April 13, 2026 • 19 mins
Skeptic. Inspiration. Fashion icon. After her run on the The X-Files, Dana Scully got not one but two effects named after her. In this classic episode, we investigate the background and impact of this character. And the pants suits. Oh the pants suits.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Though I don't think this stuff, I never told you
production of iHeartRadio, and today we are bringing back a
classic on fictional women around the world, Dana Scully. We
have done several episodes about our relating to Dana Scully
(00:30):
because she had quite a big impact. She quite literally
has something named after her called the Scully Effects. She's
another episode for thinking about bringing back. But this was
on our minds because, as we recently said in another classic,
they are rebooting The X Files and I've seen some
new casting.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I think they've got the leads that got their leads.
I've been really excited to see it. I'm excited to
see it too.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I'm really excited watch The X Files in so long,
and this is kind of bringing back my.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I feel like you need to do a we watch through.
There's a lot of seasons, but it could be fun.
I have faith in you. I don't know that Killer
Bee episode comes on. I might, I might check it out.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It's so funny because most people think that's like the
least scary, the worst one, really, but killer Bees when
I was a kid, no way that.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
We have a lot of bees in Georgia, so fair enough, right, right,
We've seen my girl.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Yeah, what a downer to end this song. Well, please
enjoy this classic episode. Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
What kind of stuff I've never told you a production
of iHeartRadio. Welcome to another sub sub sub sub whatever,
sub segment of women around the world, fictional women around
the world, And oh.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
My goodness, I'm so excited about this one.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I'm so glad I chose who I did, which is
Dana Scully, because I actually had picked someone else out
for this our month of October, but then I was
thinking about I just saw on the news something about
the Scully effect, and I was like, well, I've got
to learn more about this and I might as well
tie it into work. And I'm so glad I did.
(02:37):
Perfect I love it. So I know. I've talked about
my experience growing up watching X Files terrified terrified me,
and in fact I got so scared by because I
have said I'm scared of alien so this was a
real push for me. But also it's the Killer B episode.
(02:58):
I got so scared my mom forbid me to watch
it ever again, so I had to stay up until
three am on Sundays and watch it on Fox at
the volume wait out.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
If you're listening, mom.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yes, I did that for years, but as I got older,
the band was lifted and my friend and I would
watch it and we would both be on our landline
phones and we watch it at the same time, and
her TV was slightly faster than mine, so she would
gasp and be like, what is it? And then it
would happen like it was such a fun experience that
(03:34):
doesn't really happen anymore. And I know I've talked a
lot about how watching this show was one of my
first times of like I had a crush on both
Molder and Scully and I was like, hmm, although.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Looking back, I wasn't. I didn't think that was weird.
I didn't think it was weird. It was funny.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I was telling the story that somebody the other day
and I was like, I used to think it was
weird that.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I had a crush on Luken Land.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
She was like, oh, because you were learning you were
by and I was like, no, because they're related. I
wasn't sure if that was weird, and she was like,
oh uh yeah. So it never struck me as odd,
which I do find interesting. I think I might have
just assumed, you know, fictional crushes whatever, but it was.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It was a very kind of formative.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I know a lot of people have said this, this
is actually something we're going to talk about in this
episode as well, but I was not the only.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
One who experienced this at all.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Also, I didn't realize until I was doing the research
for this episode, how kind of funny an on the nose.
Her name is Scully, But we have a Scully. If
you listen to or have seen any of the videos
that the stuff they don't want you to know crew
have done, they might mention Scully. Scully is a skeleton
that we have in our office that is always hanging around.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
But yeah, I didn't realize how kind of funny that
name is.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
There you go, yes, all right, so let's get into it.
Dana Catherine Scully is one of the protagonists of The
X Files, a sci fi paranormal television show that Davey in.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
She was played by Jillian Anderson and appeared in all
but five episodes of the nine seasons of episodes, plus
a much shorter two seasons. Some people say there's ten seasons.
