On Fanlore, users with accounts can edit pages including user pages, can create pages, and more. Any information you publish on a page or an edit summary will be accessible by the public and to Fanlore personnel. Because Fanlore is a wiki, information published on Fanlore will be publicly available forever, even if edited later. Be mindful when sharing personal information, including your religious or political views, health, racial background, country of origin, sexual identity and/or personal relationships. To learn more, check out our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Select "dismiss" to agree to these terms.
Mysterious Wife Plague
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | Misogyny in Fandom, Women In Refrigerators, The Cartwright Curse, Disposable Black Girlfriend |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A shorthand way of describing the slash practice of killing off female canon characters in order to pair off the men. This term may have been in use in pre-Internet UK fandom and does not appear to be in use online as of 2015.[1] However, the plot point itself may still be used.
The answer to the question "What are you going to do about X [character's wife or girlfriend]?" is usually "Mysterious Wife Plague."
In Canon
Sometimes this happens in canon, as a way to foreground the relationship between the male leads. For example, in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", John Watson's wife has died, and Watson moves back in with Holmes.
Women In Refrigerators is a similar common trope in superhero comics where the (violent) death of the woman becomes the catalyst for the male hero's actions.
In Fanon
This article or section needs expansion. |