#mulder is marginally less sexist than the average man especially with scully

[actual-changeling]

Very good analysis, OP! We really do not talk about the gender aspect enough.

Another episode that I feel really fits into this is Excelsis Dei. Mulder doesn't understand how personal this case is for Scully, how horrible the experience that the nurse went through is—that it doesn't matter who or what it was, they need to solve it.

A "logical" leap for him. Mulder always trusts the victims, he always trusts their insane theories and stories, he always goes with the most out-there option. EXCEPT when it comes to rape apparently.

MULDER: Given the emotional and psychological violence of rape, the face or identity of the attacker is often blurred or erased from memory. That he could be perceived as invisible is a logical leap for me.

Then there's the interaction in the bathroom with Hal where Scully is exposed (quite literally) to sexual harassment and he a) doesn't even attempt to protect her and b) makes fun of it right after.

SCULLY: What do you think, Mulder? MULDER: (grinning at her) About the guy's plumbing? SCULLY: About his story.

Someone shoving their genitals into your face and then further harassing you is far from funny, Mulder—and you FAILED to protect her. She looks to you for help because unfortunately men only take other men seriously. She looked to him so he would get them out of this situation but he just kept going.

Later, he's not doing much better.

MULDER: Between the rape case and the Alzheimer's? When they're not drawing childlike pictures they're brutal sex offenders?

He simply does not understand the weight of the women's experiences but Scully does, most likely because she's been in at the very least one situation like that. Being a woman or queer automatically makes you a target for sexual harassment from the day you're born.

Scully cannot just walk away from this and he can—that's the defining difference.

MULDER: I-I think you're looking too hard, Scully, for something that's not there. I think Michelle Charters concocted this story to get out of a job she hates. SCULLY: Her lip required 13 stitches. The blow to her head resulted in a subdural hematoma. That's quite a concoction. Look, I just want to talk to a few more patients there. We can catch the same flight out tomorrow night.

For some reason, Mulder is a sexist asshole throughout the episode right up until the end. He undervalues Scully's theories and explanations, he applies the presumption of innocence to the offender but not to the victim. He didn't do anything but she is lying, with her obvious physical and psychic wounds; great guy.

All the sexist bullshit he does throughout this episode is, in my opinion, a big part of why Scully says she cannot talik to him about this in Irresistible.

Mulder wants Scully to be vulnerable with him but he refuses to create a safe, trusted space in which she can do so without fear of judgement or betrayal. Him being a man means he has to work harder and he knows that, he just doesn't want to because this man is allergic to self-reflection.

Scully, Mulder, Gender, and Irresistible

Upon rewatch, what really struck me about 2x13 Irresistible is the way it prods and pries open the unspoken presence of gender within Mulder and Scully's working relationship.

Within the safety of their private little two-person world, you won't find many echoes of the misogyny that exists outside in society, or in their tremendously male-dominated profession. The implicit trust, respect, and mutual devotion that Mulder and Scully have built their friendship on is, in an of itself, a subversion of traditional gender norms. In their little world, they are equal to each other, have always been, and always will be.

But on the outside, if you pay attention, Scully is very very often the only woman in the room throughout this series. In police stations, meetings, at crime scenes, she carries that invisible burden. Suspects make passes at her on the job. Random people mistake her for Mulder's wife. But in Irresistible, the dial is turned up, and she is physically endangered because of her gender, and confronted with the existence of a vile hatred of women. She not only has to grapple with the terror of this fact, but the terror of being suddenly so much more vulnerable than her partner.

"I don't want him to feel like he has to protect me."

She wants to be by his side, not behind him, trotting at his heels, shielded from the world by him. Scully fears that if Mulder felt the need to protect her, in a way, that would tarnish the dynamic of their partnership. It would be admitting a weakness: and she's probably spent her entire career building walls around any possible weakness.

"I can't talk to him about this."

... Because he is a man. Mulder can be as understanding and supportive as he usually is, but deep down, he will never truly understand what it is like to be in her shoes in Irresistible. She is alone in this way, and that is horrifying.

So to me, (while the hug is truly life-changing), this little exchange is such a perfect moment of trust and affirmation within the episode.

At this point, Mulder knows that she's scared. Scully knows that she's scared. But they both recognize that being afraid doesn't make her weak, or any less capable, any less of a true partner than she always has been. Always.

Being a woman in a dangerous, male-dominated profession often means putting up high emotional walls for one's own safety. To be emotional, sensitive, or vulnerable can be seen as a sign of weakness. But at the end of Irresistible, Scully's emotional break is catharsis. It's not weak or humiliating ... it's very human.