Some people say there are eleven seasons. I don't know
what the deal is with that, but also in all
the movies. According to Chris Carter, creator of the series,
he immediately wanted to cast Anderson after her audition, but
(05:23):
the network was pushing him to cast a quote bombshell.
Their first choice was Pamela Anderson. Carter said he didn't
want romance between Mouldern and Scully and that he wanted
the genders to play against stereotypes, i e. Scully being
the more logical, skeptical one.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
So Scully is an FBI special agent, medical doctor and
the skeptic to her partner Fox, I want to believe Moulder, Yes,
so I try to watch this. I've gone through a
few episodes, but that's part I didn't know, Like he's
trying to convince everybody you need to believe. But do
love that she is the all around know it all,
(06:01):
has to be at the top of her game, typical
FBI agent for these shows. She was originally assigned to
Molder to debunk his work and report back to her
supervisor Nark. Over time, she and Molder developed a strong
trust and respect for each other and later some romantic feelings.
Because you know, you got to add that in there
(06:22):
for drama.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, her drama. There was some drama, for sure, alien drama.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Scully was born in the sixties in Maryland and was
raised Catholic, though her favorite movie was The Extorcist. In
her ideas around religion fluctuate. Ultimately, she wants to believe too,
but is afraid to, says she wears a cross throughout
the series. Both her parents were supportive. Her dad was military,
and they moved around a lot. After her Sunday school
(06:50):
teacher was murdered in his backyard when she was thirteen,
she realized that there was quote true evil in the world.
Scully described her childhood like this, Ever since I was
a child, I've never allowed myself to get too close
to people. I've avoided emotional attachment. Perhaps I've been so
afraid of death and dying that any connection just seemed
like a bad thing, something that wouldn't last.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
All right, I need to know.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Yes, is Jillian Anderson English?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
No, But she grew up in London.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Okay, she was not born there, but from what I understand,
spent a good chunk of her childhood growing up there.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Okay, you asked Crown.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yes, Well, not just because of the Crown, because like
any of the shows, uh, they had a BBC series
of it was one of the literature remakes. It wasn't Janielson,
but it was another one. I think it's Charles Dickens one.
And her accent was on point, and it threw me
off because her American accent is also on points, so
I assume she was American.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So that was one of those moments of what a Scully.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
So anyway, right, just at that moment, so he being Scully,
not Jillian Anderson. She studied at University of Maryland, where
one of the doctors above her once said, quote, humans
are top carnivores. We sit at the top of the
food chain. We reduce other species chances of survival. True.
(08:09):
She studied forensic medicine and physics. She was really ambitious,
threw herself into her work, pushing herself to accomplish more
and more. In nineteen ninety she was recruited by the FBI,
where she attended the FBI Academy, later going on to
become an instructor. A cut scene described her as quote intelligent,
(08:31):
self assured, with an unblushing sense of her own femininity
and that she commands attention.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yes, that she does.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Over her time working with the Agent Molder, her beliefs
are tested as they encounter phenomena a week after week that.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Are often difficult to explain. I remember even being a
kid and.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Being like, wow, so something like this happens like every week.
At first, she is often mocking towards Molder and his idea,
But while the skepticism remains, she doesn't lose that. Her
attitude around it kind of shifts and she is really, really,
really skilled. She's quick on her feet, she's smart, she's
(09:10):
good under pressure, analytical, good with weapons. Also, she might
be immortal, and I totally forgot about that whole plot line.
She has a cancer scare. The plotlines are related to
this immortality thing and an infertility storyline as well. On
top of that, she has extraterrestrial DNA that she uses
to make a vaccine to save humankindoes. She partnered with
(09:36):
Agent Dogget when Molder disappeared, and gave birth to her
and Molder's telekinetic Sun although the pregnancy happened mysteriously, but
Scully and Molder call William their son. Turns out, aliens
need William to colonize planet Earth and that he was
at one time part alien. In order to protect him,
(09:58):
Scully finds a family to anonymous adopt him as a baby.
