began from a simple question I had asked a few group boards. Like many of you, having been a
Xena fan since the first episode, I turned my attention to reading more fan fiction once the show was
over. After a few years I began to notice a trend where many of the characters and plots did not
focus, or even hint at diversity and I wondered why? For most people, this might not even be an
issue, but as a Native American (Lakota) and Chicana, this was an obvious omission.
We all know that the original Xena: Warrior, Princess, television series not only had plots, which
dealt with various ethnic groups and religions, but the show made a point to include people of color.
Regardless of what everyone may think of the producer/creator, Rob Tapert, one of the main
achievements I give him kudos for was his incorporation of diversity. He could have been like the
typical producer, requiring a certain body type and standard of "Hollywood" beauty and he could
have made those very same requirements of the cast surrounding the main stars, however he did not
and for this, I tip my hat to him. In the Xena episodes we saw a rainbow of colors from the cast and,
granted, although the historical accuracy of this campy show leaves much to be desired, the plots
took us into areas of religious differences and beliefs that many might not have considered before
seeing the show.
After contemplating this fact and realizing that the show not only embraced diversity, but also made
an active point of incorporating it within the story lines and plots, I wondered why fan fiction was not
doing the same? I began to see the lack of ethnic representation and I wondered if this meant that the
Xena Fan Fic world had no place for people who looked like me. With this thought in mind, I asked
a few groups if they knew of any fan fiction material, which had either ethnic or religious diversity.
Some of the responses I received only proved that this topic needed to be aired, if for no other reason
than to let those few individuals know that yes, we people of color are fans and we do exist in the
Xena world. Thankfully, these few negative responses were outnumbered by the positive feedback
and support I received from many of the Fan Fiction readers.
This list is a compilation of all the names of titles forwarded to me by fans who supported my
attempt to find Xena Fan Fiction embracing diversity within the story plots. After culling through the
various titles, sorting out the few PWP stories, I sought out the help of the writers themselves. The
final results of this list include their feedback, as well as all of you who sent me titles.
The basic requirements for this list are simple. The stories must be considered Xena Fan Fiction,
either Uber/Original or X/G: Alt. They must also be posted on the web and therefore easily
accessible. If you sent me a story title and I found either a dead link, or a link leading me to a
company that sold the book, I dropped it from the list because the stories need to be free and
accessible to everyone.
When I refer to Ethnic Diversity, this would mean that if the story centers around Xena/Gabrielle, the
sub-characters need to be what would be considered a minority within Greece for their time period.
These could be anything from Egyptians, Japanese, Chinese, African, Arabs. You get the idea.
Ethnic diversity for Uber/Original would be anything from Native American, African Americans,
Chicano, Hispanic, etc. As another example, if the Uber story were taking place in Australia, then an
Aborigine character/culture would be considered ethnic diversity. Religious diversity in X/G stories
would be considered any religion, which would have been considered minority religions within Greece
for their time period. For Uber/Original, it would be any religion which is not the dominating
Judo/Christian religion of the Western world. This could be Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Pagan, etc.
If you are a writer, whom I've included in these pages, and there is an error in the way your story
was listed, please feel free to contact me, and the error will be resolved. If you've read or written a
story which you feel belongs on these pages, send me an e-mail with a link to the story telling me
what categories are included in the plot, and I'll read it to verify if it fits the requirements, then add it
to these pages.
L. Crystal Michallet-Romero (10/30/02)
To Crystal's response of accusations of "hidden agenda."
