With regard to the consumption of fandom, the show‟s development of the subtext illuminates the dynamics between the fans and the creator-producers of the show. The open secret of the television show becomes the unique selling point for the show, leveraging lesbian support in terms of a viewing audience (see Bennett, 1999; Collier, et al., 2009; Gwenllian-Jones, 1999; Hamming, 2001; Kennedy, 2007). The open secret develops into a compelling hook in response to what the show‟s Internet lesbian audience is reading into the television series. Lesbian fans would tune in every episode hoping for the desired outing of Xena and Gabrielle as a lesbian couple. Once the studio acknowledges the power of the lesbian fan base, the open secret becomes a structured motif. The dramatic tease is embedded in each episode, and the suspense and the waiting in the shared secret of this forever-promised-and-always-unrequited desire is set for the whole of the series and becomes this highly marketable commodity.
With regard to commodification of the open secret one must ask what value it had to fans and the Studio? What made X: WP so popular that it was shown on „200 stations across the United States‟ and in more than hundred countries, and what made it such a prized product that it was to be translated into more than twenty different languages?
(Morreale, 1998, p.79). As the lesbian fans increased on the Internet and in XSTT, and the Xenaverse, the show promoted its own website too; this in turn improved the show‟s exponential growth and revenue. The show was influenced by the market and
was quick to respond. Having originally been targeted in the marketplace as a mainstream adventure fantasy, the television show now changed its direction after a single season‟s run, and the show‟s writers began to write for the lesbian Internet fans as its tacitly understood target audience. With its rising ratings, X: WP attracted the budgets, the marketing and the craftspeople. It became renowned as a stylish, spectacular, pioneering, and innovative cult and mainstream form of television.
Technical and special effects were introduced as part of the investment as the show knew it would continue for many more seasons, for instance, no less than three separate camera units were required on the last two episodes so they could be shot on a cinematic scale. The industry, in turn, acknowledged the creativity and craft of the series. X: WP became an Emmy award-winning television series. It was nominated fifteen times, and won six times in the outstanding Music composition section84. It was also nominated by ASCAP Films and Television Music Awards, and received a Top TV Cult Series award, as well as being nominated in 2001 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for the Best Genre cable/syndicated television series. In 1998, it also won an award from the New Zealand Films and TV Awards for Best Contribution to Design.
The “captivation” of the lesbian Internet fans was noticeable and continued to be at the forefront of the Studio‟s planning. The draw of the subtext was making money for the show and the growth of the lesbian online fans from fan clubs similar to XSTT reflected this situation. As the show‟s executives got used to securing a regular slot for the show in the schedules season after season, the open secret also appeared to great effect elsewhere. It was the lesbian Internet fans‟ reaction to the open secret that
84Composer Joseph LoDuca won this award for his music score for X: WP (1999) Season 5, Episode 1,
“Fallen Angel” (Dir. John Fawcett). TV. US, 27 Sep [online] www.sfsite.com/depts/xepromo05.htm [Accessed May 2002].
created a highly publicised form of fandom. Their speculation over the possibility of a relationship between Xena and Gabrielle became a topic for many primetime chat shows85. The lesbian Internet fandom was now a powerful force, as the online fan journal Whoosh!,86recorded:
the first season of X: WP drew in a mainstream and cult fan audience however, by the second season with the emphasis on the open secret and the lesbian fans, the show was averaging 6.1 million as a viewing audience.
The popularity of the show began to rely on the specific relationship of the fans seeking the subtexts and the Studio began to tacitly develop the open secret for this audience. However, the relationship that grew over the open secret as a product was not always a favourable one between Studio and fans. This was revealed particularly in way the Studio failed to acknowledge the X: WP lesbian online space although it, itself, was promoting online fan communication. Commenting on the unofficial websites and the official MCA/Universal homepage inaugurated in 1995, Pullen notes:
[t]he official site encourages only particular kinds of fan activity. Despite their overwhelming presence on the Web, lesbian fans are virtually invisible on the official site and MCA/Universal never mentions Xena‟s subtext (2000, p.59).
The act of setting up an official fan club online to run alongside the show and with this club having the word „official‟ in its name, led fans in independent lesbian clubs
85„Xena received a flurry of attention, including tributes from shows like Ellen and Roseanne, The Tonight show and The Rosie O‟Donnell Show; …cover stories [ran] in magazines ranging from TV Guide to Ms [Ms Magazine]‟. See Weisbrot, R. (1998) The Official Guide to the Xenaverse – Xena:
Warrior Princess. New York: Doubleday Dell, (Introduction).
86 Whoosh! is an online fanzine and e-journal for X: WP and its fans. It is the birthplace of the International Association of Xena Studies. http://www.whoosh.org.
The first season of X: WP drew in a mainstream and cult fan audience however, by the second season with the emphasis on the open secret and the lesbian fans it was averaging 6.1million as a viewing audience. With particular subtext-favoured episodes this peaked to between 7-8 million [online]
http://www.whoosh.org/issue53/dooland1.html [Accessed May 2001].
such as XSTT further to feeling „unofficial‟. Moreover fans in general within the official NetForum87 showed concern that if fans such as themselves consistently disapproved of the production company that eventually MCA/Universal would terminate the forum.
