Under the cut is the artifact paper I submitted as the first part of this research project. I was told to explain what I was studying and why I wanted to study it. I scored a 50/50, so I figure it's exactly the best way to let you understand my general plan.



In 1994, Green Lantern #54 (Vol. 3) created the recognition of a phenomena. Kyle Rayner (the Green Lantern of the book’s title) came home from a long day of superhero antics and found a note from his girlfriend, Alex. She’d left him a surprise in the fridge. The surprise was Alex’s dismembered corpse, actually left there by Rayner’s nemesis, Major Force, to incite Kyle into a battle (Marz, 1994). In 1999, a female comic book fan named Gail Simone coined the term, “Women in Refrigerators” to describe, in Simone’s words, “superheroines who have been either depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refrigerator.” Simone sent a letter to numerous comic book writers and creators and asked them why they thought these sorts of gruesome deaths and depowerments happened to female superheroes. Simone’s letter and the responses to it were put up on a website, last updated sometime in 2000 (Simone, 2000). Since 2000, the list of dead and depowered superheroes (both male and female) has grown, but it’s not just the list that makes Gail Simone important; it’s the fact that she took the time to make it.


Gail Simone was one of the first female comic book fans to make herself well known for being a female comic book fan. Before Simone, most insistences that a woman was a fan of comic books were brushed away. Comics were for boys. Comics had always been for boys, and if girls read comics, why had no one studied it? And if these women have such opinions on the death and depowerment of comic book characters, why weren’t they heard from before? The easiest answer is the lack of the Internet. Before the late 1990s, comic book fans couldn’t congregate in large discussion groups unless a convention was in town. After the Internet boomed into being, it became much easier for people to share all their opinions, including opinions about the death and depowerment of comic book characters, through a medium that became more crowded by the minute. I could study the reactions of comic book fans in general to comic book stories in general, but it’s too broad a topic for a short research assignment. For the purposes of this project, I want to study the reactions of female fans to the death and depowerment of comic book characters. My reasons for this topic are two-fold.


First, female comic book fans are a minority. In 1994, the same year Alex was dismembered and put in the refrigerator, a poll by Comic Shop News placed the number of female comic book readers at 6.2% (Comic Shop News, 1994). It has only been as recently as the 2009 comic convention season that female fans have been recognized as being a substantial part of comic book business. At the San Diego Comic Convention, 40% of the participants were females (Rogers, 2009). The story, first posted on the comic book website “Newsarama”, was picked up by MSNBC, and the comments section was full of women who pointed out that they’d been fans of sci-fi and comics for decades; it was simply that no one had bothered to take notice (“The Emerging Face”, 2009). The minority status of female fans—quite frankly—leads to them being ignored. Studies on male comic book fans have been around since Seduction of the Innocent nearly crippled the industry in the 1950s (Wertham, 1954), and a study as recently as 1996 completely ignored seventh grade girls who read comic books because the girls who took a pre-study survey did not have varied enough answers to make them scientifically significant for the purpose of the study (Krashen and Ujiie, 1996). Searches on Google for articles or studies about female comic book fans (search terms included: “comic book studies female,” “comic books and girls,” “comic books and females”) led to an article about comics for female readers that is titled, “Women Generally Dislike Comic Books, but There Are Some They Don't” (Captain X, 2006). A similar set of searches for articles about boys and comic books (switch “female” to “male” and “girls” to “boys” in the previous search terms) brings up an article from the London Times entitled, “Comic books 'can get boys in the habit of reading'” (Frean, 2008). The implication is clear—women are assumed not to read comics based on no academic research, and boys are assumed to both read and enjoy comic books. The opposing views are confusing, but the lack of research on female fans and their reactions to comic books leaves the door wide open for any study of female fans of comic books, which gives a nice foothold for this project.


The second reason I want to study this topic is because the reaction of female fans to character deaths and depowerments is what made female fans a vocal part of the comic book fanbase. Gail Simone naming the concept of “fridging” (as it is now known in comic book circles) in 1999 started the ball rolling towards proving that there were, in fact, female fans of comic books, and they were just as invested in characters and stories as their male counterparts. In 2006, a blog named “When Fangirls Attack” debuted. Its goal as described on its front page is to compile, “articles on gender in comics and comics fandom. The opinions expressed by the links and materials gathered (even directly posted on this site) are not intended as an expression of our own opinions. WFA only compiles, it does not judge.” (Maddy, Bookwormwithattitude, and Manga Maniac, n. d.) “When Fangirls Attack” is a blog about comics run by women for comic book fans in general. Academia has ignored female fans of comic books; “When Fangirls Attack” is producing a varied, unbiased look at how comic books showcase gender, and how gender may affect one’s reading of comic books. The links found on “When Fangirls Attack” are largely from personal blogs of male and female comic book fans who are merely expressing their un-academic opinions about what they read week-to-week. “When Fangirls Attack” fills a void that academic sources seem to have no interest in filling themselves. It showcases the opinions of female fans simply by taking the time to acknowledge they exist.


In conclusion, the opinions of female comic book fans are just as valid as the opinions of male comic book fans. The reasons behind the decisions of academia—where studying minorities can get one a degree—to ignore female comic book fans is a mystery. Perhaps it is because comic books are usually brushed off as a pursuit for people too lazy to read “real” books. Perhaps it’s because there’s the feeling that comic books are too juvenile to be taken seriously on any academic level outside of proving that boys will read comics in lieu of other literature. Or, perhaps, it’s because academia fell for the lack of press and decided that it really must just be the boys who are reading comic books. Because, really, wouldn’t someone have studied the girls if they’d existed? Apparently not.




Bookwormwithattitude, Maddy, and Manga Fanatic. (2009). When Fangirls Attack. September 6, 2009. <http://www.womenincomics.blogspot.com>

Captain X. (2006). Women Generally Dislike Comic Books, but There Are Some They Don't. September 6, 2009 <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/52819/comic_books_for_girls.h>

Comic Shop News (1994). Boy, were we surprised! Marieta, Georgia.

The Emerging Face of Geek Fandom is Female. (2009). September 6, 2009. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32586742/ns/entertainment-movies/>

Frean, Alexandra. (2008). Comic books 'can get boys in the habit of reading'. The London Times. September 6, 2009 <http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books>

Krashen, Stephen D. and Ujiie, Joanne. (1996). Comic Book Reading, Reading Enjoyment, and Pleasure Reading Among Middle Class and Chapter 1 Middle School Students. September 6, 2009. <http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/comicbook/index.html>

Marz, Ron. (1994). Green Lantern #54 (Vol. 3). New York: DC Comics.

Rogers, Vaneta. (2009). Fangirl Invasion—The Changing Face (and Sex) of Fandom. September 6, 2009 < http://newsarama.com/film/090827-fangirl-invasion-1.html>

Simone, Gail. (2000). Women in Refrigerators. September 6, 2009. <http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/>

Wertham, Fredric, M.D. (1954). Seduction of the Innocent. New York: Rineheart Publishing


Comments are open for this post. Please feel free to ask about any clarifications.

Next up will be my method paper. After that, we'll actually get down to research.