Provenance, Providence

The X-Files is a profoundly American series for many, many, MANY reasons, it's baked into its DNA like whatever is going on with the alien virus, but one of them is that it's a road trip show almost as much as it is anything else. Mulder & Scully's particular weird intimacy is forged in large part from being trapped together in the oddly therapeutic atmosphere of the front seat of a car and in isolated depressing motels for weeks of their lives - if you don't end up hating each other, it's a fast track to limitless trust between two people who otherwise find trust very difficult!

Not to hijack but my PhD research is on women’s humour/comedy so I wouldn’t be doing my job as a full-time researcher and part-time/long-time shipper if I did not point out 1. how significant this is, 2. how adorable. It is extremely significant that Dana Scully MD is not just a smarty-pants, she is also an occasional smart-arse. It is also extremely significant (and one of my absolute fave things about this relationship) that Fox Mulder, Oxford educated wunderkind and master of the mordant quip, enjoys not just her smart brain but her smart mouth. She jokes, he laughs. Her humour and his positive reception of it is part of what makes her an active, assertive and intelligent character.

The study of comedy/humour is rife with binaries, one of the truest being that humour can work to either divide people or bond them. Despite the fact that Scully’s humour often disparages Mulder’s work or beliefs (see joke above), he doesn’t let it divide them. Her wit (like her intelligence) is never threatening to him (which is how women’s humour has often been perceived throughout history). Instead, he takes her wit as the sign of intimacy it is meant to be. We often reserve affectionate light-hearted ridicule for that/those with which we share intimacy and commonality. So when Scully makes quips like these, she is doing so for him. He may be her target but he’s also her audience. She’s trying to make him smile/laugh/react/lighten up/get all twinkling eyed. She’s bonding with him and it works every time. Mulder and Scully bond in many ways, not the least of which is through shared trauma. It’s easy to forget that they also bond via a shared sense of humour and fun. (Hence, Mulder reconnecting/re-bonding with Scully in the revival by recognising when she’s having fun on a case. The more comic eps often enable M&S to bond through humorous exchange rather than through mutual loss).

I’m not sure if this was something that was written into the show, or prompted by a director. I doubt it. I’m inclined to think that it is a choice made by David Duchovny. I haven’t read all his books but, of those I have, his female characters are funny (inc. the cow). We know that David and Gillian share a strange sense of humour and delight in making each other laugh. We also know that if David were to be told via a script or director’s note to laugh, he probably wouldn’t. So I’d guess that moments like the above are largely coming from him. It’s him enjoying Gillian’s reading of a line but it’s also one of those tiny moments that shows just how much Mulder enjoys Scully’s company, her differing take on things, her attempts to know him, get closer to him. These two respect each other, yes. Complement each other, yes. They come to need, trust and love each other, yes, yes to all of that. But also, they just ENJOY each other. From the very beginning and through to the end (?), each finds pure enjoyment in the company of the other.

In death there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, and no escapes. You have to realize is that we’re just a mouse that a cat has by the tail. Every single move we make from the mundane to the monumental, the red light that we stop at or run, the people we have sex with or want with us, the airplanes that we ride or walk out of, it’s all part of death’s sadistic design. Leading to the grave. FINAL DESTINATION (2000), dir. by James Wong

You know what I think is missing from modern M/F ships? Women who Fuck Shit Up to protect the men they love.

Yes ok I’m queer and I love queer ships but I was thinking…I did used to have a M/F ship. I did love Mulder/Scully. What did they have?

It was this:

This is like ep TWO and Scully finds out that someone has kidnapped Mulder and THIS is what she does to find and rescue him. LOOK AT THOSE EYES THE HOMICIDE IN THEM!

I feel like modern writers think feminism and Strong Female means that women characters have to be unimpressed and cool and so critical of the love interest that you can’t even tell she likes the guy.

Fuck that.

Because when that happens I COULDNT GIVE TWO SHITS About that ship. She doesn’t even like his ass!! She should find someone she likes!!

The only caveat of course is that you make the man someone who is worthy of her (I.e. he respects her mind, supports her dreams, is loyal etc)

David Duchovny was asked about the chemistry between them in 1996 and he said:

Do you play it like Fox has impure thoughts about Scully?

If you’ve established that he respects her, then yes she should be a fucking simp. Otherwise I am not rooting for them!!! Otherwise! I! do! Not! Care!

Scully believed in Mulder immediately! She didn’t believe in aliens but she believed IN HIM. She defended him from DAY ONE to the higher ups, she fought for him, she respected how he really listened and how he really cared about regular people getting fucked over by the government.

In the same interview, Gillian said:

So yeah.

Real respect. Real devotion.

And a woman who will demolish a motherfucker for harming her man.

david and gillian when there’s an emotionally fraught scene: how can we make this about sex

a reflection on june;

obsessed with stories where the message is that you can’t bring someone back from the dead even if you can bring someone back from the dead

Don’t you dare leave this in the tags!

— FOX MULDER in every episode of The X-Files | 1x08 ‘Ice’

Take this dialect quiz! X

I like my body when it’s with your body

The X Files, season 1 episode 4, Conduit.

The last warm light     -    Marein Konijn

Dutch , b. 1970s

Oil on panel,  80 x 80  cm.

they make me insane i feel ill. he is so big and she is so small. oh god

Barbie (2023) // The Good Place (2016-2020)

this looks like the same party

they’re shouting back and forth across the club

#i don’t think it was supposed to be that sensual