They told her to track down aliens. But the creators of “The X-Files” did not expect this effect

Dr. Dana Scully brought Agent Mulder down to earth and asked him difficult questions that forced him to look for realistic solutions where it seemed that supernatural powers were at work. For her, it was a breakthrough role, but for the world of science – who knows, maybe it was one of the most important in the 1990s. What is the “Scully effect”?

Gillian Anderson and Chris Carter created a new, spacious drawer in “The X-Files”.

Gillian Anderson didn’t have an easy task in the mid-1990s when she became Dr. Dana Scully. In an interview with CBC in 1995, a journalist asked her point blank how she got the role if she wasn’t as hot as Sharon Stone. Those were the times when a woman on screen had few roles to play. She could be a sex bomb, she could be a busy mother and… that’s where her options ended (with the notable exception of “The Silence of the Lambs”). Gillian Anderson came to the casting for “” in an oversized costume (she borrowed it from a friend who was slightly larger than her) and charmed Chris Carter, the main writer of the series, who imagined his Scully just like that. His doctor has created a completely new niche to explore in TV series and films – an objective, skeptical, intelligent woman whose main weapon is not sex appeal, but brains and education.

But back then, in the 1990s, it was difficult to notice that a new category for actresses was being created. In an interview with CBC, Anderson mentioned that she has already heard from women about how they perceive her Scully. But a moment later she had to answer the question again whether the doctor and Mulder would create a romantic couple, because in “those times” it couldn’t be otherwise and this was the only way Scully could gain fulfillment.

Importantly, a few years later it turned out that the character of Scully had an impact not only on the world of television. It actually opened the way for many women who previously would not have dared to dream of a career as a scientist.

The “Scully Effect” is not a lie

It started with the fact that in the late 1990s, the number of female students in mathematics, technology, engineering and science fields increased significantly. This was naturally related to general social changes in the world, but it was only in 2018 that it was decided to study the influence of pop culture on women’s decisions. He selected over two thousand people over 25 years of age for the study. We managed to gather a group that mostly watched “The X-Files”. Women who watched this series more often in the 1990s indicated that Dana Scully was their inspiration when they later chose their careers. Less frequent viewers were less likely to go to technical universities, but even among this group, the opinion about Scully was extremely positive. The doctor was described as “intelligent”, “strong” and “wise”, which stood out compared to the description of her appearance – she was also said to be “beautiful” and “red”, but it was the qualities of intellect that were mentioned first.

We received a lot of letters from viewers, and I often heard, especially from girls, that they wanted to go into medicine or science, or work in the FBI just because of the character of Scully, said Gillian Anderson in 2013 at Comic Con in New York.

Seeing an intelligent, nice, realistic woman appreciated by a quite handsome co-worker – that was something. I think that many young women saw it and thought: “This is me, this is what I want, this is what I want to do,” said the actress.

The influence of Dana Scully’s character was briefly called the “Scully effect”. The character played by Gillian Anderson not only launched many scientific careers in the lives of viewers, but also changed the way women scientists are viewed in television productions. It was thanks to her that we later got Dr. Brennan in “Bones” and Zoe Washburne in “Firefly.” Today, both genders in the role of a scientist are equally represented and do not raise any surprise.