Conference Paper Outline
Here's the deal. On February 3rd I am giving a paper entitled "The Bitter and Sweet of It: Trauma, Violence, and Abuse in Xena: Warrior Princess" at FSU's Film and Literature conference. I'm a bit nervous about it, since it my first real foray into the academic community (my coming out into academic society, if you will) and I desperately want to look not idiotic. And so, I am posting my outline for the paper for all to see. Please please please comment on this. Any advice is welcome, any criticism will be appreciated. Thank you all for your time.
Thesis: Sexual violence, particularly rape, functions in the background of much of the narrative of Xena: Warrior Princess as a motivating and justifying force for the main character, Xena. Xena, within the series, functions as a violent female, a locus of contradiction that blurs the distinction between masculine and feminine identity. Xena, though, instead of causing the dissolution of this boundary, in fact polices it and prevents other women, with notable exceptions, from crossing it. She is able to do this because of her experiences of victimization and, metaphorically, sexual abuse, since these experiences are specifically figured as the trigger for violent female excess. Xena is initially motivated to do violence in order to protect her home village of Amphipolis, positioning her as a just revenger. Though this justifies her position as a violent female, the contradictions that this subject position creates in hegemonic discourse does not go unpunished in the course of the narrative. Xena is weighed down, and eventually succumbs to, her guilt for her past crimes, indicating that, despite the necessity of violent females to police the boundaries of gender by protecting other women from traumatic experiences, the violent female is ultimately a figure worthy of punishment. This ambivalent attitude towards the figure of the violent female can be seen within the text itself and within the reactions of the audience, particularly fans, toward the text, which oscillate between attraction to the figure of an empowered female character and repulsion from the violent excesses that signify that empowerment. This attitude is symptomatic of broader attitudes toward female victims of abuse and the representation of trauma, violence, and abuse in female superhero narratives.
-Brief historical discussion of the emergence of modern discourses on female violence and abuse.
-See Gordon, Heroes of Their Own Lives.
-Explain how these discourses affect the presentation of trauma, violence, and
abuse in Xena: Warrior Princess.
-Briefly define your usage of the terms “trauma” and “violence.”
-Marinucci’s “standard usage” definition of violence: “the use
of physical force as an intentional means of inflicting pain or
causing bodily harm.”
-Hesford’s definition of trauma: “a devastating and not-worked-
through experience.”
-trauma is then marked by its lack of representability.
-Discussion of examples of trauma in Xena: Warrior Princess
-The initial attack upon Xena’s home village of Amphipolis by the warlord
Cortese.
-see “Death Mask” and “Remember Nothing.”
-presents this attack as the beginning of Xena’s role as a violent
female warrior
-Xena, as a narrative, is obsessed with repetition, as seen in its extensive
use of the flashback motif.
-However, despite the extensive use of the flashback motif
to document Xena’s background, this attack is never visually
represented. It is only discussed between characters (Xena and
Gabrielle and Xena and Toris).
-this lack of representation, then, marks the experience of
traumatic.
-the trauma of the experience, however, is fixed as
the loss of Xena’s brother Lyceus (ie. the loss of
male life).
-elides sexual violence, which is
ubiquitously associated with village attacks
in Xena.
-it is arguable, then, that the trauma
of sexual violence is represented by
a double lack - it is not even
represented as a lack (as trauma).
-the beginnings of a constant
deferral of rape to subtext
and metaphor.
-See Rooney for a further discussion
of the unique nature of rape’s
interpretability.
-“Remember Nothing” further situates this attack as Xena’s point of origin
by presenting an alternate universe in which Xena did not become a
a warrior as a result of this attack.
-Xena is coded as traditionally female (and virginal) in this
universe.
-violence, then, is associated with both masculinity and
sexuality.
-exemplum of a ubiquitous sliding between violence
and sex within the text.
-cite examples from “The Gauntlet” and
“Sins of the Past.”
-Discuss the complex positioning of rape within Xena’s narrative.
-Projanksy 81: “While I argue that films often link rape to
women’s vulnerability, the place of rape in a narrative may
be a result or the cause of that vulnerability. And, while the
expression of sexuality may lead to rape, that rape in turn may
lead to a romantic rescue that accepts the woman’s sexuality in
a heterosexual family context.
-Xena, then, can be read as a rape-revenge narrative.
-The rape-revenge narrative has been superimposed upon the action-adventure
genre.
-See Read for a thorough discussion of this.
-unlike the traditional rape-revenge narrative, Xena is not eroticized as an
rape-revenger, but is instead masculinized.
-see the contrast between Xena and the alternate-Xena of
“Remember Nothing.”
-Xena, then, blurs the distinction between masculine and feminine
discourses since her feminine motivations to protect her homeland
and other women undergirds her masculine position of violent
warrior.