Way back in season two, she'd unknowingly mothered a daughter
named Emily, who was adopted to another family, where she
died soon after. Scully reunited with Moulder and they started
to life together, her working as a doctor for six
years until the charges against Moulder were dropped, and then
(10:18):
two returned as partners to the reopened X Files unit.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
That's a lot.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I know, a lot happened in that paragraph the show, and.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Then there was something else, and one season was towards
the end. Damn Okay.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
So it wasn't until towards the end of the show
that her and Moulder were more consistently shown doing date
like activities together and hints that they were dating or
hooking up started to appear. Moulder gave her a love confession.
It's implied that she initiated sex. She leaves them at
one point, and then they end up back together. Her
pregnant was his child.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah yeah, yeah, sure.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
I mean obviously, if you've got like essentially eleven years
of stuff in a couple, movies.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
It's a lot to condense, and it's strange. I mean
a lot of strange things on that show.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
But obviously I did want to talk about the impact
this character had because she was well loved and critically lauded.
I found a list of like twenty female characters on
TV like now or recently that were inspired by her.
Like the creators have said, Scully was the inspiration, she
(11:37):
had a lasting impact. She has a Barbie. I don't
know what that really means. I mean she had a
big impact. She regularly lands on list of best and
most iconic heroines and provided inspiration for yes, a bunch
of fictional characters that followed after her. And the words
of Liz Shannon Miller at Indie Wire, Scully's legacy is
so important in so many ways, from giving us the
(11:59):
gift of Jillian Ander since acting to inspiring an entire
generation of young women.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
To pursue careers in Stem.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Intelligent, loyal, flawed, and brave, Scully was the show's beating
heart and saving grace even in its lowest years. As
Chris Carter himself has said, it's Scully's show.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
So let's talk about the Scully effect. Tell let's break
down that stembed. We've mentioned it before, but this is
something called the Scully effect. The popularity of this character
is thought to have inspired a whole generation of women
to pursue careers in STEM, and it's a term still
in use today. When asked about this in twenty thirteen,
(12:50):
Gillian Anderson actually said, quote, we got a lot of
letters all the time, and I was told quite frequently
by girls who are going into the medical world, or
the science world, or the FBI iWorld or other worlds
that I reigned that they were pursuing this pursuit because
of the character of Scully, and I said, yay.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Shuah, I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
This whole thing has actually been academically studied, including by
the Geena Davis Institute. Among two thousand women surveyed, they
found quote, among the women who are familiar with the character,
fifty percent say Scully increased their interest in STEM, and
forty three percent say they considered working in STEM because
of her. Ninety one percent that knew of her said
she was a good role model. And there are so
(13:33):
many heartwarming stories of women's scientists sitting around with friends
to watch the show and being inspired to do what
they do in part by Scully. Now, all this is
to say, like, wait, I think that article that brought
this character to my attention that came up the other
day was saying like, you know, how big actually is
this effect? Like can we really measure it? Is it
(13:53):
a real thing? But I mean I think that you
can certainly say even if she wasn't the main reason
by this or she did like maybe you know, get
you interested or like maybe you thought about it when
you had them before, which I think is great.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
So when I initially heard the Scully effect, I thought
it was a sexual connotation.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Oh well we're going to talk about that.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Yes, many women were like, oh hello Scully in that
level and then being interested in threesomes because of the
X file.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Oh that's what I thought.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
It was no context to it.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
It was, however, moving interesting. Actually we are going to
talk about that kind of in a second, but first
we got to talk about the pantsuits. Okay, So one
thing people love about this character is her dang pants suits.
