More than two...

[Stella_Omega]

I'm not saying squee for the murder of 6-12 females...

Chicks tend to get in the way, y'know?

Kidding kidding, sorry.

What if I only fridge half of them, so that the tension comes from only having six women and twelve guys?

Or, a group (which just happened to be most of the women) revolted, shoved their adversaries into a landing craft and dumped them on this planet and took the ship onwards. And hey presto, you've given women agency in a genre where we expect fridging..

That would also be cool because then you could have a couple of officials who never expected to be stuck with the riffraff but have to be intimate with them now. One of them could have had a crush on some badass dude...

 

[bashfullyshameless]

"Fridging" comes from a Green Lantern comic, wherein he comes home to find his girlfriend carved up and stuffed in the refrigerator. (For awhile, the term was "Women in Refrigerators.")

It led to a HUGE backlash among comics readers. Not all writers have really gotten the point, but it became so infamous that they all felt the heat from it. It's still an ongoing issue, but writers and editors have gotten somewhat better about it. Some writers still use the hapless girlfriend as a crutch (as well as not knowing what to do with female characters), but part of the tone of the comics world is that the readership is largely NOT happy with fridging and other similar concerns.

It led to, among other things, this glorious piece: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp12272007.shtml

 

[Stella_Omega]

Well, the part of the readership that is female, anyway-- which doesn't actually exist in the industry's mind. Only boys read superhero comics. Girls read Archie and BTVS, and Something Positive.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Or, a group (which just happened to be most of the women) revolted, shoved their adversaries into a landing craft and dumped them on this planet and took the ship onwards. And hey presto, you've given women agency in a genre where we expect fridging..

That would also be cool because then you could have a couple of officials who never expected to be stuck with the riffraff but have to be intimate with them now. One of them could have had a crush on some badass dude...

Hmmm... I like.

 

[Stella_Omega]

This word really makes my day, and explains why I dislike such a significant chunk of action/adventure/sci-fi stuff.

Thanks, Stella!

Hmmm... I like.

Glad to be of service, ladies.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Glad to be of service, ladies.

Sorry.

I guess that in GM fridging comes easy because we gotta get the pesky females out of the way to the real fireworks can happen.

 

[Verdad]

Sorry.

I guess that in GM fridging comes easy because we gotta get the pesky females out of the way to the real fireworks can happen.

I don't know if fridging is necessary. If you have, say, a man and a woman competing for the same guy's attention, you can make the audience root for the men to get together without tarring the woman or throwing her down the stairs. You can even have the woman win, even if the reader’s heart will be with the male pairing and what transpired between them.

I certainly don't like to see getting the competition out of the picture done in a way that suggests vindictiveness and malice toward female characters. If you’re going to have any, give them due respect. It needn't jeopardize your goal.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

I don't know if fridging is necessary. If you have, say, a man and a woman competing for the same guy's attention, you can make the audience root for the men to get together without tarring the woman or throwing her down the stairs. You can even have the woman win, even if the reader’s heart will be with the male pairing and what transpired between them.

I certainly don't like to see getting the competition out of the picture done in a way that suggests vindictiveness and malice toward female characters. If you’re going to have any, give them due respect. It needn't jeopardize your goal.

I usually just avoid pesky female characters by having my characters be confident in their sexuality.

But in some cases... Like period pieces and like this offworld prisoner colony idea i've been tossing around... confidently gay characters just wont cut it. Girls gotta get out of the way.

And Stella just gave me a less offensive way to do it.

 

[Verdad]

I usually just avoid pesky female characters by having my characters be confident in their sexuality.

But in some cases... Like period pieces and like this offworld prisoner colony idea i've been tossing around... confidently gay characters just wont cut it. Girls gotta get out of the way.

And Stella just gave me a less offensive way to do it.

That’s cool. Just thought to tell you the audience is working with you anyhow. They’re reading a genre story because they do want the guys to get together. You don’t have to convince them by making women horrible or murdering them. In fact, as the readers are likely to be women, they may be pretty annoyed with that.

Not preachin’ or anything. Just thought to throw in a common sense remark.

 

[Stella_Omega]

You can also remember that a planet is a very large thing once you're on it. It would be plenty easy for some dudes to get isolated from the larger crowd that happens to be where the women are.

I went through a 'spander phase,' and the number of writers who made buffy be dead/hateful bitch/stupid cow/unworthy-- was depressing as hell.

 

[Verdad]

You can also remember that a planet is a very large thing once you're on it. It would be plenty easy for some dudes to get isolated from the larger crowd that happens to be where the women are.

I went through a 'spander phase,' and the number of writers who made buffy be dead/hateful bitch/stupid cow/unworthy-- was depressing as hell.

Yep, self-hatred/other-women-hatred can rather spoil it.

Good idea, above, and also good advice on avoiding epithets. I would have said the same if you already hadn’t, but it may not hurt to repeat it.

I swear, some writers can get so creative you’d swear there were twenty people in the scene. The shorter man, the taller man, the younger man, the older man, the blond man, the dark haired man, the man in fancy socks, and all the rest of them.

My advice is not just don’t over-use this but never do it at all. Names and pronouns are all you’ll ever need. Referring to the character in a different way than the POV character is likely to refer to him takes you out of that POV, if nothing else. No one thinks of their lover as the ‘dark haired man’. (Well, not if they know his name!)