-discuss Gilligan’s “ethics of care” to describe Xena’s
traditionally feminine attitude towards relationships.
-Xena’s experiences of violence and trauma, then, legitimates her
role as a violent female.
-see “Destiny”: Since you know evil, were evil, you can fight evil.
-In “The Gauntlet,” Xena’s brutal beating at the hands of a group
of men is musically linked to her later slaying of the leader of this
group.
-Xena, throughout the narrative, functions as a protector of women from (sexual) violence.
-See “Sins of the Past”: Xena’s first act as a just warrior is to save Gabrielle and
and the women of her village from enslavement and rape.
-See “Remember Nothing” for a further discussion of this.
-Rather than blurring the distinction between traditional conceptions of gender
by functioning as a locus of masculine and feminine contradictions, Xena
instead polices these boundaries by serving to protect women from the
one event that can trigger the formation of a violent woman: sexual abuse.
-speaks to the necessity of a violent female like Xena in society.
-however, this figure is unable to fully protect women
-see Gabrielle’s metaphorical rape in “The Deliverer.”
-Ultimately, however, the text is ambivalent about the figure of the violent female.
-Punishes Xena throughout the narrative by presenting her as eternally guilty
for her violent past.
-Xena is constantly presented as on the edge of reverting to her past
violent excesses.
-Difficulty for women to successfully negotiate proper amounts
of violence.
-Represents this dark side to Xena’s violence as potentially threatening to her
relationships.
-see the “GabDrag” in “The Bitter Suite.”
-Ultimately, Xena succumbs to guilt and “vengeance” (ie, is punished) for her
violent past by remaining dead in “A Friend in Need, II.”
-However, in her place, another violent female warrior rises - Gabrielle.
-Speaks to the tension between the necessity for the figure of the violent
female to police gender boundaries and society’s own ambivalences
towards this figure.
-This ambivalence is present in reactions towards the text as well.
-See Caudill for a discussion of the ways in which fans are attracted toward
the potential for sexual violence inherent in Xena.
-See Hall for a discussion of one fan’s repulsion and attraction towards
Xena and Xena’s equation of violence with empowerment.
-See “The Deliverer” episode guide (and in particular Sears’ comments on
the metaphorical rape scene) for evidence of the contradictory attitudes
toward rape and sexual violence.
-This ambivalence, both within the text and towards the text, is symptomatic of current attitudes towards the relationship between violence and women.
-Xena, then, can be read as an attempt to negotiate and make sense of this
relationship.
-Its solution is a figuring of the role as, at best, “a necessary evil.”
-There is potential for empowerment, but this potential is
limited by the series’ final assertion that this empowerment must
ultimately be regulated and punished.
Thesis: Sexual violence, particularly rape, functions in the background of much of the narrative of Xena: Warrior Princess as a motivating and justifying force for the main character, Xena. Xena, within the series, functions as a violent female, a locus of contradiction that blurs the distinction between masculine and feminine identity. Xena, though, instead of causing the dissolution of this boundary, in fact polices it and prevents other women, with notable exceptions, from crossing it. She is able to do this because of her experiences of victimization and, metaphorically, sexual abuse, since these experiences are specifically figured as the trigger for violent female excess. Xena is initially motivated to do violence in order to protect her home village of Amphipolis, positioning her as a just revenger. Though this justifies her position as a violent female, the contradictions that this subject position creates in hegemonic discourse does not go unpunished in the course of the narrative. Xena is weighed down, and eventually succumbs to, her guilt for her past crimes, indicating that, despite the necessity of violent females to police the boundaries of gender by protecting other women from traumatic experiences, the violent female is ultimately a figure worthy of punishment. This ambivalent attitude towards the figure of the violent female can be seen within the text itself and within the reactions of the audience, particularly fans, toward the text, which oscillate between attraction to the figure of an empowered female character and repulsion from the violent excesses that signify that empowerment. This attitude is symptomatic of broader attitudes toward female victims of abuse and the representation of trauma, violence, and abuse in female superhero narratives.
-Brief historical discussion of the emergence of modern discourses on female violence and abuse.
-See Gordon, Heroes of Their Own Lives.
-Explain how these discourses affect the presentation of trauma, violence, and
abuse in Xena: Warrior Princess.
-Briefly define your usage of the terms “trauma” and “violence.”
-Marinucci’s “standard usage” definition of violence: “the use
of physical force as an intentional means of inflicting pain or
causing bodily harm.”
-Hesford’s definition of trauma: “a devastating and not-worked-
through experience.”
-trauma is then marked by its lack of representability.
-Discussion of examples of trauma in Xena: Warrior Princess
-The initial attack upon Xena’s home village of Amphipolis by the warlord
Cortese.
-see “Death Mask” and “Remember Nothing.”
