The Science Is Out There: Scully's Feminism in The X-Files

By Natacha Guyot

Medical doctor and federal agent Dana Scully (portrayed by Gillian Anderson) has been a prominent figure in popular culture since The X-Files first aired in 1993. By providing a nuanced and feminist representation of a woman scientist, Scully managed to overcome significant systemic violence perpetrated by different patriarchal systems, including the bio-terrorist shadow organization particular to the mythology of the series. She accomplished this by reclaiming her threatened agency in both her professional and her personal lives.

By investigating her primary role as a medical doctor, this book traces her development in a newly comprehensive way. Exploring the intersection of real-life science, trauma, and feminism in Scully’s journey matters given how popular culture participates to the representation of society, including science. While fiction may seem incidental compared to actual scientific practice and policies, a franchise such as The X-Files influences how general audiences perceive women scientists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Natacha Guyot
• Release date: Sep 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005010997

Natacha Guyot

Natacha Guyot, Ph.D. is a Content Coach and Consulting who helps creators, entrepreneurs, scholars share their story, build authority, and create community. She shares weekly articles on Medium on organizational skills, content strategy, grad school tips, creativity, and spirituality.

Book preview

THE SCIENCE IS OUT THERE

SCULLY’S FEMINISM IN THE X-FILES

DR. NATACHA GUYOT

(Smashwords Edition)

Copyright 2021

Natacha Guyot

All Rights Reserved

Cover by The Cover Collection

This book was originally presented under the title "Dr. Dana Scully of The X-Files: A Feminist Scientist Navigating Patriarchies" to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Humanities – Aesthetic Studies (March 2021).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Dr. Dana Scully, Pillar of The X-Files

SECTION ONE: SCULLY’S MEDICAL EXPERTISE

Chapter One: Scully’s Lineage as a Fictional Woman Scientist

Pre 1990s Women Scientists on Screen

Babe Scientists in the 1990s and Scully’s Sexualization

Profilers, Cyborgs, and Scully’s Interaction with Technology

Chapter 2: Scully’s Medical Expertise in the X-Files Department

The Centrality of Scully’s Medical Expertise in X-Files Investigations

The Autopsy Motif

Scully Saving Lives

Chapter 3: Scully’s Medical Expertise Outside of the X-Files Department

Scully’s Medical Expertise in Non-X-Files Investigations

Scully’s Work as a Forensics Field Instructor

Scully’s Work as a Doctor in Internal Medicine

SECTION TWO: SCULLY’S NARRATIVE JOURNEY

Chapter 4: Scully’s Strength of Character

Scully’s Search for Meaning

Scully’s Reconciliation of Science and Religion

Scully’s Long-Lasting Gaze upon the Extraterrestrial

Chapter 5: Scully’s Problematic Partnership with Mulder

Scully’s Codependent Relationship with Mulder

Scully’s Growth versus Mulder’s Stagnation

Scully’s Other Relationships through the ‘Mulder’s Lens’

Chapter 6: Scully’s Longevity and Creative Processes

Scully as the Cornerstone of The X-Files

The Rare Women in a Male-Dominated Franchise

Gillian Anderson and the Scully Effect

SECTION THREE: SCULLY AGAINST THE BIO-TERRORIST PATRIARCHY

Chapter 7: General Gendered Violence versus Systemic Bio-Terrorism

Religious Violence against Women

Scientific Violence against Women

Other Violence against Women

Chapter 8: The Ideology of the Bio-Terrorist Patriarchy

White Men, Japanese Scientists, and Male Aliens

Scully and Other Women as Research Subjects

Scully’s Unique Stand against the Conspiracy

Chapter 9: Scully’s Trajectory from Victim to Potential Savior

Scully’s Negotiation of Trauma

Scully’s Engineered Motherhood

Scully’s Potential as Humankind’s Savior

Conclusion: Scully’s Legacy

Works Cited

Acknowledgements

About the Author

INTRODUCTION: DR. DANA SCULLY, PILLAR OF THE X-FILES FRANCHISE

The speculative and paranormal American television franchise The X-Files was created in 1993 for Fox Television by Chris Carter. Featured as one of its two protagonists was the medical doctor and federal agent Dana Scully, portrayed by actress Gillian Anderson between 1993 and 2018 in eleven seasons (1993-2002, 2016-2018) and two feature films (The X-Files: Fight the Future directed by Rob Bowman in 1998, and The X-Files: I Want to Believe directed by Chris Carter in 2008). Scully has been a prominent female scientist in modern popular culture, in which, as in real life, women have struggled for recognition. This project studies Scully’s character development and its relationship to our world.

