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The Scully Effect: We Want to Believe · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff.
0:07
Speaker 1: I never told you Protection by Heart Radio, and today
0:19
Speaker 1: we are so thrilled, and me in particular for reasons
0:23
Speaker 1: that will become clear, to be joined by the wonderful,
0:27
Speaker 1: the excellent bruget Todd. Thank you so much for coming
0:31
Speaker 1: on the show. Bridget Oh, I'm so excited to be here.
0:34
Speaker 1: I'm so excited that you're down for the topic I
0:37
Speaker 1: want to discuss. This is the highlight of my week.
0:39
Speaker 1: I can't wait. Oh oh, I can't wait either. I
0:43
Speaker 1: literally I stayed up really late watching horror movies last
0:46
Speaker 1: night and I got this email kind of late and
0:48
Speaker 1: I saw the topic and I was like, oh, yes, yeah,
0:52
Speaker 1: this is the one. Yeah. Can I go ahead and
0:55
Speaker 1: say in this whole thing? I was like, Oh, I
0:57
Speaker 1: know what's about to happen, and everybody's gonna geek out.
1:00
Speaker 1: I'm going to be here going I don't know what
1:02
Speaker 1: just happened, but just our conversation, we had to stop
1:06
Speaker 1: the middle of our hey, how you doing conversation because
1:08
Speaker 1: we started jumping into it and the excitement was overflowing
1:12
Speaker 1: and we've gotta stop because we need to have this
1:14
Speaker 1: on Mike slash. I'm just gonna sit here and stare y'all, yeah,
1:20
Speaker 1: you know about pants suits, which I'm hoping do you
1:22
Speaker 1: know about pants suits? That's one thing before we get
1:33
Speaker 1: into the topic that at least two of us are
1:36
Speaker 1: very excited to talk about bridget I just want to
1:38
Speaker 1: check in. How are you? How are things going in
1:40
Speaker 1: your world? Oh? What a question. It's a lot. I mean,
1:47
Speaker 1: that's kind of one of the reasons why I wanted
1:49
Speaker 1: to discuss something that was a little bit more light. I,
1:53
Speaker 1: as listeners probably know, there's a lot happening in the world.
1:56
Speaker 1: I feel since the Free Court abortion the decision leak
2:01
Speaker 1: to the horrible shootings in Buffalo and in California that
2:05
Speaker 1: we're pretty clearly racially targeted. I think there's a lot
2:09
Speaker 1: heavy going on right now, and I just yeah, Sometimes
2:14
Speaker 1: sometimes my way of those things really dovetail with my
2:17
Speaker 1: work and so in my day to day, in my
2:20
Speaker 1: they're just things that consume me, and I kind of
2:23
Speaker 1: go through weird phases where sometimes my response to it
2:26
Speaker 1: is to lean right in. I'm like, oh, I am
2:29
Speaker 1: gonna read every article, go to every mobilization, every rally
2:34
Speaker 1: I'm in, and that makes me feel like I'm having
2:36
Speaker 1: an impact, but sometimes it's like I need to lean
2:39
Speaker 1: way out, I need to limit what I'm reading, and
2:42
Speaker 1: so I feel like it's a pendulum and the pendulum.
2:45
Speaker 1: This past weekend was very much like I went to
2:48
Speaker 1: the d c UM you know, Bands Off our Bodies mobilizations,
2:53
Speaker 1: and so I was like really checked in, and then
2:55
Speaker 1: when Sunday rolled around, I was like time to check
2:57
Speaker 1: out and think about X files, write act. We do
3:02
Speaker 1: that of me? How is it better for you too? Ah,
3:10
Speaker 1: I would say the same. It's you know, we try
3:13
Speaker 1: very hard. We're very big proponents of self care on
3:15
Speaker 1: this show, and it's something that can be extremely difficult
3:19
Speaker 1: to convince yourself to do. UM and I think it
3:23
Speaker 1: does just feel like a lot of weight. I'm a
3:28
Speaker 1: lot of weight, but similarly, I also am somebody. I
3:35
Speaker 1: have all these kind of fiction escapes, which is one
3:37
Speaker 1: reason I'm very excited to talk about this that I
3:40
Speaker 1: use that helped me deal with things, including trauma that
3:46
Speaker 1: I've talked about on this show before. So uh, that's
3:49
Speaker 1: something I've become more mindful of as I've a gone
3:52
Speaker 1: to therapy UM, but also during the pandemic because I'm
3:55
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. I live by myself, so there was
3:58
Speaker 1: a lot of like why are you doing this? Why
4:01
Speaker 1: are you engaging in this perhaps unhealthy behavior or maybe
4:04
Speaker 1: it's a healthy behavior, but you're like leading on it
4:07
Speaker 1: too much. So I feel like for me these past
4:12
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, I've definitely felt a struggle to maintain
4:18
Speaker 1: that self care, not feel guilty about the self care,
4:20
Speaker 1: but also like be responsibly checked in and not like
4:24
Speaker 1: totally checked out, if that makes sense, totally, that makes
4:29
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. I know that, Like, um, I
4:31
Speaker 1: have a friend Sabrina, who has she's a human rights
4:34
Speaker 1: advocate and she has worked in a lot of like
4:37
Speaker 1: war zones, so places where like stuff is getting bad,
4:41
Speaker 1: you know, and it's dangerous. And she says that one
4:44
Speaker 1: of the things that she has to really balance is
4:46
Speaker 1: not checking every news update but just trusting that the
4:51
Speaker 1: updates that you need to get you will get. And
4:53
Speaker 1: so it can be really tempting to just like read everything,
4:56
Speaker 1: consume everything, but maintaining that like healthily checked in but
5:01
Speaker 1: not over consuming media or bad news or information, you know,
5:06
Speaker 1: just just trusting that like the information that you need
5:09
Speaker 1: to get, well, we'll find its way. To you. Can
5:11
Speaker 1: we tell the political Canada's right now this? Can we say, hey,
5:16
Speaker 1: can you not doom shout at us about every little
5:20
Speaker 1: moment because that's not helping at this point. You're just
5:23
Speaker 1: hurting yourself because I feel like I've gotten so many
5:26
Speaker 1: emails and texts like it's too late. We felt, we
5:29
Speaker 1: felt and like, oh my God, for the love of Jesus,
5:32
Speaker 1: I've got some amount of money right now. Okay, yes,
5:36
Speaker 1: I can talk about this at length. This is like
5:38
Speaker 1: my bread and butter as a you know, political organizer.
5:42
Speaker 1: That doesn't work right. You can't. You can't motivate people
5:46
Speaker 1: through doom and gloom and through fear and through these
5:50
Speaker 1: NonStop political fundraising emails that read like we have your
5:54
Speaker 1: kids and let you said that's you will not see
5:58
Speaker 1: like that doesn't motivate people. What motivates peops, hope motivates people,
6:02
Speaker 1: you know, feeling like like they can actually make a difference.
6:05
Speaker 1: What motivates people is a shared vision and in a
6:07
Speaker 1: collective community, not doom and gloom every day time you
6:10
Speaker 1: open your computer, right, I mean I literally got one. Doesn't.
6:14
Speaker 1: We begged you, We begged you, we we asked you
6:17
Speaker 1: just didn't you just ignored it. So I was like,
6:19
Speaker 1: what is this makes me want to yell at You'd
6:25
Speaker 1: be like stop emailing me that I'm never giving you
6:28
Speaker 1: any money ever again, Like because you're you're hunting me
6:31
Speaker 1: because I gave you to you you before. This is not helpful.
6:34
Speaker 1: But yeah, can we just like let them know this
6:37
Speaker 1: is not working? We need to see action. But I
6:40
Speaker 1: think I'm on the same lines of trying to find
6:42
Speaker 1: the balance of making sure we're not making other people's
6:47
Speaker 1: loads too heavy by not taking on our own part. Um,
6:50
Speaker 1: there's a lot of shootings that's happening, and I know,
6:53
Speaker 1: I think it's just like it's always happening and that
6:55
Speaker 1: somethings just catch attention. Um, But the that is racially
7:00
Speaker 1: motivated and it's spread throughout the country is so gross
7:03
Speaker 1: and so ugly. Um. Talking like before the Buffalo shooting
7:08
Speaker 1: in itself, it's like, Wow, what is happening? And then
7:12
Speaker 1: instead of fying the resolutions, just pointing fingers and then
7:16
Speaker 1: ignoring the fact that the victims exist and we need
7:19
Speaker 1: to talk about what the lives they lead and celebrate
7:22
Speaker 1: that and talk about why this is a tragedy and
7:24
Speaker 1: it is so many people's faults and why that needs
7:29
Speaker 1: to be a conversation. The same thing that happened the
7:30
Speaker 1: Texas shooting and the California shooting. There's so many things
7:33
Speaker 1: that's kind of like, wow, when does it stop? At
7:37
Speaker 1: the same time, yeah, and not being so overwhelmed and
7:40
Speaker 1: inundated that it immobilizes us and makes us freeze. To
7:44
Speaker 1: finding that we have no action because we don't know
7:46
Speaker 1: what else to do, and that overwhelming dooming level. But
7:50
Speaker 1: trying to find that balance. That's been kind of trying me,
7:52
Speaker 1: trying to figure that out living my life and not
7:55
Speaker 1: feeling selfish for living my life, but also recognizing that
7:57
Speaker 1: we still have a part to play. Like it's such
8:00
Speaker 1: a fine line to find. Oh, that's I mean, I'm
8:03
Speaker 1: grateful that you all are are having these conversations, and
8:08
Speaker 1: I think your listeners probably appreciate it too. I think
8:11
Speaker 1: like it really is about binding balance, because it doesn't
8:15
Speaker 1: help anybody if we check out and we're just like, yep,
8:19
Speaker 1: I guess it's all crap and there's nothing I can do.
