In news as surprising as reports that Fozzie Bear probably has a Miles Davis poster on his bedroom wall, we can reveal that Xena Warrior Princess is gay. Or at least she will be when the series gets a reboot later this year.
In a recent Tumblr Q&A, the screenwriter and executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who is working with Rob Tapert and Sam “Spiderman” Raimi to bring Xena back to our screens, wrote: “There is no reason to bring back Xena if it is not there for the purpose of fully exploring a relationship that could only be shown subtextually in first-run syndication in the 1990s.”
The relationship to which he is alluding is the leather-studded “companionship” between Xena (played, much to the delight of New Zealanders everywhere, by Lucy Lawless) and Gabrielle (played by Renee O’Connor). It might have taken over 20 years to get there, but the girls are finally ready to make it official. This, explained Grillo-Marxauch, is because the show “will also express my view of the world – which is only further informed by what is happening right now – and is not too difficult to know what that is if you do some digging”. Unlike in 1995, gay marriage is now on the statute books or at least high on the news agenda in most countries where Xena will be syndicated. Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mad Max: Fury Road have shown that multi-million dollar global franchises can bear the weight of speaking female characters. So a gay female lead character isn’t just a fun idea, but a viable proposition.
Of course, gay women are hardly a rarity in sci-fi, both on our screens and watching from our sofas. Gillian Anderson has had a huge gay following since she strode on to our televisions as Special Agent Dana Scully back in 1993; in 1995 Jadzia Dax in Deep Space Nine had her first lesbian kiss (albeit in a wormhole between the alpha and gamma quadrants of the galaxy); Admiral Helena Cain, played by heartthrob Michelle Forbes had a girlfriend in Battlestar Galactica and, more recently, Doctor Who’s Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint shared the show’s first lesbian kiss (yes, one of them is a lizard-woman but it still counts).
Television producers have always been happy to include lesbian storylines in their shows, with the minor proviso that any relationship between women is either happening in another galaxy far far away, or that any sapphic antics take place in actual space, or that one of the women is wearing a rubber reptile costume. Just like socialism, multiculturalism, feminism and most other isms you care to mention, lesbian relationships have often been found in popular culture disguised through the alien, zero-gravity, intergalactic lens of science fiction because that is the easiest way to sneak them into public consciousness. And, for the thousands of young women and girls who have rewound and rewatched those few fleeting moments of lesbian lizard kissing or space admiral affection, sci-fi has acted as a catalyst – helping them to place their sexuality in a recognisable cultural context.
When it comes to Xena, there is also the obvious plus that the lesbian gaze often overlaps with the heterosexual male gaze. So, for male screenwriters, producers and directors, it isn’t a huge leap of imagination to create a character that appeals to a lesbian audience. To put it bluntly, you put a woman in a leather-strapped shiny-tit shield, send her jogging over a hill – and literally everybody’s happy.
So, while the makers of Xena: Warrior Princess should be applauded for finally writing an overt gay relationship, is it really breaking new ground? Or is the reboot just pulling at some low-hanging fruit? Well, to quote the show’s opening, “In a time of ancient Gods, Warlords and Kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero ... She was Xena.” So, you know, fingers crossed.
This article was amended on 23 June 2021 to remove an image
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