Xena: Warrior Princess in popular culture

Xena: Warrior Princess has been referred to as a pop cultural phenomenon and feminist icon. The character's influence has inspired such academic interest as Kim Tolley's "Xena, Warrior Princess, or Judith, Sexual Warrior? The Search for a Liberating Image of Women's Power in Popular Culture." The subject has also been placed in its broader historical and cultural context in Sherrie A. Inness's Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture. The character and series has served as the focus of multiple articles in the Journal of Popular Culture.

The television series, which employed pop culture references as a humorous device, has itself become a frequent pop culture reference in video games, comics and television shows, and has been frequently parodied and spoofed. Even Lucy Lawless has participated in several parody sketches, and adding her voice to some animated shows that parodied Xena.

Xena: Warrior Princess has been credited by many, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, with blazing the trail for a new generation of female action heroes such as Buffy, Max of Dark Angel, Sydney Bristow of Alias, and the Bride in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Tarantino is an enthusiastic Xena fan.

"Xena" has become a synonym for "tough, warrior-like woman" and is commonly used in magazine articles and film reviews. For instance, Guinevere in the 2004 film King Arthur was compared to Xena in a number of reviews. Also in 2005, a Chicago Daily Herald review of a production of Shakespeare's Henry IV in which most of the male roles are played by women is titled "Shakespeare Meets Xena". The reviewer notes that today's audiences can easily accept the feminization of the play's power struggles and battle scenes because of "familiarity with battling babes like Xena.

Xena: Warrior Princess in contemporary culture
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been nicknamed "Warrior Princess" by her staff.

Astronomy
In 2005, the team that discovered the dwarf planet nicknamed it "Xena" in honor of the TV character. On October 1, 2005, the team announced that had a moon, which they had nicknamed "Gabrielle". The objects were officially named Eris and Dysnomia by the International Astronomical Union on September 13, 2006. Although the official names have legitimate roots in Greek mythology, Dysnomia is also Greek for "lawlessness", perpetuating the link with Lucy Lawless.

Costume donation
In 2006, Lucy Lawless donated her personal Xena costume to the Museum of American History. In an interview the same year with Smithsonian magazine, she was asked the question "Was the Warrior Princess outfit comfortable?" and she responded:

"Not at first, because they would put boning in the corset. It would cover up those little floating ribs that are so important for breathing, so I'd feel like I was having panic attacks. But it just became a second skin after a while. It was very functional, once I got over the modesty factor. I admit to being a little bit embarrassed the first couple weeks because I'd never worn anything so short."

