Dr. Horrible and Women in Refrigerators
Jul. 9th, 2012 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsnotmymindAt the the time Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was first broadcast (? Is that the proper term for an internet series?) in 2008, it received a lot of criticism from fandom for sexism because how Penny was written--especially her death, a classic case of refrigeration (i.e., a female character killed to advance the storyline of a male character). But while the blatant refrigeration can't be denied, I think the story is portraying the way guys like Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer view women like Penny in a much more critical light that than its reputation (at least, its reputation as I am aware of it) would lead you to believe. I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in that little story.
The phrase "women in refrigerators" comes from superhero comics, referring to a DC Comics storyline in the '90s where Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's civilian girlfriend Alex DeWitt was killed by one of his enemies, Major Force, and her body stuffed in Kyle's refrigerator. The trope of killing off a hero's girlfriend long predates Alex's death--it's often dated back to the death of Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy at the hands of the Green Goblin in 1973, but the idea was old then: Artist and co-plotter John Romita Sr. get the idea of killing the hero's girlfriend from a comic series (Terry and the Pirates) that he had read when he was young. It wasn't even the first time Marvel Comics had pulled that stunt; I was a bit surprised when I read an Iron Man comic from a few years earlier where Tony Stark's girlfriend was killed during a superhero battle.
It was, of course, Gail Simone, later a professional comics writer in her own write who wrote the Women in Refrigerators list from which the phrase "refrigeration" is derived. Interestingly, Simone's list is not a list of bad things that happen to female characters to advance that story of male characters. It was a list of any bad thing that happened to a female character, without regard for how it affected the narrative. While most of the events on the list are female characters (either superheroines or civilians) who were murdered, raped, depowered (if originally superhuman), or in some other way personally victimized, there are some events that are the opposite of the current use of the word refrigeration--i.e., the death of a husband might be noted. It was only later that "refrigeration" specifically came to mean the death of a female character to advance to story of male character--presumably because all characters experiencing suffering, and there must be some way to distinguish between the suffering of a female character that fits into sexist tropes, and the suffering of a female character which avoids or even reverses them.
Penny's death in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog fits into the trope of a female character killed to advance the storyline of a male character, but it's written with an awareness of the trope, and the gender implications of the trope, that I find interesting--as well as an interesting subversion of the superhero-super-villain dynamic. I'm sure that having Horrible and Hammer singing “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do” was written with deliberate irony. And who, ultimately, is responsible for Penny's death? Horrible, the sympathetic villain of the piece who claims to love her but stalks her and plans her life without consulting her, or Hammer, the asshole hero who is upfront about not caring for her? Penny's death is the “let’s be ambiguous about who is culpable for what” game again, as with Faith and Buffy’s killing of Allen Finch, and Faith being put into a coma (was it the stabbing, or the fall?). It seems like Captain Hammer had Dr. Horrible pinned and was about to kill him with the death ray when it backfired. Hammer was injured, Penny killed. So who is responsible? Dr. Horrible created the death ray. Captain Hammer was the one holding it and using it. But it’s not his fault it backfired. Or is it? He shouldn’t have just trusted Horrible’s equipment with civilians around, should he have? But then, Horrible shouldn’t have tested and used it with civilians, including the supposed love of his life, around. A twisty thing. But while both are responsible, I would place the greater blame with Horrible, who initiated the confrontation.
This may even have similarities with the death of Gwen Stacy, where some fans and creators argue that it was Spider-Man's botched rescue, not the Green Goblin throwing her off the bridge, that actually killed her. But in Gwen's death, the line between hero and villain is clear, and we are never meant to doubt that Peter loved her and had her best interests at heart (even as he hid from her both his own secret identity and that of their best friend's villainous father--information that might have helped her protect herself, had she known it).
Dr. Horrible is subverts all that. The hero is a cowardly bully who doesn’t give a damn about the girlfriend. The villain loves her—or does he? “Love your hair” is about the most specific compliment he ever has for her, and while Penny does indeed have lovely hair, that’s not real much to base true love on.
“Penny will cry but her tears will dry when I hand her the keys to a shiny new Australia”. Horrible isn’t interested in Penny, as a person. He doesn’t care that much if he hurts her. He can justify it.
