Date: Sat, 13 May 1995 14:25:56 -0400 From: [g--l--n] at [falcon.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FtP 531 ==== FIT TO PRINT by cathrine yronwode for the week of May 8, 1995 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 531: I will never get to see a copy of Topps' X-Files #1. The darned thing is selling for 30 to 75 bucks, according to reports on the internet. The buzz about this sleeper sales success story is that Topps will put out a trade paperback collection soon (oh goody-joy) and that almost no one likes the interior artwork. My favourite comment on the latter was some net-head's observation that "the art in the Mad magazine parody ("Eccch-Files") looked better than the art in the official X-Files comic book." Hey, give the kid an Aesthetic Appreciation Prize: the parody was drawn by Angelo Torres! While awaiting Topps' collection, i've been thinking about the narrow limits on characterization in comics versus the wide limits found in good television shows, and about a topic Maggie Thompson and i discussed years ago -the "wounded Dr. Who" or "wounded Spirit" syndrome, in which the male protagonist of a series is occasionally shown as hurt, ineffectual, or in need of emotional support. This subject has entered X-Files net talk under the lit-crit rubric of "gender transgression" and cases of both male-to-female and female-to-male "GTs" are logged there on a regular basis. What follows may not make sense to non X-Files fans, but given the going price on that elusive issue #1, i guess that there are quite a few X-Philes in CBG-land. Here's how gender transgression works in X-Files during medical crisis scenes. In "One Breath," Agent Scully (a woman, played by Gillian Anderson) is near death after what an extraterrestrial alien abduction during which her blood was contaminated with "branched DNA" (don't ask). She is dying. In "End Game," Agent Mulder (a man, played by David Duchovny) is infected by a deadly virus. Found on an Alaskan ice-pack, he is brought to a hospital where a well-mean-ing doctor tries to warm him, believing he has hypothermia. He is dying. The situations are analogous but they contain interesting gender-related differences: As Scully lies in a coma, we see her inner mental landscape, which is pastoral, "natural," and "feminine." She sits in a small rowboat (vulva-form) tied to a dock on a calm lake. We never see the inside of the comatose Mulder's mind. Mulder's' coma is viewed objectively; Scully's subjectively. This accords with traditional male-female role assignments. Mulder is shown with black eyes and wounds; Scully is shown as essentially whole in feature and form, presenting a "sleeping beauty" image. This also accords with traditional male-female role assignments. Scully is saved by the "feminine" values of love and care-personified by her mother, her sister, a mysterious angel-nurse, and the "feminized" Mulder who forgoes a potentially violent fight scene to sit by her and who weeps when he thinks she will die. Only when she is restored to consciousness does Mulder resume his "masculine" role by ironically offering her a sports-related gift. Mulder is saved by the "masculine" values of science-exemplified by a male doctor and a vehement "masculinized" Scully who forces the doctor to obey her orders. Science is pre-sented as counter-intuitive (keeping Mulder cold when cold seems to be what's killing him) and thus "against nature." In a voice-over, Scully emphasizes the confrontational aspects of medicine ("anti-viral" drugs are mentioned, for instance). Only when Mulder is restored to consciousness does Scully resume her "femi-nine" role by smiling and reassuring him. Each protagonist is saved by methods congruent with his or her societally-normative gender role, but since in each case the victim is unconscious and helpless to act, his or her partner/twin must assume a "gender transgressed" role to save the dying person. There is a great deal of soulful and mythic depth in this simple Victorian romance formula. It works upon the audience because they themselves have been trained to behave according to societally-normative gender roles and part of that training involves a belief that willingness to sacrifice one's gender-role to save a partner/twin of the opposite gender is a special significator of unrequited love. Does the Topps comic book contain this depth of characterization? Stay tuned-i hope to buy the trade paperback-at cover price. ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Back issues are available. FTP to cerebus.acusd.edu and look in the Comics/About Comics/Comics News/Fit to Print directory. FtP is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~91mithra. Responses are welcome and should be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] Fit to Print is Copyright Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.