- Lucy Lawless

On Tv series and shows

 * In 3rd Rock from the Sun, The gang goes to a sci fi convention. In the background at one point, there are lifesize cut-outs of both Xena.
 * In 7th Heaven, episode Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, the little Ruthie likes to play Xena at school on the playground with her friends, but gets in trouble for kissing a boy as revenge, and in the episode The Tribes That Bind , a guest watching Xena during a baby shower comments on what a great tumbler Xena is. A fight later in the show features Xena music as the background theme and a war cry from Ruthie.
 * In Angel, a person says he has Xenophobia (afraid of foreigners), but does not explain what it is, and another person asks if it is afraid of Xena.
 * In The Bernie Mac Show, this one gets a Xena mention with Lucy Lawless playing herself.
 * In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy, Willow and Xander dress up for Halloween and are victims of a spell that turns them into their costume characters. Buffy is now a helpless 18th century noblewoman, and Willow asks, "She couldn't have dressed up like Xena?".
 * In Caroline in the City, caroline and Richard arrive to paint a Caroline in the City mural on a boy's wall. He tells her that his father was confused and that he wanted a Xena mural.
 * In Charmed, episode Oh My Goddess II, The Charmed Ones are Greek goddesses in the two-part season finale. Phoebe becomes the Goddess of Love, Piper the Goddess of Earth, and Paige the Goddess of War. They also refer to Paige as "the Warrior Princess.", and in the episode Valhalley of the Dolls II , in the two-part season opener, Leo is being held in Valhalla, and Piper joins the Valkyrie. Their outfits look suspiciously like Xena's amazons, and when they portal to San Francisco, a biker asks, "What, is there a Xena convention in town or something?".
 * In Dark Angel, episode pilot, we learn that Xena is still on tv in the post-apocalypse. Original Cindy needs to get home to watch an episode, and in episode The Kidz Are Aiight , Original Cindy moves in with Max, the finishing touch on her room is a Xena poster above the bed.
 * In Desperate Housewives, Gabrielle's rich husband is now in jail, so she tries to find modeling work. She's offered a job dressing up as a "warrior princess" at a sci fi convention.
 * In The District, two cops investigate a hit and run accident, and one of them mentions that he hit a deer once on his way back from Philly. The other wonders what he was doing in Philly. "Xena convention. It's a long story."
 * In Ellen, Ellen attends a class with her mom, they are to choose a power word and beat the drum. Another woman says Xena, which Ellen also chose, the whole room begins chanting, "Xena, Xena" while Ellen beats the drum.
 * In Eurovision, in 2002, the announcer introduces Karolina, a singer from Macedonia, with, "Keep an eye on this girl. She seems demure, but she's Xena: Warrior Princess.", and in 2004, because of the costumes of Ruslana, the group from Ukraine, the announcer introduces them with, "Get ready for Xena: Warrior Princess. The Goths are coming!".
 * In Even Stevens, Louis tries out for the wrestling team and wrestles a girl in his first match. Afterwards, he compliments her with, "Girl? You're not a girl. You're like Xena. You're a great wrestler."
 * In Frasier, Niles briefly mentions Daphne's Greek friend Xena.
 * In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Autolycus and Salmoneus are posing as women and sharing a bath. Madam Twanky finds them and admonishes, "Who do you think we are today, Xena and Gabrielle?".
 * In The Invisible Man,one of the scientists who places the QuickSilver in Darien's head is introduced as "our Swiss Doggie Howser." He replies, "It's because they watch too much tv. Next week I'll be Xena: Warrior Princess."
 * In Judging Amy, Amy and Bruce are drinking a pitcher of beer together when Bruce tells a story about a woman he dated who insisted that he call her Xena. Amy repeats the story to David later on after she has missed their date.
 * In Law & Order, Briscoe searches for information on a dead woman who went by the name Xena at swinger's parties. Throughout his investigation, he refers to her as "the Warrior Princess."
 * In Life With Bonnie, Bonnie's husband sees a therapist, but she is upset because the therapist turns out to be a beautiful woman. "You're the one who told me to speak to someone." "Not Xena the Warrior Princess. I don't remember saying that."
 * In My Name Is Earl, Earl briefly works in a fast food restaurant. One of his co-workers is named Xena, complete with name tag.
 * In NCIS, Abby responds to a request from Gibbs with, "I know you think I'm Super Girl. Actually, my hair is more like Wonder Woman, or Isis, or the Power Puff Girl." Kate chimes in with, "I've always been partial to Xena."
 * In Out of Practice, Regina arrives at her brother's house with a box of cookies. She says she's too lonely to keep them at her apartment. "I learned that last Christmas when I spent a week watching Xena reruns in a fudge coma."
 * In Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, George has long, big hair like the 80s bands. The boys spruce him up, leading Carson to say, "Oh my god, look at you. You took away Xena and brought us a Baldwin."
 * In Roseanne, past life regression brings out the Xena in Roseanne.
 * In Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sabrina joins the science club and is labeled a geek by the leader of the cheerleaders. To teach her a lesson, Sabrina turns her into a geek. At the geek cafeteria table, one of them asks her if she watched Xena last night on tv.
 * In Saturday Night Live, Ellen hosts SNL. In this sketch, she attends "The Alliance of Powerful Women in the Media Who Also Happen to be Lesbians Woman of the Year Banquet." Bruce Vilanch apologizes for the empty seats because "there's a special two hour Xena on tonight."
 * In Seinfeld, Long running Seinfeld's finale features a Xena mention. His father tells Jerry that the only show he watches is Xena and asks if Jerry watches. He replies, "Yeah, it's pretty good."
 * In Six Feet Under, A depressed woman watches Xena on tv. She either has Xena on video or gets the Oxygen channel, the only place to catch Xena on tv in 2003.
 * In Smallville, Lana is in Paris with her boyfriend Jason. He pretends to translate the inscription on the bottom of a tomb. "Says here she was a warrior princess who kicked a lot of ass and broke a lot of hearts."
 * In Something So Right, Lucy Lawless makes an appearance on Something So Right. She argues with a woman who stars in a Xena rip off show, Seena Warrior Goddess.
 * In Stargate Atlantis, Doctor McKay is searching for a way to save Colonel Sheppard, and speed is of the essence. He refers to the time wasted explaining the situation to two other crew members, whom he derogatorily refers to as Conan and Xena.
 * In The $treet, episode pilot, , Evan enlightens the new intern on the superiority of Xena over Buffy. At a bachelor party, he meets a Xena costumed stripper and asks her out, after realizing that he knows her from Xena Con 2000, and in the episode Propheting on Losses , the guys kid Evan about his new girlfriend. As well as being a Xena fan and stripper, she's into sex toys.
 * In Strong Medicine, A patient speaks to Dr Campbell about a xeno transplant. She mentions that her daughter calls it the "Xena: Warrior Princess operation."
 * In Tremors, Strange worms are moving towards town. The new scientist is "a very forceful woman. She's got a Xena thing going on."
 * In Two Guys and A Girl, Berg watches Xena while the rest of the crew head out to see a Celtics game.
 * In Will and Grace, Will finds Grace and Val fighting on the floor and shouts, "Hey! Gabrielle, Xena, break it up!"
 * In The X-Files, Mulder and Scully interrogate a suspect accused of murdering two men, one with a 14th century broadsword and the other with a flintlock pistol. The suspect quips, "Oh, you must have me mixed up with my sister, Xena: Warrior Princess."
 * In My Wife and Kids, during a game of bowling, Jay called one of his opponent like Xena because of their good moves.
 * In Lost, Sawyer refer to Xena twice, but always the wrong way, and it is corrected later.

