She-Hulk's "fridged" comment - the comic book history of the 'Women in Refrigerators' trope
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law tackles sexism in several forms throughout its first season, which wraps next week on Disney Plus. And in true Marvel Comics fashion, protagonist Jennifer Walters (played by Tatiana Maslany) breaks the fourth wall to talk to the audience and commentate on the action in several scenes.
In episode 8, "Ribbit and Rip It," which features Daredevil's first costumed MCU appearance (played by Charlie Cox), Jen breaks the fourth wall right before the final scene and questions why the episode needs to keep going. Then she "realizes" the next episode is the season finale and asks an important question.
"This is the big twist, isn't it? But the question is, is it the kind of twist that's like, 'There's another Hulk, but this one's red,' or like, 'I'm getting fridged'?" she asks. (And then Ginger Gonzaga's Nikki jumps into the frame with makeup brushes held like Wolverine's claws, complete with a 'snikt' sound, but that's for another time.)
Many MCU fans might have thought "fridged" was a newer pop culture term they didn't immediately recognize, but it's actually a 20-plus-year-old term describing a comic book trope familiar to hardcore comic book fans in keeping with She-Hulk's meta-textual commentary.
Jen's "getting fridged" comment is rooted in the streaming show's continuous examination of sexism and violence against women superheroes.
Here's the comic book history of the "Women in Refrigerators" trope, explained.
Comics writer Gail Simone coined the term "Women in Refrigerators" in 1999, both as the name for a common trope she and other comic book fans had identified in superhero stories and as the name for a website where this trope could be discussed.
"Women in Refrigerators" refers to a scene in
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