Is Samantha Mulder just a symbol?
During a conversation about Supernatural, wendelah1 quite rightly criticized the show for the way in which it objectifies Mary Winchester. She appears in the teaser of the pilot, all long hair and white nightgown, in order to die horribly at the hands of a demon and thus to motivate the quest of her husband and sons. Specifically (and according to Wikipedia), she is pinned to the ceiling and bursts into flames. Die beautifully, and die horrifically, that's all the show asks of many of its female characters. Mary Winchester is a victim, not a person.
Following on from that, vescoiya raised the question of whether The X-Files is not just as culpable in its treatment of Samantha Mulder. Think of the iconic image of her in the series: a little girl with long hair and a white nightgown, floating mysteriously out of the window in a shaft of light. Tell me that isn't symbolism. We don't see this version of events until Little Green Men, but Mulder recounts the story of Samantha's abduction to Scully during the pilot and it is this story that anchors the whole mytharc of the show.
(Incidentally, what is it with the white nightgowns? Do you know anyone who wears those in real life?)
No doubt Samantha was a real person, a little girl who liked Stratego and argued with her brother, and wore pigtails just like I did when I was her age. We saw that even in Little Green Men. Yet Samantha's purpose within the context of the mytharc is much broader than that, and in this context her own personality and agency are very much less important than what she represents. She is both the motivation for Mulder's quest and the nexus that ties him to the unknown and potentially unknowable alien world that he seeks to understand. She is Mulder's Holy Grail and she is a bridge between him and the Truth. Her fate in the X-Files universe must always be to serve as object and perhaps even as object lesson, not as an agent of her own destiny.
On the one hand, it is understandable that a sibling lost at the age of eight would be prone to an idealistic representation by her surviving older brother. It is perfectly natural that Samantha has become a symbol to her brother--of what he lost, and of what he hopes to find. On the other hand, it is not at all accidental that Samantha happens to be female, just as it is not accidental that Mary Winchester is the mother rather than the father of the Winchester boys. They are part of a larger pattern in the media where female characters, as vescoiya said to me recently, "are rarely the architects of their own destiny, and are used as an adjunct to men or a plot point, only real when portrayed in their relationship to a man." Both Mary Winchester and Samantha Mulder symbolise the loss of innocence, and catalyze a journey by their male relatives out of the home and into the wider world.
To the credit of the show, it goes some way towards making Samantha more of a person and less of a symbol, creating more context for the mythic scene that we hear about in the pilot and witness in Little Green Men. If most of the series focuses on her transcendent nature, Paper Hearts is about the real flesh-and-blood girl and the prospect that her end was not so mysterious or unique after all. We are introduced to the idea that Samantha's abduction by aliens might well be a myth that Fox Mulder has created for himself. Could her disappearance have been due to a garden-variety serial killer after all? The episode emphasises the search for tangible proof: her body, the very fabric of her clothes. Yet how much does Paper Hearts Samantha have to do with the real girl? Is she a person in her own right? In her review of the episode, Autumn Tysko points out the way in which Samantha represents another side of Mulder himself:
Mulder's pursuit of his sister is not just a brother's sentimental journey. It is even more than his attempt to heal his broken family. We share more genes with our siblings than with our parents or our children, so Mulder's sister is his other Self, his buried self, his anima. So she is the female expression of himself, the symbol of all that he is not but perhaps would like to be--innocent, carefree, happy, loving. (Link)
In my opinion, Samantha's appearance as an adult in Redux II does a much better job of returning to her some of the agency that she never had to start with. Reunited with her brother at last, she is in some ways happy to see him, yet is far from eager to acquiesce in his desire to delve further into their shared past. "I didn't want to come here at all, Fox," she tells him. "I was afraid to see you. I have another life now, I have children of my own." I love the idea that the real Samantha may not be the woman that Mulder expected or wanted to find. She is her own person with her own needs and desires, and they may not necessarily coincide with those of her brother. Mulder can't stand the idea that Samantha will, for once, be seeking out him rather than vice versa.
