And it is 'boy does something foolish which endangers all of his friends because girl pretty'. Frequently this is followed up with 'girl dies a tragic victim of war, probably for the benefit of boy and not her own, because the story is about boy and not girl'. Think you could even fairly say several sub plots could be called fridging.
Gundam's had a long rocky road in how it writes women to get to Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury's cast of women with complex motivations driving the story.