Fridge
To hurt a female character to serve a male character’s development
Example
Did you finish that new action movie on Netflix?
Yeah, and of course they fridged the wife in the first 10 minutes. Classic
Ugh, it's like writers think female characters only exist to make the hero sad
Exactly. Give her a plotline, not a tombstone
Are you financially literate?
Fridge is a storytelling trope where a female character is harmed, killed, or otherwise removed from the plot primarily to motivate a male character’s development, usually through grief, rage, or revenge. The term comes from a 1994 Green Lantern comic in which the hero’s girlfriend is literally murdered and stuffed into a refrigerator for him to find.
Origin of fridge
The trope got its name from writer Gail Simone, who coined the term “Women in Refrigerators” in 1999. She created a now-famous list of female comic book characters who were sidelined or killed off in ways that only served to advance a male protagonist’s arc. Since then, “fridging” has been used in broader pop culture criticism, especially in movies, TV shows, and video games, to call out lazy, sexist storytelling that treats female characters as disposable plot devices.
Fridging is now a go-to term in fandom spaces, critical reviews, and social media debates about representation in media. It’s most commonly used by viewers and readers who care about better character development and more thoughtful storytelling, especially when it comes to women, LGBTQ+ characters, and other underrepresented groups.