Tv Movies and Films

 * In About A Boy, Hugh Grant stars as a man posing as a single father in order to get dates. We see him hanging out and watching Xena with a twelve year old boy who becomes attached.
 * In Beach Babes II: Cave Girl Island, Space girls crash their ship on a desert island. One of them happens to be named Xena.
 * In Big Trouble, at one point, the family watches Xena, unaware of the scheming going on around them in the backyard.
 * In Carolina, Katherine Fugate, who penned the Xena episode When Fates Collide, included a line from this episode as a nod to Xena fans when she wrote Carolina, "My love for you is endless."
 * In The Core, The earth's inner core stops rotating and our atmosphere starts to come apart at the seams. Hacker Rat joins the effort to save the earth if he can have an unlimited supply of Hot Pockets and Xena tapes.
 * In Cursed, Part of the action in this werewolf movie takes place in a Planet Hollywood type of club. There is a wax Xena figure, and Jimmy attempts to kill the female werewolf with Xena's sword.
 * In A Family Affair, Rachel and Christine plan their wedding, and Rachel jokes that they should register at Xena.com.
 * In Garden State, Sam tells Largeman that her cousin is an actor. "He was on Xena once as a gnome or something."
 * In Gladiator Eroticus, In this lesbian erotic spoof of Gladiator, General Eroticus discusses what she misses from her homeland of Lesbius, this includes "on Tuesday nights to head down to the local playhouse for the Xena episodes."
 * In I'll Make You Happy, Lucy Lawless makes a cameo in this New Zealand comedy, which also features Michael Hurst,but the film makes the Xena reference list because the main character wakes up from a bump on the head in a room with a Xena poster on the wall.
 * In Kissing A Fool, He set his friend up on a date, and the woman turns out to be a dominatrix, they refer to her as Xena.
 * In Mean Girls, Janis Ian decides to get back at the leader of the Plastics by telling her classmates that she has "a big ol' lesbian crush" on her. Then she lets out a war cry that most certainly belongs to Xena.
 * In Monkeybone, When he tells a monkey that he will protect him from Death, the monkey retorts, "Oh, listen to you, Xena: Warrior Princess."
 * In Small Soldiers, the main character has a Xena poster on his wall.
 * In Storm Chasers: Revenge of the Twister, a fema official refers to Jamie, a storm chaser, as "Xena: Weather Princess."

