I heard a spoiler on episode 1 of Marvel’s Disney+ streaming show “Secret Invasion,” and it nearly kept me from watching. I finally decided to give it a shot tonight.
***SPOILER ALERT*** Cobie Smulders’ character Maria Hill gets killed in the first episode, and it was as stupid and predictable as I expected. I checked IMDB, and she’s listed as appearing in 5 episodes of this 6-episode series, so maybe it was a Skrull impersonating Agent Hill who got killed, or maybe a Skrull will impersonate her in future episodes (allowing the actress to continue working even if her character is dead), or maybe they resurrect her like all the other dead characters in MCU shows and movies (looking at you Agent Coulson) - but none of that matters because her death “served the storyline” of a male lead. Just like women’s deaths serve male leads’ storylines in so many shows these days. It’s called “fridging.”
The name “fridging” comes from a 1990s Green Lantern comic in which the hero’s girlfriend is killed and her body stuffed into a refrigerator to motivate the hero to action. It always happens to women; it (almost) never happens to men. Don’t believe me? “Gladiator”…his wife dies. “Batman Begins” (and every other Batman iteration)…his parents die, a rare example of a man also dying to serve the hero’s storyline. “The Crow”…his fiance is beaten, raped, and dies in the hospital. “The Vanishing”…his girlfriend is buried alive. “Deadpool 2”…his girlfriend dies. “The Bourne Supremacy”…his partner (a woman) is killed. “John Wick” (all four movies)…his wife dies. (But for some reason, the dog’s death hits him harder.) “Memento”…his wife dies. Sense a pattern? Start watching for it, and you realize just how often it shows up. Like All.The.Time.
As we watched the opening credits for the show, we were disturbed that almost everyone with any authority was a man: creators, producers, writers, actors, etc. That’s not to say that women can’t also fridge a woman’s character, but it’s a trope that men rely on in their storytelling. It’s lazy, misogynistic storytelling that devalues women, and we should be seeing something better.
While we’re at it, let’s review Episode 1 against The Bechdel Test: 1) Yes, there are three women in major roles in the episode; 2)…but, they never speak with each other. Am I surprised the episode also flunked that extremely low bar? Unfortunately, no.