“‘What Am I Now If I’m not a Father?’: Fox Mulder’s Ageing Masculinity in The X-Files.”
Martín Alegre, Sara (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Publicación:	London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2025
Resumen:	The X-Files (1993-2002), the popular show created by Chris Carter, returned in 2008 (with a second film), in 2016 with season 10 (six episodes) and again in 2018 with season 11 (ten episodes). In this chapter I consider the ageing male protagonist, Fox Mulder (supposedly born in 1961), with special attention to the alien invasion mythology and his love story with Dana Scully. My thesis is that the whole series can be summarized as the struggle between Mulder and his father, the villainous Cigarette-Smoking Man, for the possession of Scully’s reproductive capacities. Seasons 10 and 11 narrate how the child William, whom Scully gave in adoption to protect him while Mulder was being hunted down (seasons 8 and 9), is in fact the villain’s son and can thus be erased from their lives. When a devastated Mulder asks her ‘What am I now if I’m not a father?’, Scully replies that she is pregnant by him and as a result of natural sex, not an experiment. In this final episode, Scully is 54, which makes her pregnancy highly unlikely. Her baby, however, must be read as a vindication of Mulder’s ageing masculinity (he’s 57) over the deviant masculinities of his own old father (aged around 80) and even of young William (aged 17). The various conspiracies associated to the alien invaders, the hegemonic Syndicate, Mulder’s father and even the apocalypse William and Scully have visions of, are swept aside in Carter’s quest to vindicate Mulder’s idiosyncratic masculinity, an endeavor which is ultimately the core of The X-Files.
Nota:	This text is the pre-print version of the chapter published on 11 December 2025 in the volume Masculinities in Contemporary Science-Fiction Television, eds. Sara Martín and Michael Pitts, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 111-126, ISBN 9781350458437 (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/masculinities-in-contemporary-sciencefiction-television-9781350458437/). The text is uploaded in UAB’s repository with Bloomsbury’s permission. For any doubt, contact the author, Sara.Martin@uab.cat. Readers MAY NOT reproduce or circulate this text, which is protected by full copyright. The author invites readers to read and cite the original Bloomsbury volume.
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Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Capítol de llibre ; Versió de l'autor
Materia:	Chris Carter ; Fox Mulder (character) ; The X-Files (series) ; fatherhood ; masculinity ; Science fiction
Publicado en:	Masculinities in Contemporary Science-Fiction Television, eds. Sara Martín and Michael Pitts, 2025, p. 111-126, ISBN 9781350458437

Preprint 17 p, 598.6 KB

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