#txf commentary

[asifyoudidntknow]

[crossedbeams]

The Rape of The X-Files: Chris Carter and Control

An essay on my rage. - Rose

As a relatively new fan to the show, I’ve sometimes struggled to understand the level of vitriol the fandom harbours towards the show’s creator, Chris Carter, but 12 hours from the premiere of S11, I think I’m finally starting to get it. It’s not about any one episode, or a character arc that is less successful than the show at its best. It’s not about the anticlimax of years of rose-tinted revival. 

It’s about disrespect and misogyny masquerading as creativity. 

It’s about a man who has created a project and with it a person, offering it to us as one thing - a journey for truth starring a woman of integrity and worth, uncowed by impossible odds and stalwart in a world determined to misunderstand and belittle her. But this is not actually what he is offering. Having convinced us that he values and believes in this character, that we should too, he begins, under the guise of “character development”, her total destruction; the molestation of all she holds dear, and through this act and a hundred other micro-messages reinforcing the same thing, the rape of not just one character but in essence everything the show has purported to be.

To its fans and many of the creative forces involved, writers, directors and cast, The X-Files is a show about love and hope and possibility. It is a tale of strength and loyalty and humans. It is a show I have come to love, a show that brings us all together here, which is what makes its creator so increasingly problematic.

Chris Carter has shown, time and time again, through the stories he tells when he writes that what he actually believes in is not God or Science or the capacity of those who fight and seek truth to achieve justice, but in his right as creator to borrow tragedy and torment from anywhere and anyone, without remorse or care, to feed his egotistic vision of The X-Files. He truly believes that what his audience wants is his “genius” 40 minute take on issues that he does not understand. He is liberal only in his appropriation of trauma to feed his narrative; no race, religion or gender is safe from his careless pilfering. 

I’m not saying that men like Carter shouldn’t write about these things, in many ways I wish more would, but to the service of their subject. Good writers try to look beyond their experience out of a desire to illuminate, protest and educate, to lend the privilege of their position. They create space for controversial content within their world out of a desire to be an ally and deal humanly, hopefully with the repercussions and the result. They aim to inspire change

Chris Carter just wants to cause controversy. 

When asked by EW what led him to make My Struggle III’s decision about Scully’s child’s paternity, Carter replies

 “ It adds to the characters in an interesting emotional way. “

This after ten seasons of character building. This after the pre-exisiting trauma of these seasons has driven Mulder and Scully apart. This, at the end of an episode, in which Scully has already had seizures, endured a car accident and had an assailant attempt to throttle her in her sickbed and watched her partner murder this man on top of her, all while missing her son, orphaned and fearing the end of the world and for her own sanity.

If you cannot, as a writer, find interest and emotional meaning in this rich body of work, then you are no writer. Except Carter is. He has written many interesting and innovative plot-lines for The X-Files, generated spin-offs, this whole world is born of his imagination… which leads us to a much more troubling truth.

He simply doesn’t care.

To him, The X-Files is a plaything and Dana Scully is an object. With every trauma unconsidered, every choice undermined and every abuse of her mind and body, Carter demonstrates that Dana Scully (the “two steps behind please” back-up who didn’t have a backstory until David Nutter wrote her one in Beyond the Sea) was never envisioned to be a feminist icon or symbol of female empowerment. To Chris Carter, she was only supposed to be a body for Mulder to bounce ideas against, a plot device for a conspiracy of men to use and exploit. Perhaps this is why Carter hates ‘shippers so much, because Scully was never intended to be Mulder’s equal, his lover, she was just supposed to be his foil. Her sexuality is supposed to be limited to inspiring male envy (Milagro), rage (Never Again) or reproduction (preferably medically induced to deny her agency even in this most traditional of female roles. Making Scully the body upon which to enact his fears, prejudices and fantasies at the cost of her own integrity is why Carter has become the show’s greatest Achilles Heel.

