So new thing I'm doing here. Tryin to change it up a bit with a Feminist Friday. What is Feminist Friday? Basically Woman Crush Wednesday... but on a Friday. Lol. I didn't have this by Wednesday.
So since I've been rewatching the X Files I've realized how completely awesome Scully is and I'm gonna break it down a little as to why I think she's the coolest.
She is never really Glamorized or Sexualized the way that other women on TV are
Gillian Anderson is absolutely gorgeous. She was about my age when they started the show I think, which is weird to think of. And it would have made a little bit of sense to have her be the super hot super young FBI agent and it would have made sense... but they showed her as a really real agent. She gets her hands dirty, she isn't in like a beauty patent or something, she's an actual real agent as much as Mulder is. Its something that they make a point not to do with Scully. And every once and a while it'll come up that she's hot or something. Frohike mentions it, Mulder mentions it, in the episode Genderbender she almost has sex with someone she just met because he had this irresistible power over her. She's still never really treated like she's a sexual object or she's just there to fall in love with Mulder or anything. She's a real agent.
Non-Traditional Gender Roles
This is another thing I feel like was done on purpose re-watching it. I feel like Scully and Mulder have sort of a role reversal. He's the believer and she's the skeptic whereas usually the woman is shown as the believer and the man the skeptic. Its interesting. Also interestingly enough in real life, David Duchovny is a skeptic and Gillian Anderson is a believer. So that's cool.
She's not afraid to tell people off
From very early on in the series, Scully tells a lot of people off! In the episode Squeeze, which is the third episode, she tells off a friend of hers from the academy because his means of getting to the top aren't really moral. She also tells off Boggs in Beyond the Sea because she doesn't believe he's really a psychic and she's unsure of his intensions and she has a really real moment where she tells him off and I always liked that about her. She's not scared of what these men, considerably pretty dangerous men, are capable of doing to her. Its interesting to see.
She's smart, and fairly open minded for a skeptic
Scully is a scientist. She researches stuff and she knows what she's doing and she does her job better than most people. And its not just because she's brilliant, Mulder is equally brilliant... but Scully has a very open mind for a skeptic. Scully wants to believe and when she sees something like the Fluke Worm, the worms in Ice, The Man eating bugs and other strange things that aren't necessarily paranormal... but they aren't normal... she believes them. Mulder is a little more close-minded. He always believes its aliens and he can't really see the other possibilities. Scully (spoilers... kinda) has to learn to believe in the existence of aliens, and eventually she does.
One scene that I think perfectly shows Scully's open-mindedness is in EBE, the first episode with The Lone Gunmen. Right away Scully says that they're so paranoid and they answer the phone thinking that people are tracking them and she basically thinks they're crazy... and then she finds a camera in the pen... so she knows that people are listening in on her and she's like "hey these crazy guys might be onto something."
They give her a really interesting backstory
This is just kind of a compliment to the writers for the characters in general, but the Scully episodes have become some of my favorites because she's such an interesting character that when they just show her with her family, its just as interesting as when she's solving X Files. They did a great job with both Mulder and Scully, but I feel like Scully in particular has a really interesting background and they did a really good job with her story.
So that is it! I'll try to have more of these, maybe not just about specific people or characters, but maybe about news stories and things like that too.
Byeee!
-Shannon
So since I've been rewatching the X Files I've realized how completely awesome Scully is and I'm gonna break it down a little as to why I think she's the coolest.
She is never really Glamorized or Sexualized the way that other women on TV are
Gillian Anderson is absolutely gorgeous. She was about my age when they started the show I think, which is weird to think of. And it would have made a little bit of sense to have her be the super hot super young FBI agent and it would have made sense... but they showed her as a really real agent. She gets her hands dirty, she isn't in like a beauty patent or something, she's an actual real agent as much as Mulder is. Its something that they make a point not to do with Scully. And every once and a while it'll come up that she's hot or something. Frohike mentions it, Mulder mentions it, in the episode Genderbender she almost has sex with someone she just met because he had this irresistible power over her. She's still never really treated like she's a sexual object or she's just there to fall in love with Mulder or anything. She's a real agent.
Non-Traditional Gender Roles
This is another thing I feel like was done on purpose re-watching it. I feel like Scully and Mulder have sort of a role reversal. He's the believer and she's the skeptic whereas usually the woman is shown as the believer and the man the skeptic. Its interesting. Also interestingly enough in real life, David Duchovny is a skeptic and Gillian Anderson is a believer. So that's cool.
She's not afraid to tell people off
From very early on in the series, Scully tells a lot of people off! In the episode Squeeze, which is the third episode, she tells off a friend of hers from the academy because his means of getting to the top aren't really moral. She also tells off Boggs in Beyond the Sea because she doesn't believe he's really a psychic and she's unsure of his intensions and she has a really real moment where she tells him off and I always liked that about her. She's not scared of what these men, considerably pretty dangerous men, are capable of doing to her. Its interesting to see.
She's smart, and fairly open minded for a skeptic
Scully is a scientist. She researches stuff and she knows what she's doing and she does her job better than most people. And its not just because she's brilliant, Mulder is equally brilliant... but Scully has a very open mind for a skeptic. Scully wants to believe and when she sees something like the Fluke Worm, the worms in Ice, The Man eating bugs and other strange things that aren't necessarily paranormal... but they aren't normal... she believes them. Mulder is a little more close-minded. He always believes its aliens and he can't really see the other possibilities. Scully (spoilers... kinda) has to learn to believe in the existence of aliens, and eventually she does.
One scene that I think perfectly shows Scully's open-mindedness is in EBE, the first episode with The Lone Gunmen. Right away Scully says that they're so paranoid and they answer the phone thinking that people are tracking them and she basically thinks they're crazy... and then she finds a camera in the pen... so she knows that people are listening in on her and she's like "hey these crazy guys might be onto something."
They give her a really interesting backstory
This is just kind of a compliment to the writers for the characters in general, but the Scully episodes have become some of my favorites because she's such an interesting character that when they just show her with her family, its just as interesting as when she's solving X Files. They did a great job with both Mulder and Scully, but I feel like Scully in particular has a really interesting background and they did a really good job with her story.
So that is it! I'll try to have more of these, maybe not just about specific people or characters, but maybe about news stories and things like that too.
Byeee!
-Shannon
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