Fanfic takes this concept even further. I love Evil!Samantha stories in particular, because they emphasise this distinction between reality and Mulder's idealised image of the girl that he lost so long ago. Capital Offense has her on death row; Iolokus has her working with the conspiracy; and Five Things that Never Happened to Samantha Mulder gives us five things that could well have happened to her. The latter in particular does a fine job of emphasising the disjuncture that I'm discussing here.
While Closure didn't really bring the fans any closure, it did go even further in bringing Samantha back into the real world--at least temporarily. It is to be commended for the very idea that she grew up somewhere, didn't just stay eight forever, left her handprint in concrete alongside Jeffrey Spender. Even better, she actually decided to take her destiny in her own hands and ran away from the Spender family. (An idea which is explored further in Too Young to Party by cofax.) Do you feel the agency? I do.
Unfortunately this was all just too much for the writing staff, who couldn't leave well enough alone and simply allow her to die in a hospital bed in California or (God forbid) let her go on to live a life of her own. I am trying to bring myself to sum up the plot of the episode without dissolving into incoherent indignation. Or indeed, without dissolving into starlight, which is exactly what we are told happened to Samantha. She was taken away to a magical land where all children are happy and free of pain. Looking back, I think that's where my goldfish went when I was about seven... or at least, that's what my mother told me. Given all that we had heard about Samantha over the years, you'll forgive me for not buying it.
For real satisfaction in the Samantha-as-agent-of-her-own-destiny stakes, one really has to turn to fanfic. The ultimate affirmation of Samantha's agency comes in that teeny sub-genre of stories that turn the tables on the whole mytharc, giving us a universe where Mulder was abducted, and his sister became a FBI special agent instead. Think about that one. I do, possibly too much. Still, sometimes you have to do something.
I do have to give credit to The X-Files for the ways in which it did develop Samantha's character, sometimes it must be said in multiple ways at once. The show's attitude towards her is not as obviously exploitative as is Supernatural's attitude towards Mary Winchester. In fact, it cherishes her memory just as her brother does. Yet by doing so it--and he--makes her more a myth than a person. We will never know the real Samantha Mulder.
Following on from that, vescoiya raised the question of whether The X-Files is not just as culpable in its treatment of Samantha Mulder. Think of the iconic image of her in the series: a little girl with long hair and a white nightgown, floating mysteriously out of the window in a shaft of light. Tell me that isn't symbolism. We don't see this version of events until Little Green Men, but Mulder recounts the story of Samantha's abduction to Scully during the pilot and it is this story that anchors the whole mytharc of the show.
(Incidentally, what is it with the white nightgowns? Do you know anyone who wears those in real life?)
No doubt Samantha was a real person, a little girl who liked Stratego and argued with her brother, and wore pigtails just like I did when I was her age. We saw that even in Little Green Men. Yet Samantha's purpose within the context of the mytharc is much broader than that, and in this context her own personality and agency are very much less important than what she represents. She is both the motivation for Mulder's quest and the nexus that ties him to the unknown and potentially unknowable alien world that he seeks to understand. She is Mulder's Holy Grail and she is a bridge between him and the Truth. Her fate in the X-Files universe must always be to serve as object and perhaps even as object lesson, not as an agent of her own destiny.
On the one hand, it is understandable that a sibling lost at the age of eight would be prone to an idealistic representation by her surviving older brother. It is perfectly natural that Samantha has become a symbol to her brother--of what he lost, and of what he hopes to find. On the other hand, it is not at all accidental that Samantha happens to be female, just as it is not accidental that Mary Winchester is the mother rather than the father of the Winchester boys. They are part of a larger pattern in the media where female characters, as vescoiya said to me recently, "are rarely the architects of their own destiny, and are used as an adjunct to men or a plot point, only real when portrayed in their relationship to a man." Both Mary Winchester and Samantha Mulder symbolise the loss of innocence, and catalyze a journey by their male relatives out of the home and into the wider world.