Like a lot of the articles I found were like
ranking Scullies fashion.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
How many people were like, no, it's horrible fashion, but
I love it, and other people being like, no.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
This is the top of the fact, but I love it.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And when the show was coming out, this was like
when suits were becoming a thing, and it's third wave feminism,
and it was interesting to see the.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Evolution of that through this character.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
While she is introduced in this iconic outfit, simple to
the point, and you probably it's when you think of skull,
you probably think of it where the white and the
black besier and kind of the black pencil skirt. Throughout
the show, she wears some slacks, some shoulder pads, some
patterns to the point, her outfits spawned passionate early days
internet discussions, because yes, this was also the early days
(15:28):
of the internet. Her style is sometimes called competence core.
Her style is both mocked and praised. Yes, her outfits
both display femininity while leaning into masculinity, a strategy that
many women in masculine fields employed. As the show progresses,
her clothes become more tailored to show off her shape more.
But it essentially you can find articles like talking about
(15:50):
the symbolism of her outfit and what it says about,
like where women in the workplace were at the time,
and how yeah, being in this masculine field.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
She was kind of.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Like trying to lean into that with these boxes outfits,
but then also still remain feminine.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Interesting.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Yeah, I remember those suits, even though I didn't know
much of the show. I remember those suits. So from
Megan Garber at The Atlantic, she stays as she sheds
layers of clothes season after season. As blouses go unbuttoned,
they give away to tight T shirts and slight chemusals.
As blazers get belted and nipped and shortened, ass shrink
to fit her form. Scully sheds something else as well,
(16:28):
her belief, and indeed her default trust in all that
she has taken for granted, the big things so many
of us take for granted, government, religion, culture, the carefully
constructed intellectual infrastructures that give the world its order, All
of those, as The X Files goes on, get called
into question. Scully's clothes become a metaphor for her willingness
(16:51):
to believe in disbelief. They become a visual symbol of
how far her rationality has taken her. Scully, her clothes
suggest her weighty coats and bulky pants and jettison in
favor for more freeing options, might finally be able to
share Molder's faith and faithlessness.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Ooh, I love it. Ooh.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I also remember asking my mom before the band came
in police, why Molder always wore ties because she always
is getting strangled by them?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
And I'm like, this seems pointless. Why I guess good
enough of a women with long hair?
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Why you know you're going to it?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That's true, that's true.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
So going back to what you were talking about, Samantha,
there is a thing called I am an ex files lesbian,
and I know, yes, I have told the story a
million times being attracted to both Moulder and Scully. I
didn't know this was like a whole thing, but apparently
it is. I am not alone in it. There's no
three some element as far as I know, but Scully
(17:52):
is sometimes jokingly referred to as the quote gateway lesbian
of choice. Academic research has been done on this, on
the quote Jillian Anderson, Dana Scully.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Made me gay movement from the nineties. Again, the Scully
effect was, Wow, I did.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I didn't know it was like been studied, and I
did read it.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
There's only as far as I know, there's only one
academic paper, but I did read it.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I was like whoa Man, but also yes, early days
of the internet. X Files was one of the first
shows to foster an online fan fiction community, to the
point Scotland Yard investigated believing the writers were involved in
a cult.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
Oh, Scotland Yard, you silly guys, I know. Yeah, what's
so funny is we will soon see a reference to
this and sex and the city in that fantasy level.
Oh so exciting, very quick. But I'm excited for you
to hear to see how you react to it.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Oh I am excited. Okay, well I got that to
look forward to. I have a friend, actually the friend
I used to watch at the same time on the
phone with, and she's rewatching X Files right now and
I've been very much enjoying her update of where she
is and out of contact. It can sound quite bizarre,
which I love. But she's saying like when she was younger,
(19:07):
she had a bigger crush on Molder, but she also
had a crush on Scully, But now she had the
bigger crush on Scully. Yeah, still a crush on Molder,
the bigger on Scully.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yep. It's fair, Yep, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Oh, it's been so fun, not one, but two effects
we get to talk.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
About as always listeners.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
If you have a suggestion for someone we should feature
on fictional women around the world, or is any suggestion
at all for something we should talk about.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
You can email us.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Our email is Stuff Media mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast
or on Instagram at Steffone Ever Told You.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Thanks It's always to our.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Super producer Christina, thank you and thanks to you for
listening STUFFE Never Told You.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Dispection of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio is the heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Though I don't think this stuff, I never told you
production of iHeartRadio, and today we are bringing back a
classic on fictional women around the world, Dana Scully. We
have done several episodes about our relating to Dana Scully
(00:30):
because she had quite a big impact. She quite literally
has something named after her called the Scully Effects. She's
another episode for thinking about bringing back. But this was
on our minds because, as we recently said in another classic,
they are rebooting The X Files and I've seen some
new casting.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I think they've got the leads that got their leads.
