The X-Files: Putting the BI in the FBI Since 1993
Scully and Mulder famously avoided putting anything into anyone for nearly seven seasons, but they've been putting the BI in the FBI since the very beginning.
Like I’ve pointed out previously, most of my early exposure to television was through the lens of a middle-aged, midwestern white man, aka my dad. So, when I was being raised in the mid-2000 by a man who still spends his free time writing pulpy crime/supernatural horror stories, The X-Files (1993-2002; 2016-2018) was a must.
I think I was in middle school, maybe younger when my dad first started showing me episodes. I remember watching my very first episode of the X-Files on a summer night when we were the only two at home; just the two of us in the dark, my dad standing behind the half-wall at the kitchen counter, and me on the couch, basking in the glow of the television. He decided to show his young daughter “Home,” a season 4 episode that is no longer shown on most networks. In the episode, the agents discover the home discover the rural homestead of an incestuous family made up of three young men who keep their quadriplegic mother strapped to a rolly cart under a bed. They bury their dead incest babies in the backyard and eventually escape into the night with their mom gleefully riding in the trunk of their classic car. Needless to say, I was enthralled. To start out we watched the classics, including season 5’s “Bad Blood” and others from season 3 like “Jose Chung From Outerspace” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose.” I loved the weirdness and the dark absurdist humor.
Obsessive Bisexuals On An SSRI Living In The Middle Of Nowhere
“I finished the show–, a sexual awakening, a gender discovery, a pandemic, and a decade later– in a much different reality than the one I had started it in. And much like Mulder, I too felt like I knew the truth was out there, and I had found it, only to end up on an SSRI and living in the middle of nowhere with all of my important relationships being maintained by a sort of gaslighting trauma bond.”
It took me until my junior year of college to do a complete watch-through. By that time I was much more comfortable with my own queerness, and my clear attraction to both Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. My obsession was renewed with vigor, but this time I saw it for what it was: an obsession with the queerness of the show.
I would stay up all night in my dorm room, pouring over episodes so quickly that they began to blur together. I would watch them while I ate dinner, while I did homework, whip I filled out internship applications. Hell, while I was writing the first and second drafts of this essay I was watching The X-Files compilations on YouTube out of the corner of my eye. Mulder and Scully became my roommates, my friends, and people who understood me the way I understood them.
And in March of 2020 when everything about life as we know it came undone and I had to move back in with my parents, they came with me. I finished the show– a sexual awakening, a gender discovery, a pandemic, and a decade later– in a much different reality than the one I had started it in. And much like Mulder, I too felt like I knew the truth was out there, and I had found it, only to end up on an SSRI and living in the middle of nowhere with all of my important relationships being maintained by a sort of gaslighting trauma bond.
Gillian Anderson As Dana Scully Is VERY Bisexual
But I genuinely don’t believe that it is just my gaze that queers The X-Files. For one thing, It’s important to acknowledge Gillian Anderson’s open bisexuality and the obvious chemistry that she and David Duchovny share. Anderson is a queer woman and she clearly brings that to her performance as Dana Scully and the dynamic between the lead characters.
An element of bisexuality that is often glossed over by its representation in media is the way that bisexuality doesn’t just queer a person’s relationship with people of the same sex, it also queers their relationship with the opposite sex, because it is not the sex or gender of a person’s partner that makes them queer; it is the person in and of themselves. Queer people can be in relationships with heteronormative people, and in heteronormative passing relationships. But the relationship can never truly be heteronormative because one or more of the people participating in that relationship is not heteronormative. I think it’s important to consider the implications of that understanding and the ways that it inherently queers the performance of Mulder and Scully’s relationship.
Why Are You, As A "Straight Person", Longing? Sounds Pretty Bisexual To Me.
Of course, it’s not just Gillian Anderson’s performance that queers the dynamic between her character and Duchovny's. The way the main couple's relationship is written is also very queer. Longing is an essential part of the queer experience. I’m not saying that queer people do– or should– sit around pining. Go out and pursue your queerness, please! But longing is very queer because queer people are constantly being told by a larger heteronormative society that they should be longing. They should be longing to be able to express themselves, longing for the world to see them as they see themselves, longing for acceptance, longing to be able to love who they love, and longing for everyone around them to witness reality for once. The epic slow burn of Mulder and Scully is full of that longing. It’s also full of stolen glances and flirting written off as friendship, and an intense intimacy that struggles to find a balance between the romantic and platonic and familial. Now that’s pretty queer.
