XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS
Girls just wanna have fun…
1995-2001 AVAILABLE ON DVD, DIGITAL
Xena and sidekick Gabrielle: ‘pushing the boundaries for representation on TV’
A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE
THE QUEST S2, 1997
With Xena sidelined in her own show after Lucy Lawless fractured her pelvis, The Quest sees her spirit possessing the body of master thief Autolycus (Bruce Campbell). Cue plenty of laughs, some poignant life-or-death drama, and Xena and Gabrielle’s first real kiss (even if they aren’t really Xena’s lips).
Ina time of ancient gods, warlords and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle… Her courage will change the world,’ ran the narration that opened each episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. While it may be stretching things to say that the 1990s fantasy series changed the world, it certainly played a role in pushing the boundaries for representation on television.
Not that things started out that way. After Xena made her debut in the Sam Raimi-produced Hercules: the Legendary Journeys (1995-1999), it’s not difficult to see why Universal Television wanted to give Lucy Lawless’ leather-clad warrior her own show. From the character’s revealing costume to adventures featuring enough bondage imagery to make Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston blush, Xena… seemed tailor-made to appeal to horny teenage boys.
But as the adventures of Xena and her sidekick Gabrielle (Reneé O’Connor) continued, it became clear that something was bubbling away under the surface. Both characters enjoyed relationships with men, but the hints were there that the two mythological women’s feelings ran far deeper than simple friendship. In a pre-social-media era, Lawless says that she and O’Connor first became aware of what was happening when they were handed a Village Voice article about Xena and Gabrielle’s sexualities. ‘Reneé and I looked at each other and went, “Lesbians? Really? OK.”
It was cool with us.’
Having a show led by two gay characters may have been cool for the show’s leads and the writers’ room - who, says Lawless, ‘totally knew what they were doing.’ But it wasn’t for the syndicated TV landscape in the mid 1990s. According to producer Rob Tapert, ‘the studio was so concerned that it would be perceived as a lesbian show that they would not allow us to have Xena and Gabrielle in the same frame of the opening titles.’
So it’s hardly surprising that Xena and Gabrielle’s romantic relationship was never formally confirmed on-screen, remaining largely subtextual. But the writers continued to find ways to work around broadcast restrictions, even going as far as to have the characters’ reincarnated souls marry in an episode set in the present day. It may not seem like much today, but at a time when the LGBTQ+ community rarely ever felt seen and heard on mainstream TV, Xena: Warrior Princess was fighting for a more inclusive future.