A modern take on the "Cleopatra's Slavegirl" theme can be seen in the Xena episode "Anthony and Cleopatra" in which Xena disguises herself as Cleopatra in order to track down the man who assassinated Cleopatra.

Here we see Xena's very, very, very good friend Gabrielle, dressed as a member of Xena's court, accompanied by two slavegirls.

Gabrielle wears a very nice outfit with colored fringes, a huge necklace and whatnot so you can tell she's not a slavegirl. But the two women standing behind Gabrielle clearly are slavegirls. They wear nothing but skimpy bras and panties covered by dresses made of a fabric so sheer that you can clearly see said skimpy bra and panties through it. Dresses with an irregular hemline that barely goes past their crotches in places. And one of those places is their crotches.

No fancy headdresses, necklaces or decorative trim for the slavegirls, though they do wear some nice barbaric armbands and bracelets that just might also serve as manacles -- it's hard to tell if they're sufficiently heavy and have a convenient loop or whatnot for chains, ropes, etc. Best of all is a plain metal circlet that looks a lot more like a collar than a necklace, though it could plausibly be either.

That said, the whole slavegirl ensemble is very tasteful -- too tasteful. It's the sort of thing a modern, wealthy woman might dress her slavegirls in -- the simple, strong design demonstrating the owner's good taste, the see-through skimpiness demonstrating the slave's inferior status.

It's all wrong for a primitive, barbaric culture. The chained, half-naked slavegirls in the 1934 "Cleopatra" with all the bangles and armlets were MUCH more powerful expressions of slavegirl cheese than the ones in Xena.

The interesting thing is, Xena: Warrior Princess was never shy with the bondage. Despite its reputation as a lesbian feminist stroke show (or maybe because of it -- lotta feminists like that femdom/femsub action) Xena and Gabrielle got tied and chained up so frequently, and so inventively that it ranks among the all-time leaders among TV series in terms of the number and quality of its bondage scenes.

The point is, if the director or the wardrobe mistress or whomever makes these decisions had thought chains would be appropriate for Cleopatra's slavegirls, they would have been in chains.

I suspect that chains were avoided because someone believed they were tacky and tasteless, not because they had any kind of aversion to bondage/fetish gear.

And that's exactly what's wrong with the slavegirl wear in the "Cleopatra" episode of Xena -- any outfit that a modern, middle class woman would find "tasteful" just doesn't cut it as barbaric slavegirl wear. Sword and sandal slavegirls have never been about good taste.

Return to Slavegirl Images Index

Return to What Should A Slave Girl Look Like?

Return to Sword and Sandals Index

Return to the Mighty Bondagerotica Articles Index