“The Truth We Both Know”: Readerly Desire and Heteronarrative in

Robin Silbergleid
ooThe
Truth We Both Know": Readerly
Desire and Heteronarrative in
The X-Files
ln the final moments of "Existence," the Season Eight Ftnale of The
fans, the end of the series itself--Mulder and
Scully, at long last, shared apassionate kiss. Set in the intimate scene of
Scully's bedroom, with a bassinet and mobile tucked in the background
and newbom son cradled between them, this kiss confirmed what many
fans, known onJine as "shippers," had believed for a long time. Mulder
and Scully had sex. Beyond offering new insight into the personal lives of
the paranormal protagonists, this scene from "Existence," coupled with
earlier images of intimacy (including Mulder touching Scully's pregnant
belly and a baby shower held in Scully's living room), is stikingly reminiscent ofscenarios depicted nX-Files fan fiction. What's interesting is the
X-Files-and, for many
timing.
For years, series creator Chris Carter declared that Mulder and
Scully would never become romantically involved. For years, the series
teased shippers and other fans with near-kisses, undercover mariages,
and intimate gestures. And, foryears, fans have been writing stories in
which such moments served as evidence ofthe Mulder/Scully romance
(MSR). While these early pieces of fan fiction undoubtedly reveal more
about the viewers' desires than those ofthe characters-as they clearly
go against the grain of Carter's canon-in the wake of Scully's miracu-
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Desire and Heteronarrative in The X-Files 57
does this desire respond to the issues presented in the series itself? Like
Henry Jenkins, whose kxtual Poachers offers a foundational discussion
of fan culture and fan art, I come at this project as both a critic and a fan.
Because fan fiction is so fast-growing and wide-ranging-to date there
are over 30,000 stories archived at The Gossamer Project, an online
archive devoted exclusively to X-Files fiction-my discussion is necessarily limited and speculative. Given the undeniable emphasis on the heterosexual romance plot--or heteronarrative-that emerges in "Existence,"
however, it makes sense to isolate a group of texts that best offers answers to the questions about reproduction and gender that the show itself
responds to and creates. With this limitation in mind, 'babyfic," asubgenre
of fan fiction that focuses on Mulder and Scully's roles as parents, provides a useful starting point.
In a culture fraught with anxiety about reproductive technologies,
single mothers by choice, and the so-called "decline" of the traditional
family, The X-Files offers frightening insight into some ofAmerica's worst
fears. Indeed, The X-Files first season followed on the heels of Dan
Quayle's infamous indicfrnent ofMurphy Brown, andthe new series quickly
tookup cloning, genetic engineering, and illicitreproduction as central
subjects. At the center of this nexus is Special Agent Dana Scully, a
womanwho has chosencareers intwo masculine fields (medicine and law
enforcement) in place of family. Even more tellingly, her career has cost
her the possibility of domesfic life, as herjob at the FBI results in infertility,
as she ironically reminds viewers in "Requiem," the episode that reveals
her urexplainable pregnancy. Scully's infertility, as loyal viewers know,
resulted from a series of tests to which she was subjected during her
abduction, tests connected to the Slmdicate's project of creating an alienhuman hybrid through advanced reproductive technologies. Significantly,
however, Scully's ultimate quest for matemity necessarily involves the use
ofthese same kinds ofreproductive technologies, as she and her partner
eventually pursue in-vitro fertilization in the episode "Per Manum." In
creating a back-story to account for Scully's seemingly miraculous pregnancy in Season Eight this episode highlights this uncanny co-implication
25.3 April 2003
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Desire and Heteronarrative in The X-Files 53
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s:lDies. of course, have shifted focus almost entirely away from the
p:ranornal to concentrate on the overly normal and mundane. In Jori
Remington' s "Christopher Ryan Scully" series, for example, Dana and
Fox actually discuss buying a minivan in bed. And while Remington's
series situates this domestic relationship againstthe ubiquitous backdrop
of govemment conspiracy and intrigue that has made the show a cult hit,
other stories ignore the plot of The X-Files altogether. The vigneffe "Birth:
Ocean," devoted to Scully giving birth at home in the presence ofa midwife and doula, offers a case in point; in this story, "Spooky" Mulder has
gone from the cynical, often morose, investigator we see on TV to a loving husband and supportive childbirth coach. Although, as Lo contends,
"married fic" tends to be "considered by many fans to be unrealistic and
silly," or, atworst, instances of"Mary Sue" characteization(whenthe
characters are used merely as substitutes for the writer's own interests
and desires), I want to suggest that the specific rewriting that occurs in
babyfic-with its emphasis on heterosexual romance and traditional family dynamics-provides a valuable exploration of anxieties and undercurrents present inThe X-Files canon,having to do with unlawful reproduction, gender roles, and medical rape. However 'trnrealistic and silly'' these
stories might be individually, when taken together they are suggestive ofa
cultural mood surroundin g The X-Files and its fandom. Moreover, the
ideological work ofthis subgenre becomes more pressing when considered against the clear heterosexual trajectory of The X-Files itself.