This research relies on the importance of popular culture in terms of how media approaches societal matters, which include science. Fictional stories, including television series such as The X-Files, may not offer a completely accurate depiction of scientific practices but they help inform the general audience’s opinion of it. Scully’s longevity makes her a relevant figure to analyze as a woman scientist whose journey pans over two decades. Scully is white, heteronormative-presenting, abled-bodied, and traditionally attractive, which grants her privilege compared to women from ethnic, sexual, or other minorities; and thus, means that criticizing her character offers little to no opportunity to discuss race or LGBTQIA+ representation. Yet she represents a woman scientist whose agency provides her with opportunities to act as a feminist protagonist who navigates a multiplicity of patriarchal systems, whether professional, scientific, religious, or even personal. By existing as a woman in a fictional world full of men, which was created by an overwhelming majority of male creators, Scully embodies feminist aspirations as she carves narrative and visual space. As such, this research aims to thoroughly investigate the ramifications of Scully’s narrative and what they mean for the representation of women scientists.

Media scholar Suzanne Scott discusses the problems for the representation of women in popular narratives in her 2019 book Fake Geek Girls, in which she notes growing fan activist efforts surrounding issues of diversity in media production cultures, and pushback from mostly cisgender, heterosexual […] white, male fans (2). A bias, especially against women, persists due to the multifaceted patriarchal views and behaviors that remain in contemporary society, which attempts to maintain male dominance in the face of multiple waves of feminism. This bias is also a strong aspect of the narrative and creative development of The X-Files as most of the creative team, helmed by Carter, consisted of men, including script writers and directors. At an artistic and entertainment level, feminism has also been at work. Since Suzanne Scott mostly approached the question of active misogyny against female viewers, the entire entertainment industry has been struggling to change mentalities. For many years, the discussion on women’s representation in films and television primarily focused on their objectification by the male gaze, as Laura Mulvey explored in her seminal 1975 essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In it, she discusses how this concept seeks to keep silent image of woman […] tied to her place as bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning (in Erens, 29). For women to transcend this binary model, they seek more diverse roles and to benefit from more complex writing.

As much as feminism argues for the dismantlement of patriarchal systems to provide all genders with equal opportunities and dignity, much work remains to be done to achieve such goals. This is also true in the scientific field where feminist scholarship and practice have been pushing boundaries to counter rampant and centuries-long misogyny. Philosopher of archeology Alison Wylie discusses in her 2001 essay Doing Social Science as a Feminist: The Engendering of Archeology these practices and perspectives in the sciences; and she explains that feminists have had a prominent role in documenting myriad ways in which the sciences embody and legitimate gender inequalities (in Creager et al., 29). Wylie adds that these feminists have also been practitioners and activists committed to the advancement of science […] to improve our collective lives. While Wylie discusses reality, her approach also ties into how women scientists exist in popular culture and the general imagination.

In The X-Files, Dana Scully exhibits complexity and autonomy, yet is forced to struggle with extensive patriarchal forces. Her portrayal has even led to what is referred to as the Scully Effect, pointing to the fact that many girls growing up watching the television show were inspired to pursue education and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). As much as The X-Files is still recognized through Scully’s partnership with Mulder (played by David Duchovny), Scully’s role as a woman scientist has been strong enough to foster scientific vocations and create an effect of her own. In that regard, Scully’s longevity—with her character aging from her early thirties in the 1990s to her early fifties in the twenty-first century—demonstrates how popular culture helps shape a general audience’s views of science and its practitioners. Real scientific research is of course different from what imaginary media universes portray, as Mark J. P. Wolf discusses in his 2012 book Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation; but even those that better reflect reality, such as The X-Files, negotiate their particularities and the audience’s personal experiences. Wolf explains that many authors still feel that some spatiotemporal linkage to the audience’s experience in Primary World helps them relate better to the secondary world (63-64).

At the same time, storytelling has always been a way for humans to address concerns and embed actual worldviews, going back as far as ancient mythologies. In his analysis of the importance of story and communication, drama and writing scholar Brian Boyd discusses, in his 2009 book On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction, the impact of storytelling on human experiences, which includes the significance of popular media narratives such as The X-Files. Indeed, Boyd explains that narratives may offer not just immediately relevant social information but also general instances of human behavior to guide our reflections and decisions (169). By extension, narratives centered on a diverse range of characters, including women (and in these cases female scientists), speak about various experiences that are likely to be relevant to any given viewer and help them better understand either themselves or others. These considerations explain why the positive representation of women scientists is important considering the gender inequalities that still permeate society within that field. As such, Dr. Dana Scully stands as a primary example of the intersection of fictional characters, the philosophy of science, and various aspects of feminist scholarship.