8:20
Speaker 1: I guess I'll just lay here and die. But it
8:23
Speaker 1: also doesn't help anybody, I guess. I guess it's about
8:25
Speaker 1: knowing when you need to to check out and how
8:31
Speaker 1: to check back in, and you know, you know, nobody
8:34
Speaker 1: can stay like staying super super checked in all the
8:38
Speaker 1: time as a recipe for burnout. And so we we
8:41
Speaker 1: have a lot of real issues and we can't afford
8:44
Speaker 1: to have people who are interested and motivated to be
8:46
Speaker 1: burnt out. And so yeah, it's it's I am grateful
8:50
Speaker 1: for you all modeling that for your listeners because I
8:53
Speaker 1: think it's really important and I think it takes like intentional,
8:56
Speaker 1: consistent work to make sure that we're showing up as
8:59
Speaker 1: our best selves and giving giving ourselves what we need
9:02
Speaker 1: without guilt to continue to do that long term. Right, Yeah,
9:07
Speaker 1: I agree, and I think we don't hear that enough
9:09
Speaker 1: so well, and as in fact that I think this
9:15
Speaker 1: is the point in what what we're coming into, and
9:17
Speaker 1: I love it. This is why I'm like, even though
9:19
Speaker 1: I don't know what's happening in this world, and I
9:22
Speaker 1: know it's about to go into amazing world of nineteen
9:26
Speaker 1: nineties that I was just trying to figure out my English. Um,
9:31
Speaker 1: I love seeing other people enjoy things. And that's the
9:33
Speaker 1: other part of that is it's nice to see people
9:38
Speaker 1: actually finding joy and that's been a conversation that we've
9:41
Speaker 1: had on our podcast recently, because yes, it's a gross,
9:44
Speaker 1: gross things, but the way that we are able to
9:47
Speaker 1: revitalize ourselves is to remember what brings us joy and
9:50
Speaker 1: to dig into it. So let's dig into your joys. Yes,
9:55
Speaker 1: I what a love? What a like beautiful set up
9:58
Speaker 1: or a joyful conversation? I love that? Yes? Yes, yes,
10:03
Speaker 1: all right? I am like ready to veris why don't
10:06
Speaker 1: you tell I feel like you're building suspense. Why don't
10:09
Speaker 1: you start the episode the conversation that I'm so eager
10:14
Speaker 1: to have. Yes, so I on my podcast there are
10:17
Speaker 1: no girls on the Internet. Recently spoke to Madelinda No
10:20
Speaker 1: No, No No. She's the CEO of the Gina Davis Institute UM, which,
10:23
Speaker 1: if you don't know what that is the leading research
10:25
Speaker 1: nonprofit working within the entertainment and media industry to achieve
10:28
Speaker 1: gender equity in media entertainment and it was started by
10:30
Speaker 1: Gina Davis. Yes, Gina Davis shout out to a think
10:34
Speaker 1: of their own. We love Gina Davis. She's awesome, UM,
10:37
Speaker 1: and it's all about Our conversation was all about that.
10:41
Speaker 1: Their new research into what they're calling the Scully Effect.
10:44
Speaker 1: And essentially that is the measurable, real world impact that
10:49
Speaker 1: Dana Scully from the X Files had in terms of
10:53
Speaker 1: inspiring and generation of women and girls to see themselves
10:56
Speaker 1: reflected in STEM fields, so the sciences technologies, engineering, and
10:59
Speaker 1: math and go into those fields professionally. And so I
11:04
Speaker 1: Annie and I are both X Files fans, huge fans
11:07
Speaker 1: of Dana Scully. But you know, I think it's so
11:10
Speaker 1: interesting because the Scully effect is something that anecdotally, you know,
11:15
Speaker 1: we've you probably a would imagine like, yeah, I'm sure
11:17
Speaker 1: Dana Scully did have an impact on people, but before
11:20
Speaker 1: the Davis Institute did this research, we only have this
11:23
Speaker 1: like anecdotal I understanding of it. Now, because of their
11:27
Speaker 1: their research, we have a clear, you know, research, evidence
11:31
Speaker 1: based backing for this demonstrable, measurable impact that Dana Scully had. Yes,
11:39
Speaker 1: I'm like barely retraining from like geeking out so hard
11:43
Speaker 1: right now. Yes, And we did talk about this on
11:46
Speaker 1: our segment Fictional one Around the World Briefly. We did
11:48
Speaker 1: a whole thing on Danna Scully and her wonderful pants suits. Um,
11:52
Speaker 1: but it was really cool to read. Um, you can
11:54
Speaker 1: find just these really personal quotes from people that they included,
12:00
Speaker 1: and I just all of them are resonating with me,
12:02
Speaker 1: and they just made me so happy. And I was
12:06
Speaker 1: really fortunate when this show was first coming out. Well,
12:10
Speaker 1: I was unfortunate and unfortunate in some ways because I
12:13
Speaker 1: wasn't allowed to watch it. I was forbidden for watching it,
12:18
Speaker 1: but I watched it anyway because I was a rebel
12:20
Speaker 1: like that, and I just remember watching it and this character,
12:28
Speaker 1: I don't know, there was just something about her that
12:29
Speaker 1: commanded a presence and I never questioned, like this is
12:32
Speaker 1: a woman in this field. I was just like, yes,
12:34
Speaker 1: she belongs there, she's good at it. And I was
12:36
Speaker 1: pretty young at that point, and I feel very fortunate
12:40
Speaker 1: that I had that that I was like watching this
12:43
Speaker 1: character and there was no part of me that's like
12:45
Speaker 1: a woman can't do that. I was just like, of
12:47
Speaker 1: course she can do it. She's Danias Scully. Look at her.
12:49
Speaker 1: She's amazing. Yeah, she definitely has that this presence of
12:54
Speaker 1: of like, of course she's doing this, and she's a
12:57
Speaker 1: capable woman who like knows her ship. Um. Part of
13:01
Speaker 1: it got to be the pants suits. I know that
13:03
Speaker 1: the pant suit of his Sionado that's like why she
13:06
Speaker 1: is like projecting capability. Yes, you probably this is no
13:25
Speaker 1: shock to you. I'm sure. There's like blogs dedicated to
13:28
Speaker 1: her fashion, and there's a whole like evolution of her fashion,
13:31
Speaker 1: and there was a many discussions that I enjoyed reading about,
13:35
Speaker 1: like she felt like she had to wear the pants
13:36
Speaker 1: suit to fit into this man's world, but then they
13:39
Speaker 1: became more tailored and more feminine and all this like
13:42
Speaker 1: dissection of her fashion, which I love. I love. I mean,
13:48
Speaker 1: the power suit is huge and what was it three
13:51
Speaker 1: years ago when the majority of women came on award
13:55
Speaker 1: shows wearing a power suit of pants suit an amazing phenomenon.
13:59
Speaker 1: In most of the times, they come with these elegant
14:01
Speaker 1: gowns and gorgeous you know Taylor gowns, but they're like, no,
14:04
Speaker 1: we're gonna make it sexy in this way. And then
14:07
Speaker 1: at one point, like in the queer community, they're like, yes,
14:10
Speaker 1: we're here for this, We're here for this person wearing
14:12
Speaker 1: this and doing masculine but feminine, but feminine but masculine
14:16
Speaker 1: but non binary. We need all of it, and it does.
