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

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\nLicense: Creative Commons<\/a>\n<\/p><\/div>"}. 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. Don't subscribeAllReplies to my comments Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. Many curly-haired women and/or women of color like to see curly-haired female characters and/or female characters of color. He wears her ring as a necklace, but, he has donated all of her belongings to charities and to people that needed them. It's better to have several women, with diverse skill sets, instead of having a single walking talking Swiss Army knife of a female character. 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. Don't just do a cursory scan of TV tropes on fridging and related tropes. 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. HoennDude 3 yr. ago. Females are equal to males in both good and bad aspects, they can be as heroic, virtuous, powerful, inspiring and competent as any man. 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. Is it bad to make a boy crazy girl? They are as disposable and objectified as the women getting fridged. A talented author can turn pretty much any event into a justifiable reason to follow a character through to the end, but there are also stock options easy, tried and tested choices, that have benefits, drawbacks, and perhaps more problems than we realize. Happiness is not always a man. You can replace fridging with pretty much any slight, and as an author who can control the entire universe, there are plenty of opportunities to do so. Several contributors to the site and the original list later became comic book creators and entertainment industry professionals: Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Don't make her someone who lashes out at other people because of her religious beliefs or you risk demonizing all Islamic people. Women need bras. The other subcategory is Stuffed Into The Fridge, which is when harm inflicted to a character of either gender is done purely to cause another character trauma. will be. We can't root for a billionaire tech genius in a bat suit without a couple of murdered parents in his backstory, or Kryptonian goodness incarnate without the loss of his entire homeworld. Sure, that's fine. Theres a vocal audience who want pulp fiction without harmful clichs. Which, is valid. Switching the gender is a good idea, but I don't know if that would be possible with this character even though she's a minor character. Write several important female characters. Avoid The Clich "Strong Female Character" | BookBaby Blog But I feel like I'm missing something. 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! What Is 'Fridging', And How Can You Avoid It? Even when you're aware that it's an issue, it's difficult to make work. Research source, Stereotypes don't have to be related to a character's physical characteristics. Deadpool 2 Killing Vanessa Continues Hollywood's Female Character - CBR Their brother rather than their wife? 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. 3 #54 (1994), written by Ron Marz, in which Kyle Rayner, the title hero, comes home to his apartment to find that the villain Major Force had killed his girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt, and stuffed her in a refrigerator. This comes with its problems of focus and intent, but its also caught up in whats now a long, long legacy that adds its own context to new works. The Problem With Gamora's Avengers: Infinity War Storyline, Not Even Time Travel Can Undo Deadpool 2's Fridging Problem, Deadpool 2 Director Responds to Fridging Criticisms, 'The Killing Joke' Revisited: How The Graphic Novel Stands Up 28 Years Later. In terms of motivating a protagonist, fridging is a blunt tool poorly suited to more complex stories or characters. Some responses were neutral and others were positive. In most cases, main characters, 'title' characters who support their own books, are male. 9. 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. 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. 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. The name Women In Refrigerators, usually shortened to just fridging or fridged, was coined by comics writer Gail Simone in 1999. Again, Im sure youve covered this already, but one of the things that makes readers suspect a fridging is that the details about a character only matter until theyre gone, at which point they become a plot point. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Deadpool 2 fridging debate was when one of its writers, Rhett Reese, confessed to not . The underwear is wrong or non-existent. A list of some responses from comic book professionals is included on the site. X 'Succession' recap, season 4, episode 6, 'Living+' : NPR 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. Her focus, rather, was oncollecting information and insight. Fridging is the practice of killing off or hurting a minor character in order to motivate or torture a main character. 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 . The men in these stories are wholly replaceable and their deaths have to work a lot harder to motivate the protagonists. This is specific because this is the SPECIFIC trope that's been used so often it's become a crutch and a problem. Fridging is a lazy device digging deeper will usually leave you with a stronger story. [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. Well, fridging refers to a character (usually female) getting killed off solely to further the story of a (usually male) character. 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. wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. The character may be constantly falling down, tripping, hurting themselves and bumping into everything and everyone just to show oh-how-awkward the character is. 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. Were committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Approved. So let's just say her advice is suspect. At a certain point, you could almost guarantee each comic book film would feature a character who presumably dies only to return later on. Do you have a suggestion for another form of quick but compelling motivation for revenge? With regards to whether you can/should do it with two women, or in reverse, well that really depends on the story. Of course, since the thing the antagonist does is there to enrage the protagonist, it can make more sense to just do it to the protagonist. I guess Im going to be one of those that Fridge my protagonists love interest. 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. I mean really learn. The trope is regarded as sexist in media because fridged characters are almost always women who are killed to advance the development of male characters. The precise nature of their suffering stops mattering, stops being about them, so long as it upsets the protagonist. Location and Maps One of the most popular of these options is fridging a character, but it may be a choice that should be retired from your authors toolbox. The next thing to do is to imagine replacing the character wholl die with another person. 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. 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. 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. Fridge is where some bad guy kills someone close to the characters (usually a female character but not always) to motivate a (usually but not always male) character to seek revenge. "The steps on how to make my girl characters more interesting, but not perfect, has been very useful. Its harder and less automatic to do this with other characters because the narrative doesnt follow them, but authors are well-served to look at whose pain they are accidentally presenting as primarily the protagonists problem. There's something wrong with your question. "[5], Journalist Beau Yarbrough created the initial design and coding on the original site. 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. RELATED: 10 Most Overrated Superhero Films From The Last 5 Years. If youve interrogated your own work and believe youre justified in your choices, thats really all that can be asked of any artist (with the understanding that readers then get to feel however the resultant art makes them feel.). However, not to mention financial backing, too many clues are missing to revive the once lost whisky. Arrow - The Disturbing Trend of Fridging Female Characters - Yahoo! Fridging is trope in fiction where a character (mostly female) is killed to progress the story of the protagonist. Many argue that Deus ex Machina has lost all distinction in popular usage, since its definition has widened so liberally. 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. However, I do think that genre fiction often requires simple and easy to understand motivations for characters. Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: Female Characters writers CAN use stereotypes on purpose for effect. there was any way to make a female and write her exceptionally well. And a lot of supporting characters are female. John Wick doesnt even stray particularly far from a traditional fridging the viewer is appalled and sympathetic to the killing of a pet, and even the puppy itself is portrayed as a symbol of Wicks connection to this wife. Its exactly the type of story that can best utilize something along the lines of a fridging; pulpy action that isnt that concerned with digging deep and just needs to give the protagonist a kick out the door. 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.