I've been really excited to see it. I'm excited to
see it too.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I'm really excited watch The X Files in so long,
and this is kind of bringing back my.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I feel like you need to do a we watch through.
There's a lot of seasons, but it could be fun.
I have faith in you. I don't know that Killer
Bee episode comes on. I might, I might check it out.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It's so funny because most people think that's like the
least scary, the worst one, really, but killer Bees when
I was a kid, no way that.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
We have a lot of bees in Georgia, so fair enough, right, right,
We've seen my girl.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Yeah, what a downer to end this song. Well, please
enjoy this classic episode. Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
What kind of stuff I've never told you a production
of iHeartRadio. Welcome to another sub sub sub sub whatever,
sub segment of women around the world, fictional women around
the world, And oh.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
My goodness, I'm so excited about this one.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I'm so glad I chose who I did, which is
Dana Scully, because I actually had picked someone else out
for this our month of October, but then I was
thinking about I just saw on the news something about
the Scully effect, and I was like, well, I've got
to learn more about this and I might as well
tie it into work. And I'm so glad I did.
(02:37):
Perfect I love it. So I know. I've talked about
my experience growing up watching X Files terrified terrified me,
and in fact I got so scared by because I
have said I'm scared of alien so this was a
real push for me. But also it's the Killer B episode.
(02:58):
I got so scared my mom forbid me to watch
it ever again, so I had to stay up until
three am on Sundays and watch it on Fox at
the volume wait out.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
If you're listening, mom.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yes, I did that for years, but as I got older,
the band was lifted and my friend and I would
watch it and we would both be on our landline
phones and we watch it at the same time, and
her TV was slightly faster than mine, so she would
gasp and be like, what is it? And then it
would happen like it was such a fun experience that
(03:34):
doesn't really happen anymore. And I know I've talked a
lot about how watching this show was one of my
first times of like I had a crush on both
Molder and Scully and I was like, hmm, although.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Looking back, I wasn't. I didn't think that was weird.
I didn't think it was weird. It was funny.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I was telling the story that somebody the other day
and I was like, I used to think it was
weird that.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I had a crush on Luken Land.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
She was like, oh, because you were learning you were
by and I was like, no, because they're related. I
wasn't sure if that was weird, and she was like,
oh uh yeah. So it never struck me as odd,
which I do find interesting. I think I might have
just assumed, you know, fictional crushes whatever, but it was.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It was a very kind of formative.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I know a lot of people have said this, this
is actually something we're going to talk about in this
episode as well, but I was not the only.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
One who experienced this at all.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Also, I didn't realize until I was doing the research
for this episode, how kind of funny an on the nose.
Her name is Scully, But we have a Scully. If
you listen to or have seen any of the videos
that the stuff they don't want you to know crew
have done, they might mention Scully. Scully is a skeleton
that we have in our office that is always hanging around.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
But yeah, I didn't realize how kind of funny that
name is.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
There you go, yes, all right, so let's get into it.
Dana Catherine Scully is one of the protagonists of The
X Files, a sci fi paranormal television show that Davey in.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
She was played by Jillian Anderson and appeared in all
but five episodes of the nine seasons of episodes, plus
a much shorter two seasons. Some people say there's ten seasons.
Some people say there are eleven seasons. I don't know
what the deal is with that, but also in all
the movies. According to Chris Carter, creator of the series,
he immediately wanted to cast Anderson after her audition, but
(05:23):
the network was pushing him to cast a quote bombshell.
