Xena: Warrior Princess in popular culture
Encyclopedia
Xena: Warrior Princess
has been referred to as a pop cultural phenomenon and feminist and lesbian
icon. The television series, which employed pop culture references as a frequent humorous device, has itself become a frequent pop culture reference in video games, comics and television shows, and has been frequently parodied and spoofed.
Xena: Warrior Princess has been credited by many, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon
, with blazing the trail for a new generation of female action heroes such as Buffy, Max of Dark Angel
, Sydney Bristow of Alias
, and the Bride in Quentin Tarantino
's Kill Bill
. It is interesting to note that after serving as Lucy Lawless's stunt double on Xena, stunt woman Zoë E. Bell
was recruited to be Uma Thurman's stunt double in Tarantino's Kill Bill. By helping to pave the way for female action heroes in television and film, "Xena" also strengthened the stunt woman profession.
Xena and Gabrielle's relationship (see Influence on the lesbian community) has been cited as one of the reasons why the series has been so popular, coupled with the denials of her character's lesbianism from Lawless while the series was running. Former United States of America (U.S.) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
has been nicknamed "Warrior Princess" by her staff.
series of books is Marco
's continual comparison of Rachel
to Xena, referring to her daredevil nature and her lust for battle.
nicknamed it "Xena" in honor of the TV character. On October 1, 2005, the team announced that had a moon, which they had nicknamed "Gabrielle". The objects were officially named Eris and Dysnomia
by the International Astronomical Union
on September 13, 2006. Although the official names have legitimate roots in Greek mythology, Dysnomia is also Greek for "lawlessness", perpetuating the link with Lucy Lawless.
has led to websites, online discussion forums, works of Xena fan fiction and several unofficial fan-made productions. Members of the Xena fandom
have written numerous fanfiction stories of the series. To get an idea, in January 1998, there were a total of 1.598 works of fanfiction going through the network
. The fans have popularized the term altfic to refer to fanfiction about loving relationships between women. Many believe that the term slash
refers only to relationships between men and does not truly describe the romantic fanfiction about Xena and Gabrielle, they prefer the term altfic. In honor of the character of Gabrielle
, fanfiction writers of the series were dubbed bards.
A special type of Fan Fiction of the series is Uber, or Uberfic
, a term coined in 1997 by Kym Taborn, the website Whoosh.org fan. The Uberfic Eve are stories in which Xena
, Gabrielle
, and other characters appear in different cultures and eras, from prehistory to the distant future, through reincarnation or supernatural means. Stories like these began drawing on the episode set in Macedonia
, The Xena Scrolls, starring descendants of Xena, Gabrielle and Joxer living in the 1940s. Subsequent episodes of the series had the characters appearing in various incarnations Xena
, Gabrielle
and Joxer
in India
and the United States
.
Once the series ended, several virtual seasons were created by fans and released on the Internet
, continuing the plot from the end of the series. These include Virtual Seasons subtext of Eve. In addition, the fanfic has inspired artwork published in several websites fans, whether paintings or drawings and designs by computer.
Xena has enjoyed a particular cult status in the lesbian
community. Some of the lesbian fan base sees Xena and Gabrielle as a couple and has embraced them as role models and lesbian icons. A group called The Marching Xenas has participated in many gay and lesbian pride parades.
A subject of much interest and debate among viewers is the question of whether Xena and Gabrielle are lovers. The issue is left deliberately ambiguous by the writers during most of the show. Jokes, innuendo, and other subtle evidence of a romantic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle is referred to as "lesbian subtext" or simply "subtext
" by fans. The issue of the true nature of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship caused intense shipping
debates in the fandom, which turned especially impassioned due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.
Many fans felt that the sexual nature of Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was cemented by an interview given by Lucy Lawless
to Lesbian News magazine in 2003. Lawless stated that after the series finale, where Gabrielle revives Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss, she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay... there was always a 'well, she might be or she might not be' but when there was that drip of water passing between their lips in the very final scene, that cemented it for me. Now it wasn't just that Xena was bisexual and kinda liked her gal pal and they kind of fooled around sometimes, it was 'Nope, they're married, man'."