14:18
Speaker 1: It's something about the power of it. You're speaking my language,
14:22
Speaker 1: Like I love and and I think they're they're really
14:26
Speaker 1: on trend right now. I love an oversized three piece suit,
14:30
Speaker 1: like oversized men's style trousers with like a vest and
14:34
Speaker 1: a blazer. Love it. I have one that I got
14:36
Speaker 1: from Wild Fang that I I wear it whenever I'm
14:38
Speaker 1: trying to feel like powerful, That's what I wear. I'm
14:42
Speaker 1: here for it. And as you said, I think that
14:44
Speaker 1: we're in this moment. I mean, this is just my
14:46
Speaker 1: little theory. I think that COVID, when we were all
14:49
Speaker 1: on lockdown, really made us question who we dress for
14:56
Speaker 1: and what we dress for. And so they have done
14:59
Speaker 1: studies were like a lot people came out as non
15:01
Speaker 1: binary or realized they were non binary, or realized, you
15:04
Speaker 1: know that they maybe this didn't necessarily identify strongly with
15:08
Speaker 1: gender and they didn't want to present in that way,
15:10
Speaker 1: and that perhaps they had been presenting in that way
15:12
Speaker 1: because they had to go to an office every day,
15:13
Speaker 1: because they had to like go out every day. And
15:16
Speaker 1: I think that COVID really shifted something us in us
15:19
Speaker 1: fashion wise, where people are just like, I am gonna
15:22
Speaker 1: dress like the cool teen. I always wanted to dress
15:25
Speaker 1: like back in and I don't really care what anybody
15:28
Speaker 1: thinks like, I love this trend where people are just
15:30
Speaker 1: dressing for themselves and I'm here for it like some
15:33
Speaker 1: of these, some of these like fashion girlies on TikTok,
15:36
Speaker 1: it will be like you got the jeans over the dress,
15:39
Speaker 1: over the sweater, over the hat, over the clogs, like
15:42
Speaker 1: keep pie, meg it up. I love it like I'm
15:44
Speaker 1: here for it. It's the layering of the eighties nineties,
15:48
Speaker 1: keep on. Yes, I am here for it. I am
15:51
Speaker 1: definitely here for it. I love I love that too,
15:53
Speaker 1: and I think that's a solid theory. I've definitely noticed
15:55
Speaker 1: within myself where have become very much like, well, why
15:58
Speaker 1: wasn't even wearing that before? I didn't like it. It
16:01
Speaker 1: wasn't comfortable. Um So I'm I'm on board of this theory, Bridget.
16:07
Speaker 1: But okay, I would love to hear your experience with
16:13
Speaker 1: X files and Dana Scully. Oh my gosh, where do
16:16
Speaker 1: I start? So ill? I was was I'm trying to
16:20
Speaker 1: think if I wasn't allowed to watch it. I was
16:22
Speaker 1: technically not allowed to watch a lot of stuff growing up,
16:25
Speaker 1: but like nobody was really checking, so I was able
16:27
Speaker 1: to watch it with no problem. I wouldn't even say,
16:29
Speaker 1: I was speaking to watch it. It It was just like
16:31
Speaker 1: nobody was really asking a lot of questions about what
16:33
Speaker 1: I was watching. So I always was fascinated by, you know,
16:40
Speaker 1: aliens and the paranormal, like I collected, well, any kind
16:44
Speaker 1: of any kind of like book series was about aliens
16:47
Speaker 1: or the paranormal, or like horror I loved. And so
16:50
Speaker 1: I was super excited when The X Files came out,
16:53
Speaker 1: Like I watched it from the beginning, and because I
16:56
Speaker 1: didn't know kind of like what it was, but I
16:58
Speaker 1: knew it was about aliens. And I used to wear
17:00
Speaker 1: this enamel ring with a a UFO on it, like
17:04
Speaker 1: that was that was like my kind of thing, right,
17:06
Speaker 1: And so I have been watching from the beginning. I
17:08
Speaker 1: had a huge crush on both Scully and Molder, which
17:12
Speaker 1: I feel like for a lot of like bisexual folks
17:14
Speaker 1: or queer folks, that's like a common thing of Like
17:17
Speaker 1: I am confused, like do I want to be Dana Scully,
17:19
Speaker 1: don't want to be with her? I don't know. I
17:21
Speaker 1: just really love her. Um, I remember, there's a this
17:24
Speaker 1: is so embarrassing. There is a it's probably still in
17:27
Speaker 1: my parents house somewhere. There was a TV guide with
17:31
Speaker 1: um David Dukovany on the cover that I kept because
17:34
Speaker 1: it was like a very like attractive picture of dating,
17:40
Speaker 1: like I can see it when I closed my eyes.
17:42
Speaker 1: I always loved X Files. I kind of stopped watching
17:46
Speaker 1: it as I got a bit older, so like the
17:49
Speaker 1: dog at Ears are a little bit of a blur
17:51
Speaker 1: to me. I recently went back and started watching it
17:54
Speaker 1: as you know, as an adult, and some of the
17:56
Speaker 1: episodes I feel like really do hold up. They are
18:00
Speaker 1: not as you know, like I remember watching them when
18:03
Speaker 1: I was a kid and being having my my my
18:06
Speaker 1: world blown, my mind blown. They still hold up in
18:09
Speaker 1: some ways, but in other ways are kind of like
18:11
Speaker 1: nostalgia e But yeah, I've always been a huge fan. Yeah.
18:16
Speaker 1: I also had a crush on Scully and Molder and
18:20
Speaker 1: I was in so I would have to wake up
18:24
Speaker 1: at four thirty am on Sundays and watched it at
18:27
Speaker 1: five am because it re ran then. Yeah, so that's
18:32
Speaker 1: how I got around my parents rule. And it scared
18:35
Speaker 1: the hell out of me, like terrified, but I just
18:38
Speaker 1: had to watch it. And this was in the time
18:40
Speaker 1: of like handfuls like a non no cell phones allowed,
18:45
Speaker 1: and I would call my best friend Katie, who also
18:48
Speaker 1: had a crush on both of them, and we would
18:50
Speaker 1: watch it together on the phone. You were doing that
18:54
Speaker 1: like we used to do that. We would sit on
18:57
Speaker 1: like a like either one of those bulky handheld wireless
19:01
Speaker 1: phones or a corded We had a corded phone with
19:05
Speaker 1: like a carly queue that was amounted to the wall,
19:08
Speaker 1: and I would awkwardly stand in the space between my
19:11
Speaker 1: kitchen and our living room where the TV was, just
19:13
Speaker 1: so I could stay on the phone and watch a
19:15
Speaker 1: television shoe with my friend. Like the late nineties, we did.
19:19
Speaker 1: We had to do what we had to do to
19:20
Speaker 1: connect with people. I guess you hear that, young folks,
19:23
Speaker 1: So we had to do what we had to do,
19:26
Speaker 1: like early nineties too. So yeah, yes, yes, uh. And
19:32
Speaker 1: just because you know, I have to throw in my
19:33
Speaker 1: fan fiction fact. X Files was the first big Internet
19:38
Speaker 1: fan fiction fantom For that, there was Star Trek, but
19:41
Speaker 1: that was in magazines. X Files was one of the
19:44
Speaker 1: first big Internet fan fiction fandom. So I would read,
19:47
Speaker 1: uh x files fand fiction. Uh. And this was like
19:51
Speaker 1: at the height of fear among greg I found around
19:53
Speaker 1: fand fiction where they're like, what are these ladies doing
19:56
Speaker 1: writing about sex with men and women aliens. I believe
20:06
Speaker 1: it that it was like a like big fodder for
20:08
Speaker 1: fan fiction because there's just so much there. It's such
20:11
Speaker 1: a like, you know, it's such a rich universe, and
20:15
Speaker 1: so I definitely like mostly connected with the sort of
20:18
Speaker 1: Monster of the Week episodes, even if you wanted to
20:21
Speaker 1: like write about those or write about the sort of
20:24
Speaker 1: universe's happening in the act within the X Files, the
20:26
Speaker 1: the you know, unfolding story within the show. There's just
20:30
Speaker 1: so much to lash onto. So I totally get why
20:32
Speaker 1: people were like, oh, I gotta turn this into some
20:34
Speaker 1: fan fiction. Yeah, there's a lot of ust unresolved sexual tension,
20:41
Speaker 1: as I know. I know, I was so excited about
20:47
Speaker 1: all this. Uh but yeah, the Skully effects is fascinating
20:54
Speaker 1: because it was this character was so impactful and for
20:59
Speaker 1: a lot of people and especially young girls, it was
21:02
Speaker 1: the first time we were seeing someone like that totally
21:07
Speaker 1: and so one of the things that comes up in
21:10
Speaker 1: UM the David's Institute's research is how before Dana Scully,
21:14
Speaker 1: when she first permitted on The X Files, there were
21:16
Speaker 1: not really a lot of women in stem characters on
21:20
Speaker 1: primetime television and Honestly, I racked my brain thinking about this,
21:25
Speaker 1: and if folks of other examples, I would love to
21:26
Speaker 1: hear them. Like, I'm not claiming that this is accurate,
21:29
Speaker 1: but this is as far as my brain got me.
