A historical note

Meta
Title:	a historical note
Creator:	dashakay
Date(s):	September 8, 2015
Medium:	Tumblr post
Fandom:	X-Files
Topic:
External Links:	heart-full, Archived version
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a historical note is a Tumblr post by dashakay. It was posted on September 8, 2015, and had 235 notes as of September 11.

The subject was The X-Files, demographics, age of fans, and fandom and ageism.

It was written around the same time as A Note about the X-Files Fandom and is somewhat of a response to it.

The Post

.....I do want to correct some erroneous information floating around out there that The X-Files was originally marketed as a show for teenagers and that the fandom during the airing of the show was primarily teens. Unlike some posters, I was actually there at that time and I was an adult.

When the X-Files debuted it was hailed as a very adult show. It was one of the first adult dramas on FOX and quite a feather in the still-fledgling network’s cap. Which doesn’t mean that teenagers didn’t watch it. Of course they did. But XF was marketed as a serious drama for adult viewers and the show saw success in the prized (by advertisers) 18-49 demographic.

The X-Files fandom was similarly skewed adult during the airing of the show. There was a heavy teen presence but in my (admittedly unscientific) experience, the vast majority of fandom members were in their twenties and thirties, at least when I was active between 1998-2001. I knew people in fandom as young as 14 and as old as 58 but most were what is best described as young adults.

The “older” fanbase makes sense, given the time period of 1993-2002. The world wide web was born during the orginial airing of X-Files. Not everyone had a personal computer and a (dial-up) Internet connection at home yet, although those numbers were rising every year. There was no such thing as smartphones or tablets or wireless internet. A sizeable amount of fandom members participated in fandom at work or school only because they weren’t yet able to get Internet at home. I know, I was one of those for a little while. There were a lot of college student participants, because universities were among the first to have widespread Internet access, but there was a relatively small (but definitely growing) contingent of fans who were high school age and younger. Once again, this information is anecdotal but I was very active in fandom, participating in the alt.tv.x-files and alt.tv.x-files.creative Usenet newsgroups, many mailing lists, and message boards. But one of the things I did like about the fandom then was that all were welcome.

Listen, the main thing is that this fandom, to this very day, remains a place for everyone, whether you’re 13 or 78. Some of us are brand new to the X-Files, some of us have been hanging around, on and off, for sixteen years or more. Older and more experienced fans should be welcoming to younger and newer fans and vice-versa. Like it or not, we’re a community and while we’re not always going to get along (trust, I survived more flame wars than I can count), we all have a place here. .....

Comments to the Post: At the Original Post

[omgfeelingthelove]:

Here, here. I was an adult when the X-Files premiered, and I watched it with my dad. My aunts, uncles, and older cousins were into it, too. We had holiday discussions over it. Imagine the romos vs no-romos debates at my grandmother’s dinner table! ;)

[lysergicgirl]:

The more the merrier! More philes = more people to geek out with!

[adieangel]:

So well said! I literally typed up something very similar this morning and put it in my drafts because I don’t know how to put stuff behind a cut on mobile. Debating whether I should post it now, lol. But needless to say, I agree with all of this.

[ foreheadfucking ]:

I am sure – pretty damn sure – I was the only girl in my high school that watched X-Files. There may have been guys who watched it but I never met any. It was not cool to like this show. Talking about it would have been social suicide. Everyone else watched all those lame teen dramas – 90210 or Party of Five or whatever. That’s what was cool.

[therewillcomesoftrain]:

Thank you Dasha!!! I too was there, was 29, and loved it like nothing else ever before! My then 32 year-old boyfriend, now husband loved it right along with me.

[olderthannetfic]:

"So true! It’s hard for people to remember now just how different the internet was back then. I got into X-Files fandom during the first season. I was 13. That was incredibly unusual, not because it was fandom but because a 13-year-old having privacy and time online were incredibly unusual.

Most teenagers had, at best, a family computer with hovering parents and siblings that connected to AOL via dial up, which tied up the family phone line (grouchy parents) and was charged by the minute (really grouchy parents). Most families didn’t even have that much. Smart phones did not exist. Cell phones were expensive and the size of Scully’s shoulderpads–as we all remember from watching Mulder and Scully talk into those bricks. Libraries didn’t yet have good access. Most modern web browsers did not exist. Google did not exist. The internet places that had fan activity were often confusing and technically complex to access compared to modern, web-based forums designed for the general public.

The people who were online in the early 90s were university students and IT professionals. E-mail addresses were mostly through jobs or school and had real names in them. It was a very different world. Teenagers in fandom online did not become normal until the end of the 90s or the early 00s. And, even then, they tended to be in anime, Harry Potter, Buffy, and other things aimed at younger demographics. The X-Files was a dark, adult show that nobody expected teens to be watching, at least when it started. (I know. I was there. I remember the pearl-clutching over somebody my age watching it at all. Forget porny fanfic: it was me watching the canon that was surprising.) For perspective:

1993: X-Files premieres

1994: Netscape Navigator debuts

1995: Internet Explorer debuts

1997: Google search engine debuts

I’ve been through a lot of fandoms since then and I haven’t been in X-Files fandom since like 1997. It’s both surprising and heartening to know it has lots of young fans today. That’s fantastic. But don’t go rewriting history, people! It was a show aimed at adults with a fandom of adults and fannish infrastructure built by adults. Those few teenagers who were into it are now in our 30s."

