Women in Refrigerators

Perhaps an obvious thing to talk about on this blog is "Women in Refrigerators", a term coined by acclaimed comic book writer Gail Simone about the many women in comics who have been killed, depowered, raped, etc. over time.

The term comes from an infamous issue of Green Lantern written by Ron Marz in which the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner comes home to find his girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt killed, and stuffed into a refrigerator by a villain with a terribly uncreative name - Major Force.

While obviously offensive on a surface level, it becomes more relevant when one notices the hugely disproportionate amount of women that this happens to, as opposed to men. It was also pointed out at one point that while these things to happen to the male characters in comic books, they are usually reverted back to the status quo, i.e. they get their powers back, they come back to life, they are reborn, etc.

Gail Simone also helped but together a website about all of this when she coined the term back in 1999. They compiled a list of all of the women (then) that had succumbed to the WiR syndrome. Here is the original list:

All of Savage Dragon's girlfriends (dead)
Alysande Stuart (dead)
Amethyst (blinded, merged with Gemworld, destroyed in LSH; became a power-hungry witch in Book of Fate)
Apparition (one of her three bodies dead, soul bound to boyfriend)
Aquagirl (dead)
Arisia (dead)
Aurora (Multiple Personality Disorder, depowered)
Batgirl I (paralyzed)
Batwoman (dead)
Betty Banner (abused, changed into a harpy, multiple miscarriages, dead)
Mrs. Brian Banner, Bruce's mother (murdered by her abusive husband)
Black Canary I (dead)
Black Canary II (tortured, made infertile, depowered)
Blink (dead)
Bluebird (dead)
Buf from X-Man (crippled)
Candy Southern (dead)
Captain Marvel II/Photon (depowered, ceded code name to a male hero)
Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire (turned into a villain by the Zamarons, possessed by the Predator)
Celsius (insane, dead, called delusional liar)
Christine Helvin of Troublemakers (victim of date rape, discovered she could never have children because she was no longer human)
Courtney Ross (dead)
Crimson Fox (both sisters dead)
Dart (crippled)
Dawn Allen (dead)
Dawnstar (wings cut off, possessed by another persona)
Diamond Lil (kidnapped, experimented on by own government, developed benign breast tumor)
Domino (kidnapped, tortured)
Dove II (dead)
Dr. Midnight of Infinity, Inc. (dead)
Elasti-Girl (only original Doom Patroller to stay dead)
Electrocute (dead)
Elektra (the real one... dead)
Element Girl (dead)
Enchantress of Suicide Squad - originally a heroine (turned evil, insane, depowered?)
Firebelle (dead)
Firestar (powers were sterilizing her)
Frances Kane/Magenta (stalker complex)
Fury II (child kidnapped, husband killed twice, insane)
Gwen Stacy (dead)
Hawkwoman (depowered)
Hellcat (dead)
Huntress I (dead)
Huntress II (sexually abused)
Ice (dead)
Illyana Rasputin (kidnapped and raised by demons, aged, de-aged, dead)
Invisible Woman (miscarriage of second child)
Jade (lost natural powers)
Jarella (dead)
Jean DeWolff (dead)
Jean Loring Palmer ("nervous breakdown")
Jet of New Guardians (died in battle after contracting HIV)
Jocasta (deactivated - more than once)
Karen Page (addicted to drugs, made porn films, infected with HIV, dead)
Katma Tui (dead)
Kinetix (depowered twice, catatonic)
Kole (dead)
Lady Flash (evil, dead)
Lady Quark (dead)
Laurel Gand (dead)
Laurel Kent (revealed to be an evil robot, dead)
Linda Park (kidnapped, removed from history)
Looker (now a vampire)
Madelyn Pryor (clone, brood mare, demon queen, dead, brought back)
Mantis (child taken away, dead)
Marlo Chandler -- Rick Jones' wife (former prostitute, killed and brought back mindless; got better)
Marrina (insane, dead)
Mentalla of LSH (dead)
Mera (insane, child murdered)
Mirage of Team Titans (impregnated by rape)
Mockingbird (abducted and mind-manipulated into a relationship, dead)
Moira MacTaggert (diseased)
Ms. Marvel I/Warbird (mind-controlled, impregnated by rape, powers and memories stolen, cosmic-powered then depowered, alcoholic - SHEESH!)
Ms. Marvel II (became a monster in Fantastic Four, de-monstered but enslaved by Dr. Doom, depowered)
Mystek of JLTF (dead)
Namorita (revealed to be a clone, reverted to a more primal Atlantean form)
Negative Woman (depowered)
Nightshade (depowered)
Nightwind (dead)
Nova II/Frankie Raye (dead)
Phoenix I (evil-dead-who knows)
Power Girl (depowered, magically impregnated, made vulnerable to unprocessed natural materials... like sharp sticks)
Psylocke (eyes removed, eviscerated, depowered, mind-swapped)
Rachel Summers/Phoenix II (lobotomized)
Raven (sometimes evil, sometimes dead)
Red Guardian II (kidnapped and brainwashed into the love-slave of a super-villain)
Redwing of Team Titans (dead)
Revanche (dead)
Rogue (just plain messed up)
Roulette (dead)
Scarlet Witch (children 'die'/vanish/are lost because they are figments of her imagination)
Serpentine
Shrinking Violet (lost a leg in Giffen's Legion)
Shvaughn Erin (turned into a man)
Silver Sorceress (dead)
Snowbird (child and husband murdered, insane, dead)
Spider-Woman I (dead for a while, depowered)
Starfire (raped, tortured, enslaved; forced into marriage... twice)
Storm (depowered, repowered, periodically crazy to one degree or another)
Supergirl, pre-Crisis (dead)
Supergirl, PAD version (lost her invisibility and most of her shapeshifting)
SW6 Projectra (dead)
Tarot (dead, brought back w/life bound to an evil man)
Threnody (dead)
Tigra (devolved into cat-thing)
Triplicate Girl (one body killed, one presumed dead but revealed to be Glorith's pawn)
Wildcat II (dead)
Wolfsbane (locked in werewolf form for awhile, needs major therapy)
Wonder Girl I/Troia/Darkstar (identity and powers stripped from her multiple times)
Wonder Woman (killed, revived, but lost goddess powers)
Zatanna (powers severely limited)

You can imagine how much that list has grown now.