Animated Movies and Shows

 * In Bro'Town, Lucy Lawless speaks to St Sylvester's school about sexual choices and gives them a Xena yell.
 * In Daria, for several episodes in season 2, animated MTV show Daria's end credits featured her teacher Ms Birch in a Xena costume.
 * In Dilbert, A rival engineering department, headed by Lena, is developing a competing prototype. Lena is feared as "the Xena of engineers."
 * In Futurama, fry pilots a ship to save them from alien annihilation. "I'm gonna be a hero like Luke Skywalker or Captain Janeway or Xena!"
 * In The Oblongs, the entire episode revolves around four year old Beth's obsession with a show called "Velva The Warrior", who looks suspiciously like Xena.
 * In Reboot, In episode Icons, they reboot as Xena and Gabrielle and navigate a game.
 * In Sabrina the Animated Series, The entire episode is an animated parody of Xena, featuring Sabrina as Xabrina: Warrior Witch and her friend Chloe as Scabrielle.
 * In The Simpsons, war three references to Xena, in the episode Mayored to the Mob, it's just a quick glimpse of a woman in a Xena costume in the crowd at a sci-fi convention, in episode Treehouse of Horror X , Lucy Lawless in Xena's costumes is abducted by The Collector and is rescued by Stretch Dude, Bart, and Clobber Girl, Lisa, in episode Children of a Lesser Clod , a webcast viewer has a Xena poster on the wall behind him.
 * In South Park, A "Lena" poster, complete with chakram, is on the wall.
 * In Vitamin C, the only song on the list so far, "Imagine a world where the girls, girls rule the earth...", "Would Xena be queen?"

International Shows

 * In the Brazilian show Programa do Jô, in a musical about heroes, a member of the team is dressed as Xena, at the end of the musical, the presenter of the program, Jo Soares, commented "As he was well like Xena.''"
 * In the Brazilian comedy show Casseta & Planeta, is a parody of Xena call "Xena, Jungle Princess and Gabrielle is Sapatelle.

Fandom
A subject of much interest and debate among viewers is the question of whether Xena and Gabrielle are lovers. The issue is left deliberately ambiguous by the show's writers. Jokes, innuendo, and other subtle evidence of a romantic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle is referred to as "lesbian subtext" or simply "subtext" by fans. The issue of the true nature of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship caused intense shipping debates in the fandom, which turned especially impassioned due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.

Some fans felt that the sexual nature of Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was cemented by an interview given by Lucy Lawless to Lesbian News magazine in 2003. Lawless stated that after the series finale, where Gabrielle revives Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss, she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay... 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 liked her gal pal and they kind of fooled around sometimes, it was 'Nope, they're married, man'." However, in the interviews and commentaries on the DVD sets released in 2003-2005, the actors, writers and producers continued to stress the ambiguity of the relationship, and Ares was also considered at least as a potential love interest for Xena.

The Xena fandom also popularized the term Altfic (from "alternative fiction") to refer to same-sex romantic fan fiction. Many fans felt the term slash fiction carried the connotation of being about male/male couples only and was not a good description for romantic fan fiction about Xena and Gabrielle.

Another special fandom term is "Uber", coined in 1997 by Kym Taborn of fan website Whoosh.org, sometimes used with a character's name ("UberXena") and sometimes used as a name for a fan fiction subgenre ("Uberfic"). In Xena Uberfic, Xena, Gabrielle, and other characters appear in different cultures at different times, from the prehistoric to the far future, through reincarnation or supernatural means. Stories of this kind were first inspired by the episode "The Xena Scrolls", which features look-alike descendants of Xena and Gabrielle living in the 1940s. Later episodes of the show also show different future incarnations of Xena and Gabrielle in both India and the United States.

After the series ended, several fan-created virtual seasons were launched on the Internet, continuing the storyline past the series finale (and resurrecting Xena from her death in the finale). They include the "Xena: Warrior Princess Virtual Seasons, the "Xena: Warrior Princess Subtext Virtual Seasons", and the "Xena: Warrior Princess Shipper Seasons".

Controversies of Lesbian Sexuality
Xena has enjoyed a particular cult status in the lesbian community. Some of the lesbian fan base sees Xena and Gabrielle as a couple and has embraced them as role models and lesbian icons. A group called The Marching Xenas has participated in many gay and lesbian pride parades.