To the credit of the show, it goes some way towards making Samantha more of a person and less of a symbol, creating more context for the mythic scene that we hear about in the pilot and witness in Little Green Men. If most of the series focuses on her transcendent nature, Paper Hearts is about the real flesh-and-blood girl and the prospect that her end was not so mysterious or unique after all. We are introduced to the idea that Samantha's abduction by aliens might well be a myth that Fox Mulder has created for himself. Could her disappearance have been due to a garden-variety serial killer after all? The episode emphasises the search for tangible proof: her body, the very fabric of her clothes. Yet how much does Paper Hearts Samantha have to do with the real girl? Is she a person in her own right? In her review of the episode, Autumn Tysko points out the way in which Samantha represents another side of Mulder himself:
Mulder's pursuit of his sister is not just a brother's sentimental journey. It is even more than his attempt to heal his broken family. We share more genes with our siblings than with our parents or our children, so Mulder's sister is his other Self, his buried self, his anima. So she is the female expression of himself, the symbol of all that he is not but perhaps would like to be--innocent, carefree, happy, loving. (Link)
In my opinion, Samantha's appearance as an adult in Redux II does a much better job of returning to her some of the agency that she never had to start with. Reunited with her brother at last, she is in some ways happy to see him, yet is far from eager to acquiesce in his desire to delve further into their shared past. "I didn't want to come here at all, Fox," she tells him. "I was afraid to see you. I have another life now, I have children of my own." I love the idea that the real Samantha may not be the woman that Mulder expected or wanted to find. She is her own person with her own needs and desires, and they may not necessarily coincide with those of her brother. Mulder can't stand the idea that Samantha will, for once, be seeking out him rather than vice versa.
Fanfic takes this concept even further. I love Evil!Samantha stories in particular, because they emphasise this distinction between reality and Mulder's idealised image of the girl that he lost so long ago. Capital Offense has her on death row; Iolokus has her working with the conspiracy; and Five Things that Never Happened to Samantha Mulder gives us five things that could well have happened to her. The latter in particular does a fine job of emphasising the disjuncture that I'm discussing here.
While Closure didn't really bring the fans any closure, it did go even further in bringing Samantha back into the real world--at least temporarily. It is to be commended for the very idea that she grew up somewhere, didn't just stay eight forever, left her handprint in concrete alongside Jeffrey Spender. Even better, she actually decided to take her destiny in her own hands and ran away from the Spender family. (An idea which is explored further in Too Young to Party by cofax.) Do you feel the agency? I do.
Unfortunately this was all just too much for the writing staff, who couldn't leave well enough alone and simply allow her to die in a hospital bed in California or (God forbid) let her go on to live a life of her own. I am trying to bring myself to sum up the plot of the episode without dissolving into incoherent indignation. Or indeed, without dissolving into starlight, which is exactly what we are told happened to Samantha. She was taken away to a magical land where all children are happy and free of pain. Looking back, I think that's where my goldfish went when I was about seven... or at least, that's what my mother told me. Given all that we had heard about Samantha over the years, you'll forgive me for not buying it.
For real satisfaction in the Samantha-as-agent-of-her-own-destiny stakes, one really has to turn to fanfic. The ultimate affirmation of Samantha's agency comes in that teeny sub-genre of stories that turn the tables on the whole mytharc, giving us a universe where Mulder was abducted, and his sister became a FBI special agent instead. Think about that one. I do, possibly too much. Still, sometimes you have to do something.
I do have to give credit to The X-Files for the ways in which it did develop Samantha's character, sometimes it must be said in multiple ways at once. The show's attitude towards her is not as obviously exploitative as is Supernatural's attitude towards Mary Winchester. In fact, it cherishes her memory just as her brother does. Yet by doing so it--and he--makes her more a myth than a person. We will never know the real Samantha Mulder.