[kalamac]:

"I was sixteen, almost seventeen and The X-Files was the first fandom I jumped into feet first, and never looked back. People knew not to call me on X-Files night, because not only wouldn’t I answer, I’d turned down the phone so I wouldn’t be bothered at all. I had the videotapes (upgraded to DVD as soon as they came out), and I still have the dolls, books, trading cards & card game that I bought. My first X-Files t-shirt finally fell to pieces a few years ago. I was an official fan club member. And a few years in, when coming to pick up my niece, who I’d been babysitting, my brother in law asked me if he could use my computer quickly. It was a big, blocky desktop running Windows 95 and dialup Internet. I said yes, and later after they’d gone home I turned the computer on and the X-Files theme music played instead of the Windows startup music, and when I shut down that night, instead of the shut down music, it was Mulder saying “They’re shutting us down Scully.”

[arcadiaego]:

"I used to sneak into the room with the spare black and white TV to watch it! It was definitely something that wasn’t deemed suitable for me at that age. (13 or so.)"

[iggyw]:

"As one of the 12 teens in X-Files fandom in the late ‘90s, I can verify this. (Okay, there were more than 12 of us. There was even a teen listserv, which I think spun off from Scullyfic. It had like eight people on it! But the vast majority of fans were either in college or older, for the obvious reasons Dasha explains above–it wasn’t a kids’ show and nobody had the internet back then–or at least they were very, very good at faking it.)

And for wee teenaged me, that was the coolest thing ever. For the first time in my life, I could socialize with adults and be treated like a fellow adult–at least when I was acting like one and not being a snot-nosed little shit, which I absolutely was on several occasions, and which earned me some well-deserved smackdowns. I could interact with a community of people who shared my weirdo interests and didn’t condescend to me on the basis of my age (on the basis of my being an idiot, on the other hand …). I could engage with and learn from people who were smarter, better educated, and more experienced than me, based on ideas and words, and not be dismissed simply because I was young. I got to see and participate in things that simply weren’t available to me elsewhere. I had my first real exposure to so many “adult” things in XF fandom–yes, obviously porn, but also academia, literature, politics, serious illness, complex family dynamics, how to behave appropriately in “grownup” spaces–concepts that blew my tiny teen mind. I learned to code because of XF fandom. I made friends of all ages, across the world. I learned and matured so much in that fandom. I grew up in that fandom. It was fucking awesome!

And I was able to do it because of the infrastructure and community built and maintained by older/adult fans, for older/adult fans. Because adults with internet access, technical skills, and experience (not to mention leisure time) had come before me, and had started the listservs and the USENET communities, had built the archives and websites, had written the stories and made the videos, had established community standards and guidelines–in other words, had built this amazing community from scratch, so that I could enjoy it as well.

I was so, so lucky to be a part of that. It was a privilege, and nearly 20 years on, I’m still grateful for it."

[ lainebutt ]:

"I used to smuggle xfiles fanfiction home on prismatic coloured 3 ½ floppies from school. I’d even print some of it and smuggle it back into the school like the kindly smut sharer I’ve always been lol. I also really miss egroups/yahoo groups back in it’s prime. You really got to know and connect to people over these different platforms. The day my application was accepted for ScullyFic I nearly died, and the real people behind some of my favorite fanfics were just so great. I love tumblr, but I miss the intimacy of a well crafted email."

[ruuger ]:

"Ahaha, seriously? People are now claiming that the orignal The X-Files fanbase was teenagers? I was an actual teenager when the show first aired (though it was a few years behind in my country), and trust me, *nobody* in my school watched it. I wish it had been aimed for teens, because I then I probably would’ve actully had some friends. Admitting that you watched The X-Files was about as uncool as admitting that you still watched The Bold and the Beautiful. People my age were watching things like Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, and Friends (to be fair, I was also watching those shows). The thing a lot of young Tumblr fans don’t seem to understand is that until very recently fandom and scifi/fantasy was a very, very uncool interest. If there’d been the equivalent of Tumblr when I was 15, no teen I know would have been caught dead using it."