A subject of much interest and debate among viewers is the question of whether Xena and Gabrielle are lovers. The issue is left deliberately ambiguous by the show's writers. Jokes, innuendo, and other subtle evidence of a romantic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle is referred to as "lesbian subtext" or simply subtext by fans. The issue of the true nature of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship caused intense shipping debates in the fandom, which turned especially impassioned due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.

The sexual nature of Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was discussed in an interview given by Lucy Lawless to Lesbian News magazine in 2003. Lawless stated that after the series finale, where Gabrielle revives Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss, she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay... 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 liked her gal pal and they kind of fooled around sometimes, it was 'Nope, they're married, man'." On the other hand, in the interviews and commentaries on the DVD sets released in 2003-2005, the actors, writers and producers continued to stress the ambiguity of the relationship, and Ares was also considered at least as a potential love interest for Xena.

Time Line
The show credits Xena with a central role in many events in history and mythology. Among other things, she:

Mithologycal, Historical and Religion facts

 * helped David kill Goliath and defeat the Philistines.
 * defended Troy in the Trojan War, and saved Helen.
 * assisted Ulysses in regaining his kingdom in Ithaca after returning from the Trojan War.
 * single-handedly stopped the invading Persian army at Thermopylae.
 * led a band of pirates in the capture and ransom of Julius Caesar, who then captured them and had them crucified.
 * helped Boadicea defeat the Roman invasion led by Julius Caesar (in actual history, Boadicea fought the Romans some 100 years after Caesar's death and was defeated).
 * was present at the formation of Stone Henge, with Stone Henge being the remains of Dahak's temple after it is destroyed in a battle between Xena and The Deliverer.
 * helped manipulate the power games of the Roman First Triumvirate, taking advantage of the rivalries between Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Pompey first to free the Gaul rebel Vercinix and then to stop the Roman armies from rampaging through Greece.
 * helped engineer the assassination of Caesar by pitting his friend Marcus Junius Brutus against him.
 * posed as the queen Cleopatra of Egypt and double-crossed Mark Antony in order to help Octavius Caesar defeat Brutus and Antony and gain control of the empire (after becoming convinced that Octavius was more honorable than both his rivals).
 * engineered the death of the crazed Roman emperor Caligula.
 * encountered the Virgin Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus; Gabrielle gave them the donkey on which they rode.
 * killed Mephistopheles, the King of Hell, in order to release the trapped soul of her mother.
 * tricked the archangel Lucifer into getting in touch with his "inner demon" and becoming the new king of Hell, the devil.
 * created the Terracotta Army, by turning a living army to stone.
 * Beowulf and Grendel, were featured in The Return of the Valkyrie . They are both characters taken from the epic poem Beowulf.

Discoveries and inventions
Xena are also often credited with a variety of discoveries and inventions, for instance:


 * the discovery and naming of The Big Dipper.
 * the harnessing of electricity by tying a metal item to a kite.
 * the discovery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). When a wounded Gabrielle goes into cardiac arrest, the grieving Xena bangs her fists on the chest of the seemingly dead Gabrielle, and Gabrielle revives.
 * pioneering the custom of Santa Claus bringing gifts and coming down the chimney on Christmas Eve. In a kingdom where Winter Solstice celebrations are banned, Gabrielle encourages a toymaker named Senticles to sneak into an orphanage through the chimney to hand out toys to children on Solstice Eve; he is wearing a red coat at the time.

Xena with Many Figures
Xena also plays a key role in the destruction of the Greek Gods, and the transition to monotheism (the fictional Elijan faith seems to have been the show's version of Christianity). Among the Elijans, Xena is known as "Defender of the Faith." The show seems to have subdivided the roles of central figures in the story of Jesus Christ and early Christianity among several characters. Xena is assigned some of the characteristics of Mary and Jesus: giving birth to a child conceived without sexual intercourse and being crucified and rising from the dead. Eli is portrayed as the main Jesus figure, and Eve has parallels with Jesus and Saul: a miracle birth intended to herald a new order and being a persecutor of Christians who sees the light, changes their name, and becomes a champion of the new faith.