21:31
Speaker 1: The only two women in STEM that I could think
21:35
Speaker 1: of that we're like prominent are obviously who are from
21:39
Speaker 1: Star Trek, Michelle Nichols and um Sandra Bullock's character in
21:43
Speaker 1: the movie Love Potion Number nine. She's a biochemist. Those
21:46
Speaker 1: are the only two examples I can think of. And
21:48
Speaker 1: what's so interesting is nowadays a woman who is in
21:52
Speaker 1: STEM on television, it's kind of a genre like women
21:55
Speaker 1: from C s I or the show Bones or Alias,
21:59
Speaker 1: Like it's almost kind of a rope now. But I
22:01
Speaker 1: kind of forgot that that wasn't the case really before
22:04
Speaker 1: X Files, and that Dana Scully kind of not only
22:07
Speaker 1: did she inspire this generation of real world women and
22:10
Speaker 1: girls to go into STEM and see themselves in STEM,
22:12
Speaker 1: but also kind of created that as a television lane
22:15
Speaker 1: that is so so rich now, But it's easy to
22:18
Speaker 1: forget how before you know, the X Files coming out
22:21
Speaker 1: in the nineties, that really wasn't the case. Like I
22:23
Speaker 1: had to rack my brain to think of examples. Yeah,
22:27
Speaker 1: And I think that's a really key point to bring
22:29
Speaker 1: up in this is that I was I was thinking
22:31
Speaker 1: of this too, of like when I was younger, what
22:34
Speaker 1: were these characters women in stem? And so many of
22:37
Speaker 1: them were inspired by Danna Scully like she was a
22:42
Speaker 1: Chaerilblaser in this. And I love kind of the flip
22:44
Speaker 1: of their dynamic of her being sort of the skeptical,
22:48
Speaker 1: factual scientific one and Molder being kind of the like,
22:52
Speaker 1: pulp you my emotions this way. I feel like this
22:54
Speaker 1: is right. I don't know, I just really liked it.
22:57
Speaker 1: And again, as a kid, I I love that I'd
22:59
Speaker 1: never questioned that. I was just like, yep, that's the one.
23:03
Speaker 1: Dr Quinn Medicine Woman. I remember her clearly, but she
23:06
Speaker 1: came out around the same time as Scully. I will
23:08
Speaker 1: say that there's X Files, but that is one show
23:10
Speaker 1: I remember clearly because I was like, western doctor, that's
23:13
Speaker 1: a woman. What sorry, my head, my grandmother's favorite show.
23:18
Speaker 1: She was watching, like that was my that was my
23:20
Speaker 1: rest MP. She's probably in heaven watching Dr Medicine Woman,
23:24
Speaker 1: and that was that was very much her show. That
23:26
Speaker 1: was her when that all came either doctor, hustable, and
23:31
Speaker 1: she was a she was a lawyer. She wasn't a doctor.
23:33
Speaker 1: Never mind, that doesn't count. I forgot more broadly, women's
23:51
Speaker 1: professions on television and television shows were like, they are professionals,
23:57
Speaker 1: so they have the job and you see what like,
24:00
Speaker 1: but you see them at work, but then you also
24:02
Speaker 1: see them in their personal life. I think that's why
24:04
Speaker 1: I liked Scully so much, is that you got the
24:07
Speaker 1: idea that she was this full, dynamic, complex person. Like
24:11
Speaker 1: on the show, you see her grapple with her Catholic faith.
24:14
Speaker 1: On the show, you see her grapple with things like infertility,
24:17
Speaker 1: like and it's not a caricature of like, I'm a
24:21
Speaker 1: woman scientist. You know I don't have any like I
24:24
Speaker 1: go home and sit by myself in a dark room
24:27
Speaker 1: and wait for science to arrive. Like. This wasn't like that,
24:31
Speaker 1: Nor was it this like, oh, my personal life is
24:34
Speaker 1: my whole thing and my career takes the back seat.
24:37
Speaker 1: It just well, I felt like the show took great
24:39
Speaker 1: care and intention to represent her as like a full
24:42
Speaker 1: person where yeah, she is a has a demanding job
24:46
Speaker 1: that you see a lot of, but she's also a person.
24:48
Speaker 1: She's also a woman. She also, you know, has a
24:50
Speaker 1: life of her own that we understand that she brings
24:54
Speaker 1: to her work every day. And I just really loved that,
24:57
Speaker 1: that sort of loving, nuanced depiction of a full man,
25:00
Speaker 1: not a caricature. Yeah. And I think there's a really
25:03
Speaker 1: great quote. I think it was from Chris Carter, but
25:05
Speaker 1: essentially he was saying, like, she's the heart of the show.
25:07
Speaker 1: It is her show, and it's like that. I want
25:10
Speaker 1: to believe it was more about her because she had
25:13
Speaker 1: the struggle with faith and then she was working in
25:16
Speaker 1: these X files, right she's I want to believe. Yes, yes,
25:24
Speaker 1: the places that are unfolding right now with the realization
25:28
Speaker 1: and the crossover is phenomenal. I'm just a spectator and
25:31
Speaker 1: it's phenomenal. I can't believe that that's never occurred to me.
25:36
Speaker 1: But that's actually quite beautiful, like her being the nucleus
25:39
Speaker 1: of the whole story and the story of the being
25:42
Speaker 1: about her coming around and her understanding of her faith
25:47
Speaker 1: and belief. And wow, that was Sorry, that blew my mind.
25:52
Speaker 1: I know, it's so great, it's so great. But okay,
25:56
Speaker 1: before we get too off check. Uh. One thing that
26:00
Speaker 1: this this study was looking into was like the as
26:03
Speaker 1: we said, the real world impact of this character. And
26:06
Speaker 1: also yeah, I mean the fact that she was pretty
26:10
Speaker 1: rare at the time as a woman in STEM that
26:13
Speaker 1: was kind of reflective of what is actually happening in
26:17
Speaker 1: our real world totally. And so um, this is some
26:20
Speaker 1: information from the David's Institute study. UM, women have advanced
26:23
Speaker 1: rapidly in many professional roles since the seventies, but we
26:26
Speaker 1: remained underrepresented in STEM professions. Women constitute about half of
26:30
Speaker 1: the college educuted workforce in the US, but hold less
26:32
Speaker 1: than a quarter of jobs in STEM. Only temper cent
26:35
Speaker 1: of graduate degrees earned by women are in STEM fields
26:37
Speaker 1: compared to graduate degrees earned by men. And so it's
26:40
Speaker 1: important to note before we even get into this that
26:42
Speaker 1: this gap is not explained by gender differences. Studies have
26:46
Speaker 1: identified many castes of the STEM gender gap, including stereotypes,
26:49
Speaker 1: lack of early encouragement from parents and teachers, and gender
26:52
Speaker 1: discrimination in STEM field. And so this this, I guess
26:56
Speaker 1: before Dana Scully, we really had this attitude, um that
26:59
Speaker 1: you alf reflected and television and movies and media of
27:02
Speaker 1: a scientist being this like white dude in a lab
27:06
Speaker 1: coat who is awkward or maybe a loaner or all
27:09
Speaker 1: of that, right, and these are among the factors identified
27:12
Speaker 1: as contributing to the gender gap and stem a stereotype
27:15
Speaker 1: frequently rendered and entertainment that of the lone, nerdy scientist
27:19
Speaker 1: and a lab coat commonly portrayed as a quote mad
27:22
Speaker 1: scientist or a socially awkward white man. And so this miss,
27:26
Speaker 1: this representation or portrayal, really reinforces the belief that science
27:33
Speaker 1: is a male pursuit. It is for men and not
27:35
Speaker 1: for women, and it's not not for girls. And so
27:38
Speaker 1: that attitude is held by many children at a lescents
27:41
Speaker 1: and adults, children that start implicitly pairing men and math
27:44
Speaker 1: as early as age seven, and that is a bias
27:46
Speaker 1: that continues into adulthood. And so you can really see
27:49
Speaker 1: from their from their reporting that this portrayal of men
27:54
Speaker 1: as scientists, it adds to this very real world gap
27:59
Speaker 1: where women and girls are just like, oh, I guess
28:01
Speaker 1: I'm not before I would even ever think to be
28:03
Speaker 1: interested in this, I'm already understanding that this is not
28:06
Speaker 1: for me because of this representation. And so you know,
28:10
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are like, oh, who cares,
28:12
Speaker 1: It's just movies. Is this TV, like, don't you have
28:14
Speaker 1: bigger things to talk about? But you can really see
28:16
Speaker 1: the real world impact that our media does not represent inclusivity,
28:21
Speaker 1: but it does not allow for everybody to see themselves
28:24
Speaker 1: reflected in these stories. It has real world impact, yes,
28:28
Speaker 1: it yeah, And I think I told this story before,
28:31
Speaker 1: but I'll tell it again because it just makes me
28:33
Speaker 1: so angry. Now. I math was my favorite subject when
28:36
Speaker 1: I was a kid, and I would ask for extra worksheets. Uh.
