The Butt Ugly Weblog

This was such a gorgeous image I just had to tag it. Hover on the image to see...

Since I was asked to tell this story, I might as well.

I - much like a lot of other men like Xena - The Warrior Princess TV series. I mean, gorgeous fantasy women hanging about in a beautiful country with some decent writing, parody and self-parody on top - it's the veritable geek recipe for fun.

So around in 1997 I picked up this Xena shirt to show my fandom. But unlike my other geeky shirts, which mostly attracted sneering, derisive recognition from snot-nosed, 200-pound computer programmer guys, and mystified but somewhat pitying looks from everyone else, this shirt gave me a whole different lot of recognition.

First off, someone wanted to buy the shirt off me at a rock concert in Finland. That, in itself, was already exceptional. But imagine my surprise, when it turned out to be a real chick magnet while traveling: it was not once or twice when someone of the female sex approached me, commented positively on my shirt and started to chat. Practically all of them were mothers with daughters; some single, some not.

Of course I queried them as to the reason why a geeky t-shirt might attract such attention, and here's one answer as close to as I remember it:

"Me and my daughter love to watch the show, because it portrays intelligent, strong and self-reliant women as the main characters. They're a great role model for a girl."

And come to think of it, there really aren't too many of those. I have a feeling this is one of the series I am going to rewatch with my children when they grow mature enough.