DC vs.

Marvel: Women in Refrigerators List

https://foxhugh.com/non-fiction/dc-vs-marvel-women-in-refrigerators-list/

The Women in Refrigerators term was created by Gail Simone. The name women in
refrigerators derives from an event in Green Lantern #50 in which Kyle finds his dead girlfriend
stuffed into a refrigerator. The comic book page involved can be seen below.

Simone and friends created an online list on a web site of the same name. The list details comic
book female characters that have been killed, raped, depowered, crippled, turned evil, maimed,
tortured, contracted a disease, or had other life-derailing tragedies. The projects list was found
at:
http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/women.html
The list used for this study was downloaded on February 24, 2010 from the mentioned site. The
downloaded list below has been altered significantly from the original for the purpose of this
study. The purpose of this study is to see if DC or Marvel had more characters on the list. I
removed all names of characters that are not properties of DC or Marvel. I then divided the list
into two categories: DC and Marvel. The list with divisions is in the appendix at the end of this
article. I then counted the number of DC characters on the list as opposed to the number of
Marvel characters on the list.

Results
DC had 59 characters on the list. Marvel had 43 characters on the list. DC had 16 more
characters on the list than Marvel. DC had a little more than one-third more characters on the
list than Marvel. I also counted the number of rapes and tortures in each list. The instances of
rape and torture are highlighted on the list in the appendix. DC had one rape (Starfire) versus
none for Marvel. DC had three instances of torture (Black Canary II, Domino, Starfire)
compared to none for Marvel. This means that not only DCs total but subtotal of more horrific
events was greater than that of Marvel.

Conclusion
The data suggests that DC has a more sexist editorial policy towards its female characters than
Marvel. Parents should be made aware of this potential sexist bias in DC comics and consider
not buying DC comic books or giving their products special scrutiny in the case of juveniles. I
would say this is particularly true if the parents have young daughters who are at an
impressionable age.
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I personally do not support governmental censorship and feel this is a responsibility

appropriately given to parents. Parents already use channel blockers for television. Parents use
software programs to monitor the internet usage of their children. Comic books require a more
low-tech approach. Parents should at least occasionally skim the comic books their children
read. The realization that one comic book company may be more prone to a sexist bias than
another and that company may deserve special scrutiny, should make the job of parents easier.
There are several limitations to this study. The list may be flawed and have errors of inclusion
or exclusion. However, the list is the result of many hours of work of many online participants
and is probably a fairly accurate list.

A more serious limitation of this study is the need not to just monitor total events, quantity, but
how horrific events are, quality. What constitutes a horrific event for a comic book character has
a subjective side above and beyond total numbers. For example, depowerment, taking away the
super powers of a character, is an event that often happens in comic books but I would think
has very little relevance or emotional impact precisely due to its fantastic nature. Rape and
torture probably will have a much greater impact on the psyche of juveniles. A depowered
character is counted equally with a raped and/or tortured character on this list despite the fact
the two events probably have very different levels of emotional impact on young readers.
I would further suggest that rape and torture have a particularly visceral impact even compared
to murder especially compared with comic book murder, which is almost clinical compared to its
TV or movie counterpart. Comic book murders generally do not show much blood and more is
left to the imagination than shown. Comic books are not just a textual medium but a visual
medium as well. I am an avid comic book fan and have read many of the events on the
list. Textually two events may seem equal on the list but the graphic depiction of the event has a
radically different psychological impact depending on the portrayal of the event. This graphic
effect is not measured by the textual nature of the list.

There is some good news in this study. I could only find only one instance of rape on the
list! The depictions of torture are also relatively rare. I could only find three instances of torture
on the list. Compared to other media such as TV and movies this number is extremely small and
this would suggest as a media there is an attempt by both comic book companies to make comic
books juvenile friendly.

Appendix
DC - Amethyst (blinded, merged with Gemworld, destroyed in LSH; became a power-
hungry witch in Book of Fate)

DC - Apparition (one of her three bodies dead, soul bound to boyfriend)

DC - Aquagirl (dead)

DC - Arisia (dead)

DC - Batgirl I (paralyzed)

DC - Batwoman (dead)

DC - Black Canary I (dead)

DC - Black Canary II (tortured, made infertile, depowered)

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DC - Buf from X-Man (crippled)

DC - Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire (turned into a villain by the Zamarons, possessed by

the Predator)

DC - Celsius (insane, dead, called delusional liar)

DC - Crimson Fox (both sisters dead)

DC - Dawn Allen (dead)

DC - Dawnstar (wings cut off, possessed by another persona)

DC - Domino (kidnapped, tortured)

DC - Dove II (dead)

DC - Dr. Midnight of Infinity, Inc. (dead)

DC - Elasti-Girl (only original Doom Patroller to stay dead)

DC - Element Girl (dead)

DC - Enchantress of Suicide Squad - originally a heroine (turned evil, insane,

depowered?)