Their first choice was Pamela Anderson. Carter said he didn't
want romance between Mouldern and Scully and that he wanted
the genders to play against stereotypes, i e. Scully being
the more logical, skeptical one.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
So Scully is an FBI special agent, medical doctor and
the skeptic to her partner Fox, I want to believe Moulder, Yes,
so I try to watch this. I've gone through a
few episodes, but that's part I didn't know, Like he's
trying to convince everybody you need to believe. But do
love that she is the all around know it all,
(06:01):
has to be at the top of her game, typical
FBI agent for these shows. She was originally assigned to
Molder to debunk his work and report back to her
supervisor Nark. Over time, she and Molder developed a strong
trust and respect for each other and later some romantic feelings.
Because you know, you got to add that in there
(06:22):
for drama.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, her drama. There was some drama, for sure, alien drama.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Scully was born in the sixties in Maryland and was
raised Catholic, though her favorite movie was The Extorcist. In
her ideas around religion fluctuate. Ultimately, she wants to believe too,
but is afraid to, says she wears a cross throughout
the series. Both her parents were supportive. Her dad was military,
and they moved around a lot. After her Sunday school
(06:50):
teacher was murdered in his backyard when she was thirteen,
she realized that there was quote true evil in the world.
Scully described her childhood like this, Ever since I was
a child, I've never allowed myself to get too close
to people. I've avoided emotional attachment. Perhaps I've been so
afraid of death and dying that any connection just seemed
like a bad thing, something that wouldn't last.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
All right, I need to know.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Yes, is Jillian Anderson English?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
No, But she grew up in London.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Okay, she was not born there, but from what I understand,
spent a good chunk of her childhood growing up there.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Okay, you asked Crown.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yes, Well, not just because of the Crown, because like
any of the shows, uh, they had a BBC series
of it was one of the literature remakes. It wasn't Janielson,
but it was another one. I think it's Charles Dickens one.
And her accent was on point, and it threw me
off because her American accent is also on points, so
I assume she was American.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So that was one of those moments of what a Scully.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
So anyway, right, just at that moment, so he being Scully,
not Jillian Anderson. She studied at University of Maryland, where
one of the doctors above her once said, quote, humans
are top carnivores. We sit at the top of the
food chain. We reduce other species chances of survival. True.
(08:09):
She studied forensic medicine and physics. She was really ambitious,
threw herself into her work, pushing herself to accomplish more
and more. In nineteen ninety she was recruited by the FBI,
where she attended the FBI Academy, later going on to
become an instructor. A cut scene described her as quote intelligent,
(08:31):
self assured, with an unblushing sense of her own femininity
and that she commands attention.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yes, that she does.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Over her time working with the Agent Molder, her beliefs
are tested as they encounter phenomena a week after week that.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Are often difficult to explain. I remember even being a
kid and.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Being like, wow, so something like this happens like every week.
At first, she is often mocking towards Molder and his idea,
But while the skepticism remains, she doesn't lose that. Her
attitude around it kind of shifts and she is really, really,
really skilled. She's quick on her feet, she's smart, she's
(09:10):
good under pressure, analytical, good with weapons. Also, she might
be immortal, and I totally forgot about that whole plot line.
She has a cancer scare. The plotlines are related to
this immortality thing and an infertility storyline as well. On
top of that, she has extraterrestrial DNA that she uses
to make a vaccine to save humankindoes. She partnered with
(09:36):
Agent Dogget when Molder disappeared, and gave birth to her
and Molder's telekinetic Sun although the pregnancy happened mysteriously, but
Scully and Molder call William their son. Turns out, aliens
need William to colonize planet Earth and that he was
at one time part alien. In order to protect him,
(09:58):
Scully finds a family to anonymous adopt him as a baby.
