Xena, Princess Warrior
Rediscovering classic heroes from the 90s
Throwback tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime
Last time, I wrote a blog post titled A WARRIOR PRINCESS FROM THE 80S. It was about She-ra, a cartoon character that somehow shaped a little when I was a tiny thing.
Moving to my pre-teens and early teenage years, I came across a different Warrior Princess. It was the mid-90s, and I was soaking up every bit of adventure I could find on TV (I didn’t have many friends ok?).
Ready for another trip down memory lane?
*Hears Xena’s war cry just by looking at her*
Some positive, strong, and relatable queer representations
Like many kids of that era (or all eras?), I loved a good story about heroes and adventures. But Xena, Warrior Princess, was one of the shows I watched and rewatched, that truly embraced FemDom. Thou I guess I didn’t really know that at the time. #soinnocent
Xena, portrayed by the OMG Lucy Lawless, was clad in leather and armor. She was the definition of fierce. Like, one bad look at her, and she might have tied you to a chair and torture you. I always had mixed feelings about her. Afraid of being in a room with her, but I also kinda wanted to be her.
Many other female heroes came before and after her, they were strong but femminine. Thou she was not exactly like the rest. She was strong and female. She owned her power, her strength. She didn’t need to have a femminine, delicate, fragile, alter-ego like so many other female superheroes do.
She did the fighting and the rescuing thing better than the boys. She battled her way through Ancient Greece with her sidekick (and lover), Gabrielle, by her side. Obviously a Queer, FemDom relationship. They faced gods, warlords, and mythical creatures together, all while dealing with their own personal demons and exes.
Fun fact 1: Xena sort of inspired another one of my fav show: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.
Fun fact 2: Centaurs, Gods, the Amazons, famous wars (Trojan War and Battle of Marathon), and many other characters crossed paths with Xena. And no time machine.
FemDom tools for a FemDom Heroire
When you think of a Dominatrix or a Pro-Domme, you think of her in dark, armour-like attire, and with a crop. Or a whip. Or a long cane. Or a lot of rope. Right? Well, what about Xena?
She is covered in leather and armour clad. Check. She has the Domme attitude. Check. She has a signature weapon, the chakram. Triple check. This circular throwing weapon-thingy was as iconic as Xena herself. She wield it with unparalleled skill and look badass. And guess what? Yes, she also had a whip. Quadruple check?
And also let’s not forget the amount of bondage in that TV show. More often than not it was a ‘necessary’ part of the plot’s action and adventure themes. all of the sudden, Xena or other characters will find themselves captured and restrained by villains, needing to escape or be rescued.
And here is a little love too 🙂
Xena: Warrior Princess broke new ground with its portrayal of a deep, complex relationship between two women, while featuring a lot of kink stuff. All of this while having a gag order from the network. Tough times!
Maybe I remember more the goods than the bad. Sure, the show had some racist tones. But at the time, it was very much ‘normalised’ (mind you, I am not condoning it). However, it still did a lot for the LGBTQI+ community; it has been discussed in academic and cultural analyses of LGBTQ+ media, and it remains a beloved part of queer pop culture.
