Clint and I sat down to eat dinner. We turned on Netflix. Oh, let's just try that House of Cards, it's too much work to look for something good. First thirty seconds and a dog is wounded by a human. That's it for that show. Okay, X Files. Sci-fi is really doing it for me lately. I had watched the show with my family--a strange thing indeed, strange that we were allowed to watch something "iffy".
Clint and I watched the pilot over kale, carrots and pine nuts. He cooked. It was delicious.
It was '92 when the pilot was filmed and '93 when it aired. Gillian had gorgeous skin. She did a great job being a smart woman.
I was caught off-guard when she stripped down to her bra--it seemed so intimate because she had been so buttoned up with such straight hair. Invulnerable. But the thing that made it really intimate was the choice to have her wear such an average bra. It was the same color as her skin and a basic underwire. Not black, not satin, not push-up. Then she look off her pants! She wore off-white cotton panties with high leg holes and a high waist. They didn't fit her tiny butt very well, were a little saggy. The viewer was tasked to look at her body, and then asked to examine it for alien bites.
Wait, I said! Pause it! Clint hit the space bar on our Mac.
Her underwear! Can you believe she's wearing cotton? Geesh, it's like she's extra naked.
I was very uncomfortable. It was '93 on the TV for heaven's sake. Maybe I was back to being 13 and prudish, but no, that didn't seem quite right.
It's pre-Victoria's Secret, Clint says.
Oh, I said. Yes.
I'm so used to seeing actresses in lingerie that it seems like another type of clothing, like they aren't nearly naked. But cotton underwear, whoa. Time-warped me more than the alien abduction. Would I have reacted so strongly if I had been 32 when I first saw the pilot? Probably not. I probably would have worn the same underwear Gillian did and my surprise would only be at her stripping down in the first show. (Which, come on, was lame)Growing up during the lingerie shift, I felt shame and embarrassment when viewing her plain underwear. It felt like we, the viewers, were truly violating her privacy.