Way back in season two, she'd unknowingly mothered a daughter
named Emily, who was adopted to another family, where she
died soon after. Scully reunited with Moulder and they started
to life together, her working as a doctor for six
years until the charges against Moulder were dropped, and then
(10:18):
two returned as partners to the reopened X Files unit.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
That's a lot.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I know, a lot happened in that paragraph the show, and.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Then there was something else, and one season was towards
the end. Damn Okay.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
So it wasn't until towards the end of the show
that her and Moulder were more consistently shown doing date
like activities together and hints that they were dating or
hooking up started to appear. Moulder gave her a love confession.
It's implied that she initiated sex. She leaves them at
one point, and then they end up back together. Her
pregnant was his child.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah yeah, yeah, sure.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
I mean obviously, if you've got like essentially eleven years
of stuff in a couple, movies.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
It's a lot to condense, and it's strange. I mean
a lot of strange things on that show.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
But obviously I did want to talk about the impact
this character had because she was well loved and critically lauded.
I found a list of like twenty female characters on
TV like now or recently that were inspired by her.
Like the creators have said, Scully was the inspiration, she
(11:37):
had a lasting impact. She has a Barbie. I don't
know what that really means. I mean she had a
big impact. She regularly lands on list of best and
most iconic heroines and provided inspiration for yes, a bunch
of fictional characters that followed after her. And the words
of Liz Shannon Miller at Indie Wire, Scully's legacy is
so important in so many ways, from giving us the
(11:59):
gift of Jillian Ander since acting to inspiring an entire
generation of young women.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
To pursue careers in Stem.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Intelligent, loyal, flawed, and brave, Scully was the show's beating
heart and saving grace even in its lowest years. As
Chris Carter himself has said, it's Scully's show.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
So let's talk about the Scully effect. Tell let's break
down that stembed. We've mentioned it before, but this is
something called the Scully effect. The popularity of this character
is thought to have inspired a whole generation of women
to pursue careers in STEM, and it's a term still
in use today. When asked about this in twenty thirteen,
(12:50):
Gillian Anderson actually said, quote, we got a lot of
letters all the time, and I was told quite frequently
by girls who are going into the medical world, or
the science world, or the FBI iWorld or other worlds
that I reigned that they were pursuing this pursuit because
of the character of Scully, and I said, yay.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Shuah, I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
This whole thing has actually been academically studied, including by
the Geena Davis Institute. Among two thousand women surveyed, they
found quote, among the women who are familiar with the character,
fifty percent say Scully increased their interest in STEM, and
forty three percent say they considered working in STEM because
of her. Ninety one percent that knew of her said
she was a good role model. And there are so
(13:33):
many heartwarming stories of women's scientists sitting around with friends
to watch the show and being inspired to do what
they do in part by Scully. Now, all this is
to say, like, wait, I think that article that brought
this character to my attention that came up the other
day was saying like, you know, how big actually is
this effect? Like can we really measure it? Is it
(13:53):
a real thing? But I mean I think that you
can certainly say even if she wasn't the main reason
by this or she did like maybe you know, get
you interested or like maybe you thought about it when
you had them before, which I think is great.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
So when I initially heard the Scully effect, I thought
it was a sexual connotation.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Oh well we're going to talk about that.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Yes, many women were like, oh hello Scully in that
level and then being interested in threesomes because of the
X file.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Oh that's what I thought.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
It was no context to it.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
It was, however, moving interesting. Actually we are going to
talk about that kind of in a second, but first
we got to talk about the pantsuits. Okay, So one
thing people love about this character is her dang pants suits.
Like a lot of the articles I found were like
ranking Scullies fashion.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
How many people were like, no, it's horrible fashion, but
I love it, and other people being like, no.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
This is the top of the fact, but I love it.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And when the show was coming out, this was like
when suits were becoming a thing, and it's third wave feminism,
and it was interesting to see the.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Evolution of that through this character.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
While she is introduced in this iconic outfit, simple to
the point, and you probably it's when you think of skull,
you probably think of it where the white and the
black besier and kind of the black pencil skirt. Throughout
the show, she wears some slacks, some shoulder pads, some
patterns to the point, her outfits spawned passionate early days
internet discussions, because yes, this was also the early days
(15:28):
of the internet. Her style is sometimes called competence core.