One of the things that made Gwen Stacy Peter's ideal girlfriend was that she was a science major--a personality trait that was introduced and then never even mentioned again, despite Gwen surviving for many comics and real life years after. By the time of her death, Gwen's personality and simply disolved into that of the Ideal Girlfriend.
This is not the case with Penny. We don’t see Penny through Billy’s eyes. She’s not some ideal of femininity, she’s just an ordinary person trying to make the world a better place in her own, often useless, ways. It’s interesting that both Penny and Billy see the world as a reflection of their own circumstances—Billy thinks when he is unhappy, the world is crap. Penny, when she is happy, sees the world as good. Their desires to make the world better are, at some level, selfish, centered on the self. Neither of them can really see past themselves. And yet they try—which Captain Hammer, despite his reputation, notably does not.
Billy is the nice guy stalker who doesn’t get the girl at the end. On the contrary, he kills her, and she dies with praise of his rival on her lips (again a contrast to Gwen, who was unconscious during the confrontation between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin). What drives Billy to kill Captain Hammer is not that he is using Penny—Billy does not seem to give much of a damn about Penny’s feelings—but that Hammer is going to screw the woman that Billy wants to screw, and is doing it just to hurt Billy. Billy is right in telling Penny that Hammer’s an asshole, but he, Billy, is not much better.
That Dr. Horrible's-Sing Along Blog is less sexist in handling Penny's death in the 2000s than Marvel Comics was with Gwen Stacy's death in the 1970s is not surprising, but the story of Penny's death is not merely an updated version of the story of Gwen's death (that would be Alex DeWitt, who, having been created in the 90s, was given a strong personality and a chance to fight back before she was killed). It's a critcism of superpowered men who claim to care about the woman and civiliians whom they put in direct danger with their macho antics.
And yet—we still have a female character killed to advance a male character’s storyline. And the person we are expected to sympathize with most over her death is Billy: the man who killed her and made her the meaning of his life but never really knew her.
The phrase "women in refrigerators" comes from superhero comics, referring to a DC Comics storyline in the '90s where Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's civilian girlfriend Alex DeWitt was killed by one of his enemies, Major Force, and her body stuffed in Kyle's refrigerator. The trope of killing off a hero's girlfriend long predates Alex's death--it's often dated back to the death of Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy at the hands of the Green Goblin in 1973, but the idea was old then: Artist and co-plotter John Romita Sr. get the idea of killing the hero's girlfriend from a comic series (Terry and the Pirates) that he had read when he was young. It wasn't even the first time Marvel Comics had pulled that stunt; I was a bit surprised when I read an Iron Man comic from a few years earlier where Tony Stark's girlfriend was killed during a superhero battle.
It was, of course, Gail Simone, later a professional comics writer in her own write who wrote the Women in Refrigerators list from which the phrase "refrigeration" is derived. Interestingly, Simone's list is not a list of bad things that happen to female characters to advance that story of male characters. It was a list of any bad thing that happened to a female character, without regard for how it affected the narrative. While most of the events on the list are female characters (either superheroines or civilians) who were murdered, raped, depowered (if originally superhuman), or in some other way personally victimized, there are some events that are the opposite of the current use of the word refrigeration--i.e., the death of a husband might be noted. It was only later that "refrigeration" specifically came to mean the death of a female character to advance to story of male character--presumably because all characters experiencing suffering, and there must be some way to distinguish between the suffering of a female character that fits into sexist tropes, and the suffering of a female character which avoids or even reverses them.
Penny's death in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog fits into the trope of a female character killed to advance the storyline of a male character, but it's written with an awareness of the trope, and the gender implications of the trope, that I find interesting--as well as an interesting subversion of the superhero-super-villain dynamic. I'm sure that having Horrible and Hammer singing “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do” was written with deliberate irony. And who, ultimately, is responsible for Penny's death? Horrible, the sympathetic villain of the piece who claims to love her but stalks her and plans her life without consulting her, or Hammer, the asshole hero who is upfront about not caring for her? Penny's death is the “let’s be ambiguous about who is culpable for what” game again, as with Faith and Buffy’s killing of Allen Finch, and Faith being put into a coma (was it the stabbing, or the fall?). It seems like Captain Hammer had Dr. Horrible pinned and was about to kill him with the death ray when it backfired. Hammer was injured, Penny killed. So who is responsible? Dr. Horrible created the death ray. Captain Hammer was the one holding it and using it. But it’s not his fault it backfired. Or is it? He shouldn’t have just trusted Horrible’s equipment with civilians around, should he have? But then, Horrible shouldn’t have tested and used it with civilians, including the supposed love of his life, around. A twisty thing. But while both are responsible, I would place the greater blame with Horrible, who initiated the confrontation.