28:39
Speaker 1: And then when I was in seventh grade, a teacher
28:42
Speaker 1: told me that I would never get a date if
28:45
Speaker 1: I was continued to be better at my male classmates
28:50
Speaker 1: in math, because they would think that that would threaten
28:53
Speaker 1: like looking back, he was saying I was going to
28:55
Speaker 1: threaten their ego essentially. So I gave up maths and
28:58
Speaker 1: I didn't go into calculate this, which I really was
29:01
Speaker 1: excited to do. And then I went to a technical
29:05
Speaker 1: school and I would sneak into classes like physics, but
29:10
Speaker 1: I wouldn't actually take them, but I would sneak in
29:12
Speaker 1: because I loved them so much. But it felt like
29:16
Speaker 1: it just I wasn't supposed to be there or something.
29:19
Speaker 1: So it is it's really these messages and these stereotypes
29:22
Speaker 1: and all these things were absorbing. I mean that changed
29:25
Speaker 1: the course of my life. I'm not saying my life
29:27
Speaker 1: would have been better or worse either way, but it
29:29
Speaker 1: changed the course of my life. Yeah, when there's no
29:33
Speaker 1: telling what you could have done. As well as the
29:34
Speaker 1: fact that you're interested in men in general, I was like,
29:38
Speaker 1: you probably what That's what bothers me so much now
29:43
Speaker 1: is I'm like, I wasn't even into it, but the
29:47
Speaker 1: threat of it, they were like that way the teachers
29:50
Speaker 1: said it. It It was like, that is a death sentence
29:52
Speaker 1: if a if a man won't be interested in you
29:54
Speaker 1: the right early sexualization of people in schools, that's in
30:00
Speaker 1: a heteronormative way and probably acceptable even though. But you know,
30:05
Speaker 1: that's the whole big conversation too in general about representation,
30:08
Speaker 1: Like when it comes to gender, that's something that needs
30:10
Speaker 1: to be done, But when you go into the deeper
30:12
Speaker 1: rabbit hole of the intersectionality and the marginalized community and
30:16
Speaker 1: seeing like people of color being represented, that's something that's
30:20
Speaker 1: also significant as well, because that's one more deterrent to like, Okay,
30:24
Speaker 1: I as a white girl, maybe I can make it
30:27
Speaker 1: if I'm a pretty white girl. Then cross my fingers.
30:30
Speaker 1: I can do whatever I can do, you know, but
30:32
Speaker 1: but anything beyond that, like the representation line is still
30:35
Speaker 1: so far down than what it should be even today,
30:38
Speaker 1: and obviously we're backtracking, and that's a whole different conversation, uh,
30:43
Speaker 1: in itself. And then for Scully also, she was a
30:45
Speaker 1: person of authority, which in any kind of profession, any
30:50
Speaker 1: kind of assumption is anyone who is feminine should not
30:54
Speaker 1: be an authority figure. And so to have to see
30:57
Speaker 1: that too has got to be a phenomenal Take again
30:59
Speaker 1: with that power suit, because that puts you in that
31:01
Speaker 1: place of authority once again. Let's just say absolutely, it's
31:05
Speaker 1: of my little cousins. Um. They're obsessed with that show
31:08
Speaker 1: doc Mixed stuffins, which if you don't if you don't
31:10
Speaker 1: have children in your life, you might not know what
31:12
Speaker 1: that is. But it's a little black girl who is
31:14
Speaker 1: a doctor, and you know just how important it is
31:17
Speaker 1: for them to see, you know, little black and brown
31:20
Speaker 1: girls like them as doctors, as decision makers is powerful
31:24
Speaker 1: and you know it, Sam you mentioned earlier, how like
31:28
Speaker 1: we're in this moment where that's being threatened. Whenever I
31:31
Speaker 1: hear a full grown adult who complains about things like, um,
31:37
Speaker 1: what's that new movie where the girl turns into a
31:42
Speaker 1: panda turning down? Whenever I hear full grown adults say
31:47
Speaker 1: things like oh why do they have to make these
31:50
Speaker 1: shows woke now, like blah blah blah, I want to
31:55
Speaker 1: scream so loud and turn into a pile of like ash.
31:59
Speaker 1: It was so angry because it's like, don't you understand,
32:03
Speaker 1: you dip, this is important for kids. It is important
32:07
Speaker 1: for kids to see themselves reflected, like I could still
32:10
Speaker 1: tell you like it's it was so rare to see
32:13
Speaker 1: black women on mainstream television where I was growing up. Like,
32:17
Speaker 1: in addition to things like X Files, I was also
32:18
Speaker 1: just big into movies and TV and stuff is in general.
32:22
Speaker 1: I would watch like John Hughes movies or like teen movies,
32:27
Speaker 1: and if I saw like a black woman in the background,
32:29
Speaker 1: I would like pause it and be like, there's there's
32:32
Speaker 1: a black woman back there. Like that. It's so pathetic
32:35
Speaker 1: and sad looking back, but like, I was so thirsty
32:37
Speaker 1: to see myself represented that I would take whatever little
32:40
Speaker 1: crumbs that I could get. And so when full grown
32:43
Speaker 1: adults in two talk about how, oh well, back in
32:47
Speaker 1: my day. It just used to be white men on TV.
32:50
Speaker 1: Why did they gotta make it woke? Blah blah blah.
32:52
Speaker 1: It makes me so angry because what they're saying is
32:56
Speaker 1: we should go back to a time or people who
32:58
Speaker 1: look like we do should have should be set satisfied
33:00
Speaker 1: with the crumbs. And they don't understand how important and
33:03
Speaker 1: how impactful it is to see yourself represented. And they're
33:05
Speaker 1: trying to take that that powerful thing away from a
33:09
Speaker 1: new generation and we and we didn't really have it
33:12
Speaker 1: like that, like we had to take that we can
33:13
Speaker 1: get right, And so what they are saying is, you know,
33:17
Speaker 1: we need to go back to a time when little
33:19
Speaker 1: brown girls and little girls and little black girls need
33:22
Speaker 1: to be satisfied with whatever little scraps they get of
33:25
Speaker 1: seeing themselves reflected, and the majority of it needs to
33:28
Speaker 1: be reflecting my experience, which is already reflected everywhere, every everywhere, time,
33:32
Speaker 1: every time you turn around like it. It infuriates me.
33:36
Speaker 1: And also it's just one of those things where it's like,
33:38
Speaker 1: you're a grown man, why do you care what movies are?
33:41
Speaker 1: Why are yourself upset about this? Right? And I love
33:44
Speaker 1: that he is so upset that he didn't get representation
33:46
Speaker 1: in that, and you're like, but wait, um, there's so
33:50
Speaker 1: many other movies that you have no representation, and but
33:52
Speaker 1: you're okay with because it's not at least a marginalized
33:55
Speaker 1: person that can take credit in being like, Hey, look,
33:59
Speaker 1: we're accessible. That's wonderful, we're human. What oh my god?
34:03
Speaker 1: Exactly that. And what's so interesting to me is basically,
34:06
Speaker 1: when you pull that argument apart, what they're basically saying
34:10
Speaker 1: is that, so, I'm a black woman, but I was
34:12
Speaker 1: impacted by Dana Scully even though she's a white woman, right,
34:15
Speaker 1: And so I saw part of my experience reflected in her,
34:19
Speaker 1: you know, her experience on the expels, but not fully right.
34:21
Speaker 1: And so certainly marginalized people have have had to find
34:27
Speaker 1: reflections of themselves in characters that do not look like them, right,
34:30
Speaker 1: So that's just like part of our experience. What they're
34:32
Speaker 1: actually saying is that white a white straight man couldn't
34:37
Speaker 1: could not do the same, that they're unable to see
34:39
Speaker 1: their own experiences reflected in characters that do not look
34:42
Speaker 1: like them. And so I feel like, when you really
34:44
Speaker 1: pull that argument apart, it's incredibly like white men should
34:48
Speaker 1: be offended by the implication that they're unable to connect
34:50
Speaker 1: with characters who are not white men like we people
34:53
Speaker 1: of color and women and other marginalized communities have to
34:56
Speaker 1: do it every day just to like enjoy media and
34:59
Speaker 1: connect with media. So this idea that like, oh, a
35:03
Speaker 1: white guy wouldn't be able to connect with Molanna or
35:06
Speaker 1: something like they ought to be offended because marginalized people
35:10
Speaker 1: are asked to do it every day, right, kind of
35:12
Speaker 1: comes to the point of um, when people do celebrate it,
35:16
Speaker 1: it's becomes Okay, well, you we've done it. That's it.
