Assorted Goods

What do I think about the show having Xena using her sexual wiles often in the cause of the greater good?

I think it’s clever because it’s both the male gaze and subverting the male gaze in that - at a glance and on the surface - it may appear like they’re serving and catering to a straight male audience but because it’s all in Xena’s control and agency - they’re actually not at all. So they’re actually subverting the male gaze.

Oh to be a woman and have so much agency and power within TV art/entertainment that you can be the one to deceive the men through sexuality enough to unveil the ugly truth about them and their systemic control over women. I swear the male gaze doesn’t even exist in Xena precisely because Xena uses it to her advantage.

She makes “powerful men” look like pathetic losers and it’s exactly why Xena wouldn’t hold up today. Too many sexist or gender critical people would react negatively to see the one and only time women are the leads in it.

In this episode you have literal male archangels either corrupted by Xena or made to be very cautious of her because her agency and power overwhelms them. They give you what looks to be the same narrative you see in countless depictions of Christianity and Patriarchy in TV and instead they have it be Xena that determines who is evil/good and the conviction that lies between while she gets to play dirty and still be the protagonist.

These double standards are usually only given to men.

This is female representation at its most prominent.

Just listened to the latest episode of your podcast.

How very interesting that you should speak of Sappho @ellisthemighty as Sappho - for many reasons - is, for me, what makes Xena Xena as opposed to some other story about a female warrior in Ancient Greek times in the mythology - to which I know not too many exist as much of the mythology is written by men. Something that the Xena creators play on and attempt to subvert with Gabrielle being a bard and writing The Scrolls.

Not just in the sense of WLW but also the very female POV. It’s funny because a lot of people who haven’t really watched the show and are just going by osmosis refer to Xena as male POV just because the show is male-dominated creatively. But it really isn’t to me at all. There is so much about it that feels like it comes from a female writer because of its heavy female focus and Sappho was all about that as well as the WLW stuff, therefore it feels right that Sappho should be a part of the Xenaverse as a fictional figure that is referenced but we never actually get to see. Of course we would have seen her if the Sappho musical episode titled ‘Last Chance’ was produced because Renee was going to play her and Lucy was going to play her female partner Morai but I’m glad it wasn’t produced because then we wouldn’t have had ‘Many Happy Returns’ in place of it and I really couldn’t part with that episode in the show.

To answer your question about what translation or what interpretation they used in the episode, it is said in the commentary by Liz Friedman from the cast/crew interview of the episode that her and Vanessa Place (whom she wrote the episode with) did have a specific version that is used word for word in the script but that she couldn’t remember who it was by. If I do come across it or find out where it is from I will let you know about it immediately because the fact they used a real translation/interpretation of the poem instead of just interpreting it for themselves is wild to me and valuable.

Maybe it was Anne Carson’s translation. Who knows?

ephiny: amazon queens when married can be co-rulers to consolidate power and are not bound to outdate monogamous customs gabby call me

aphrodite: i got sappho tickets baby i kno u love her poetry <3 <3 <3

ephiny: succession crisis gabby i need you and your beautiful arms

xena: fishting trip

najara: i just got out of prison baby i can change im a new woman only your healing touch can save my soul

thalassa: the tortures will stop i just need you to guide me and your strong powerful healing hands

aphrodite: 24 hour hot tub orgy dont tell xena

callisto: any new husbands?

joxer: im lactose intolerant

najara: $100 yonic egg crystal pyramid scheme get in

najara: you dont need her nobody will treat you like i do

Feeling a bit nostalgic here!

It makes me laugh, like every interview or panel I've seen with Ted Raimi; he always puts that poor Joxer down 😭