Xena Warrior Princess

In the past decade, popular culture has seen a renaissance of female heroes at a time when the societal roles of women are changing, sometimes dramatically. It is interesting to note that the archetype of the "woman in the kitchen" not only doesn't exist, but may never have existed. Even the most parochial gatekeepers of popular culture and the sanitized world they portray have relied on female heroes for centuries while simultaneously attempting to advance a female ideal that is as absurd as the contradiction its existence generates.

One need only look to the Greek Pantheon of mythological heroes to find what may continue to be the inspiration for heroines old and new even in modern popular culture. The daughter of Zeus carried his shield into battle, fought with a sword and was considered to be the goddess not only of wisdom, but of warfare as well. Even though Ares was the Greek god of war, Athena's role was seen more as someone who represented the more noble ideals of warfare such as gallantry, courage and esprit de corps, values more consistent with her common station as the literal personnification of wisdom.

So it is quite easy to recognize the reasoning behind the success and popularity of such television series as Xena: Warrior Princess and the many female heroes that series has apparently inspired. For those who view the idea of a "female heroine" as a new development in literature, it is interesting to note that a very large number of literary heroes throughout culture, beginning with mythological goddesses and continuing through the 20th and 21st centuries, have been female and that the stages for their conquests were neither kitchens nor nurseries.

In American literary culture, however, it is necessary to go back some 70 years prior to Xena: Warrior Princess to find a heroine with the same mythical singularity of purpose as that possessed by Xena and her fictional successors: Nancy Drew. With the exception of the Disney adaptations of famous fairy tales, which depicted characters like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White in main, if not heroic, roles, and DC Comics' Wonder Woman, it wasn't until Ridley Scott's Alien in 1979 that popular culture rediscovered the tough fighting female hero in Flight Officer Ripley, who managed through three sequels to survive numerous encounters with a rampaging army of ferocious extraterrestrial beasts.

From about 1935 until the eve of the 21st century, authors and scriptwriters, by and large, for some reason seem to have struggled with the concept of a female character in any role other than "person in need of rescue" by whichever square-jawed rugged manly man happened to be nearby. This trend became about as redundant as it possibly could during the 1970s. Contemporary with Alien were the Airport movies, which, despite portraying stewardesses as resourceful enough to guide an airliner through a mountain range, managed to depict them as ultimately unable to solve their problems without the help of the nearest five o' clock shadow.

Xena changed everything. This is a television series that, both literally and figuratively, reached back into the mythological past to find or create stories centered on a female heroine's conquests of whatever stood before her. Although the character of Xena: Warrior Princess was originally introduced in the Legendary Journeys of Hercules television series, the two were always depicted as equals at least. Xena was just as likely to rescue Hercules during any given crisis, and the success of the series is proof that this kind of storytelling is precisely what was missing prior to the advent of the new female heroine.

Hand to hand fighting and the skills necessary to do battle with melee weapons such as swords, staves and shields requires incredible conditioning, reflexes and strength. Apparently some authors and scriptwriters believed that women lacked the ability to excel in these areas, and so relegated their female characters to roles which did not require them to fight or to overcome significant obstacles. The idea that women lack the strength or reflexes to fight is patent nonsense, of course. Women warriors have been recorded across millenia of human history, and the female ideal has been a part of cultures throughout the world for at least as long.

Xena inspired many other popular female heroes, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and has helped lead a renewed interest in strong female leading characters, especially those depicted in conflicts. Where before, women would recede into the background the moment the plot began to swerve towards a crisis, now, it is far more likely that a woman will take center stage and fight on her own terms. These characters are also often depicted as doing the planning and thinking necessary to ensure victory at the critical moment as well, something which can also be considered lacking in a large number of films and books prior to the late 1970s.

As with any thesis, exceptions can be found, but the larger truth is clear. Xena: Warrior Princess, and the characters she inspired have contributed greatly to culture by giving women their rightful role in positions of leadership where they too can make use of their courage, gallantry and heroism to edify and inspire their readers, some of which just might be female.