35:18
Speaker 1: That's all you can have. That's the quantity, that's the
35:20
Speaker 1: that's the limit that we have. We can only have
35:22
Speaker 1: one marginalized person per quarter to make money and take
35:26
Speaker 1: up screen time in the story. And it kind of
35:29
Speaker 1: feels that way even with like X files being big,
35:31
Speaker 1: but they're like, all right, we got a woman in there,
35:33
Speaker 1: but we also have that dude in here because we
35:34
Speaker 1: got it. We gotta even this sound because it can't
35:36
Speaker 1: be too female centrics. So but we'll give her this
35:42
Speaker 1: and celebrate it. And it's it should be celebrated because
35:44
Speaker 1: it did impact it, but it's also you know, it's
35:46
Speaker 1: limited quantities. Yeah, I think I think that's a feeling
35:51
Speaker 1: that really persists in media and Hollywood, that like you
35:54
Speaker 1: can't have more than one, and I think it's I
35:58
Speaker 1: think it's really used to perpet wait, like a a
36:01
Speaker 1: scarcity myth that oh, so like if I'm a black
36:04
Speaker 1: woman and I'm trying out for something and another black
36:06
Speaker 1: woman is trying out for something, she has to be
36:08
Speaker 1: my enemy because there's only room for one, and that
36:11
Speaker 1: line of thinking is so it's just it's there's room
36:14
Speaker 1: for all of us, there's room for all of our stories.
36:16
Speaker 1: And I think it really it really reinforces this attitude
36:18
Speaker 1: that we should be against each other when in reality,
36:21
Speaker 1: we should be with each other for all of us. Yeah. Yeah.
36:27
Speaker 1: Somebody sent me an article the other day and it
36:29
Speaker 1: was really cute and sweet article, but it was about
36:31
Speaker 1: like a queer reading of this show I was reading,
36:34
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, I mean this is great,
36:37
Speaker 1: but it felt like there's a part of me that
36:39
Speaker 1: felt so sad that it was like trying to find
36:41
Speaker 1: these clues that there was this actual queer relationship happening,
36:46
Speaker 1: and I just had this moment of like made me
36:52
Speaker 1: really sad. I think it really is like we have
36:56
Speaker 1: had to be nourished by so little and so you know,
37:00
Speaker 1: pausing a screen where two characters share a knowing glance
37:03
Speaker 1: or something and having and like having to be nourished
37:06
Speaker 1: by that. When we deserve full stories. We deserve to
37:09
Speaker 1: see queer couples, you know, actually engaging in in like
37:15
Speaker 1: a you know, relationship and not having one of them
37:18
Speaker 1: die in the end or something like that. Like we
37:21
Speaker 1: deserve that. Yeah, I'm telling you, bridget every time you
37:24
Speaker 1: go on here, and like, let us just have a
37:26
Speaker 1: venting session. Um. We returned to this in a later
37:29
Speaker 1: day thoughts for sure, Yeah, we should go back to
37:46
Speaker 1: Dana's gully and maybe like what if people don't know
37:49
Speaker 1: what the xpils is? Okay, so if you don't know
37:52
Speaker 1: what the X files are, first of all, what are
37:54
Speaker 1: you doing with your life? No, just kidding, I know
37:59
Speaker 1: Shelter had on a lot. That's what we watched, Okay, Okay,
38:10
Speaker 1: we can watch a scary things Okay, in case you
38:15
Speaker 1: didn't watch it. Um. It was a show that first
38:17
Speaker 1: premiered on September and Dana Scully is a surgeon working
38:22
Speaker 1: as a special agent for the FBI alongside our partner
38:24
Speaker 1: Fox Molder. And together they investigate the X files, which
38:27
Speaker 1: are unsolved FBI cases caused by unexplained phenomena um. And
38:32
Speaker 1: usually it's something involving aliens or the supernatural, like something
38:37
Speaker 1: kind of scary going on. And so, as we said,
38:40
Speaker 1: Molder is kind of the wild card who is open
38:42
Speaker 1: to the possibility of the paranormal, where Scully has sort
38:45
Speaker 1: of played us the like logical officship capable one um.
38:48
Speaker 1: And yeah, so like that's sort of a breakdown of
38:52
Speaker 1: of what the X files were and like why nerd
38:55
Speaker 1: weirdo is like me and Annie were so obsessed with
38:57
Speaker 1: growing up. Oh and we were not the only ones,
39:02
Speaker 1: and this is part of what led to the Scully effect,
39:06
Speaker 1: that's right. And so again, like before this research from
39:10
Speaker 1: the Davis Institute, the Scully effect was just like a
39:12
Speaker 1: like an anecdotal thing that people assumed, but there wasn't
39:15
Speaker 1: really any research to back it. And so their study
39:18
Speaker 1: really is kind of groundbreaking and that it really demonstrates
39:20
Speaker 1: the real world impact that that her character had. And
39:23
Speaker 1: so a little bit about how the researchers at the
39:26
Speaker 1: Davis Institute did the study. First, I should say I
39:28
Speaker 1: am no methodologist, So if you want to hear the
39:30
Speaker 1: nitty gritty, you should listen to my episode of their
39:32
Speaker 1: No Girls on the Internet with the Davis Institute CEO,
39:35
Speaker 1: because she really breaks it down and it's fascinating. But
39:38
Speaker 1: a simplified version that I can explain is that, in
39:40
Speaker 1: order to assess the Scully effect, researchers conducted an online
39:43
Speaker 1: survey from w A fifteenth to February eighteen using an
39:47
Speaker 1: open sample of two thousand, twenty one participants. The sample
39:51
Speaker 1: was demographically representative and waited to be representative to women
39:54
Speaker 1: in the US population based on age which is twenty
39:57
Speaker 1: five or older, STEM involvement and young of the X
40:00
Speaker 1: Files and the researchers on this study basically found significant
40:05
Speaker 1: evidence of the Skully effect when it comes to attitudes
40:08
Speaker 1: towards STEM, working in a STEM field, and viewing Scully
40:11
Speaker 1: as a role model. Um so yeah, pretty, It's like
40:14
Speaker 1: they found pretty conclusive evidence that she had a material,
40:19
Speaker 1: measurable impact on women and girls seeing themselves in STEM. Yeah.
40:24
Speaker 1: And again, uh you can. You can look this up
40:27
Speaker 1: and there are some really lovely quotes you can find
40:29
Speaker 1: about it. And I loved people women sharing their stories
40:33
Speaker 1: of watching it when they were younger and thinking like
40:35
Speaker 1: having those like seeds planted of oh I could do
40:38
Speaker 1: this or that's them talking about the importance of watching
40:41
Speaker 1: her with their friends and how that impacted them. I
40:44
Speaker 1: love it. I love it. It's it's really great to
40:46
Speaker 1: like just a little bit of a breakdown. I won't
40:48
Speaker 1: get into like the whole thing, but like, if folks
40:50
Speaker 1: want to find the study, it's really easy to find
40:52
Speaker 1: if you just google Skully effect. But UM, Women who
40:55
Speaker 1: are medium or heavy watches on the X files hold
40:58
Speaker 1: more positive views of STEM that non or light watchers,
41:01
Speaker 1: and several survey questions linked this directly to the influence
41:04
Speaker 1: of Scully's character. Nearly two thirds of women who are
41:07
Speaker 1: familiar with Scully say that she increased their belief in
41:09
Speaker 1: the importance of STEM, and a greater percentage of medium
41:12
Speaker 1: and heavy watchers of the X Files strongly believe that
41:15
Speaker 1: young women should be encouraged to study STEM the non
41:17
Speaker 1: or light viewers of the X files UM and another
41:20
Speaker 1: thing like. They asked participants the question I would encourage
41:23
Speaker 1: my daughter or granddaughter to enter a STEM field, and
41:26
Speaker 1: more folks who watched the X file said yes to
41:29
Speaker 1: that question than folks who didn't watch it or like
41:31
Speaker 1: watch it occasionally, and so yeah, it seems really clear
41:35
Speaker 1: that there was this like documented impact that she had
41:38
Speaker 1: on women and girls. Ah, I love it so much.
