Originally Posted by
Gray Lensman
Fridging is also specifically when a character is killed off (or maimed, tortured, ect) for no other reason than to cause emotional pain to a different character. And while it does happen to male characters, it happens to female characters much, much more. I'd bet it happens to children more than adult male characters as well. Although someone dying in the backstory probably isn't technically fridging.
If a character is killed off as part of their own story arc, then the follow up that deals with a friend/lover who survived isn't fridging, the dead character had their own story. Even if that death was stupid.
Also, killing someone merely to establish a threat as being serious business isn't fridging either, that one is The Worf Effect (so named after a Star Trek character whose background as a supposed great warrior served to make the threat of the week look more threatening by how easily they disposed of the so called great warrior).
Of course, it is possible for a death to fit into more than one category at a time.