According to historian Bettany Hughes, of all written and recorded history, only 0.5% is about women despite women consistently making up about 50% of the population.
But that hasn’t stopped the trans-historians of trans-history. Armed with sexist stereotypes, they have been marching through history’s great women, so kindly “correcting” the record of their lives where they have determined one or another wasn’t sufficiently “womanly” enough. All in the name of smashing the gender binary, of course.
The most recent example of this is the Sainted Joan of Arc. Joan was a French heroine that led the French army to victory against the English in 1429, purportedly after receiving divine guidance to do so. As she led troops into battle, she donned more practical men’s clothes and armor. After being captured by the English in 1430, she was tried in a kangaroo court on charges of witchcraft, heresy, and defying the divine law for having dressed as a man. She was burned alive in 1431 at the age of 19.
An incredible story of an inspiring, powerful woman.
… Until now.
On August 11, London-based theatre Shakespeare’s Globe announced it’s upcoming play I, Joan, which would re-write her story to make her non-binary who utilized ‘they/them’ pronouns.
While it is true that Joan defied the world’s expectations of her, play writer Charlie Josephine’s implication that she was less of a woman for doing so only reinforces these societal expectations of what a woman should be.
Calling Joan “they” instead of “she” does nothing to question the gender binary. Rather than acknowledging that Joan was a woman who overcame the expectations imposed upon her because of her sex, Joesphine suggests that being a woman is nothing more than adherence to those very expectations.
Unfortunately, Joan is not the only woman who has had her womanhood stripped from her for not conforming to their stereotypical sex-role.
A blog post referred to the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, by he/him pronouns because she sometimes called herself a “man of action” and a “man of science,” and had a close, documented relationship with a female friend. They argued that it was far more likely that she was a man than a lesbian.
The author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, has also been described as “trans” by both activists and Queer news outlet LGBTQ Nation. A tweet from earlier this year wracked up over 34,000 likes after a round-bespectacled gender special firmly declared Alcott was transgender.