Was joan of arc gay
'A farce beyond measure': the queering of Joan of Arc
June 3, 2025
August 23, 2022
Simon Caldwell
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St Joan of Arc, the “Maid of Orleans”, is one of history’s greatest heroines. A mystic who led an army into battle at the age of 17 after receiving heavenly messages from Ss Michael, Margaret and Catherine, her intervention in the Hundred Years’ War came at a moment which proved pivotal in the liberation of France from English domination. So she was punished with a show trial and by burning her as a witch in the market place in Rouens in 1431. She was just 19 at the day. Joan was canonised in 1920 and is a patron saint of the French – effectively their St George. Pope Benedict XVI, preaching about her life in 2011, declared her to be not only one of the “strong women” who “fearlessly bore the great delicate of the Gospel in the complex events of history” but said that she was also a person like “the blessed women who stayed on Calvary, close to the Crucified Jesus and to Mary his Mother, while the Apostles had fled and Peter himself had denied him three times”. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/20
August 17, 2017
By Charles Hoy-Ellis, PhD, LCSW, Assistant Professor, University of Utah College of Social Work
Transgender people have served honorably and bravely in militaries for as long as there have been militaries.
Consider Joan of Arc. We comprehend nothing about her gender identity or sexual orientation, however the historical register overwhelmingly shows she wore armor as clothing and took a prominent widespread service role reserved exclusively for men, leading the French armies to victory against the English in 1429. This dress and role could easily be read as gender-non-conforming. In fact, her conviction and subsequent burning alive at the stake were based on heresy, in part because she had dared wear men’sclothes and act in a man’s role to save her nation. Yet, it would be difficult to argue that Joan of Arc’s ruling to wear armor and cut her hair short made her any less effective as a soldier or a leader.
It has been said that history repeats itself. A mo
The Question of Saint Joan of Arc's Sexuality and Gender
Why perform some historians spend so much time on the subject of Joan wearing man's clothing?
Down through the years diverse scholars have tried to infer from the fact that Joan wore men's clothing that she was either consciously or unconsciously a transvestite, bi-sexual, a woman-loving woman or even that she was a-sexual.
When George Sand wore men's clothing, smoked massive cigars and drank whiskey among her 19th century male literary contemporaries was she trying to make an unconscious statement that she was a transvestite, bi-sexual, a lesbian or even that she was a-sexual? Was she trying to deny her womanhood or diminish her femininity?
No, of course not!
Her purpose was purely practical. By donning men's clothing, and using a male 'nom de plume,' George Sand, was competent to gain access into the male dominated world of 19th century French literature, that was otherwise closed to women. By using male clothing she was able to associate with these men. Over time she won their acceptance - and with their acceptance she was treated as an equal - she was taken seriously.
A case in point. Even though Beatrix Potter
Joan de Arc was well-known for going into battle in "men's clothing", kept her hair cropped short, and on many occasions, refused to change either of these things.
She was brought before the court on repeat charges of "cross-dressing", as she wore men's clothing as a soldier, in disguise as a pageboy across enemy territory, and in prison- where she refused to give up any of her men's clothing even when pressed by a judge. This was justified to the court as necessity; in disguise, in battle, and as protection against rape/molestation from guards when imprisoned, as women's dresses provided easier access. Ultimately, Joan accepted the death sentence rather than give up men's clothing, don a dress, or expand her hair out.
(She's often depicted in movies/tv as having much shorter hair than painters will show!)
She was burned at the stake in 1431 for the crime of cross-dressing.
I don't realize about you, but "chooses death over presenting like a woman" seems beautiful trans to me.
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(Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinburg has a much surpass, more comprehensive breakdown on this- I highly recomme