For its first seven seasons, the series did everything possible to forestall the expected reproductive end, refusing to allow Mulder and Scully
anything more than a chaste New Year's Eve kiss and generally ignoring
the time bomb of Scully's broken biological clock. The single episode
("Emily') that depicts Scully as a mother ends with the death ofthe child
and a clean-upjob thatremoves the restofScully's genetically engineered,
aliur-hybrid offspring. Then, in what Susan Faludi would term a "pronatalist
backlash," the final season s of The X-Files, like the fan fiction that immediately preceded it, work hard to reassert Scully's threatened matemity.
But it is the fifth season episodes "Christmas Carol" and "Emily,, that
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Desire and Heteronarrative in The X-Files 55
duction, the writers quickly introduce another twist to this reproductive
nightmare. Jason's company, Roush-known in the canon as the biotechnology firm involved with the production ofthe vaccine for the alien
virus-has continued its experimentation, with the help ofMulder's longmissing sister, Samantha. The products of these new experiments are
gestating fetuses created from the ova harvested from Scully and other
female abductees. Upon learning ofthe experiments, Scullyplans on
ending them through any means necessary, including destroying the children. When she arrives atone ofRoush's facilities, however, the cleanup effort has already begun, as evidenced by what appears to be infanticide. One infant has survived, and genetic testing reveals her to be Mulder
and Scully's biological progeny. Although the baby could, of course, be
the product of Scully's ovum and a sperm cell belonging to any one of
Mulder's 'obrothers," she chooses to believe the child to be fathered by
her parhrer out ofpsychological necessity. In the altemative universe of
Iolokus,heterosexual desire between Mulder and Scully becomes a way
to ensure "proper" reproductive ends, to counter the illicit desire of
,;
Mulder's sexually deviant and sociopathic siblings, as well as the unlawful
reproductive ends ofthe Project.
From beginning to end, 1o lokus tracesMulder and Scully's attempt
to police the acts ofmonstrous reproduction that abound in the world of
The X-Files. Taking "Emily'' to its logical extreme, Iolofrzs allows Scully
to restore her reproductive capacity and to revenge her medical rape.
After Scully effectively destoys Roush, setting fire to the laboratory in an
act ofrenegade heroism and putting an end to the experiments involving
her genetic material, she begins to reclaim her reproductive rights and put
them to the proper filial end. Whereas "Emily" merely explores the possibility of Scully's becoming an adoptive parent,Iolokers makes good on
that promise. Scully brings the surviving infant, now named Miranda,
back to Washington and goes on matemity leave to set up a home for her
child. A faithful heterocosm to the real world of The X-File, however,
Iolokus presents numerous plot complications to the possibility ofMulder
and Scully's becoming domestically involved. In the inverted logic ofthe
25.3 April 2003
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Desire and Heteronarrative in The X-Files 57
": ::e.e." but each of the mythology episodes, as suggested in
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." e-ds u-ith the desfruction ofevidence and, thus, temporary clo-
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::r-:harcs and standalone episodes, questions raised inthe mythol: .:. =:J go unresolved for weeks or months at a time. For fans, generally
::: r:e rrlerested in the backstory and characteizations than monsters in
:-:rcialones, stories such as lolokzs provide away to explore the larger
.-onsequences ofthe episode, particularly as itpertains to the MSR. Fan
frction offers, as Jenkins explains, an outletto create altemative endings,
to ririte beyond the timeline offered in the original TV series. According
to Jenkins, "[S]ome ofthese approaches to fan writing actively expand
textual boundaries, constructing histories or futures for the characters that
go beyond the range of stories that could be told on television; others
rework the program ideology . . . in order to make the texts speak to
different perspectives" (176). In other words, fan fiction provides an
opportunity to make The X-Files into the narrative fans would like to see,
rather than the narrative it is. And that narrative is undeniable hetero. As
evidenced by lolokus, fan fiction gives Mulder the ability to restore his
family name and Scully the ability to reclaim her reproductive system;
declaredbarren in "Christmas Carol," she miraculouslybecomes able to
conceive in many pieces of fan fiction, trading her badge and gun for
diapers and midnight feedings. Writers offer many explanations, likely
and unlikely, but the result is inevitably the same; despite the conspiracy
against their union, Mulder and Scully have the baby that Scully so des-
perately wants. Iolokus, for all its angst and obstacles, is one such narrative.
