All We Have To Decide Is What To Blog

With the time given us (a multi-fandom side blog- currently 90s genre tv has me in a chokehold)

[queerolddad]

Don’t let fake fans tell you different, Trek has always been queer 🏳️‍🌈🪐🚀

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

So the thing is, Gillian Anderson is perfect in this episode and the strength of her performances sells me on this story line. I will also grant that Scully is nuanced enough (again greatly thanks to Anderson) so that I do buy her cancer diagnosis leading her to question her life.

However, the Scully we’ve seen up to now has referenced wanting to be a mother once or twice. She had talked about her love of work nearly every episode. She may vary in her commitment to the FBI, but her curiosity, her need to solve puzzles, that’s core to who she is. And a deep exploration of the pain of how those two parts of her conflict would be a really interesting story- a desire for family made unattainable by an unquenchable need to solve life’s mysteries- but we never really get that.

And I think that’s in part because many of the people writing Scully take her desire for motherhood for granted without needing to write it. And Scully is not alone here. She’s part of a foundational generation of Sci-fi women (Xena and Starbuck spring to mind) who despite displaying no interest in motherhood are one impregnating-by-a beam-of-light away from making being a mom core to their identity.

I love Scully and I love learning/imaging about what makes her tick. And I’m excited for a future with sci-fi (more recent Alien entries do an interesting job with this) that thinks about bodies, and reproduction and parenthood in more interesting ways.

[charmedslayer]

FAITH LEHANE ✦ Enemies

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

The way Mulder’s belief makes the other men in this show treat him like a “hysterical” woman. Because Scully is rational TO A FAULT. And her brother still has never taken her concerns, ESPECIALLY about her own body and health seriously. And when she is simply describing her experience he immediately puts her in the “spooky” category. This woman doing DNA analysis is basically the same as a man screaming about UFOs.

Which is one of the reasons why MSR is so great. They respect each other in this deep and profound way. They care about how the other one thinks. They can come to different conclusions but trust each other so deeply. And as an audience member is really seems like this is not a respect Scully has been afforded in her whole life!

[captainchilly]

"I've been on my best behavior." ↳ 13.12 - VARIOUS & SUNDRY VILLAINS

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

Ugh okay- I really think this is my last Post Modern Prometheus post for a while. Because the thing is- even though I find this episode messy and challenging and sometimes misguided- the ending is SO GOOD.

Because so often Mulder and Scully show up in these Monster of the Week towns in search of “The Other” which they have to capture or kill in order to make life for the clueless American townsfolk normal again. Which is basically the structure of most horror (and westerns). But also Mulder and Scully are themselves “The Other” in important ways. They’re the laughingstock of the FBI. Their search for truth endangers the status quo. They’ve both experienced huge amounts of physical and emotional harm and humiliation at the hands of the powerful.

So the chance for Mulder, Scully, and The Great Muttato to come together and demand their happy ending?! That’s so beautiful. And to have to be Cher?! What a gorgeous tribute to reinvention, to the queer community, and to reclaiming the narrative.

Whatever else I feel about this episode the ending is 10/10

[giffied]

Supernatural: Jody Mills, Donna Hanscum, & Patience Turner Season 13 Episode 10: “Wayward Sisters”

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

Strap in for another entry in why Post Modern Prometheus is everything that is right AND wrong with The X Files.

The scene where the Great Mutato adresses the townspeople in a reversal of the famous scene from the 1931 version of Frankenstein is such a good idea. As a Frankenstein girly, in the original scene, The Monster is punished for actions with terrible impact (throwing the little girl in the lake) but of which he has no real understanding (he was just playing). And besides the impact vs. intention of it all, the townspeople are quick to attack because he looks different not because he’s truly evil. And ultimately it is arguably Frankenstein’s responsibility to have provided safety and knowledge for The Monster which would have prevented this tragedy.

So a version where The Monster gets to stand up and make his case? Where is pleas for understanding are heard and change the narrative? In a show all about finding out the truth while those in power want to create false narratives? That’s powerful story telling. Plus, within the context of The X Files, where especially in the early episodes, the Other is often the villain (Squeeze, Fire, Gender Bender) this is a smart, cool way of deconstructing the power dynamics underlying the structure of the Monster of the Week stories!

BUT in order to do this, narrative needs to disavow the townswomen’s choices about their bodies, and the impact that children and pregnancy have on them. The Great Mutato’s wish for companionship needs to be narratively more important than Sheineh having a tubal litigation to avoid pregnancy. The Great Mutato’s loneliness needs to be more relatable than any choices Elizabeth makes about who fathers her children. And THAT assumption about what stories matter, and whose narrative needs have value contradicts the very things that make this episode so special. They also highlight how many episodes rely on similar narrative devices, INCLUDING the next two episodes and Scully’s ongoing relationship with her own fertility.

And the messiness of that mixture is why I can’t stop thinking about this episode: the good, the bad, and the mutato.

[starberry-cupcake]

sometimes kathy drops some bombs on her crew that gets everyone flustered and enamored and everyone has to take a sec before moving on, especially chakotay

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

This! This moment right here- this woman is so delighted to have a child she doesn’t care how it happened or who the father is. Like she KNOWS her husband wasn’t involved. In Small Potatoes Eddie Van Blundht says: “I'm just saying hypothetically, if some women wanted to have kids, their husbands weren't...capable, and everybody was happy and no one got hurt, well hypothetically, where's the crime?”

And yes, he is the monster, but he’s ultimately portrayed as one of the more sympathetic monsters. He give Mulder advice! He had to wear a goofy hat because he has low self-esteem! He’s an adorkable looser that everyone picks on!

And Post Modern Prometheus gives us another redeemable monster because women want babies and narratively it doesn’t seem to matter where they come from. Which considering this episode comes DIRECTLY before Christmas Carol/Emily is WILD.

This is not one off weirdness is baked into the show, even into good episodes.

[buffygifs]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 2.10 | "What's My Line? Part 2"

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

This line, shows again the way that Postmodern Prometheus is everything that’s good and troubling about the x files all rolled into one. Because there are two ways to read this line and the whole scene. One is that in a show that is constantly questioning the relationship between belief and truth, this episode is a funny and insightful romp through the stories we tell ourselves and how those stories that impact our ability to believe and our understanding of truth.

The other is a stereotypical 90 joke where the butt of it is low brow, rural ignorant people, their obsession with fame, and their willingness to parade their embarrassing behavior for attention.

And the episode keeps both readings open. Both are true. Depending on what you believe and what stories you’re willing to tell as a fan.

[whatisyourchildhoodtrauma]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | 6.07 "Once More, With Feeling"

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

Another entry in Postmodern Prometheus is everything that is both good and bad about x files distilled into a single episode. Ultimately the real villain is not the aliens! It’s people abusing their power! Which is what is so fascinating and scary! But also! The show has zero interest and capacity to question who has power, who doesn’t, and why. Which is how the evil scientist can be bad, but the impact of his evil on the people in his town, particularly women, can have zero real consequences!

[lyenka645]

amok time

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

Look at her face. She’s so tired. Read him for filth!!!

[spockeveryday]