The Xena fandom also popularized the term Altfic (from "alternative fiction") to refer to same-sex romantic fan fiction
. Many fans felt the term slash fiction
carried the connotation of being about male/male couples only and was not a good description for romantic fan fiction about Xena and Gabrielle.
wars" that turned especially intense due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.
Shortly after the 1995 debut of the action/fantasy series about a woman warrior seeking redemption for a dark past, fans started discussing the possibility of a relationship between Xena
and her sidekick and best friend Gabrielle
.
Toward the end of the first season, the show's producers began to play to this perception by deliberately inserting usually humorous lesbian innuendo into some episodes. The show acquired a cult following in the lesbian community. However, Xena had a number of male love interests as well, and from the first season she had an adversarial but sexually charged dynamic with Ares, the God of War, who frequently tried to win her over as his "Warrior Queen."
In a 10-year retrospective of the show in Salon.com
, journalist Cathy Young wrote:
In 2000, during the airing of the controversial fifth season, the intensity and sometimes nastiness of the "shipping wars" in the Xena fandom was chronicled (from a non-subtexter's point of view) by Australian artist Nancy Lorenz in an article titled "The Discrimination in the Xenaverse" in the online Xenaverse magazine Whoosh!http://www.whoosh.org/issue43/lorenz1.html and the flood of the letters it generated in response.
The wars did not abate after the series came to an end in 2001. In January 2003, Lucy Lawless
, the star of Xena: Warrior Princess
, told Lesbian News magazine that after watching the series finale (in which Gabrielle revived Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss) she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay."
In March 2005, one-time Xena screenwriter Katherine Fugate
, an outspoken supporter of the Xena/Gabrielle pairing, posted a statement on her website appealing for tolerance in the fandom:
Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001....
has been referred to as a pop cultural phenomenon and feminist and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
icon. The television series, which employed pop culture references as a frequent humorous device, has itself become a frequent pop culture reference in video games, comics and television shows, and has been frequently parodied and spoofed.
Xena: Warrior Princess has been credited by many, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
, with blazing the trail for a new generation of female action heroes such as Buffy, Max of Dark Angel
Dark Angel (TV series)
Dark Angel is an American biopunk/cyberpunk science fiction television series created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. The show premiered in the United States on the Fox network on October 3, 2000, and was canceled after two seasons...
, Sydney Bristow of Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
, and the Bride in Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's Kill Bill
Kill Bill
Kill Bill Volume 1 is a 2003 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart, the second volume being Kill Bill Volume 2....
. It is interesting to note that after serving as Lucy Lawless's stunt double on Xena, stunt woman Zoë E. Bell
Zoë Bell
Zoë E. Bell is a stuntwoman and actress from New Zealand. Some of her most notable stunt work includes doubling for Lucy Lawless on Xena: Warrior Princess and for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. As an actress, she has appeared both on television and in feature films and also starred in the web series...
was recruited to be Uma Thurman's stunt double in Tarantino's Kill Bill. By helping to pave the way for female action heroes in television and film, "Xena" also strengthened the stunt woman profession.
Xena and Gabrielle's relationship (see Influence on the lesbian community) has been cited as one of the reasons why the series has been so popular, coupled with the denials of her character's lesbianism from Lawless while the series was running. Former United States of America (U.S.) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
has been nicknamed "Warrior Princess" by her staff.
Literature
One of the running jokes in the AnimorphsAnimorphs
Animorphs is an English language science fiction series of young adult books written by K. A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. Five humans, Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias, and one alien, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill , obtain the ability to morph into any animal they touch. They name...
series of books is Marco
Marco (Animorphs)
Marco is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series, Animorphs, written by K. A. Applegate. His last name is never mentioned.-Biography:...
's continual comparison of Rachel
Rachel (Animorphs)
Rachel is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs. Her full name is never explicitly mentioned in the books, but her relation to her cousin Jake Berenson through their fathers makes it most likely to be Rachel Berenson, if it was never changed or hyphenated.-Biography:Before the...
to Xena, referring to her daredevil nature and her lust for battle.
Astronomy
In 2005, the team that discovered the dwarf planetDwarf planet
A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be spherical as a result of its own gravity but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals and is not a satellite...
nicknamed it "Xena" in honor of the TV character. On October 1, 2005, the team announced that had a moon, which they had nicknamed "Gabrielle". The objects were officially named Eris and Dysnomia
Dysnomia (moon)
- References :...
by the International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
on September 13, 2006. Although the official names have legitimate roots in Greek mythology, Dysnomia is also Greek for "lawlessness", perpetuating the link with Lucy Lawless.