Ironically, this casting is perhaps most keenly summarised by a monologue  Carter penned himself in yesterday’s episode. While he attempts to describe the motives of the Cigarette Smoking Man he unintentionally presents an unfortunately apt description of his own relationship to The X-Files.

“He was to be the man to lead us, but he became destructive. He took only his own counsel. […] You have no idea this man’s need to control our fate.”

 - Chris Carter, My Struggle III

It’s about control, and in this case the need to maintain it when what you have created threatens to become more than you. Chris Carter was given the opportunity to be the most powerful man in a world with a long reach and the power to inspire through change. He was given 25 years of viewership and acting talent and budget to make a TV show that was revolutionary. Only he doesn’t want a revolution. He wants things to be as he sees them, his characters to be clean and platonic and known; blank canvases who spring back from torment unscathed, ready to have fresh terror and trauma rained upon them. Just to add interest. Chris Carter cannot see that the X-Files universe is one of collaboration, of unexpected circumstance sparking development, of characters becoming more than they are written. In his desire to air the biggest, most complicated conspiracy arc of all time, he is missing that many of the most beloved and iconic episodes are about small people and issues that are the more impactful for their lack of wham-bam-drama.

Why else would he, at the end of a dramatic episode that had fairly successfully fixed a tricky cliff-hanger, (an episode that I actually quite enjoyed), would he use the last three minutes to rewrite everything based on a harmful, damaging, degrading alteration of the show’s long term narrative. Mulder and Scully refer to William as ‘our son’, Scully, a medical doctor, claims William’s stem-cells will save Mulder, suggesting she knows they are genetically compatible (and we know from canon that she knows the difference between a sibling and a parental match). Given this, given the many questions that are raised in My Struggle III about a new faction of human colonisation nutters, Scully’s mental health, Skinner’s maybe-betrayal and the possibility of an apocalyptic scenario, why would we need to throw in a medical rape, ret-conning En Ami and rendering irrelevant much of the character work (Mulder and Scully as grieving parents) that he has done in the seasons since?

“Because Chris Carter” is the only reason I can come up with. It’s a self-indulgent flexing of muscles nobody asked to see and for that I will struggle to forgive him. 

The calculated cruelty of his treatment of his world, characters and audience is irredeemable, and were it not for the culture of discourse in this fandom, the possibility of appreciating much of the rest of the show, its writing and performances, my struggle  would be reconciling my feelings for Chris Carter and my love of The X-Files.

Fortunately, outside the writing room, the X-Files is beyond his control. The friendships it creates, the community it fosters have the power to keep the world of Mulder and Scully from descending irrevocably into a racist, misogynistic soup, even if canon’s gravity is headed that way. It crosses cultural boundaries, asks brave questions and it brings us together in our outrage. The wounds left by Carter are met by creative bandages, fanworks which take the best of the show and its people and make beautiful, powerful statements. So don’t be ashamed to love this mess of a show or allow Chris Carter’s megalomania to drive you away (though I do not judge you if it does). Get mad, get inspired and get loud in whatever way you can. Let Fox know that whatever comes next, either for The X-Files or a new show, behaviour like Chris Carter’s will not go unnoticed. Write letters, write emails, scream it on your social media, talk to your friends, make it clear to anyone who will listen, even if it is only one person, that The X-Files fandom will not support rape culture. Perhaps it feels small but all revolutions start with a whisper. Changing one mind is a huge victory.

Do it for Dana Scully, who deserved better and for all the little girls she inspired who deserve more than a world in which their idol is a man’s plaything 

[crossedbeams]

We don't need feminism anymore because if we just stop moving furniture, stay away from dangerous jobs, and ask men nicely for things we want everything will be fine.

Just remember girls, to keep chips out your neck and your body sacred and get your own desk, say please.

And if in doubt, think What Would Chris Carter Do?

Right Scully?

[crossedbeams]

My Struggle III - a casual fan's reaction

I re-watched S11 eps 1& 2 with my mum (her first viewing) last night. She has seen the whole series and tolerates my fandom. Here are her thoughts and reactions.