Although The X-Files franchise produced additional merchandise including figurines, video games, and books, I focus solely on the core television corpus comprising all eleven seasons (218 episodes in total) and both movies. This is relevant given that contrary to other franchises, such as Star Wars or Star Trek, the expanded universe of The X-Files has been limited regarding the storyline and the characters’ portrayal. The topic choice of The X-Files for this project is motivated, first, by my longstanding interest in the representation of women in popular culture, especially in the science fiction genre. My previous research on women characters in various science fiction narratives include publications focusing on the transmedia franchise Star Wars (created in 1977 by George Lucas), the film Pacific Rim (Guillermo Del Toro, 2013), and the comic book series Yoko Tsuno (created in 1970 by Roger Leloup). Second, I want to look specifically at images of women scientists on screen, and how such portrayals engage with the broader discussion society has about feminist scholarship and practice in science and medicine. Previous personal work has included doctoral research on Dr. Elisabeth Shaw (portrayed by Noomi Rapace) from Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012), and Dr. Dana Scully. This project notably expands on ideas introduced in my paper Dana Scully’s Empowerment as a Bio-Terrorism Survivor (in Feminist Spaces 3.2 Spring/Summer 2017), which lays the groundwork for some of the following chapters.

Since its creation, the science fiction and supernatural The X-Files franchise has focused on FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, and their journey dealing with unexplainable cases and alien conspiracies. Of the two protagonists, Dana Scully has appeared in more storylines, for she was only absent from a handful of episodes, while her male counterpart was missing for most of seasons eight and nine in the original series. Her character arc has proven to be complex, touching on aspects ranging from science and spirituality to trauma and recovery; from career and motherhood to feminism versus patriarchy. One prominent aspect of her character development is her experience as a survivor of violence perpetrated by a bio-terrorist patriarchy. This organization consists of a conspiracy of alien visitors and men of power who are undermining the political and legal system. While bio-terrorism is commonly associated with racial targeting, this project argues it can also be used against people of a given gender. Indeed, Scully is the most prominent victim of these attacks over the course of the series, as she suffers an alien abduction, has her reproductive material harvested, is rendered infertile, and is implanted with hybrid DNA. This long-lasting arc emerges during the second season of the show and continues to play an essential role in Scully’s story through the 2016-2018 revival, which also aired on the Fox network. Scully’s longevity and survivability as a protagonist thus allows her to carve her own space in the narrative, which allows her character development to blend trauma, science, and heroism.

I argue in this project that Scully is a positive feminist representation of a woman scientist; she can overcome significant systemic violence perpetrated by different patriarchal systems, especially the bio-terrorist group particular to The X-Files and its mythology. She accomplishes this by reclaiming her threatened agency, in both her professional and her personal lives. By investigating her primary role as a medical doctor, this project traces her development in a more comprehensive way than it would if solely focusing on her as an FBI agent, for Scully always retains her medical expertise and puts it to various professional uses. The intersection of science, trauma, and feminism in Scully’s journey is integral in her representation and is thus the primary goal of my research. Both the FBI and the medical profession have been bastions of power often upholding conservative, racist and sexist ideologies, and studying Scully does not absolve these systems of their problematic components; but this research focuses on showing how her fictional narrative as a woman functioning within and also resisting these power structures matters. Similarly, discussing the importance of representing proficient women scientists in popular culture does not mean that science is the only lens through which one should analyze the world. Science remains a significant professional field with influence upon many aspects of human existence and looking at how popular culture makes space for women to part of it is a worthy conversation to have.

Maggie Humm outlines in her 1997 book Feminism and Film that feminism possesses variants […] tend to share three major assumptions, which she describes as the following: gender is a social construction that oppresses women more than men; ‘patriarchy’ […] fashions these constructions; women’s experiential knowledge best helps us to envision a future non-sexist society (5). Given the visual nature of The X-Files, other theorists of media studies particularly expound on the analysis, despite the genre of focus. Although its main genre is that of science fiction, the franchise draws on additional narrative and aesthetic genres, especially those of horror, the police procedural, and the thriller. Carol J. Clover’s work in Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (1993) is particularly relevant to such concerns, especially regarding women’s agency, their interaction with the monstrous, and the concept of rape revenge that permeates slasher films. Other relevant film scholars include Bonnie Noonan, with her research featured in Women Scientists in Fifties Science Fiction Films (2005); Philippa Gates, and her 2011 book on the evolution of female investigator, Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film; and Yvonne Tasker, especially her analysis of the representation of professional women in her 1998 book Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema.