Costume donation
In 2006, Lucy Lawless donated her personal Xena costume to the Museum of American History. In an interview the same year with Smithsonian magazine, she was asked the question "Was the Warrior Princess outfit comfortable?" and she responded:FanFic
The popularity of XenaXena
Xena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's Xena: Warrior Princess franchise. She first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before going on to appear in Xena: Warrior Princess TV show and subsequent comic book of the same name...
has led to websites, online discussion forums, works of Xena fan fiction and several unofficial fan-made productions. Members of the Xena fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
have written numerous fanfiction stories of the series. To get an idea, in January 1998, there were a total of 1.598 works of fanfiction going through the network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
. The fans have popularized the term altfic to refer to fanfiction about loving relationships between women. Many believe that the term slash
Slash fiction
Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex...
refers only to relationships between men and does not truly describe the romantic fanfiction about Xena and Gabrielle, they prefer the term altfic. In honor of the character of Gabrielle
Gabrielle (Xena)
Gabrielle is a fictional character played by Renée O'Connor in Xena: Warrior Princess. She is referred to by fans as the Battling Bard of Potidaea. Her trademark weapons are the Amazon fighting staff and later, the sais...
, fanfiction writers of the series were dubbed bards.
A special type of Fan Fiction of the series is Uber, or Uberfic
Uberfic
Uberfic is a kind of alternative universe fan fiction in which characters or events are portrayed somewhat closely to original canon but usually in a different time period, many times featuring the ancestors, descendants or reincarnations of canon characters...
, a term coined in 1997 by Kym Taborn, the website Whoosh.org fan. The Uberfic Eve are stories in which Xena
Xena
Xena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's Xena: Warrior Princess franchise. She first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before going on to appear in Xena: Warrior Princess TV show and subsequent comic book of the same name...
, Gabrielle
Gabrielle (Xena)
Gabrielle is a fictional character played by Renée O'Connor in Xena: Warrior Princess. She is referred to by fans as the Battling Bard of Potidaea. Her trademark weapons are the Amazon fighting staff and later, the sais...
, and other characters appear in different cultures and eras, from prehistory to the distant future, through reincarnation or supernatural means. Stories like these began drawing on the episode set in Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
, The Xena Scrolls, starring descendants of Xena, Gabrielle and Joxer living in the 1940s. Subsequent episodes of the series had the characters appearing in various incarnations Xena
Xena
Xena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's Xena: Warrior Princess franchise. She first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before going on to appear in Xena: Warrior Princess TV show and subsequent comic book of the same name...
, Gabrielle
Gabrielle (Xena)
Gabrielle is a fictional character played by Renée O'Connor in Xena: Warrior Princess. She is referred to by fans as the Battling Bard of Potidaea. Her trademark weapons are the Amazon fighting staff and later, the sais...
and Joxer
Joxer
Joxer is a fictional character in the syndicated television series Xena: Warrior Princess, played by American actor Ted Raimi. He is a comical wanna-be warrior who styles himself "Joxer the Mighty", and later "Joxer the Magnificent"....
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Once the series ended, several virtual seasons were created by fans and released on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, continuing the plot from the end of the series. These include Virtual Seasons subtext of Eve. In addition, the fanfic has inspired artwork published in several websites fans, whether paintings or drawings and designs by computer.
Influence on the lesbian community
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
community. Some of the lesbian fan base sees Xena and Gabrielle as a couple and has embraced them as role models and lesbian icons. A group called The Marching Xenas has participated in many gay and lesbian pride parades.
A subject of much interest and debate among viewers is the question of whether Xena and Gabrielle are lovers. The issue is left deliberately ambiguous by the writers during most of the show. Jokes, innuendo, and other subtle evidence of a romantic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle is referred to as "lesbian subtext" or simply "subtext
Subtext
Subtext or undertone is content of a book, play, musical work, film, video game, or television series which is not announced explicitly by the characters but is implicit or becomes something understood by the observer of the work as the production unfolds. Subtext can also refer to the thoughts...
