Okay, I’m going to get a bit controversial with this post. I’m going to talk about a very touchy subject among writers and readers. I’m talking about Women in Refrigerators.
For those who don’t know, Women in Refrigerators, or “Fridging,” is when an established secondary character – usually a woman – is killed off or violated in a gruesome way, for the sole purpose of motivating your central protagonist. The phrase got its origins in one of my all-time favorite comic books, Green Lantern. In this particular issue the girlfriend of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner was assaulted by one of his enemies while he was away. She was brutally murdered and shoved into a refrigerator, all for the purpose of making Kyle mad. This incident brought to light a trope where a female character is seemingly needlessly victimized (usually in a gruesome way) for the sake of the protagonist’s motivation.
Why is Women in Refrigerators a bad thing? The biggest problem with fridging is that it takes an established, presumably well-developed character and reduces her (or him, in some cases) to nothing more than a plot device. It is really a disservice to the character to victimize them in such a way, and when a character’s death or violation is handled poorly, it can leave a very bad taste in the mouth of the reader. Add to that the larger social connotations of the fact that this primarily happens to women, and you are creating a very bad feeling for the reader which has very little to do with your actual story. The perception of women in society as needing the protection of men moreso than men needing protection is also part of why this trope has been used so much. It’s only in the last few decades (let’s say starting in the 1990s) that women have been consistently portrayed as not needing a man’s protection or presence. And most protagonists that have benefited from Women in Refrigerators have been men.
But let’s do a deep dive into this trope. There are reasons why this has become a storytelling staple.
First of all, it works. Readers can get more invested into the protagonist when someone he or she cares about is endangered. And the point of everything is to get the reader invested into the protagonist. WIF is not a new thing, and has been done since there were stories to tell. One can argue that the stories of Orpheus, Persephone and Hercules all had women fridged, You can also argue that women were fridged in the Shakespeare plays Othello, Hamlet, and King Lear. It’s been done umpteen times in Television and movies (Game of Thrones and Se7en, for example), and even in video games (Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind). And of course, the trope was first given a name through comics and has many, many examples of it (Gwen Stacy, Elektra and Barbara Gordon, for starters, and let’s throw in Sue Dibny too)
But let me point out that it’s not just women that can get fridged. Though they are the vast majority. For instance, in that very same Green Lantern comic book, Kyle’s gay friend was assaulted by homophobic bullies, and all it really served was to piss Kyle off and show how badass he can be. And in Magic The Gathering, a huge motivation for Gerrard’s decisions to kick off the Weatherlight saga came from his male elf friend Rofellos getting murdered. And as of this writing, Batman’s butler Alfred was just murdered for the sake of furthering a Batman story (although I’m quite sure he will be resurrected somehow sooner or later) Also, violating children is the big no-no in storytelling, but there are instances where even that was exploited to motivate the hero.
So why do I call this a necessary evil? I think that fridging an established character raises the stakes of the story more effectively than endangering a flat supporting character. And an actual violation adds way more urgency than just endangering the character. This also provides a venue (when done well) for exploration of the protagonist and their supporting cast ‘s psyches and reactions to the violation, which can provide some great character depth if handled properly. For a violation to have true meaning, the reader has to actually care about the character getting violated. So you have to establish them for that.
And yes, I am guilty of fridging characters in some of my stories. (beware – spoilers ahead) In The Leopard Man, Ashlynn’s best friend Tesenga was murdered in front of her while they were running from some criminals. I needed to show how dangerous her pursuers were and why getting caught by them was not an option, and also to introduce that possibility when she actually does get caught by them. In Double Entry, I hint at something bad happening to a close friend of Calloway, which would have served as his motivation if I had ever written that spinoff book starring him. I admit I fridged a couple of people in Godmode. Sylvia’s death didn’t really motivate Elijah because he could barely remember her by the time he found her corpse, but his coworker Mr. Snitsky was directly under his protection when he got killed (pretty gruesomely too, I may add). I did this to raise the stakes of Elijah’s situation, and show how dangerous the monsters really are. It also gave me an excuse to show off Elijah’s darker side and make him question whether he was the bigger monster than the creatures he was fighting.
But if Fridging is so bad, then how as a writer can you add that resonance yet avoid falling into the trope? That is tricky and there are no easy answers. There are some excellent solutions in this article (https://www.standoutbooks.com/fridging/ ) that I want to build on.
1. Have her fight back. Don’t let your character be a victim. Give her some agency and response to the issue she is dealing with. If your villain is going to violate her, then make him earn that victory. This way your character isn’t some hapless damsel in distress that couldn’t fend for herself. In a life-or-death situation, people will use anything and everything they can get their hands on to survive. Let your character do the same.
2.Make her more vital. John Wick went on a murderous rampage because someone killed his dog and stole his car. Don’t let your character be a pet or a possession. In addition to fleshing the character out, you must also establish that this character is a vital, important part of your protag’s life, both before and after the traumatic event. Let your protagonist, and even other supporting characters, depend on this person for important stuff. She has a more vital role than being there just to die and make the hero feel bad. This also can make the reader more attached to the character which creates more resonance when the tragic event happens.
3.Show how everyone ELSE is affected by what happens. When a recurring secondary character in the second MacGyver TV show was murdered by a serial killer, there was literally less than a quarter of a segment devoted to how MacGyver and his team felt about losing one of their valued coworkers. And there was no mention of her at all in subsequent episodes, despite the murderer appearing many times afterward as a recurring antagonist. This trivialized her death, and in effect trivialized her life. Your character has relationships and interactions with not only your protagonist, but everyone else in the story. Something bad happening to her will naturally have an effect on everyone she has interacted with. She is/was somebody’s friend, somebody’s sibling, somebody’s spouse, or somebody’s mother. There are emotional connections that need to be addressed.
4.Bring her back. Obviously if a character is dead, this is normally not an option. But in the case of another traumatic violation like rape or mutilation, don’t allow that character to remain in that traumatized state. Empower her to recover and come back from her trauma, maybe with some obvious physical and emotional scars, but restored to her place of importance in the story. Jack Ryan’s wife was forced into a traumatic car accident in Patriot Games, but she was not killed, and she was able to recover and encourage Jack to “go get em,” which provided him with all of the motivation he needed to get the job done without needlessly killing off his wife and children. And even if your character does die, there are ways to “bring her back” from that, too. You just have to be creative. You don’t have to let the villain have that victory over her.
5.Don’t do it to a woman. The perception of a fridging changes drastically with something as simple as doing it to a man instead of a woman. Consider having the traumatic event happen to one of your protagonist’s male supporting characters instead of the female one. There are a lot of layers that can be explored when it is a man that is violated and victimized. Especially with perceptions of male strength and the idea of toxic masculinity and machismo. In society, a man that can be overpowered and violated “like a woman” isn’t really considered a “man.” You can do some things with that to add some extra depth to your story.
These are just a few ideas off the top of my head on ways you can get that same effect without using this trope. And if you disagree with any of this, feel free to call me out on my BS and explain any alternatives you can think of. All opinions and options Can make for great tools for writers to hone their craft, and that includes myself.
