TV heroine Xena is used to overcoming opponents, but can she survive academic scrutiny?
In the latest issue of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, David Adcock, a religious studies graduate student at Rice University in the United States, ponders: "Xena is a performative between - a between that is multi-layered at the very least - that becomes another between in the very experience of Xena, a between between, a virtualisation of virtuality, which does not merely subvert 'the real' but opens upon a strange - or brave - new world." For most viewers, Xena's attractions are a bit more obvious.