-presents this attack as the beginning of Xena’s role as a violent
female warrior
-Xena, as a narrative, is obsessed with repetition, as seen in its extensive
use of the flashback motif.
-However, despite the extensive use of the flashback motif
to document Xena’s background, this attack is never visually
represented. It is only discussed between characters (Xena and
Gabrielle and Xena and Toris).
-this lack of representation, then, marks the experience of
traumatic.
-the trauma of the experience, however, is fixed as
the loss of Xena’s brother Lyceus (ie. the loss of
male life).
-elides sexual violence, which is
ubiquitously associated with village attacks
in Xena.
-it is arguable, then, that the trauma
of sexual violence is represented by
a double lack - it is not even
represented as a lack (as trauma).
-the beginnings of a constant
deferral of rape to subtext
and metaphor.
-See Rooney for a further discussion
of the unique nature of rape’s
interpretability.
-“Remember Nothing” further situates this attack as Xena’s point of origin
by presenting an alternate universe in which Xena did not become a
a warrior as a result of this attack.
-Xena is coded as traditionally female (and virginal) in this
universe.
-violence, then, is associated with both masculinity and
sexuality.
-exemplum of a ubiquitous sliding between violence
and sex within the text.
-cite examples from “The Gauntlet” and
“Sins of the Past.”
-Discuss the complex positioning of rape within Xena’s narrative.
-Projanksy 81: “While I argue that films often link rape to
women’s vulnerability, the place of rape in a narrative may
be a result or the cause of that vulnerability. And, while the
expression of sexuality may lead to rape, that rape in turn may
lead to a romantic rescue that accepts the woman’s sexuality in
a heterosexual family context.
-Xena, then, can be read as a rape-revenge narrative.
-The rape-revenge narrative has been superimposed upon the action-adventure
genre.
-See Read for a thorough discussion of this.
-unlike the traditional rape-revenge narrative, Xena is not eroticized as an
rape-revenger, but is instead masculinized.
-see the contrast between Xena and the alternate-Xena of
“Remember Nothing.”
-Xena, then, blurs the distinction between masculine and feminine
discourses since her feminine motivations to protect her homeland
and other women undergirds her masculine position of violent
warrior.
-discuss Gilligan’s “ethics of care” to describe Xena’s
traditionally feminine attitude towards relationships.
-Xena’s experiences of violence and trauma, then, legitimates her
role as a violent female.
-see “Destiny”: Since you know evil, were evil, you can fight evil.
-In “The Gauntlet,” Xena’s brutal beating at the hands of a group
of men is musically linked to her later slaying of the leader of this
group.
-Xena, throughout the narrative, functions as a protector of women from (sexual) violence.
-See “Sins of the Past”: Xena’s first act as a just warrior is to save Gabrielle and
and the women of her village from enslavement and rape.
-See “Remember Nothing” for a further discussion of this.
-Rather than blurring the distinction between traditional conceptions of gender
by functioning as a locus of masculine and feminine contradictions, Xena
instead polices these boundaries by serving to protect women from the
one event that can trigger the formation of a violent woman: sexual abuse.
-speaks to the necessity of a violent female like Xena in society.
-however, this figure is unable to fully protect women
-see Gabrielle’s metaphorical rape in “The Deliverer.”
-Ultimately, however, the text is ambivalent about the figure of the violent female.
-Punishes Xena throughout the narrative by presenting her as eternally guilty
for her violent past.
-Xena is constantly presented as on the edge of reverting to her past
violent excesses.
-Difficulty for women to successfully negotiate proper amounts
of violence.
-Represents this dark side to Xena’s violence as potentially threatening to her
relationships.
-see the “GabDrag” in “The Bitter Suite.”
-Ultimately, Xena succumbs to guilt and “vengeance” (ie, is punished) for her
violent past by remaining dead in “A Friend in Need, II.”
-However, in her place, another violent female warrior rises - Gabrielle.
-Speaks to the tension between the necessity for the figure of the violent
female to police gender boundaries and society’s own ambivalences
towards this figure.
-This ambivalence is present in reactions towards the text as well.
-See Caudill for a discussion of the ways in which fans are attracted toward
the potential for sexual violence inherent in Xena.
-See Hall for a discussion of one fan’s repulsion and attraction towards
Xena and Xena’s equation of violence with empowerment.
-See “The Deliverer” episode guide (and in particular Sears’ comments on
the metaphorical rape scene) for evidence of the contradictory attitudes
toward rape and sexual violence.
-This ambivalence, both within the text and towards the text, is symptomatic of current attitudes towards the relationship between violence and women.
-Xena, then, can be read as an attempt to negotiate and make sense of this
relationship.
-Its solution is a figuring of the role as, at best, “a necessary evil.”
-There is potential for empowerment, but this potential is
limited by the series’ final assertion that this empowerment must
ultimately be regulated and punished.