This may even have similarities with the death of Gwen Stacy, where some fans and creators argue that it was Spider-Man's botched rescue, not the Green Goblin throwing her off the bridge, that actually killed her. But in Gwen's death, the line between hero and villain is clear, and we are never meant to doubt that Peter loved her and had her best interests at heart (even as he hid from her both his own secret identity and that of their best friend's villainous father--information that might have helped her protect herself, had she known it).
Dr. Horrible is subverts all that. The hero is a cowardly bully who doesn’t give a damn about the girlfriend. The villain loves her—or does he? “Love your hair” is about the most specific compliment he ever has for her, and while Penny does indeed have lovely hair, that’s not real much to base true love on.
“Penny will cry but her tears will dry when I hand her the keys to a shiny new Australia”. Horrible isn’t interested in Penny, as a person. He doesn’t care that much if he hurts her. He can justify it.
One of the things that made Gwen Stacy Peter's ideal girlfriend was that she was a science major--a personality trait that was introduced and then never even mentioned again, despite Gwen surviving for many comics and real life years after. By the time of her death, Gwen's personality and simply disolved into that of the Ideal Girlfriend.
This is not the case with Penny. We don’t see Penny through Billy’s eyes. She’s not some ideal of femininity, she’s just an ordinary person trying to make the world a better place in her own, often useless, ways. It’s interesting that both Penny and Billy see the world as a reflection of their own circumstances—Billy thinks when he is unhappy, the world is crap. Penny, when she is happy, sees the world as good. Their desires to make the world better are, at some level, selfish, centered on the self. Neither of them can really see past themselves. And yet they try—which Captain Hammer, despite his reputation, notably does not.
Billy is the nice guy stalker who doesn’t get the girl at the end. On the contrary, he kills her, and she dies with praise of his rival on her lips (again a contrast to Gwen, who was unconscious during the confrontation between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin). What drives Billy to kill Captain Hammer is not that he is using Penny—Billy does not seem to give much of a damn about Penny’s feelings—but that Hammer is going to screw the woman that Billy wants to screw, and is doing it just to hurt Billy. Billy is right in telling Penny that Hammer’s an asshole, but he, Billy, is not much better.
That Dr. Horrible's-Sing Along Blog is less sexist in handling Penny's death in the 2000s than Marvel Comics was with Gwen Stacy's death in the 1970s is not surprising, but the story of Penny's death is not merely an updated version of the story of Gwen's death (that would be Alex DeWitt, who, having been created in the 90s, was given a strong personality and a chance to fight back before she was killed). It's a critcism of superpowered men who claim to care about the woman and civiliians whom they put in direct danger with their macho antics.
And yet—we still have a female character killed to advance a male character’s storyline. And the person we are expected to sympathize with most over her death is Billy: the man who killed her and made her the meaning of his life but never really knew her.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-11 09:07 pm (UTC)I guess the question is, is it still wrong to have a female character die in order to emphasize exactly how villainous the guy we were (somewhat) rooting for is? I guess it's hard to say. It's noteworthy that the person who dies has to be the person Billy ostensibly cares about the most, and his reason for doing it. The commentary on the trope is there because rather than being spurred onto greater heroism as in the usual trope, Billy's fixation on Penny and her death spur him on to greater villainy and destruction and inner death. I don't think the story could work as well with a man dying, though I might not be using my imagination enough. But really, this is about our tendency to identify with the (male) protagonists, and being made to realize the depths of villainy and destruction in the guy we were rooting for. Playing on a trope that under other circumstances would not make us bat an eye, really, is part of what makes this an effective deconstruction of the superhero genre, IMO.