In the midst of abizarre custody battle to keep the genetically-engineered Miranda-Roush tries to pay off Scully's brother Bill in anattempt to keep Miranda away from the dynamic duo-scully finds herself
pregnant with a child that is in all likelihood Mulder's. with the threat of
the Mulder clones behind them, Scully and Mulder work towards resolv-
ing the custody suit and getting on with their proper propagatory lives.
The suit, of course, is merely one in a series of complications that defer the
25.3
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Desire and Heteronarrative in The X-Files 59
asked Mulder to father a child she hopes to conceive through in-vitro
fertilization. Although the final fl ashback intimates that their attempts were
unsuccessful, Mulder holds Scully tenderly and advises her to "never give
up on a miracle." Indeed, the episode closes with a shot of Scully lying in
a hospital bed, hand resting on her belly. While Ten Thirteen Productions
would never be so bold as to declare Mulder the father outright, the juxtaposition ofthese two scenes hints atthe truth ofthe baby's paternity.
The final arc ofthe season,' Essence" and'Existence' Llvhiclr, for many
fans, functions as the end ofthe series itselkums to these questions about
thenature ofScully'spregnancy, aswellashinbattheinfant'sfi;nctionwithin
the larger myttrology ofthe series. As in the fan-produced lololan,Mtilder
and Scully's budding family both threatens and is threatened by tlre Proj ect;
furthermore, the agents' newly bom domesticity provides the desired heterosexual endthatviewers/readers require to make sense ofthe reproductive
nightmare embodied in Scully's pregnancy. Picking up on the visual and
narrative cues from "PerManurn "'Essenc.e," which opens with avoiceover
discussingreproductionintheageofgenetic
irfiimatesthatScully's
baby is something other than the "normal" product of a romantic tyst between the X-Files partrers. As Mulder asks, "How did this child come to
be? What set its heart beating? Is it the product of a union? Or the work of a
divine hand? An answered prayer? A fue miracle? Or is it a wonder oftechnology- the intervention of other hands? What do I tell this child about to be
Scullfl Andwhatdo Itell myselfl" Accompanyingthis
monologue, the teaser incorporates two sets ofreproductive images: one
features sperm cells swimming fiantically toward anunfertilized ovurn, the
bom? Whatdo Itell
other depicts an egg being manipulated by artificial means; each set ofimages
offers an origin story for the baby's unexpected concepion. In this way, the
episode as a whole shifls between cozy, domestic moments and scenes that
threaten Scully' s long desired matemity, as drarnatized though the character
Lizzy Gill, a baby nurse (hired by Scully's own mother), who happens to
work for the Syndicate. Gill characterizes Scully's unborn child as "more
human than human," a child with no human fiailties whom the latest brand
of aliens, as well as govemment doctors, want desperately for their own
25.3 April 2003
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Desire and Heteronarrative tn The X-Files 61
both the nalrative of the reproductive nightrnare that is The X-Files and
the narrative ofMulder and Scully's romance, have come to a united end.
In the co-implication ofthese two narratives, both the fan-produced
Iolokus and The X-Files series itself attempt to work through the horrific
possibilities opened up by technological advancement. Just as many insurance policies seek to regulate lifestyle choices by covering only those
fertility services desired by married couples, fan fiction turns to heterosexual union as a way to overtum both Scully's subversion oftraditional
gender roles and the Syndicate' s unnatural conceptions. Likewise, in its
choice to contain the nightrnarish implications of William's birth wittrin ttre
domestic sphere, the eighth season of The X-Files offers consolation not
only to Scully, who wants desperately to believe her son is "normal," but
also to viewers who look to the MSR as the necessary outcome of the
plot. If a goveflrment conspiracy initially brings Mulder and Scully together, the product oftheir sexual union in both texts is a child with the
power to bring the powers-that-be to justice. As such, these instances of
"babyfic" are pregnant with much more than the domestic desires of fans.
Whereas fan fiction has been understood to be primarily about sex
and subversive readings-as Jenkins' work on female fans and "slash"
suggests-babyfic, on the other hand, demonstrates the need to contain
and work through the extreme possibilities of the canon. The turn to
heterosexual romance to undenrrite the narrative ofgovemment conspiracy,
which for many fans is the show's defining trail reveals the level ofanxiety
surounding reproductive technology and medical experimentation. The
truththatMulder and Scullyknowtums outto be the answerthatviewers
have been seeking all along. And well after the ultimate end of The XFiles , fan frction will undoubtedly continue to communicate readers' most
intimate desires and fears.
Robin Silbergleid
Department of English
Austin College
Sherman, TX 75090-4400
25.3
April
2003
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