41:42
Speaker 1: I love it so much. Yeah, and from what I
41:48
Speaker 1: remember reading about it, uh, almost everyone, well almost every
41:54
Speaker 1: quote that I read from people was saying like this
41:59
Speaker 1: had a I wouldn't go back and do it differently,
42:01
Speaker 1: or had such a big impact, and I'm so grateful
42:03
Speaker 1: for it, Like I'm glad that I had this representation.
42:07
Speaker 1: And then I saw that, which is beautiful that you know,
42:12
Speaker 1: you saw this character and they were like, oh, you
42:14
Speaker 1: know what, that's what I want to do. Yeah. So
42:18
Speaker 1: medium and heavy watchers of X Files are more likely
42:21
Speaker 1: to strongly agree with the statement if I could go
42:23
Speaker 1: back and do it again, I would have studied or
42:25
Speaker 1: worked in an industry that is STEM over non or
42:28
Speaker 1: light viewers, and so her her character even creates this
42:31
Speaker 1: vibe for women and girls who did not go into
42:34
Speaker 1: STEM to be like God. When I watched the show,
42:36
Speaker 1: part of me wonders what if I had and like,
42:39
Speaker 1: I'm I don't. I guess to consider myself like a
42:41
Speaker 1: woman in SEM I have a technology podcast and I
42:44
Speaker 1: kind of work in tech adjacent field. But you know,
42:47
Speaker 1: I often when I watched the X Files, I think, like,
42:50
Speaker 1: what would my life have been like if I had
42:52
Speaker 1: followed a different trajectory, right, like my dad as an engineer.
42:56
Speaker 1: And to say that I grew up in a household
42:59
Speaker 1: where I was encouraged to go into engineering is an understatement,
43:03
Speaker 1: because like I was sent to like engineering summer camp
43:06
Speaker 1: and stuff, but I still battled this internal perception that
43:09
Speaker 1: it wasn't for me. And I'm so glad that this
43:12
Speaker 1: character is impacting people in this way where they can
43:16
Speaker 1: really see themselves and even if they didn't go into STEM,
43:19
Speaker 1: it gives them that confidence that maybe they could have
43:22
Speaker 1: even if they didn't. Yeah, that's a good point, um that,
43:25
Speaker 1: because that's really powerful too. And something else I believe.
43:29
Speaker 1: In the study, they asked about people who particularly viewed
43:32
Speaker 1: Scully as a role model. Right, that's right. So most
43:37
Speaker 1: of the women in the sample considered Dana Scully to
43:39
Speaker 1: be a role model for women and girls, and women
43:42
Speaker 1: who work in the STEM fields are particularly likely to
43:44
Speaker 1: see her this way. Nearly two thirds of women who
43:46
Speaker 1: work in STEM say that Scully served as their role model.
43:50
Speaker 1: Among the women who are familiar with Scully's character that
43:53
Speaker 1: Scully increase their confidence that they could excel at a
43:56
Speaker 1: male dominated profession. So yeah, I mean like she is
44:00
Speaker 1: a role model. And when they asked the participants like
44:03
Speaker 1: what words come to mind when you think of her,
44:05
Speaker 1: they gave words like strong, intelligent, smart, and so again
44:09
Speaker 1: like how important it is not just to see a
44:12
Speaker 1: woman in STEM, but a woman in STEM who is
44:14
Speaker 1: like kicking ass and making decisions and really good at
44:17
Speaker 1: her job. Yeah, I mean, I haven't watched the show
44:20
Speaker 1: since uh a long a long time. I watched it too,
44:24
Speaker 1: from beginning to end, but I don't think I've gone
44:26
Speaker 1: back since then. But I remember my perception as a
44:29
Speaker 1: young girl being like she was the more competent one
44:33
Speaker 1: of Scully and Boulder. She was kind of like trying
44:36
Speaker 1: to keep him together. And I just it did have
44:42
Speaker 1: a massive impacts on me, and me and my friend
44:45
Speaker 1: and my best friend who would watched it over the
44:47
Speaker 1: phone with we were both determined, Uh, we had it
44:51
Speaker 1: in her heads that we were going to find the
44:53
Speaker 1: cure free bowlot And I'm not sure like if we
44:56
Speaker 1: would have had that if if I wasn't watching this
44:58
Speaker 1: show where I was watching this woman just dominate in
45:03
Speaker 1: the lab. So it did. I just it is. It
45:08
Speaker 1: is powerful and again, I just I love that when
45:11
Speaker 1: I look back on it, I just believed that I
45:16
Speaker 1: wanted to believe and I did because she was. She
45:19
Speaker 1: was just badass. There was no question about it. She
45:21
Speaker 1: just was. She First of all, she saved Molders asked
45:27
Speaker 1: all the time on the show, like he was always
45:29
Speaker 1: getting them into situations and she was always having to
45:32
Speaker 1: clean up his messages and like it's like say like
45:34
Speaker 1: say both there, asked, So she was definitely like the
45:37
Speaker 1: like the more, the more competent the FBI agent of
45:41
Speaker 1: the duo for sure. And yeah, I think like I
45:45
Speaker 1: think it's just a it's just a testament to the
45:48
Speaker 1: power of the stories and why it's so important that
45:52
Speaker 1: we had them. And again, as I was saying, I
45:53
Speaker 1: think it's easy to say who cares? Just TV like
45:57
Speaker 1: it's not really having an impact, it's just you know,
45:59
Speaker 1: mindless entertainment. But representation really matters. And I know it's
46:03
Speaker 1: not the only thing that matters, but it is really
46:05
Speaker 1: important because when we can see ourselves reflected, it create
46:09
Speaker 1: It creates a world where the possibility has become that
46:13
Speaker 1: much more real and that much more endless for us.
46:17
Speaker 1: And you know, I guess I I know I've said
46:19
Speaker 1: this a couple of times, but I just really do
46:21
Speaker 1: believe that our stories are valuable and that we, or
46:25
Speaker 1: when I say we, I mean women, queer folks, black folks,
46:28
Speaker 1: trans folks, like all of us, we deserved it to
46:31
Speaker 1: see ourselves reflected, and we shouldn't have to be satisfied
46:34
Speaker 1: with like pausing the show to point to someone who
46:37
Speaker 1: looks like us or like you know, even though it
46:39
Speaker 1: can be very fun, like inventing a whole queer relationship.
46:43
Speaker 1: We deserve to have fun recreationally inventing a queer relationship
46:46
Speaker 1: and our fan fiction and also see a queer relationship
46:49
Speaker 1: played out on television. Oh gosh, so much fan fiction
46:56
Speaker 1: stories I could share, but I won't. Yeah, and I'd
46:59
Speaker 1: love to. I'm glad you brought up the point, because
47:01
Speaker 1: I don't think I had really sussed that out or
47:04
Speaker 1: encountered it. But I'm glad that you brought up the
47:06
Speaker 1: point that even for people who didn't go into STEM,
47:10
Speaker 1: it was important in believing that they could are believing
47:13
Speaker 1: that STEM was important, so this effect had bigger. It
47:18
Speaker 1: was bigger than even I had realized. Yes, that's right, So,
47:22
Speaker 1: you know, beyond attitude. So, according to the study, beyond
47:25
Speaker 1: attitudes towards STEM, the Scully effect that's also found in
47:28
Speaker 1: behaviors relating to STEM. Women who regularly watched X files
47:31
Speaker 1: or significantly more likely to have considered going into a
47:34
Speaker 1: STEM career, major in the STEM fields in college, and
47:37
Speaker 1: worked in a STEM profession. Among women who are familiar
47:39
Speaker 1: with Scullies character, half of them say that Scully increased
47:42
Speaker 1: their interest in STEM. And so yeah, it's it's also
47:45
Speaker 1: about sort of just the attitude that even if you're
47:48
Speaker 1: not somebody who who is necessarily a STEM person yourself,
47:51
Speaker 1: just that like you could be interested in it, you
47:52
Speaker 1: could try it out, you could take a class if
47:54
Speaker 1: you wanted, you could you know, do a major, even
47:56
Speaker 1: if you are going to go into that as a
47:57
Speaker 1: as a profession. And I think that that is that
48:02
Speaker 1: that is important, even if it's even even for people
48:04
Speaker 1: who are not in STEM, that is important. The study
48:07
Speaker 1: found that moderate and heavy viewers place a higher priority
48:10
Speaker 1: on encouraging girls and women to go into STEM than
48:12
Speaker 1: non or light viewers, and nearly two thirds of regular
48:15
Speaker 1: viewers saying that Scully increase their belief in the importance
48:18
Speaker 1: of STEM and so yeah, like just the this the
48:21
Speaker 1: idea of I think it can be a powerful impact,
48:25
Speaker 1: not just to say like, oh, you're gonna go into
48:27
Speaker 1: a STEM field, but say like, I can be interested
48:30
Speaker 1: in it. I'm and I find it important. I'm not
48:32
Speaker 1: intimidated by it because I think that you know, when
48:35
Speaker 1: we I think there are so many ways that women
48:39
Speaker 1: and marginalized people are told that technology is not for
48:42
Speaker 1: us and that either a we can't understand it, or
48:45
Speaker 1: be even if we can understand it, you don't need
48:48
Speaker 1: to worry about it, like let the tech, let the
48:51
Speaker 1: tech suits tell you what's what. And so that idea
48:56
Speaker 1: is so damaging because technology plays such a huge are
49:00
Speaker 1: in all of our lives, from our democracy to how
49:02
Speaker 1: we get our groceries delivered to whether or not we
49:05
Speaker 1: are criminalized and wind up in jail. Technology is at
49:09
Speaker 1: the forefront of all of that. And so if we
49:10
Speaker 1: live in a society that tells marginalized people that you
49:13
Speaker 1: don't even need to be interested in it, but alone
49:16
Speaker 1: like going to go into it professionally, that is a problem.
