Why do we choose to remember Gwen Stacy the way she died through art and cosplay?

Every time I see her she’s wearing that. She always looks the way she looked when she died. I understand that one of the arguments you could make is that the outfit Gwen was wearing when she died is iconic now. Even for people who have absolutely no background with Gwen, they see the blonde hair, headband, and skirt and know immediately who she is. And I think that’s a fair argument.

But why is it a fair argument? I mean, I get that people now mainly remember for her death because that’s the only experience they’ve had with her. But Gwen Stacy was more than her death. She was more than a victim. She was smart and sexy and ambitious. She flirted and dated around and didn’t apologize for it. But she also had flaws. She could be petty and vindictive, jealous and shallow. She was about as well-rounded as one could expect a female comic book character to be at the time. But when we remember her, we don’t remember that woman. We remember the broken body in Spider-Man’s arms. We don’t remember a character, we remember a device for Peter Parker’s narrative.

This isn’t meant as an attack on these particular artists or cosplayers. Or on anyone who may draw her or cosplay her this way. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about for a while. And I’m not saying we should all stop drawing/cosplaying her this way or that I’ll never post one of these pictures again. I’m just suggesting that we should occasionally try to remember her the way she was when she wasn’t a Woman in a Refrigerator.  

Mahmud A. Asrar’s Women of Marvel series