As a final thought: I do think that Penny is myopic in a lot of ways, her failure to see through BOTH Captain Hammer AND Billy chief among them. But I think it's wrong to cast her as selfish because she is acting out of a sense that the world is good. She sings that her life was mostly terrible before recently, and I think her joy is ONLY because of Hammer's recent appearance in her life, meaning that her work for the Helping Hands shelter was mostly a thankless task that didn't bring her much joy before Hammer's arrival. Penny's blindness does basically get her killed, so I don't want to overstate the case, but I do think she's in a category above both Billy and Hammer.
Part I
Date: 2012-07-12 07:43 pm (UTC)It's hard to say how we're meant to react because I don't know exactly what the writers have in mind--and I do think we were supposed to see that, to see Penny's death as proof that Billy isn't such a great guy. But you still have to read between the lines a little bit--because the gun isn't in Billy's hands when it kills her. Captain Hammer was the one who had the gun, and at that particular moment, he was the one who was being reckless. So while I think it would be an inaccurate interpretation, it is really easy to blame Penny's death on Hammer being an incompetent asshole, and if Billy had been able to stay in control of the situation, Penny would still be alive.
There's actually a really good comparison: The novel Frankenstein. I took the most awesome class on sci-fi/fantasy literature last fall, and one of the things the professor talks about is how Elizabeth's death at the hands of monster highlights just how selfish Victor Frankenstein is, and how, despite his repeated insistence in the first person narrative to the contrary, he doesn't actually care about her that much. Because he claims to value her more than anything or anyone in the world, but when he is worried that the monster will attack on their wedding night, he tells her nothing and only takes precautions to protect himself. But you have to read between the lines--which is wonderfully clever, but, as one of the students in the class pointed out, there aren't really any strong or interesting female characters in the story.
I guess the question is, is it still wrong to have a female character die in order to emphasize exactly how villainous the guy we were (somewhat) rooting for is?
It's definitely not inherently wrong, but it does fit into patterns. Like, there are four classic movies I've seen that fit into what I would call the "crazy old woman" trope: Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and A Streetcar Named Desire. All of which came out in the early fifties, except for Baby Jane, which came out in the late sixties. Now, these are all very good movies in their own right, but it's not a coincidence that my opinion of each movie is directly related to the order in which I saw it--I loved Sunset Boulevard, but by the time I got to A Streetcar Named Desire I was rolling my eyes and saying, "Not another crazy old woman movie!" And what does it say about the culture of the time that the predominant portrayal of a middle-aged to elderly woman was someone who was obsessed with being younger and not all the way there, mentally?
But none of these are inherently "wrong", in and of themselves. I mean, some old women are crazy. And I liked Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve in part because I, a female teenager, identified with those women--I was a dramatic teenager who was prone to tantrums. It's funny to re-read my diary from when I was a teenager, because I was always saying things like, "I know this sounds crazy, but I'm not crazy". I was bright enough to understand the limits of adolescent thought processes, but not emotionally mature enough to transcend them.
But by the time you get to Crazy Old Woman Movie #4 you're moaning, "Not again", no matter how intelligent and well-written it is. And that's sort of how I feel about Dr. Horrible--it's clever, it's subversive, it's delightful, it's wonderfully written--and it's yet another story where the female character is killed off to further the emotional storyline of a male character. I don't know if I could say that killing Penny was "wrong"--it was right for that story--but it still leaves me feeling a bit, "Oh, not again".
Part II
Date: 2012-07-12 07:45 pm (UTC)Slightly unrelated: Dr. Horrible's storyline is very Willow-esque, although he doesn't get the redemption-by-love-of-an-old-friend (also I think his storyline is better done--I love Willow's story in moments, but it's a bit of a struggle to work it into a coherent whole).
I think you're right that this story wouldn't work with a man dying. And I do love this story--I still have that "Oh, not again," feeling whenever I watch it.
I do think that Penny is myopic in a lot of ways, her failure to see through BOTH Captain Hammer AND Billy chief among them. But I think it's wrong to cast her as selfish because she is acting out of a sense that the world is good. She sings that her life was mostly terrible before recently, and I think her joy is ONLY because of Hammer's recent appearance in her life, meaning that her work for the Helping Hands shelter was mostly a thankless task that didn't bring her much joy before Hammer's arrival.
