Xena: Warrior Princess
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| Name: | Xena: Warrior Princess |
| Abbreviation(s): | Xena, XWP |
| Creator: | John Schulian, Robert Tapert, R. J. Stewart |
| Date(s): | 1995-2001 |
| Medium: | television series, |
| Country of Origin: | United States (filmed in New Zealand) |
| External Links: | IMDB |
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Contents |
General
Xena: Warrior Princess was a spin-off from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, following the tale of Xena, a reformed villain who was seeking to atone for her bloody past, and Gabrielle, a young woman who wanted to be a bard and left her village to follow Xena. The friendship between Xena and Gabrielle was at the heart of the show and over the seasons canon continually found new ways to describe them as soulmates. Although nominally set in the Greece of myth and legend, the series embraced anachronisms, borrowed liberally from myths and cultures the Greeks could have had no contact with, and joyfully mutilated geography when it sent Xena on journeys.
Subtext
Xena fandom is dominated by f/f fanfiction, no doubt due to the canon's focus on the close friendship between Xena and Gabrielle. At times, the show deliberately brought the queer subtext as close to text as it could get[1] without crossing the line; at other times, the show seemed merely to be titillating the viewers with faux-lesbian scenes. Either way, the Xena/Gabrielle relationship was meaningful to a lot of people because it was the closest to showing a lesbian relationship as an epic romance that most X/G fans had ever seen on TV at the time of its original airing.
From the very beginning, the interpretation that Xena and Gabrielle were more than friends was attacked by other fans. In response, the ATX subtexters developed the Subtext FAQ, defending their interpretation of Xena and Gabrielle's relationship. The FAQ quoted some objections that were commonly encountered on the alt.tv.xena newsgroup:
"All this subtext crap is pure bull. Xena's no lesbian."
"Why do people assume that strong women have to be lesbians?"
"You people are just fixated on Xena's sex life. Why don't you get a life of your own?"
"Xena's just a fictional character! She can't be gay." [2]
The Subtext FAQ went on to quote various members of the writing staff and TPTB as to whether or not the subtext was intentional, as well as describing key X/G scenes and interactions that contained lesbian subtext. Both Lucy Lawless (who played Xena) and Renee O'Connor (who played Gabrielle) are quoted at some point as saying that they believed Xena and Gabrielle were soul mates, or married.[3] [4]
However, no matter how good the arguments were, they didn't really protect subtexters from attacks. Given the fact that for many subtexters, it wasn't a random favorite pairing that was under attack, but their own sexuality, they needed a safe space to discuss the pairing and connected lesbian issues. Thus, a secret women only, invitation only mailing list was created that became the invisible driving force behind the scenes of X/G fandom.[5]
Fandom
(more to come)
Notable Works
- Tropical Storm, an Uber novel by Melissa Good, which was later professionally published
Fanzines
Fanzines in Xena fandom are rare and only feature the het/gen/slash side of the force. The Xena/Gabrielle fandom went a different way with regard to print publications. Instead of zines the fandom published a high number of uber novels. These stories were usually published to the net first and when they proved popular enough, one of the small lesbian publishing houses that came out of the Xenaverse picked it up for a print run. For a list of X/G uber novels see Vielka Clavijo's listings of published Uber Xena novels.
- Been There, Never Done That!
- Blood Upon His Wings xover with The Crow
- History Cast in Amber
- The Warrior and the Bard
- The Xeniad
Archives
Parallel evolution
Xena fandom appears to have developed in near-isolation from other fandoms, resulting in many fannish traditions being reinvented independently. The development of the Subtext FAQ, for example, is similar to the creation of The Generic Slash Defense Letter by early Blake's 7 slash fans. Specific fannish needs led to a unique vocabulary that describes concepts and activities often known in other fandoms by different terms.
Xena-specific vocabulary
Resources
- Lunacy's recs site, influential on the house style of Xena fanfiction
- Whoosh!, the tongue-in-cheek International Association of Xenaoid Studies, for Xena-related meta
Xena also has several virtual seasons, including the Xena/Gabrielle XWP Subtext Virtual Seasons and the Xena/Ares Shipper Seasons.
References
- ↑ Valerie Foster, Yes Lucy, There Is Still a Subtext on Xena. Posted October, 1999. (Accessed 30 November 2008.)
- ↑ The Subtext FAQ for alt.tv.xena. Last updated 7 January 1998. (Accessed 30 November 2008.)
- ↑ AfterEllen.com, Xena and Gabrielle: Lesbian Icons. "I think Gabrielle is probably searching for her soul mate and that she found it in Xena, actually. Having been through the entire series, she's probably been searching for the love of her life, which is Xena." Renee O'Connor. Posted 13 August 2003. (Accessed 30 November 2008.)
- ↑ Lesbian News, Lucy Lawless: In an exclusive interview the actress talks about life after Xena, love, and her lesbian fans. Lawless admits that even she wasn't sure about Xena's sexual orientation until the last episode. But once Gabrielle had to revive Xena by passing water into her mouth, Lawless says it was clear that these two characters were more than just close friends. "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 like her gal pal and they kind of fooled around sometimes, it was "Nope, they're married, man." Posted January 2003. (Accessed 30 November 2008.)
- ↑ Being a secret, there is only the occasional reference behind friendslock by ex-members who confirm the existence and importance of the list, but there is not much else. Bat Morda referred to it as "a super secret mailing list that rhymes with soft-core porn" in Inside the Head of Bat Morda, later named it as Saddlehorn in a blog entry from May 2008, and gave a bit more background in her November 2000 Whoosh article The Online Life and Adventures of Bat Morda: A friend of mine from the Star Trek boards on America Online invited me to join a secret, exclusive online mailing list full of Xena fans who were female (or, um, at least said they were), subtext friendly, and hard core into Xena. [...] Not knowing what to expect, I joined this list where a subtextual view of the show was the norm. This mailing list was heaven. One of those rare places that you stumble onto where everyone assumes you are a lesbian until you inform people differently. For someone who has to live on the other side of the mirror the rest of the time, this was quite a treat. (Accessed 30 November 2008.)
