No, I'm not a lesbian.

Well, Glenn seems to have brought discussion to a standstill over here this week. I'm not sure that my take on guilty pleasure television will do too much to revive things, but here you go:

I *love* Xena: Warrior Princess. I first started watching Xena when I was living in Russia back in 2000. At that time it was on TV five nights a week, and I watched it every chance I got. I'm not sure why I started watching it in the first place, but I was immediately hooked. For one thing, I am a huge fan of films and TV shows which feature well choreographed hand to hand combat. I totally eat that stuff up. And episodes of XWP are packed with fantastic fighting sequences (especially in the later seasons, as Gabrielle evolves into a kickass warrior). Okay, so the plots can get pretty hokey, and the special effects (other than the fight scenes) were pretty bad, but I loved it any way. It was fantastic to watch a TV show starring two kickass women who traveled the globe having adventures... definitely an inspiration to a young woman a long way from home, traveling the world and having adventures herself.

I shaved my head while I was in Russia. This had nothing to do with XWP; it was simply something I'd wanted to do for a long time. I was inspired by one of those, "I'm in Russia, I might as well" bits of illogic. I don't have any pics of my hair at its shortest (which is probably a good thing; it did not look particularly good) as my camera was stolen around the same week as my haircut. The earliest picture I have for you is from about two months later when a friend of mine from the States - and his camera - came to visit.

This was me seven years ago!

The same friend who took the above picture was also the person who brought the whole Are Xena and Gabrielle lesbians? question to my attention. Honestly, I had been watching the show religiously for months and it had NEVER occurred to me. There are scores of movies and TV shows wherein dudes travel about and have adventures and no one goes on at length about the homosexual subtext, but change the heroes to heroines - especially ones who don't fit into the traditional feminine role - and suddenly they must be lesbians. Bah!

Anyway, I returned to the US, and to my tiny, conservative university campus, sporting short hair and an addiction to Xena. Suddenly there were rumors that Jane was indeed a lesbian. Um, no. Later, when my hair was still short, people would assume that Melissa and I were a lesbian couple. Yes, she is very tall. Yes, I am very short. Yes, we have a tendency to travel the world together having adventures. No, we are neither lesbians nor a couple. (Melissa, do you remember that time the Burger King cashier told us we were a cute couple?)

Anyway, I have recently discovered that some enterprising people have gone and put EVERY episode of Xena on YouTube (in 10 minute increments), and I have been working my way through them - and enjoying them just as much as I did back in 2000. And if you're interested, there are tons of TV shows online that you can watch, not just Xena. So click here.