Kristen Coyne

April 3, 2015

Blog Post 10

            In Chapter 3 Warrior Women in Thongs in The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan J. Douglas, she discusses a television show that used to be on Syfy called Xena: Warrior Princess. Although I have never seen this show, Douglas gives a very specific description of it, so I have a good idea of what it was about. Xena is a great example of women empowerment and also shows the progression of feminism from the 1950’s to the end of the 90’s era. Xena: Warrior Princess is a about a girl with a dark past that sets out to become a hero to change who she was. She was a girl that no one wanted to mess with and was very strong. The show was appealing to both sexes and feminists as well because it had action, and attractive women, but she was also powerful and sex positive. The show also had powerful messages, for example one episode seemed to be a metaphor for gang rape and she explained “the importance of cooperation and compromise”. There were also other examples that show how Xena brought up topics that raise awareness to issues faced in the world, especially for women such as the rape awareness and Douglas also talks about an episode that brings up the topic of beauty pageants where many girls ended up quitting the pageant at the end to keep their pride. This show seemed to be a positive step for the feminist movement. Although when Wonder Woman came out, it seemed to be a strong, powerful superhero woman and positive step for feminism, it still was more appealing for men. She was wearing a very sexual outfit and had a perfect body and had her make up and hair done, so it was still showing the male gaze. However, although Xena does wear a sexual outfit, I feel that she is a better representation of female power than Wonder Women. Since she is appealing to both sexes and shines a positive light on feminism, she is very important because that is a sign of equality rather than just appealing to one sex. Although it was a positive step at the time, there is still a lot of progression that needs to be made in order to achieve equality. There are many shows out now that we have discussed in class such as CSI and Grey’s Anatomy that have strong women who hold their own, but there are still issues with equality on television. There is not enough diversity in TV and the male gaze has still not completely vanished from the media. However it is nice to know that there was a show out there that was positive in all aspects.