparent reason, he
finds his girlfriend dead in their refrigerator.
Some argue that violent deaths are part of the superhero
world – that you can’t have epic superheroes like Spiderman without a little
tragedy like the death of Gwen Stacey propelling them to act in the ways that
they do.
This would be a fine argument for character building, if the
trend showed up on both ends of the gender spectrum. “Dead Dudes Defrosting” is
the male version of the “WIR” list. This list compiles all the male characters
that have had violent deaths or maiming, and yet somehow remain unscathed, or
return in a future episode.
(SPOILER)
In Batman the Dark Knight Rises, Bane breaks Batman’s back
over his knee. Batman however is not crippled for life, as he should be, and
instead trains and rehabilitates himself back to fighting condition in order to
face Bane once again. On the female side of this coin, Barbara Gordon, otherwise
known as Batgirl, was shot by the Joker in the stomach, in order to drive
Commissioner Gordon insane. The bullet went through her spine, paralysing her
permanently.
Two very similar injuries, two very different
stories. Batman’s injury happened in an active scene. Batman was fighting for
his life, and for the good of Gotham, when the man he was fighting, broke his
back. Barbara however, innocently opened the door, and became the victim of the
Joker, in order to give Commissioner Gordon a larger story arc. Batman
recovers, and Barbara remains paralyzed for life.
Luckily for Barbara, she is able to retrain herself in
another skill; computer hacking and data manipulation. Her new skills allow
Barbara to become Oracle, the great intellect and fighting partner of Black
Canary.
Female superheroes are able to hold their own in the comic
book industry, so they aren’t being killed off because of lack of reader
interest. This makes it ridiculous that the few females that do make an
appearance in comic books meet their end more frequently, more violently, and
with less justification than their male counterparts.
Fortunately Simone took her idea one step further, and began
contacting comic book industry artists, publishers, and companies to raise
awareness of the “Women in the Refrigerator” trope, and how women like herself
were sick and tired of it. On her website today, you can see some of the many
responses she has gotten from her letters, and most of which are positive.
In addition, as of November 2007, Gail Simone got a crack at
the writing world of comics herself. Her Women in Refrigerators site brought
attention to the problems of a male dominated industry writing for female
superheroes; Simone was offered a job writing for wonder Woman. Not a stranger
to comic book writing herself, Simone is responsible for writing hits such as
the all-female super heroine crew Birds of Prey, and the ever wisecracking
Deadpool.
The future is just within our grasp. A future with female
superheroes just as strong, empowered, and death proof as their male
counterparts. Making our world a safer place, one rescued gentleman in distress
at a time.
(origin picture – the original “woman in the refrigerator”)
Marvel Comics expanded on their previous announcement that Thor puts down his hammer, and a woman is to take the role next. "This all goes back to when I launched Thor: God of Thunder, it's all been leading up to the moment where Thor can't pick up his hammer. I wanted someone to pick up that hammer, and not be just for a moment or a scene, but for the foreseeable future” said Aaron Daughterman about the future changes, “The idea is to follow her as she carries his hammer, and not just picks it up to whack somebody for a couple of pages.” During the Marvel Cinematic panel Saturday night, the crowd was treated to the first clips from Avengers: Age of Ultron as well as a July 28th 2017 release date for Guardians of the Galaxy 2. 