1. Wait what happening? I'm confused. They're not on a bridge. And the smoking guy is Mulders dad. Did I know this? Isn't he dead. Aren't they all dead? Why isn't Mulder dying. I forgot that I never know what's happening during this show. No don't try and explain. I'm too tired.

2. Scully is always in hospital huh. Morse code my ass.

3. Wait who is that? Jeffrey Spender? I remember him. Didn't he get shot? And he's Mulders brothers. Didn't he steal their baby? Did we ever find him last time?

4. How much of it was a dream? I'm confused.

5. Why is it still so dark. This is a hospital. They're never this dark. Ever. This is stupid.

6. Is Scully ever going to speak above a whisper? Who knows.

7. Is Mulder narrating? Like actually narrating? This is... stupid. Nobody talks this way. Get him a CD.

8. This seems like... a bad idea. All of it. Pull over Scully. PULL O- oh what a surprise. Hospital again.

9. I don't like when they creep around in houses. And this house is ugly. Nobody needs that big a porch. And Mulder must be tired. So much darting. He's old now. We don't run. He's not very quiet is he.

10. *completely does not notice Miller and Einstein*

11. They really went for the montages right? Poor lady. What's her name. Reyes. I liked her. Was she always evil? Is she evil now. No don't tell me your theories I'm missing all the info and it makes no sense.

12. A woman!

13. I like Skinner.

14. I don't understand what any of these people want. Except Scully she wants her son. And probably to leave the hospital.

15. WOW. Are you allowed to cut people's throats in America? I feel like there was a better way. Less... gross.

16. Still whispering. Still dark. Still want their son. This was a thing last season wasn't it. With the ripping arms off? Did her mum die? That was sad. Scully's life is sad. I feel better about myself now.

17. So wait they're literally just pretending everything is okay and going back to work. What was the point of this whole thing.

18. Ahhh. Stop yellin "ew" I haven't seen this yet and I need to hear... Wait what? OH. Really. Wow. Did they... okay yeah keep yelling. The families on this show are fucked up.

19. Is the next one better. Please tell me it's better. And not too silly. I liked the one with the aliens, not the lizard one either. I need a cup of tea. That was a lot. Where's my hippo.

[crossedbeams]

I'm confused xfiles went from monsters, aliens and mythology to racist propaganda. Wtf happened to our show?

I could spend hours on this question nonny (and I’m assuming you’re talking about Babylon) - but it’s Sunday night and I don’t wanna get too deep. What happened (in my opinion) in the revival in general (but especially Babylon) was that nobody questioned Chris Carter and said, “dude I respect your vision and history with this show but it’s 23 years later and “X” really isn’t appropriate, sufficient/a good idea. Let’s bench, for example, that “overblown, insensitive and frankly unbelievably clumsily offensive terrorist trope” and instead tie up one of the 6 billion loose ends from the original series/previous four episodes.” And then the network/producers supporting that person and making it happen.

After watching Babylon for the first time I basically expunged it from memory because it’s that problematic. Sure, there are nice scenes and even some good ideas but the execution is so wildly off that it’s like the team behind it wrote it back in the 90s with only a Cliff Notes guide to the future political situation and then just ran with it. The show has never been without uncomfortable moments, some of the old monsters were… culturally borderline at best, but for me the balance is still overall on the side of good. Should Season 11 happen I would very much hope that somebody jobshares the overall creative with CC at the very least (I’m not team fire him and shoot him into space just put him in a box and only let him shout suggestions...). The show needed dragging into the modern world, not just in terms of CGI and wardrobe but in terms of script quality, cultural awareness and the consistency we now expect from TV, it seems like nobody on the executive level got that memo for S10. So I think unless someone with balls of steel constantly confronts CC with those realities and shakes up the hangover status quo then I am afraid we’ll see more like Babyln and less like the old days.

But I want to believe that wont happen. So don’t lose hope!

[saucy-sapphic]

One of my favorite parts of the commentary is still when Gillian's breath catches when she sees David in the red speedo.