" by fans. The issue of the true nature of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship caused intense shipping
Shipping (fandom)
Shipping, derived from the word relationship, is the belief that two fictional characters, typically from the same series, are in an intimate relationship, or have romantic feelings that could potentially lead to a relationship. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with...
debates in the fandom, which turned especially impassioned due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.
Many fans felt that the sexual nature of Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was cemented by an interview given by Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless, MNZM is a New Zealander actress and singer best known for playing the title character of the internationally successful television series Xena: Warrior Princess....
to Lesbian News magazine in 2003. Lawless stated that after the series finale, where Gabrielle revives Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss, she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay... there was always a 'well, she might be or she might not be' but when there was that drip of water passing between their lips in the very final scene, that cemented it for me. Now it wasn't just that Xena was bisexual and kinda liked her gal pal and they kind of fooled around sometimes, it was 'Nope, they're married, man'."
The Xena fandom also popularized the term Altfic (from "alternative fiction") to refer to same-sex romantic fan fiction
Fan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
. Many fans felt the term slash fiction
Slash fiction
Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex...
carried the connotation of being about male/male couples only and was not a good description for romantic fan fiction about Xena and Gabrielle.
Shipping wars
The Xena: Warrior Princess fandom saw often nasty "shippingShipping (fandom)
Shipping, derived from the word relationship, is the belief that two fictional characters, typically from the same series, are in an intimate relationship, or have romantic feelings that could potentially lead to a relationship. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with...
wars" that turned especially intense due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.
Shortly after the 1995 debut of the action/fantasy series about a woman warrior seeking redemption for a dark past, fans started discussing the possibility of a relationship between Xena
Xena
Xena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's Xena: Warrior Princess franchise. She first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before going on to appear in Xena: Warrior Princess TV show and subsequent comic book of the same name...
and her sidekick and best friend Gabrielle
Gabrielle (Xena)
Gabrielle is a fictional character played by Renée O'Connor in Xena: Warrior Princess. She is referred to by fans as the Battling Bard of Potidaea. Her trademark weapons are the Amazon fighting staff and later, the sais...
.
Toward the end of the first season, the show's producers began to play to this perception by deliberately inserting usually humorous lesbian innuendo into some episodes. The show acquired a cult following in the lesbian community. However, Xena had a number of male love interests as well, and from the first season she had an adversarial but sexually charged dynamic with Ares, the God of War, who frequently tried to win her over as his "Warrior Queen."
In a 10-year retrospective of the show in Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, journalist Cathy Young wrote:
In 2000, during the airing of the controversial fifth season, the intensity and sometimes nastiness of the "shipping wars" in the Xena fandom was chronicled (from a non-subtexter's point of view) by Australian artist Nancy Lorenz in an article titled "The Discrimination in the Xenaverse" in the online Xenaverse magazine Whoosh!http://www.whoosh.org/issue43/lorenz1.html and the flood of the letters it generated in response.
The wars did not abate after the series came to an end in 2001. In January 2003, Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless, MNZM is a New Zealander actress and singer best known for playing the title character of the internationally successful television series Xena: Warrior Princess....
, the star of Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001....
, told Lesbian News magazine that after watching the series finale (in which Gabrielle revived Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss) she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay."
In March 2005, one-time Xena screenwriter Katherine Fugate
Katherine Fugate
Katherine Fugate is an American film and television writer and producer.-Biography:Fugate is the creator of the TV series, Army Wives. She graduated with a B.A. in Theatre Arts from University of California, Riverside. Fugate and her aunt, the actress Barbara Eden, are direct descendants of...
, an outspoken supporter of the Xena/Gabrielle pairing, posted a statement on her website appealing for tolerance in the fandom:
See also
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer in popular culture
- List of female action heroes
- Woman warriorWoman warriorThe portrayal of women warriors in literature and popular culture is a subject of study in history, literary studies, film studies, folklore and mythology, gender studies, and cultural studies.-Archaeology:...
External links
- Xena Mentions
- Michelle Erica Green, "Xenademia: The Warrior Princess Goes To College"
- Greece, Rome, and Popular Culture Then and Now - "The unofficial guest of honor in this Room is, of course, Xena, who with Hercules has combined the classical world with modern pop culture camp -- and found enormous success."