Dear Woke Left: Hands Off Jeanne d’Arc!

A new book, published in England and aimed at 11-14-year-olds, presents St Joan of Arc as "non-binary"! Even the Saints aren't immune!

From The European Conservative

By Hélène de Lauzun, PhD

Jeanne might have faced challenges as a woman in the medieval man’s world, but she hardly had sleepless nights over her correct pronouns.

Over the centuries, the disputes between France and England have steadily escalated and experienced a thousand and one twists and turns. From Agincourt to Mers-el-Kébir, via Trafalgar, the relationship between the Gauls and their best enemies across the Channel has been characterised by rumbling storms—interrupted, however, by lovely clear spells, such as the marriage of Charles I and Henrietta of France or the signing of the Entente Cordiale. This is the charm of our European history, which overzealous Brussels officials would like to erase and replace with a peaceful era of perpetual bureaucracy.

The latest episode in the age-old conflict between the fierce Gauls and perfidious Albion is the appropriation of Jeanne d’Arc by a British publisher to turn her into a non-binary icon for the edification of schoolchildren (!). This is indeed how she is presented in an anthology entitled Who We Are, published by Collins and aimed at teenagers aged 11 to 14. A chapter devoted to gender diversity through the ages brings together examples of historical figures with ‘fluid identities’—including the secondary patron saint of France.

It will soon be seven hundred years since the frail existence of the pure maiden of Lorraine— who rallied the French armies against the English invaders in the Hundred Years War—came to an end in the torment of the flames on the Place du Marché in Rouen. We had to wait until the twenty-first century to finally get to the bottom of the story. Holy cow, of course! Jeanne is non-binary. Why didn’t we think of it sooner? She fights like a man, wears her hair short, has swapped her distaff for a sword, and rides a horse. So she didn’t let herself be confined by the gender stereotypes of the stuffy 15th-century society. Well done to her.

Jeanne’s non-binary identity is a very British obsession. Already in 2022, in London, the prestigious Shakespearean Globe Theatre was staging a play that put a queer credo in her mouth: “I am not a woman. I do not correspond to that word.” The play was written by Charlie Josephine and performed by Isobel Thom: two people born as women who define themselves as non-binary. Jeanne might have been  fighting against her assigned identity as a woman in a man’s world, but it would be hard to imagine her having internal battles over her pronouns in the process. 

By thus reclaiming poor Jeannette, as she was called at home, who had asked no one for anything, and who once again finds herself dishonoured by l’ennemi anglois, it is not only her person that is outraged but the entire cause of women. Indeed, to make Jeanne a ‘non-binary’ character is to imply that not all of her exploits can be accomplished by a woman—a real, fully feminine woman who is proud of being one. “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,” said Robert Tombs, emeritus professor of French history at the University of Cambridge.

It is very convenient for the apostles of non-binarism to appropriate Jeanne. Was she not burned as a witch by a male and reactionary Church?

But the reality of the facts does not stand up to the test of their fantasies. A woman, the gentle Jeanne was fully so, even if, from 1429, at the very beginning of her epic, she had her hair cut ‘in a bowl,’ according to the male fashion of the time, and chose to wear a mid-length dress, also of the male type. She grew up with her mother Isabelle, learning everything a young girl of her age should know, spinning wool and running a household. 

She suffered from a destiny that Heaven had asked of her. Her young and tender heart made her shed tears when she saw one of her enemies wounded near her, or when she felt the full weight of the injustice of her judges. She did not consider for a second carrying an iron and preferred to go into battle carrying a banner bearing the names of Jesus and Mary.

The Church that condemned her to the stake was not the brutally patriarchal force feminists like to depict. While Bishop Cauchon wanted her dead, other priests assisted her, confessed her, brought her communion, and bowed to the grace and strength that emanated from the courageous girl of Lorraine.

Even today, some feminists are up in arms and defending their Jeanne d’Arc because they don’t get their own back in the travesty—dare we say the word—of the young woman as a queer activist. Jeanne d’Arc also has a message for women, as a fully-fledged woman: “pursue your ideal, don’t let yourself be intimidated by those who want to stand in your way.” It’s a fact: Jeanne is an inspiring woman, even for a progressive feminist.

For seven hundred years, Jeanne’s case has been a source of questioning and turmoil. In her time, she knew how to win the hearts of the soldiers who began to march in her wake, without really understanding what was happening to them. With her candour and strength, she disarmed the judges who wanted her dead.

We therefore ask our English friends to leave Jeanne in peace and to follow the example of those soldiers who, during the First World War, when she was still just a blessed, prayed to her to give them the strength to defeat the enemy.

In the terrible medieval war that lasted more than a hundred years and ended with Jeanne’s help, was God on the side of France or England? To this terrible question, the maiden gave the most beautiful of answers before her judges:

“As for the love or hatred that God bears for the English, I know nothing about it, but I am convinced that they will be driven out of France, except for those who will die on this earth.”

Even today, through the gentle Jeanne, the voice of those who passionately love their land and defend it to the death against the invader is still heard. Let’s listen to her!