Say it ain't so, Gail, say it ain't so....

[richardak.insanejournal.com]

The following scans are the opening pages from Action Comics #827.  This is, in my opinion, an archetypical case of the "women in refrigerators" phenomenon.  After all, what we see here is a superheroine, Aura, murdered for no other reason than to demonstrate that the villainess of this story is both evil and dangerous.  Moreover, Aura has been brought into this story for no other reason: she is only here to die.  And as the final insult, if you will, her death, so far as I have been able to determine, goes unremarked upon; she is unmourned by any of her former teammates. 

What is especially strange about this is that the author of this tale is Gail Simone.  The same Gail Simone who started the WiR website in the first place, having diagnosed and named the syndrome.  I don't bring this up to criticize her, I should say; I generally enjoy her work quite a lot, after all.  At worst, this is a case of hypocrisy, which is after all the tribute that vice pays to virtue.  I do think that this is worth discussing, however, because of what it may tell us about this issue.  Perhaps whatever causes WiR syndrome in the first place is a structural factor, not the will of a particular writer, such that even a writer who decries the problem may fall prey to it.  Alternatively, maybe the causes lie in the subconscious, and a writer may fridge someone without consciously realizing it.  I don't know, but I do think it's worth discussing, and I haven't seen it discussed elsewhere.







So what, if anything, should we make of this?  Does it tell us anything about the cause of the WiR syndrome?  What would motivate someone like Simone to do this?  I want to reiterate that my purpose here is not to attack Simone.  I'm just genuinely mystified, and I thought I'd see what others think.

Comments

[kingrockwell]

I've never thought it had to necessarily be a male character running the revenge gauntlet, since the fridged character's role isn't any different if it motivates another female, though the gender politics subtext does change drastically.

[buxnalaus.insanejournal.com]

True enough. I guess I just defaulted there because in terms of past cases, it's typically a female suffering for a male. Kyle Rayner, Bruce Wayne, Matt Murdock, Kyle Rayner, Kyle Rayner...

[kingrockwell]

Oh, certainly. Which begs the question whether it's the gender politics (that a woman needs a MAN to save the day for her) or the disrespect to the victim's character that really rubs one the wrong way in these circumstances. Taken together it's unacceptable, but to what degree is one or the other merely egregious, frustrating or, saints forbid, tolerable?

[buxnalaus.insanejournal.com]

Personally, I've always felt that it varies case by case. I think, for instance, gender politics become a lot more of a factor in cases where a super is fridged for another super. As they're on somewhat 'equal' footing in terms of saving, so the only difference between them is their gender. But when you get into a 'normal' fridging for a 'super', gender politics shouldn't matter as it becomes a powered/skilled individual coming to the rescue of a non-powered individual. ...of course, it doesn't always play out like that.

[kingrockwell]

If we saw more guys fridged to motivate female heroes it could be a completely different matter! If only they would've fridged Terry Long instead of giving him an offhand Shock! death.