Hello, and welcome to another issue of Lazy Desperado.
This week we have a little cross-promotion in the form of my friend (Cal) and I’s podcast, Let’s Unpack That. For those of you who have not been following me outside of the newsletter, this is a media and literary analysis podcast where we’re reading through the manga Berserk for the first time. We just passed the Eclipse event (if you know, you know…) and wanted to discuss the fridged status of a female character.
What is “fridging?” It’s a commonly used trope where a female character is abused, killed or generally has their agency taken away to further the plot of a male character. No, it’s not the same as any other character death and there is a lot of gender-based history and discussion related to the matter as far back as the 90s, which we discuss at length. We begin with the original “fridging” incident that happened to the Green Lantern and work our way up (or down) from there.
Listen to what we think about the trope, including its usage in big-name comics like Batman: The Killing Joke and The Blackest Night, and why the trope is not only sexist but lazy and predictable. We also discuss the Palestinian genocide (you should know my position by now) at the end of the episode.
Let’s Unpack That is my pride and joy so I would appreciate you all subscribing if you can, giving us a listen and then rating the podcast. It’ll help us reach more people. We publish every 2 weeks, so get ready for another episode pretty soon.
Thank you for reading and listening, see you soon. Never shut up. Keep organizing. Keep being loud and aggressive. Do not let decency stop you from defending yourself.
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