Here you go,
if you're interested (read more):
Those who picked up
Green Lantern: New Guardians #13 this week learned that despite the compression of the time that “superheroes” have been existence, despite the missing characters and despite slowly but surely the retconning of many character’s origin Kyle Rayner’s history still includes this:
Alex DeWitt was still killed and stuffed in a refrigerator.
And here’s why I’m happy about it.
When Alex DeWitt was murdered and stuffed in a refrigerator in
Green Lantern #54 in 1994, I don’t think the writer, Ron Marz, or any of the books’ readers thought that it would become a pivotal moment in the history of comics for women.
But it was. Five years later writer Gail Simone began cataloging female characters that who have been either “depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refrigerator.” She wrote at the time, “it occurred to me that it’s not that healthy to be a female character in comics.” And then she asked the question of variety of industry folks, “does it mean anything?”
The result was a website, Women in Refrigerators (WiR).
The
original list is still posted as are the responses that Simone received.
While Alex DeWitt’s killing may have only been devised as a plot point for Kyle Rayner, it gave a name and help fuel a seminal and critical examination of superhero comics and how they treat women.
Today when a female character is referred to as being “fridged” it is short hand for
a trope that sadly continues in comics to this day.
Has it gotten better since Alex was first killed? Absolutely? Better since Simone wrote about it? Absolutely. Do superhero comics still have work to do? Absolutely.
And that’s why WiR is still important.
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