Gwen Stacy and Fridging

“Women in Refrigerators,” often shortened to “fridging,” is a fiction trope where a female character is killed, maimed, or otherwise made to suffer mainly to motivate a male character’s story. The label came from comic book criticism, but the pattern appears across movies, television, and superhero franchises. Gwen Stacy’s death at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is often cited as a modern example because her fate primarily deepens Peter Parker’s grief and drives his arc forward.

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