49:19
Speaker 1: And so I think that the impacts are so much
49:21
Speaker 1: bigger than just whether or not you go into stam
49:23
Speaker 1: or not, just understanding like technology is something that you
49:27
Speaker 1: should be invested in and know about and feel confident
49:31
Speaker 1: to be involved in. I think it's really really important stuff. Right. Yeah.
49:35
Speaker 1: I love that because even though I didn't watch it
49:38
Speaker 1: and I'm not intostom any of that, but as you
49:41
Speaker 1: had said, as the studies said, it kind of built
49:43
Speaker 1: the millennials to be the encouragers for the next generation
49:46
Speaker 1: to be like, we've seen it, we know it can happen.
49:49
Speaker 1: Let's encourage you. Instead of having that you know, older
49:52
Speaker 1: generation that was like, yeah, you can't do that, but
49:54
Speaker 1: like actually falling in love with the idea, and even
49:57
Speaker 1: though they may not have done it, they know that
49:58
Speaker 1: it can happen. And so in couraging the next generation
50:01
Speaker 1: to do so is the Skully generation. That's what I'm
50:04
Speaker 1: gonna Scully generation. I love it. Yeah. I mean even
50:07
Speaker 1: for me, like I I worked at tech companies and
50:10
Speaker 1: for the longest time, I was like, oh, I'm not
50:12
Speaker 1: really in a tech person. I don't really know And
50:14
Speaker 1: I realized that that from for marginalized people to just
50:18
Speaker 1: concede that you're not a tech person just allows for
50:22
Speaker 1: technology to happen around you as opposed to it happening
50:26
Speaker 1: with your understanding of it, right, And so I just
50:28
Speaker 1: think that we all. I think the reason why I
50:30
Speaker 1: was so excited to talk about this is that it
50:32
Speaker 1: is important for marginalized people to see ourselves reflected in
50:35
Speaker 1: tech and to feel like tech leaders and people who
50:39
Speaker 1: make technology should be accountable to us, and that we
50:42
Speaker 1: feel confident asserting it because it whether we're tech, people
50:45
Speaker 1: that are not, technology shows up in our lives and
50:47
Speaker 1: we should be, you know, really ready to acknowledge that
50:50
Speaker 1: and to grapple with that and to talk about that
50:52
Speaker 1: and to deal with it home. I'm trying to think
50:56
Speaker 1: of like a great X Files quote to Indizon, but uh,
51:01
Speaker 1: all I'm remembering is the Killer b episode for some reason,
51:04
Speaker 1: because that one disturbed me so so I the one
51:06
Speaker 1: episode I watched was the uh, the neighborhood episode, and
51:11
Speaker 1: I never went back to watch it again because and
51:13
Speaker 1: he was like, yes, bad, because I was like, I
51:14
Speaker 1: was horrified after that and she described it to me
51:17
Speaker 1: like it was that that's the only episode that one.
51:21
Speaker 1: I'm like shocked and again, oh wow, yeah, what what
51:27
Speaker 1: an intrigue into X Files. That episode would be and
51:31
Speaker 1: watch the rest of it. I don't know, it was crazy,
51:34
Speaker 1: that's fair. We should have an exile to watch. Party
51:38
Speaker 1: would have let's do this. I am and well a
51:43
Speaker 1: good good And then question could be like, any what
51:45
Speaker 1: is your favorite episode? Do you have one? Oh? I
51:50
Speaker 1: like immediately collapsed in on myself. Oh that is a
51:55
Speaker 1: good question. I So most of the ones I remember
51:58
Speaker 1: very clearly were the ones that disturbed me the most.
52:01
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm thinking the Killer b one. There was
52:02
Speaker 1: that one was like the kid he was like had
52:06
Speaker 1: electricity in his hands. Oh yeah, that one was messed up.
52:10
Speaker 1: And then the one Samantha's talking about home, which is
52:13
Speaker 1: infamous about cannibals. I don't know. Now, now you've given
52:19
Speaker 1: me a project and I'm going to have to go
52:22
Speaker 1: look over. But I did used to write. I did
52:24
Speaker 1: used to right X Files fan fiction. I knew it,
52:27
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go back and see if I can
52:29
Speaker 1: find it, because then I'll see my favorite episodes, because
52:32
Speaker 1: I would always choose like my angstyest favorite episodes um
52:37
Speaker 1: to write fan fiction about. So oh well, I'm you
52:42
Speaker 1: guys are gonna think I'm a big weirdo. But it's home.
52:45
Speaker 1: I think. I think, yeah, I think it has the
52:48
Speaker 1: cadence of like good horror. Like it's like, it's OK,
52:52
Speaker 1: if you, if you, if you have not watched X Files,
52:55
Speaker 1: do not start with that one, because it's it's a
52:57
Speaker 1: it's an intense one. But I just feel like it's
52:59
Speaker 1: a that the pasting and the cadence of the episode,
53:03
Speaker 1: it's like a good horror short story or something. It's
53:05
Speaker 1: just looks perfect to me. Oh yeah, it's great. It's
53:09
Speaker 1: disturbing and terrifying, and I remember it very clearly, even
53:12
Speaker 1: though it was obviously I do. Of all the things
53:15
Speaker 1: that I've ever watched, that one episode, I still like
53:18
Speaker 1: horrified by it. As well as the fact that I'm like,
53:21
Speaker 1: I will no longer ago to anywhere that looks like
53:23
Speaker 1: a suburbs with white people. That's advice, don't go poking
53:31
Speaker 1: around and some like creepy suburban house. Yeah. Oh yes,
53:37
Speaker 1: Well this has been such a delight. Um, So, I mean,
53:40
Speaker 1: we could continue talking forever and ever in Samantha would
53:43
Speaker 1: just let us go, but I suppose it will. We'll
53:47
Speaker 1: stop here for now. Even though I'm very interested in
53:49
Speaker 1: this watch party idea, Bridget where can the good listeners
53:53
Speaker 1: find you while you can listen to my podcast, I
53:55
Speaker 1: definitely recommend listening to the full episode of their No
53:58
Speaker 1: Girls on the Internet with That's EO of the Davis
54:02
Speaker 1: Institute talking all about the Danta Scully effect on the
54:04
Speaker 1: research and how it came to be in all of
54:06
Speaker 1: that um. But also just check out the podcast. We'd
54:08
Speaker 1: love to have you there. You can find it on
54:10
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast on.
54:13
Speaker 1: You can follow me on Instagram at Bridget Marie d
54:15
Speaker 1: C or on Twitter at Bridget Marine. Yes, and definitely
54:19
Speaker 1: you don't have to start saying award winning podcast girl,
54:22
Speaker 1: oh I sometimes I say it sparingly. Yes, Yes, yes,
54:35
Speaker 1: es ches always such a pleasure to talk to you.
54:38
Speaker 1: Award winning podcast Bridget, Yes, I'll take it. Yes and listeners.
54:44
Speaker 1: If you would like to contact as you can or
54:46
Speaker 1: email Stuffy your Mom Stuff that I Hurt me dot com.
54:48
Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at moms to Podcasts
54:50
Speaker 1: or on Instagram at Stuff I've Never told you. Thanks.
54:52
Speaker 1: It's always your super producer Christina also award winning to
54:55
Speaker 1: us absolutely and probably in real life. Check look at
54:59
Speaker 1: the UH and thanks to you for listening stuff I
55:04
Speaker 1: never told you protection by high radio from more podcast radio.
55:07
Speaker 1: It was a DA radio, Apple podcast or Rady listen
55:09
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