Feminist scholarship in science has developed since the 1970s to reevaluate and change mentalities and practices. In the introduction of the 2001 book Feminism in Twentieth-Century Science, Technology, and Medicine, historians of science Angela N. H. Creager, Elizabeth Lunbeck, and Londa Schierbinger address the problematic sexist bias that has prevailed in science: scientific authority has not been gender neutral […] technological innovations have conventionally been attributed to—and benefited—men more than women, and […] medical representations and procedures have perpetuated gender stereotypes and inequalities (1). I also rely on feminist scholarly works in science, including ecofeminist and post humanist Donna J. Haraway’s discussion of fractured identities in her 1991 book Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature; philosopher of science Sandra Harding’s work on situated knowledge in her 1991 book Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women’s Lives; and feminist physicist Evelyn Fox Keller’s research on the interaction between gender and science in her 1985 book Reflections on Gender and Science.

Since this project aims to study the intersection of popular culture and society, the concept of feminist scholarship in science is another prevalent framework, given that Scully’s core background is her medical expertise, which constructs her worldview and her interactions with many aspects of her life. Many books focusing on Dana Scully (and Gillian Anderson, the actress portraying the FBI agent), aim at a general audience and are mostly what television scholar Jonathan Gray calls paratexts in his 2010 book Show Sold Separately, because they supplement the core narrative. Gray defines paratexts as the variety of materials that surround a literary text; but he also argues that paratexts have the capacity to create texts, […] manage texts, and [fill] them with many of the meanings that we associate with them (6). Most scholarly work focusing on Scully is through the federal lens, as Linda Badley did does in "The Rebirth of the Clinic: The Body as Alien in The X-Files" (in Lavery et al., 148-167). Additional scholarly works have given an important place to the analysis of Dana Scully, as do several essays in the edited volume Deny All Knowledge: Reading the X-Files (1996); but the majority are comparative analyses of Scully and her partner Mulder, consolidating the way the show is mostly considered through the lens of their relationship rather than on their individual developments. A common axis of research delves into their representations and dynamics, especially their liminality as gendered individuals. While their partnership is crucial in the show, focusing on Scully outside of her relationship with Mulder is important, especially because she is the protagonist with the most longevity in the franchise.

A trend in academic work on The X-Files when looking at the protagonists separately considers Mulder as the true narrative guide whom Scully must learn to imitate, as philosopher Mark C. E. Peterson argues in The Truth Is Out There: Abduction, Aliens, and Alienation (in Kowalski, 37-54). Other works on Scully, such as philosophy and religion scholar Steven B. Cowan’s essay Why Scully Is Usually Wrong (in Arp, 3-10), suggest that she has little value until she aligns her personality with Mulder in the later seasons. In that regard, making space for a thorough analysis of Scully’s character development without primarily relying on her relationship with Mulder, or considering that Mulder is someone she emulates, is a worthy scholarly endeavor, especially given the long-lasting influence Scully has had in popular culture.

This project also differs from another work focused on Scully, Lacy Hodges’s 2005 Master’s thesis, Scully, What Are You Wearing? The Problem of Feminism, Subversion and Heteronormativity in The X-Files. Contrary to Hodges’s thesis, my work relies images of women, as described by media scholar Noël Carroll’s in his 1990 essay The Image of Women in Film: A Defense of a Paradigm, rather than a psychoanalytic framework. I thus argue that Scully is not a pseudo-feminist character but an actual feminist, despite patriarchal issues she sometimes exhibits in the series. What Carroll’s model looks for are recurring images of women in film and targeting representations that recur with marked frequency (286). This notion of recurrence provides an opportunity to explore nuanced representations and is of relevance for a long-lasting franchise such as The X-Files, which has offered extensive narrative space and screen time for Scully to evolve over the years. It also helps to elucidate the show’s reliance on plot patterns, character particularities, and visual motifs, such as the preponderance of the autopsy imagery attached to Scully since the first season of the show.

This book is also timely because most of the existing literature predates the two-season revival of the series, which provided new content and gave the character even greater longevity, featuring Scully in her early fifties. This is not such a common occurrence in popular media that still favors youth for female characters and actresses who portray them. Rare examples of recent Scully-focused works include Catholic author Maria Morera Johnson’s Paragons of Wisdom and Truth: Agent Dana Scully and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (in Johnson, 58-78), which looks at Scully’s overall character and how she resembles a Roman Catholic Saint, in a book full of such comparisons. Yet the short chapter does not discuss the medical doctor in detail, especially about feminism and science. Scully-centric works that encompass all seasons and both films are needed at this time. Other recent work on The X-Files commonly looks at the series without a central focus on its female lead; and some of it analyzes specifically the religious aspect such as religious author Amy M. Donaldson’s 2011 book We Want to Believe: Faith and Gospel in The X-Files. Given Scully’s lasting impact in and on popular culture, the need for something more current exists. Studying her through different lenses also allows for new discussion as well as providing a more comprehensive framework involving scholarship on storytelling, feminism, and the philosophy of science.