I don't really blame Penny for failing to recognise that Captain Hammer is a jerk. Naivety isn't really selfishness, and she's obviously acquiring doubts about him by the end. The thing that struck me as selfish--and perhaps I am being overly harsh here--but the song where she and Billy both see the world as reflecting their own mood (he's unhappy: the world sucks, she's happy: the world is wonderful). Which is a very human kind of selfish, to see the rest of the world as matching your own mood. I would have to re-watch to decide if I am being unfair to Penny--it's possible. But I think effective activism requires a little less naivety and a greater understanding that you can be having a great life, and the world can still be having problems (or vice versa--that you can be having a terrible life, but other parts of the world can be going great). But perhaps it's only human.
Penny's blindness does basically get her killed, so I don't want to overstate the case, but I do think she's in a category above both Billy and Hammer.
She's a category above Hammer, and definitely, by the end, a category above Billy. Although I think--I'm not sure that Billy really starts out so bad. He starts off as just a young men who doesn't know how to talk to his crush, thinks the world is really screwed up, and thinks the only way to improve the world is to completely overhaul the current system. Like Penny, he's naive, but I don't think he's a bad person at the start--nor more so than plenty of other jaded and intelligent young people. It's just that he gets increasingly creepier (stalking Penny, for example) as the story progresses, and starts caring more about his own power than either Penny or the rest of the world (foreshadowed in the scene where Penny is trying to get him to sign the petition for the homeless and he's too busy with his super-villain antics to pay attention to what she's actually saying). In a way, Penny stays good because she stays ordinary, and doesn't get caught up in superhero antics.
Re: Part II
Date: 2012-07-13 03:50 pm (UTC)I love the point about Frankenstein! Victor has always struck me as a real jerk. The one problem with the first person narration is still that Walton can think Victor isn't a jerk, but that's a minor point.
You are right about "not another story!"-ism.
Billy is very Willow-like! I like Willow's story better ;), but yeah, there are a lot of comparisons there (and to William/Spike as well -- I started a "Whedon's Wills" essay but I never finished it). Billy's is much more straightforward.
I see what you mean now about Penny's selfishness. What I'd say is that Hammer is a bona fide super hero (who is secretly a jerk, but) who saved lives. Later on he helps open a homeless shelter for her so that her activism succeeds. That is improvement -- and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that she thinks Hammer is interested in the homeless problem and had agreed to do something about it by the time the song got sung. She sings that "some kind of harmony...is on the rise," which just means that suddenly it seems like it might be possible for the world to get better. And Hammer, indeed, is the person who comes into her life who can both improve her life AND the world's. He's a phony, but she doesn't know that! :)
I feel like Billy's idolization of Bad Horse and desire to be a villain is a problem from the start. I *do* think that he ultimately is still motivated by good impulses. But I feel like when your goal is to get into a league KNOWING that the League is the type of organization that asks for murders to enter means that you're already pretty far gone. It's true, I think, that he thinks that the League is power and that that power can be used by him to do good and fix the world, and so he doesn't love the league because it's evil so much as because it's powerful. But I don't think there's any indication that the League isn't as devoted to evil as the name sounds like, or that Bad Horse is secretly, or that Billy thinks Bad Horse is secretly, some kind of freedom fighter. He admires Bad Horse because he's an "achiever," which is what Billy wants to be. The fact that Bad Horse is evil is undisputed and ignored. Billy is squeamish about killing because he has lots of goodness in him, but he is still committing to evil as a means to power. That said, if he stopped before the stalking and the killing of Hammer then his villainous aspirations would be more Jonathan-style than Warren-style.
Re: Part II
Date: 2012-07-20 03:12 am (UTC)Yeah, his story is somewhat Willowesque, and there's some similarity with William, but the BtVS characters that Billy is really most like are the Trio. Billy is basically the Trio rolled into one, only cuter and more likeable - and a protagonist. Dr Horrible shows how easy it is to manipulative the narrative to make the viewers sympathize (or even be on the side of) such a character.