Many thanks to Michelle Chevrot for the scans and Catherine for the translation
Lesbia Magazine
April 2003
Let's watch TV !
by Michelle Chevrot
Do you know Xena? Xena, the Warrior Princess? I'm asking you this question because, according to a survey among my circle of friends, this fierce heroine of a New Zealander TV show doesn't seem to be famous among us, even when she is the new icon of the lesbian community in other countries.
Xena roams through Greece, knows how to handle her sword and her fists like nobody else, she jumps, dives, runs for the greater good without a break. A female MacGyver? Most certainly no, because there's something else !
In her journeys, she goes with a woman, Gabrielle, a little less vindictive but sharp during fights too.
And there's the question? Is there just friendship between the two associates? Of course not, because all the episodes abound with ambiguous situations or moves. And what to say about dialogues, sadly patched up by a prudish translation, since the show was aired, at its release, on TF1 on Saturday afternoon ! (From the translator : TF1 is a private network which wants to reach the largest popular familial audience and broadcasts only very politically correct TV shows, games shows, sports, movies etc… As far as I am concerned, I stopped watching TF1 the day they stopped airing XWP !)
Each one of them had children, but only Xena's son (born a long time before meeting Gabrielle) can say he has a father. The two other children, two girls, are conceived through some tricks where no man was involved.
Gabrielle's pregnancy is due to a diabolic intervention. As for Xena's, it's offered by a women, a former enemy who wished to make peace!
In addition to deliberately kitsch special effects (Cyclops, centaurs, titans and other creatures), the show presents some very beautiful pictures, sweet and tender as we like them. With the passing episodes, Xena and Gabrielle are close and closer, more and more intimate. Their relationship's ambiguity becomes more obvious, and even if they never say they love each other, at least in the french version, they prove it at many times. The last season includes many highly emotional scenes. Some adventures are totally surrealist : you can see the main characters behaving as if they had lost their mind, and it's quite entertaining. Some stories are really hilarious when they do a pastiche of a movie, a musical. One of my favourite episodes tells the story of a beauty pageant won by… a drag queen !
I won't reveal the end since the re-airing of XWP has just begun on TF6 ! Don't panic ! Nothing's lost ! There's six seasons of about twenty episodes : you just missed the beginning.
To come back to the question, the two actresses, wonderfully funny, bright, stirring and in great form (Lucy Lawless as Xena, Renée O'Connor as Gabrielle) don't shriek with disgust to the idea of a homosexual relationship between their two characters. Actually, they support it by participating to lesbian events when they are invited.
You who don't know Xena the warrior princess, hurry up, you have to take an interest in this show ! It's entertaining to look for clues (I recommended the show to some straight friends who didn't see anything !)
There's a lots of Internet sites about Xena and Gabrielle, notably Chacha's site (www.european-xenaverse.com ) a Belgian friend whom, along with Atalante, I want to thank for providing the photos which illustrate this article.