Joan of Arc was non-binary, schoolchildren taught

Telegraph

05-04-2025

Joan of Arc was non-binary, secondary school pupils are being taught.
Lesson plans produced for English Language students aged between 11 and 14 include the claim about the medieval French heroine.
The Maid of Orleans is the patron saint of France and fought against the English during the Hundred Years' War.
The Who We Are anthology published by Collins, which is made up of 'representative and inclusive contemporary texts', makes the claim in a lesson plan about a drag queen's biography.
It reads: 'Joan of Arc (1412-31) is today considered by some to have been non-binary '.
The knight cropped her hair in the male fashion and wore men's clothes, which formed part of the heresy case against her for which she was burned at the stake in 1431.
But she never claimed to not be female and also did not adopt the non-binary gender identity, which only emerged in the late 20th century.
Prof Robert Tombs, professor emeritus of French history at the University of Cambridge, branded the claim Joan of Arc was non-binary as 'insulting'.
'Joan of Arc fought as a woman and died as a woman,' he 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.'
Carolyn Brown, a retired psychologist now working with the Women's Rights Network, said: 'This is yet another ridiculous example of attempting to rewrite history and erase strong, rebellious female characters from our past.
'It's insulting to suggest that non-conforming women are not women. Non-binary is a nonsense term – indeed the Supreme Court in the UK recently ruled against including it as an option on passports.
'It's also another example of the junk science of queer theory being visited on children. It's unhelpful psychologically to children's development and is likely to cause confusion and anxiety.'
It is not the first time Joan of Arc has been dubbed non-binary. In 2022, the Globe Theatre put on the play 'I, Joan' which gave her the pronouns 'they/them' instead of 'she/her'.
The claim was made in the Collins anthology as part of a lesson plan designed around drag queen Amrou al-Kadhi's biography Life as a Unicorn.
The plan reads: 'To provide some useful context, teachers may explain to students that there are references to non-binary people in ancient Mesopotamia (4,000 years ago); that in India and Pakistan, 'hijra' is a legally recognised third gender (hijra are usually assigned male at birth but present female); and that Joan of Arc (1412-31) is today considered by some to have been non-binary.
'These historical and global references may prepare students unfamiliar with LGBTQ+ identities to understand the content of the extract'.
One teacher said the lesson plan – used by state schools – made 'an absolute mockery of the profession'.
'In schools today there is simply far too much identity-first woke reading materials being foisted on pupils at the expense of established classics like [To Kill a] Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men.
'We should also not lose sight of the fact that there are cohorts of teenagers vulnerable to reality-denying nonsense like this when it is presented earnestly.'