Lesbian Internet fans, however, on unofficial sites such as XSTT continued to discuss the subtext and the pleasure they got from discussing the open secret within the forums of the Internet, so much so this became a regular fan activity that continuously challenged the official sites, in terms of online interaction for fan lesbian identity and its performances. According to Pullen (2000) the official fan site wanted to detach itself from what is perceived as a „fanatical‟ aspect of fandom such as collecting memorabilia. Yet many fans were beginning to produce, create, and market their own Xena products. In their interactions and interviews with me the XSTT fans made differentiations in they made a difference in what was „official‟ and „unofficial,‟ as we can observe in these responses from the fans with regard to their collection of memorabilia of the show.
malki_35:
I have 2 books, Season 1,2,3 most of 4 and what was aired of 6 on video and some of the Official Xena Magazines from Titan. I look at them quite often.
Fan collection of artefacts may vary in consumption quantity or quality, however, collecting memorabilia is more a complex representation of fandom than just an act of pure consumerism. The fan darxe notes she many forms of memorabilia which are part of her performance and play, in terms of her cultural practices of fandom.
darxe:
87 The official chat room forums online.
I have all the books, a few comic books, some collecting cards, a nd all but 3 of the magazines. I also have 4 shirts, oh and 4 12 inch dolls and 3 6 inch dolls. several fposters, a kite, and a book postcards. I also have the calendars. I have them all over my roomso I see them all the time. LOL when I see Gab pic I sent you I drool I‟ll send you a link so you can see the pic. I LOVE Girls Wanna Have Fun. I have the Tshirt from that one.
Fandom involves representations of identity which are essential to fandom, these representation are different than just consumerism and collecting items. The concept of lesbian identification and desire are interwoven with darxe‟s performances as she chooses to specify a particular episode Girls Just Wanna Have Fun88and emphasises this identification and desire between her objects of fandom Xena and Gabrielle and the fact that she too is just having „fun‟. All the fans are having fun collecting things and all differentiate in their consumer items and what their specific interests are as the fans illustrate in their lists.
cabinngirl:
I do, I have action figures, a kit from the club and a couple of calendars
magmor:
Masses! I‟m a sucker for the stuff. Books, T-shirts, comics ( I am not a comic fan but I made an exception for Xena), videos, soundtracks ( I love Joe LoDuca,s music) DVD,s, calendears, a Xena action figure, the Official magazines, a lot of the official stills from the series, and I‟ve had all the fan club kits so far.
reneeg _33
well i've taped most of the shows, i have the membership kits 1 and 2.
don't know why I didn‟t get 3. have the calendars oh and a book of the xena show the behind the look of the show. It‟s very good it only covers the first 3 seasons. The membership kits you get pictures and a newsletter and a tape of the bloopers…it‟s kinda cool
88 X: WP (1996) Season 2, Episode 4, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” (dir. T.J. Scott). TV. US, 28 Oct.
xeniteus:
Bookish, Xena, Collect swords, pocket watches, write some poetry when themuse moves me…like to mess with photos…love my P.C.
Throughout these lists of artifacts, the fans not only make a difference between unofficial and „official‟ with a capital “O” but the fan xeniteus also talks of re-imagining online properties as her “mess [ing]” with photos. The lesbian Internet fans not only collect, buy, and sell merchandise, but they were some of the first online fans to launch fan-run conventions 89. Memorabilia is crucial to many fans as it signals the development of online fandom and their lesbian fan Internet community. Since the lesbian fan activities migrated to the Internet, memorabilia has a special historical significance. For XSTT fans they could now take different pieces of media from different mediums such as video files, audio clips, still photographs, radio interviews, and alter them or link them together to become a customised individual part of their own historical narrative with reference to the open secret. In the case of X: WP, many online lesbian fans were drawn to particular important scenes that form part of the open secret and through customising their „objects of fandom,‟ they could exhibit their own representations of them online. (This is illustrated in the final section of this chapter with two still images appropriated and re-imaged by lesbian Internet fans90.)
The consumer market for the media and cultural industries saw an irrevocable change with online fandom. The Studio supported in general the consumerism of the Internet fandom, while the Internet through its immediacy actually functioned to support the lesbian Internet fans in their online business dealings in terms of the reproduction of items. This production of artefacts was integral to the growth of their fandom, while
89Missy Good, a fan and fan fiction writer, cited later in this thesis, also organises „Xena conventions‟
for fans.
90 The „Kiss Image‟ of Xena and Gabrielle featured in the final episode is appropriated by the fans and changed see page 135.
the open secret, as part of this consumerism and marketing was successful in its message to the loyal lesbian Internet fans, for the producers realised that these fans could be reached through the unofficial and official fan sites. In sharing the open secret in a symbiotic relationship, the Studio and the fans became part of the Internet‟s continuing circuit of the Xena narrative „that maintains the show‟s playful ambiguity [and marketability] that encourages fans to relocate their desires to the safety and anonymity of cyberspace‟ (Hamming, 2002, p.4). While Hamming notes the safety and anonymity of cyberspace, anonymity should not be equated with invisibility. The commodification of the open secret also drew out political voice(s) from the XSTT fans.