rivendellrose (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rivendellrose) wrote2008-04-23 01:54 pm
rivendellrose) wrote2008-04-23 01:54 pm
Entry tags:
slightly disorganized thoughts on sex, the x-files, and skepticism
Okay, I know I just mentioned in my last entry about the X-Files and how much I want the next movie not to suck... but I've got another X-Files related rant that's been niggling at the back of my mind.
I really want to deal with the sexual and skeptical politics of the relationship between Mulder ans Scully. But - I promise not to take it too seriously, and I also promise that I still love this show, no matter what. (I'm not promising to love the new movie, though - not until I've seen it!) I'm not saying Chris Carter is a sexist, I'm not even saying the show is unintentionally sexist - I'm just indulging in my trained love of taking a piece of writing, taking a viewpoint, and shredding the hell out of it for my own intellectual entertainment. ♥
Note: I am completely ignoring everything past season 6 at the moment. I might at some point try to bring more detail and breadth into this argument, but for the moment I simply don't remember the later seasons well enough to argue anything about them (particularly given that I stopped watching entirely after season 7. So... if you want to talk about what happens after David Duchovny pulled his disappearing act, you'll probably have to explain context to me. The whole point of the show, for me, was their relationship... so I ignored the show after they broke that.
I've heard it suggested that you can interpret the entirety of the X-Files as the deconstruction of Scully's ego and intellect in response to her acceptance of Mulder's way of thinking. I didn't initially buy this as an overall interpretation of the show, but... the more I think about it, and the more I go back and rewatch the show now that I'm an adult (...sort of?), I'm starting to think it might not be entirely as inaccurate as I'd like. On the other hand, I don't think it's as true as I'd feared, either.
When we first meet Scully, she thinks that Mulder and his theories are... well, essentially a bunch of hooey, which of course they are, in any reality except the reality in which the show exists. So Scully is, in a way, the skepticism of the audience personified - she's our window in, our way of looking in on Mulder and Chris Carter's world from the outside. She is also, of course, a way of advancing the plot of each episode through her investigations, and our way of finding out that, in fact, Mulder is often right (or at least closer to right) than we as rational human beings would ever have expected. Even when he's not right, Mulder is usually closer to the right path than Scully.
So does that mean that Scully is always wrong?
I'm going to try to advance the theory that she is not wrong - she's simply following the scientific method and using her rationality as her best defense in a world that is supremely irrational. In any other world - in the real world - Scully would be right, and Mulder would be... well, standing on a street-corner ranting at the world, most likely, and probably pretty well drummed out of the FBI. Let's forget that, though, and assume that Mulder would just be wrong. If the intrepid agents went out to investigate any real haunted house, alien abduction, or reported sighting of bigfoot, I have no doubt that Scully would come out vindicated. And if that were true, I can almost promise you that Mulder (or most of the real conspiracy theorists that he represents) wouldn't change his beliefs one little bit. He would simply be convinced that that specific case was wrong, or that the circumstances didn't work out right, that the stars weren't in alignment, or that Scully's negative aura ruined the whole thing.
Scully, as a true scientist, adapts her beliefs and her way of thinking to fit the reality of the show's universe. She begins, over time, to accept that Strange Things Happen. She admits that she can't always explain things. But, and here's the really important thing, as far as I'm concerned, she never stops trying. She adapts, she learns, she changes her interpretations when the facts demand it, but she never wavers in her efforts to understand the universe around her via the rigors of science, even when what's happening seems completely irrational. A lesser woman, a less true scientist, would simply throw up her hands and give up, leave Mulder behind, and retreat into the safe world where she could ignore the things that don't fit with the way she wants to perceive the world.
So why doesn't it upset me, as a skeptical woman who tries to base her view of the universe in science, to watch Scully's theories "defeated" by the irrational conclusions of most episodes? I never really see it as her being defeated. Scullly can't be defeated, because she represents not a particular point of view, but a particular way of going about looking at the universe, through science.
What does occasionally annoy me about the show is the "stand by your man" kind of storyline that Scully picks up in later years of the show. Her relationship with Mulder takes on disquieting indications of a woman who has given up her own career and life in favor of supporting her partner's. That occasionally frustrates me, particularly because Mulder really is a pathetic dork sometimes, and I have enough of a crush on Scully to occasionally slip into mental tirades along the "sister, you could do so much better" line. But, I've gotta give massive props to both actors and to Carter - the relationship between the two agents is played so well over the growth of the series that by the time it reaches that point, I understand on a gut level why she doesn't just give up on him. She loves the stupid bastard, and she has been converted in some ways to his cause - but less by her love of him than by her realization, bit by bit, that against all odds he's actually right about a few things. A few very sinister things, and a few things that have done a lot of harm to Scully and to people she loves (most notably her sister, Melissa, but also to Emily, and to Mulder himself).