Her style is both mocked and praised. Yes, her outfits
both display femininity while leaning into masculinity, a strategy that
many women in masculine fields employed. As the show progresses,
her clothes become more tailored to show off her shape more.
But it essentially you can find articles like talking about
(15:50):
the symbolism of her outfit and what it says about,
like where women in the workplace were at the time,
and how yeah, being in this masculine field.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
She was kind of.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Like trying to lean into that with these boxes outfits,
but then also still remain feminine.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Interesting.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Yeah, I remember those suits, even though I didn't know
much of the show. I remember those suits. So from
Megan Garber at The Atlantic, she stays as she sheds
layers of clothes season after season. As blouses go unbuttoned,
they give away to tight T shirts and slight chemusals.
As blazers get belted and nipped and shortened, ass shrink
to fit her form. Scully sheds something else as well,
(16:28):
her belief, and indeed her default trust in all that
she has taken for granted, the big things so many
of us take for granted, government, religion, culture, the carefully
constructed intellectual infrastructures that give the world its order, All
of those, as The X Files goes on, get called
into question. Scully's clothes become a metaphor for her willingness
(16:51):
to believe in disbelief. They become a visual symbol of
how far her rationality has taken her. Scully, her clothes
suggest her weighty coats and bulky pants and jettison in
favor for more freeing options, might finally be able to
share Molder's faith and faithlessness.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Ooh, I love it. Ooh.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I also remember asking my mom before the band came
in police, why Molder always wore ties because she always
is getting strangled by them?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
And I'm like, this seems pointless. Why I guess good
enough of a women with long hair?
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Why you know you're going to it?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That's true, that's true.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
So going back to what you were talking about, Samantha,
there is a thing called I am an ex files lesbian,
and I know, yes, I have told the story a
million times being attracted to both Moulder and Scully. I
didn't know this was like a whole thing, but apparently
it is. I am not alone in it. There's no
three some element as far as I know, but Scully
(17:52):
is sometimes jokingly referred to as the quote gateway lesbian
of choice. Academic research has been done on this, on
the quote Jillian Anderson, Dana Scully.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Made me gay movement from the nineties. Again, the Scully
effect was, Wow, I did.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I didn't know it was like been studied, and I
did read it.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
There's only as far as I know, there's only one
academic paper, but I did read it.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I was like whoa Man, but also yes, early days
of the internet. X Files was one of the first
shows to foster an online fan fiction community, to the
point Scotland Yard investigated believing the writers were involved in
a cult.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
Oh, Scotland Yard, you silly guys, I know. Yeah, what's
so funny is we will soon see a reference to
this and sex and the city in that fantasy level.
Oh so exciting, very quick. But I'm excited for you
to hear to see how you react to it.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Oh I am excited. Okay, well I got that to
look forward to. I have a friend, actually the friend
I used to watch at the same time on the
phone with, and she's rewatching X Files right now and
I've been very much enjoying her update of where she
is and out of contact. It can sound quite bizarre,
which I love. But she's saying like when she was younger,
(19:07):
she had a bigger crush on Molder, but she also
had a crush on Scully, But now she had the
bigger crush on Scully. Yeah, still a crush on Molder,
the bigger on Scully.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yep. It's fair, Yep, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Oh, it's been so fun, not one, but two effects
we get to talk.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
About as always listeners.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
If you have a suggestion for someone we should feature
on fictional women around the world, or is any suggestion
at all for something we should talk about.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
You can email us.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Our email is Stuff Media mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast
or on Instagram at Steffone Ever Told You.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Thanks It's always to our.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Super producer Christina, thank you and thanks to you for
listening STUFFE Never Told You.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Dispection of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio is the heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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