David Duchovny As Fox Mulder Is VERY Bisexual
“And this is not the first or last time Mulder’s fascination with porn is mentioned. Although every time he is shown partaking, it is never particularly sexual. Instead, he often appears to be watching it nonchalantly, more out of boredom and loneliness than anything else. And here we come back to the longing of it all; the wanting of the thing rather than participating in it.”
There is, Mulder’s character to consider as well as Scully’s. While Fox is, arguably, written as a straight man (I think this is debatable, but also not really the point) he still subverts any heteronormative ideas about what a cis straight man should be.
First, let’s talk about Mulder’s relationship with sex: he clearly isn’t getting any. It's established in the season 6, two-part body switch episode “Dreamland” that he doesn’t even own a bed, and that his bedroom is filled with boxes. Morris, the Man In Black style agent with whom Mulder body-switches, immediately buys a waterbed (which Mulder keeps), sets up a little sex cave, and tries to fuck a total stranger. Mulder, on the other hand, chooses to fall asleep on a recliner while watching porn rather than sleep in the same bed as Morris’ wife. And this is not the first or last time Mulder’s fascination with porn is mentioned. Although every time he is shown partaking, it is never particularly sexual. Instead, he often appears to be watching it nonchalantly, more out of boredom and loneliness than anything else. And here we come back to the longing of it all; the wanting of the thing rather than participating in it. Mulder, who even if he isn’t queer is obviously neurodiverse, is so fixated on his work that it allows him to avoid truly confronting his sexuality– whatever it might be.
Bisexuals Love To Run In Packs
However, it’s not just Mulder's sexuality that subverts heteronormativity. There’s also the way he interacts with Scully, not just the way she interacts with him. Right from the beginning, he isn’t threatened by a strong woman who challenges his line of thought. In fact, he grows and learns from her pushback. And while he does occasionally get to play the knight in shining armor who saves Scully from peril, like in the season seven episode “Orison” where a demon they’ve been hunting breaks into Scully’s home or during the course of her alien abduction plot line in season 2, Scully does so just as often like “War of the Coprophages” in season 3 when she rushes to his rescue in a building ready to explode with manure or “Bad Blood” when she saves him from a vampire (I’m talkin’ bout SHAQ!). This dynamic that presents them as equal partners, rather than a woman who needs to make herself subservient to a man and a man that needs to save her undermines many of the heteronormative ideals western culture holds dear.
In addition to the lead couple, there are also other queered relationship structures. Take for example the Lone Gunmen; a found family made up of 3 middle-aged weirdo dudes who rejected the wider culture’s version of reality in favor of forming their own subculture where they can be accepted.
Bisexuals Who Don't Believe In Gender
“The whole show is about living in a world that the larger society sees only a small part of. Our characters serve as witnesses to all the things society claims don’t exist. Even those in power who also witness this reality do everything in their power to suppress it in an attempt to maintain the status quo, and the power that status endows them with.”
But it’s not just the characters or their relationships that make the show queer. There are also a number of very queer episodes, like season 1’s “Gender Bender” which features an Amish-like religious cult where the members live forever, occasionally molting into bodies with different genders. There’s also the season 4 episode “The Field Where I Died” which explores the idea that the characters have lived previous lives as different genders and with lovers of different genders. These episodes, along with others about shapeshifters, like season four’s “Small Potatoes” and season 1’s “Squeeze, all function with the assumption that attraction, sex- and physical form more broadly, are not necessarily singular experiences, nor are they intrinsic to a person’s identity.
Beyond individual episodes, The X-Files has much wider-reaching queer themes. The whole show is about living in a world that the larger society sees only a small part of. Our characters serve as witnesses to all the things society claims don’t exist. Even those in power who also witness this reality do everything in their power to suppress it in an attempt to maintain the status quo, and the power that status endows them with. This holds true to much of the queer experience. But it is something that bisexuals, and people with other omnisexual orientations, heavily relate to. People who are attracted to multiple genders often face disbelief from monosexuals on both sides of the coin, despite the fact that a study conducted by researchers at UCLA in 2011 found that bisexuals make up a larger percentage of the queer community than monosexual gay men and lesbian women combined. We've literally had the data on it for more than a decade but bi-erasure is still very much alive and well in the queer community. Really, the queerness observed in Scully and Mulder’s relationship just underscores and embodies these larger queer themes.
The Truth Is Out There And So Are Bisexuals
So– am I just projecting? Did I just watch The X-Files at a formative time in my life, which is making me see patterns where they don’t exist? I don’t think so, but if you disagree you’re welcome to investigate the evidence for yourself. After all, we know that The Truth Is Out There.
Like what you just read? Read last week's Queer Cinema and Beyond post "Schitt’s Creek: T.V. By Queers For Queers, But The CisHets Can Come Too."
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