Sex and the Single Agent: Confusion of Rape and Desire in the XF Universe

Meta
Title:	Sex and the Single Agent: Confusion of Rape and Desire in the XF Universe
Creator:	Fialka
Date(s):	1998, updated 1999
Medium:	online
Fandom:	The X-Files
Topic:
External Links:	Desire in the X-Files Universe - Fialka, Archived version
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Sex and the Single Agent: Confusion of Rape and Desire in the XF Universe is by Fialka.

It was part of a series. The author comments that: "Many of these essays first appeared as discussions on OBSSE, Scullyfic and/or ATXA."

Author's note: "The following is adapted from a rather spirited discussion on the OBSSE mailing list, inspired by the trailer for Milagro (you don't want to know what happened when the episode aired!). Thanks to Pilgrim and Nascent for their inspiration. The events of Milagro are not incorporated here."

The essay was first posted to The Annotated X-Files Study Guide and is at Fialka's Candybox.

Later, it was reposted:

Sadly, when the old NBCI server went the way of so many really cool, free things on the net, I never could find another free site with enough space to house the whole Study Guide, and it didn't get enough traffic to warrant paying for 250mb on a server somewhere. Not to mention, I no longer have as much time on my hands as I did back then, so like the UFOs...well, it is another UFO. Some of it still appears to be here, if you can wade your way through all the advertising on FortuneCity. I sure won't be insulted if you don't. These essays are from the original site, and appear here unchanged. Unlinked titles got abducted by aliens somewhere along the way. If you find them wandering dazed by the side of the road, could you be so kind as to send them home?

Excerpts

Anything that's happened to Mulder in the course of his quest could have happened to Scully as well because it wasn't based on his maleness; most of what has happened to Scully has happened not only *because* she is a woman, but has specifically targeted the biological system that renders a woman different from a man (see Written on the Body). While they've had enough respect for the character to avoid out-and-out rape (thank whatever), 1013 did tippytoe around the issue in Small Potatoes and Genderbender with rather scary panache, if you consider what is going on between the lines in those scripts - being about a kind of sex that appears 'consensual' but is actually about being fooled or drugged into submission. The idea was also hinted at in Bad Blood and largely skated over because that ep, like Small Potatoes, was played for laughs.

Before I continue, let me clarify that I am not saying I didn't enjoy these eps. I did, because on the surface, they're good. It does get a little frightening though, when you look below the surface. The fact is that two men have definitely tried to rape Scully, while a man she chooses to sleep with (according to the original script for Never Again) winds up beating her senseless and then trying to stuff her unconscious body into a furnace and another, having failed in the attempt to seduce her, tears her heart right out of her body. In a very basic way the message we are given here is extremely puritanical, and feeds back into the reading of Genderbender as an AIDS allegory - having sex with a stranger will kill you. Especially if your name is Dana Katherine Scully.

By limiting Scully's experience of desire to her being either drugged, fooled and/or punished, this would indicate that the boys at 1013 have a pretty scary inability to deal with Scully as a sexual being. Her one attempt to explore her sexuality in Never Again was deliberately misconstrued as an act of desperation in the face of her cancer diagnosis by changing the airdate of the episode (see Shooting the Canon). And not only did that attempt end badly, Carter reportedly freaked and had it cut from the script before shooting. Instead of Scully's original sin (which began against the wall and ended on the floor) we were left with an ambiguous fade from the apartment door closing on what may or may not have been a kiss to each of them waking up, dressed, in separate rooms. Apparently even the idea of two lonely adults keeping their clothes on and having a nice friendly cuddle was considered too risque for Scully. Indeed, we are given ample reason to surmise she has never actually had intercourse - Anderson herself reads the character as a virgin, evidenced by her remark that "never in the history of Dana has Dana scored," in an interview around the time NA aired. Mulder at least got to sleep with his vampire.