In Praise Of Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully: The Gateway Lesbian of Choice for Millions

I must have been about 13 when I first laid eyes on Dana Scully. I turned on an episode of The X-Files simply because there was nothing else on TV at the time. I was immediately obsessed, not with the aliens or the mythology but with Scully, the at times taciturn but always mesmerizing FBI agent that would go on to become one of the most iconic TV characters of all time as well as a gateway to millions of women around the world realizing that — surprise! — they’re super gay. I know because I’m one of them. 

It’s hard to describe what made Scully (the character) and Gillian Anderson (the actress who brought her to life) so alluring. Sure, she was physically beautiful to the point that you didn’t know when watching her if you wanted to look like her, stare at her for hours, or make out with her (or all three), but there was something more to her. Scully was smart, perceptive, and dogged in her dedication to justice and doing the right thing. At times she was a bit of a stick in the mud, which weirdly made her even hotter. Needless to say, many women soon found themselves with a major crush on the fairer half of the FBI’s most unwanted. 

I’m not the first to notice the phenomenon, of course. The “Gillian Anderson/Dana Scully Made Me Gay” movement has been going strong since the ‘90s and is so strong that even academic research has been done on it. All over the world, lesbian and queer women of all ages, races, and walks of life have all revealed that not only was Scully their first crush but that she was the catalyst for their sexual exploration and eventual realization and acceptance that they loved women. 

Given that Scully was 100% straight in The X-Files and that there weren’t even any LGBTQ+ characters on the show, it perhaps seems odd that the series garnered such a huge following in the community and that so many gay women in particular were drawn to it/her. That’s likely where Anderson comes in. Effervescent and boisterous, she was Scully’s polar opposite. In interviews, she flirted, laughed loudly, and basically proved just what a talented actress she really was. When the cameras rolled, she was able to become serious, studious Scully; when they stopped, she was very much her vibrant, outspoken self. It doesn’t hurt that Anderson herself has dated women in the past. While that little tidbit didn’t come out until about 2015, it does go a long way towards explaining that previously inexplicable gay energy she (and subsequently Scully) gave off for all those years.  

It’s perhaps this dichotomy between the character and the actress who played her that made Anderson and Scully more attractive. You couldn’t be aware of one without being aware of the other, and the stark contrast of these two entirely different personalities housed in the same body was exhilarating for many women, especially young ones like me who didn’t really know myself at all just yet, let alone my sexuality. Scully made me have feelings I couldn’t really identify at that age, a mixture of adolescent longing and admiration with a dash of what I can only describe, now that I’m much older and wiser, as ladywood. 

It wasn’t every episode that stirred up such intense emotion and hots for Scully. There were plenty that went by without much fanfare. However, it was when the character was the most pained, the most passionate, or the most in peril that you suddenly found yourself wanting to jump her bones. When Gerry Schnauz kidnaps her in “Unruhe,” you wanted to reach through the screen and rescue her and promise to keep her safe forever. In “Pusher,” when she tries to stop Mulder (David Duchovny) from playing Russian roulette with Modell and absolutely loses her shit, you had to take a deep breath to tamper your attraction to her for a minute. I’m pretty sure many people had to take a cold shower after watching “Never Again,” which should also be known as “The One In Which Scully Gets Laid.” Most of Season 4 and 5 were Peak Hotness and could be counted on to really get a lady-loving lady going, but it was those random moments in which Scully let loose a little bit from her usual buttoned-up, self-contained self that suddenly made you want to swear off men forever. 

It’s been nearly 20 years since The X-Files went off the air, but the mark it left on pop culture and on the lives of the millions of women like myself will never be forgotten. I’ve been married to a woman now for nearly seven years and yes, she loves Gillian Anderson, too. She never got the whole Scully thing, but that’s okay – there are plenty of us who did (and still do).

Jennifer Still is a writer and editor from New York who cares too way much about fictional characters and spends her time writing about them.

Where to stream The X-Files