DC - Frances Kane/Magenta (stalker complex)

DC - Fury II (child kidnapped, husband killed twice, insane)

DC - Hawkwoman (depowered)

DC - Huntress I (dead)

DC - Huntress II (sexually abused)

DC - Jade (lost natural powers)

DC - Jean Loring Palmer ("nervous breakdown")

DC - Katma Tui (dead)

DC - Kinetix (depowered twice, catatonic)

DC - Kole (dead)

DC - Lady Flash (evil, dead)

DC - Lady Quark (dead)

DC - Laurel Gand (dead)

DC - Laurel Kent (revealed to be an evil robot, dead)

DC - Linda Park (kidnapped, removed from history)

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DC - Looker (now a vampire)

DC - Mentalla of LSH (dead)

DC - Mera (insane, child murdered)

DC - Mirage of Team Titans (impregnated by rape)

DC - Mrs. Brian Banner, Bruce's mother (murdered by her abusive husband)

DC - Mystek of JLTF (dead)

DC - Negative Woman (depowered)

DC - Nightshade (depowered)

DC - Nightwind (dead)

DC - Power Girl (depowered, magically impregnated, made vulnerable to unprocessed

natural materials... like sharp sticks)

DC - Raven (sometimes evil, sometimes dead)

DC - Redwing of Team Titans (dead)

DC - Shrinking Violet (lost a leg in Giffen's Legion)

DC - Shvaughn Erin (turned into a man)

DC - Silver Sorceress (dead)

DC - Starfire (raped, tortured, enslaved; forced into marriage... twice)

DC - Supergirl, PAD version (lost her invisibility and most of her shapeshifting)

DC - Supergirl, pre-Crisis (dead)

DC - SW6 Projectra (dead)

DC - Triplicate Girl (one body killed, one presumed dead but revealed to be Glorith's
pawn)

DC - Wildcat II (dead)

DC - Wonder Girl I/Troia/Darkstar (identity and powers stripped from her multiple
times)

DC - Wonder Woman (killed, revived, but lost goddess powers)

DC - Zatanna (powers severely limited)

Marvel - Alysande Stuart (dead)

Marvel - Aurora (Multiple Personality Disorder, depowered)

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Marvel - Betty Banner (abused, changed into a harpy, multiple miscarriages, dead)

Marvel - Blink (dead)

Marvel - Bluebird (dead)

Marvel - Candy Southern (dead)

Marvel - Captain Marvel II/Photon (depowered, ceded code name to a male hero)

Marvel - Courtney Ross (dead)

Marvel - Diamond Lil (kidnapped, experimented on by own government, developed

benign breast tumor)

Marvel - Elektra (the real one... dead)

Marvel - Firestar (powers were sterilizing her)

Marvel - Gwen Stacy (dead)

Marvel - Hellcat (dead)

Marvel - Illyana Rasputin (kidnapped and raised by demons, aged, de-aged, dead)

Marvel - Invisible Woman (miscarriage of second child)

Marvel - Jarella (dead)

Marvel - Jean DeWolff (dead)

Marvel - Jet of New Guardians (died in battle after contracting HIV)

Marvel - Jocasta (deactivated - more than once)

Marvel - Karen Page (addicted to drugs, made porn films, infected with HIV, dead)

Marvel - Madelyn Pryor (clone, brood mare, demon queen, dead, brought back)

Marvel - Mantis (child taken away, dead)

Marvel - Marlo Chandler -- Rick Jones' wife (former prostitute, killed and brought
back mindless; got better)

Marvel - Marrina (insane, dead)

Marvel - Mockingbird (abducted and mind-manipulated into a relationship, dead)

Marvel - Moira MacTaggert (diseased)

Marvel - Ms. Marvel I/Warbird (mind-controlled, impregnated by rape, powers and

memories stolen, cosmic-powered then depowered, alcoholic - SHEESH!)

Marvel - Ms. Marvel II (became a monster in Fantastic Four, de-monstered but

enslaved by Dr. Doom, depowered)
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Marvel - Namorita (revealed to be a clone, reverted to a more primal Atlantean form)

Marvel - Nova II/Frankie Raye (dead)

Marvel - Phoenix I (evil-dead-who knows)

Marvel - Psylocke (eyes removed, eviscerated, depowered, mind-swapped)

Marvel - Rachel Summers/Phoenix II (lobotomized)

Marvel - Red Guardian II (kidnapped and brainwashed into the love-slave of a super-
villain)

Marvel - Revanche (dead)

Marvel - Rogue (just plain messed up)

Marvel - Roulette (dead)

Marvel - Scarlet Witch (children 'die'/vanish/are lost because they are figments of her
imagination)

Marvel - Snowbird (child and husband murdered, insane, dead)

Marvel - Spider-Woman I (dead for a while, depowered)

Marvel - Storm (depowered, repowered, periodically crazy to one degree or another)

Marvel - Threnody (dead)

Marvel - Tigra (devolved into cat-thing)

Marvel - Wolfsbane (locked in werewolf form for a while, needs major therapy)