Women in Refrigerators

I seem to be on a kick today, oh well. Here goes nothing:

Regarding Women in Refrigerators.

This topic's been going around fandom for years since Gail Simone wrote that essay about the gratuitous violence against female characters. And yeah I can see why that bothers some, but honestly...
It's not misogyny. It isn't. These aren't real women. The writers are telling a story, yes, it's easy to attack the love-interests to manufacture angst for the character. It's even lazy. But honestly, it's not about them being women. It's about them being a love interest. If you watch Alias or La Femme Nikita on television, for example, you might notice that all of Sydney Bristow's or Nikita's love interests also die in gratuitous ways. They do. It's just the way it is.
And they're men.

Now there are some who'll say I'm not a feminist but I am, I believe in equal rights for women and men, for example, however, I don't believe that killing the love interests in comics is the main problem here. The problem is that there needs to be more female (or gay) heroes who have male love interests who can die/be brutalized just as effectively. The problem is that there needs to be more female heroes.

I also liked Alexandra DeWitt. And Steph Brown. These two are often referred to in the Women-in-Refridgerator arguments. Alexandra after all was where the term came from. But the thing is, to me, these two characters should never be used for the same argument. Why?
Because Alex was created to die. Marz saying this has been cited as an example of his misogyny. Which is idiotic. She's *backstory*. Just like Martha and Thomas Wayne. Just like the Flying Graysons. Janet Drake. Ted Kord's dead mother. Jor-El of Krypton. J'onn J'onzz's wife. Hell, even Abin Sur. Her death is a motivator and inspiration for the hero. That's it. The sole difference is that we actually got to see them interact for a few issues before her death. But you know what? That's actually *respect*. Ron Marz probably knew we wouldn't really care about Alex, as we don't really care about the Waynes or the Graysons, but he gave her a little extra time to exist that wasn't flashbacks. (Probably necessary, as Kyle's more repressive than brooding, and therefore not likely to dwell on flashbacks when he can fracture his mind into making a cosmic-events causing Dark Side persona.)

And Alexandra DeWitt was a great character. Smart, funny, mature. She was something of a mentor too, teaching Kyle a bit about what it means to be a Lantern. In fact, the fact that we still bitch about her death now, shows that in four issues, Ron Marz managed to make a character that was truly memorable. In fact, most of Marz's female guest characters were decent. Allison-the-model, for example, was interesting and insightful. The only two females Marz wrote that I *didn't* like were Jade and Donna Troy. Hmm, you know what? I've *never* liked Jade or Donna Troy. The point though is, I've never seen a real misogynist who could write decent female characters. See the Sword of Truth series for evidence of that.

The only similarities between Alex and Stephanie Brown are that Steph was also a minor, female character. That's it. Steph was a hero herself, prominent in Robin, and formidable in her appearances in Batgirl, Batman and other related series and had been for years She had whole issues in which she was the central figure and several dramatic plotlines, like the birth of her child. She was killed in a big Gotham-wide crossover, through events of her own creation. Steph was a force in the Batman universe and could never be mistaken for backstory. It might be said too, that the gratuitousness of her torture,in no ways resembles the very quick death of Alex. (And in the infamous refrigerator scene, we never really got to see anything anyway. It was actually quite tastefully done in my opinion)

The thing is though, we can't shy away from killing female characters just because they're women. That's sexism as well. Honestly, in Rann-Thanagar, if the choice is between Jenny-Lynn Hayden dying or Guy Gardner...Jade better be the one who bites it. It's not a question about female vs. male characters to me right now. It's about whether we lose an awesome, complicated, deeper-than-he-appears character instead of the less complex, less competent, less interesting one, just because the latter is female and killing female characters is "misogynistic".
In summation: Love interests die, deal with it. We need more female heroes, so more male love interests die. Ron Marz is not a misogynist. Using Alex and Steph as examples of the same concept is simplistic and flawed. Sex shouldn't be the determinant for which person dies, the character's personality, complexity, depth and impact should. (If Guy dies instead of Jade in Rann-Than, I will froth at the mouth.) And stop using the word misogynist. These characters aren't real people, damnit.

You wouldn't call Devin Grayson a misandrist (I looked it up!) because she tortures Nightwing on a monthly basis, would you?