Another annoyance is that, of course, Mulder is always right. The guy is right, the girl has to adapt herself to his world-view. And yeah, that annoys me - there's a normalization of male perspective there, from a figurative standpoint. On the other hand, Mulder is portrayed as such a dip (as are the Lone Gunmen, his little acolytes) that we can't really read too much into that. Mulder may be right that there are bogeymen in the closet and that the government is out to get him... but he's still a socially-inept moron. ;)
I really want to deal with the sexual and skeptical politics of the relationship between Mulder ans Scully. But - I promise not to take it too seriously, and I also promise that I still love this show, no matter what. (I'm not promising to love the new movie, though - not until I've seen it!) I'm not saying Chris Carter is a sexist, I'm not even saying the show is unintentionally sexist - I'm just indulging in my trained love of taking a piece of writing, taking a viewpoint, and shredding the hell out of it for my own intellectual entertainment. ♥
Note: I am completely ignoring everything past season 6 at the moment. I might at some point try to bring more detail and breadth into this argument, but for the moment I simply don't remember the later seasons well enough to argue anything about them (particularly given that I stopped watching entirely after season 7. So... if you want to talk about what happens after David Duchovny pulled his disappearing act, you'll probably have to explain context to me. The whole point of the show, for me, was their relationship... so I ignored the show after they broke that.
I've heard it suggested that you can interpret the entirety of the X-Files as the deconstruction of Scully's ego and intellect in response to her acceptance of Mulder's way of thinking. I didn't initially buy this as an overall interpretation of the show, but... the more I think about it, and the more I go back and rewatch the show now that I'm an adult (...sort of?), I'm starting to think it might not be entirely as inaccurate as I'd like. On the other hand, I don't think it's as true as I'd feared, either.
When we first meet Scully, she thinks that Mulder and his theories are... well, essentially a bunch of hooey, which of course they are, in any reality except the reality in which the show exists. So Scully is, in a way, the skepticism of the audience personified - she's our window in, our way of looking in on Mulder and Chris Carter's world from the outside. She is also, of course, a way of advancing the plot of each episode through her investigations, and our way of finding out that, in fact, Mulder is often right (or at least closer to right) than we as rational human beings would ever have expected. Even when he's not right, Mulder is usually closer to the right path than Scully.
So does that mean that Scully is always wrong?
I'm going to try to advance the theory that she is not wrong - she's simply following the scientific method and using her rationality as her best defense in a world that is supremely irrational. In any other world - in the real world - Scully would be right, and Mulder would be... well, standing on a street-corner ranting at the world, most likely, and probably pretty well drummed out of the FBI. Let's forget that, though, and assume that Mulder would just be wrong. If the intrepid agents went out to investigate any real haunted house, alien abduction, or reported sighting of bigfoot, I have no doubt that Scully would come out vindicated. And if that were true, I can almost promise you that Mulder (or most of the real conspiracy theorists that he represents) wouldn't change his beliefs one little bit. He would simply be convinced that that specific case was wrong, or that the circumstances didn't work out right, that the stars weren't in alignment, or that Scully's negative aura ruined the whole thing.
Scully, as a true scientist, adapts her beliefs and her way of thinking to fit the reality of the show's universe. She begins, over time, to accept that Strange Things Happen. She admits that she can't always explain things. But, and here's the really important thing, as far as I'm concerned, she never stops trying. She adapts, she learns, she changes her interpretations when the facts demand it, but she never wavers in her efforts to understand the universe around her via the rigors of science, even when what's happening seems completely irrational. A lesser woman, a less true scientist, would simply throw up her hands and give up, leave Mulder behind, and retreat into the safe world where she could ignore the things that don't fit with the way she wants to perceive the world.
So why doesn't it upset me, as a skeptical woman who tries to base her view of the universe in science, to watch Scully's theories "defeated" by the irrational conclusions of most episodes? I never really see it as her being defeated. Scullly can't be defeated, because she represents not a particular point of view, but a particular way of going about looking at the universe, through science.
What does occasionally annoy me about the show is the "stand by your man" kind of storyline that Scully picks up in later years of the show. Her relationship with Mulder takes on disquieting indications of a woman who has given up her own career and life in favor of supporting her partner's. That occasionally frustrates me, particularly because Mulder really is a pathetic dork sometimes, and I have enough of a crush on Scully to occasionally slip into mental tirades along the "sister, you could do so much better" line. But, I've gotta give massive props to both actors and to Carter - the relationship between the two agents is played so well over the growth of the series that by the time it reaches that point, I understand on a gut level why she doesn't just give up on him. She loves the stupid bastard, and she has been converted in some ways to his cause - but less by her love of him than by her realization, bit by bit, that against all odds he's actually right about a few things. A few very sinister things, and a few things that have done a lot of harm to Scully and to people she loves (most notably her sister, Melissa, but also to Emily, and to Mulder himself).
Another annoyance is that, of course, Mulder is always right. The guy is right, the girl has to adapt herself to his world-view. And yeah, that annoys me - there's a normalization of male perspective there, from a figurative standpoint. On the other hand, Mulder is portrayed as such a dip (as are the Lone Gunmen, his little acolytes) that we can't really read too much into that. Mulder may be right that there are bogeymen in the closet and that the government is out to get him... but he's still a socially-inept moron. ;)
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Anyway, I'm one of two people that liked seasons 7-9. Doggett and Reyes were just so cute.
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I'd like to give them a try, now that I'm older. At the time, I was really upset at Mulder and Scully's partnership getting broken up, and also at the way Mulder's disappearance put Scully in the position of the believer. I'd be interested to see how they read now... and I suppose it'd be good back-story to have under my belt for the new movie.
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I'd just taken a few years' break from the show before the seasons with them on it started, so it felt like I got to start it fresh. I can't say that I really remember any of the stories now, but I do remember liking them as characters. They gave off a new kind of energy. But I am anxious to see what they're going to do with the upcoming film.
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