A new school lesson suggesting Joan of Arc was “non-binary” has ignited fierce backlash from academics and women’s rights advocates. The Mailhas the story.
The Who We Are anthology, published by Collins, features a lesson plan which contains a biography of the French heroine which states “Joan of Arc (1412-31) is today considered by some to have been non-binary.”
The wording has caused fury among some in the academic community, with one professor calling it “insulting” and a women’s rights campaigner calling it “another ridiculous example of attempting to rewrite history.”
Born as a peasant girl around 1412, Joan of Arc became a knight and ultimately a patron saint of France after helping to repulse an English attempt to conquer her nation.
Believing she was enacting God’s will, she led the French army to victory at Siege of Orléans in 1429, a tipping point in the Hundred Years’ War between France and England.
Joan famously had short hair and took to wearing male clothing, a key fact against held her during her trial for heresy in 1431, which ultimately led to her being burnt at the stake.
However, she never claimed to be anything other than female and did not use the term ‘non-binary’ which only gained traction in the 1990s.
“Joan of Arc fought as a woman and died as a woman,” Robert Tombs, Professor Emeritus of French History at the University of Cambridge, told the Telegraph.
“To call her something else is insulting to her and indirectly to all women who are brave enough to risk their lives for their beliefs – as if women are incapable of heroism.”
“This is yet another ridiculous example of attempting to rewrite history and erase strong, rebellious female characters from our past,” Carolyn Brown, of the Women’s Rights Network, added. …
In the summer of 2022, the Globe theatre hosted a play called ‘I, Joan’ which prompted controversy after portraying Joan as non-binary.
Pre-publicity used the pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them’ when referring to the French historical figure.
The theatre defended itself and insisted Shakespeare would have approved.
Stop Press: For schools to traduce the memory of a young woman who died for God and for France is to add insult to injury, says the Telegraph in a leading article.
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