[ill-show-you-later ]:

"ES: So much this. I was there too…it was 100 percent NOT marketed to young people. I watched anyway, of course ;) this post is golden. I want to frame it. We all like the same thing. This amazing thing brought us all together, so there is no need to be at constant war with each other over it. "<

[therewillcomesoftrain]:

"Yeah…reblogging because…brilliant and insightful. There was a post the other day that read: “Being a decent human being costs zero dollars”. In K5, you are taught to be nice. If you were not lucky enough to grow up in a loving environment, there is one here should you seek that. We came because of the X-Files, but I stayed because of the beautiful diversity of personality, perspective and interest. At the end of the day, Tumblr can be a giant, fun support network of caring individuals. I missed ALL of this drama last week, but bloggers I consider friends are feeling super anxious about the whole thing. Posting feelings are great, but respecting boundaries and the humanness we share is paramount in enjoying any social situation. Noone is better, more deserving, more [special], more evolved, more a fan than anyone else. The anonymity this space offers levels the playing field…it gives us the opportunity to actually listen to one another, feel, breathe, think, THEN respond intelligently and without judgement of age, race, socioeconomic status, religion, or sexual orientation. People come from all sorts of circumstances beyond their control–things each of us might never know, and will most certainly never fully understand. If something rubs someone the wrong way, do not respond, or respond non-judgementally and with thought. Contacting people directly with questions or to begin a conversation helps keep things civil and humane. I adore my Tumblr niche, for the most part. I try to vent with responsibility, without accusation, and, thus far, this has lead to reciprocated support and hours of enjoyment. It is raining here and our recent warm snap is slowly giving way to fall, but it is going to be a great day. Love to all my followers."

Comments in Other Posts

[olderthannetfic]:

Baby’s First Fandom:

Oh my god, tumblr, did I hear right that there’s drama about The X-Files being a “show for teens”? That makes me laugh so hard. X-Files was my very first fandom, back when I was 13 and it had only been on half a season. (That’s the spring of 1994, for the history challenged.)

At the time, there was constant disapproving clucking on the newsgroup over the idea that ~a child~ might be allowed to watch a violent, scary, dark, adult show like The X-Files. I know everybody watches heads getting chopped off on HBO now, but it wasn’t so in 1994. That was some edgy, dark entertainment, yo! It was most certainly aimed at adults.

It had the fandom to match: a few college students, but mostly a lot of people who were older and out of school. If I’m 34 now, all of them must be in their 40s at the very least.

X-Files was the fandom that pioneered the massive, single-fandom fic archive. (Theirs predates FFN.) It was one of the earlier fandoms to have organized vidding spaces online. I wasn’t that aware of that stuff since I entered high school and got busy with non-fandom things, but the adults were there, organizing and building, just like they are in most fandoms.

It’s also where little baby me heard about the concept of bisexuality. (My parents were quite liberal but quite 1960s. Gay stuff, they got. Bisexuality… not so much.) I read somebody’s post about getting twice the enjoyment out of The X-Files and a lightbulb went on. Just one of the many educational things about that fandom! (I came out when I was 14, in fact. It’s not in my sidebar because, once you’ve been out for two decades, it’s not the self-description that springs first to mind.)

Back then, on the 90s internet, it was normal to shun the fuck out of anybody underage, either because they were annoying or for ~think of the children~ reasons. I’m grateful that not everyone did. A lot of people in fandom were still willing to engage me in critical discussions and listen to what I had to say, even though I was very public about being 13. And that’s why, today, I have no ageist policy of avoiding teenagers on Tumblr. Follow me if you want. Talk to me if you want. Don’t if you don’t want. Whatever.

Your life isn’t over at 20 or 30 or any age. Fandom isn’t something you need to outgrow. I hope you’re all still here in two decades, reminiscing about X-Files fandom on Tumblr, just like I am about X-Files fandom on Usenet.

Some Excerpts from the Series of Posts To Which This Was a Response

The debate may have been influenced by the perception of some fans that both the X-Files show and the fandom contained transphobic elements.

screenshot of a tumblr post by Elizabeth, early September 2015

It is clear that for some fans, the issue of relative age had been circulating in the Xfiles fandom, as evidenced by this post, with the text:

so anyway i found my moms xfiles fanfiction from the 90's. cant wait for when this exact same thing will happen to current fanfic writers.

[anonymous ask and reply by totalpunk]:

Anonymous asked: Yo what don't u like about the x files fandom? The only divide is like old vs young fans and it's only bc some of the older fans look down on the younger ones and have said some weird homophobic transphobic shit

tbh I actually don’t want to list my grievances with the fandom due to it’s clique-y nature and the love of call out posts. It’s really anxiety-inducing for me.

It’s a case of I love the show, its a huge part of my life but the fandom seems a) overly dramatic and b) not something I can relate to. So I’m a lot more comfortable in the sw fandom, hence why I’m on this blog more often.

[goingrampant]:

I never really watched The X-Files during its time. I saw a few episodes, but they totally creeped me out, and I avoided them. Now, I get creeped out by Supernatural and am too jaded to react strongly to X-Files, and I've started watching the series via Netflix streaming. The stories are entertaining enough, but there are some annoying themes. One of them is a transphobic plotline in the thirteenth (fourteenth if you count the pilot) episode "Gender Bender", in which an androgynous shapeshifting humanoid alien goes on a sexual killing spree.

[dashakay]:

As a queer woman who remembers all too well how ridiculously homophobic X-Files fandom could be back in the day (let’s not even discuss the time I came out on Haven because it was awful), I don’t want my blog to ever be a place where queer and trans people feel unsafe. Ever. I also don’t want to make queer and trans people feel unsafe by ignoring this issue.

Further reading

• A Note about the X-Files Fandom
• Fandom Wank, ^{Archived version}, September 2015 discussion on Fail-Fandomanon