“Joan of Arc has been a feminist icon since the end of the 19th century in the English-speaking world” | EUROtoday

Lhe picture has remained within the reminiscence: throughout the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, in July 2024, an armored rider set off on the Seine. The organizers confirmed that they’d Joan of Arc in thoughts, and the creator, Jeanne Friot, highlighted her queer dimension. The horsewoman is only one extra avatar of Joan of Arc, who, bear in mind, saved town of Orléans and had King Charles VII topped in Reims in 1429, earlier than being captured by the English in 1430, then burned alive the next 12 months. But she successfully symbolizes the queer icon that “the Maid” has grow to be, first within the English-speaking world, then, extra lately, in France.

In this regard, the work of activist Leslie Feinberg revealed in 1996 and entitled Transgender Warriors (Beacon Press, not translated) constitutes a key second: the one the place Jeanne, androgynous along with her brief hair and males’s garments, involves embody a spirit of resistance in opposition to patriarchy. Since then, references to a queer Joan of Arc have multiplied, notably in vogue and music: Madonna devoted a title to her in 2015 and, extra lately, the singer Angèle posed in 2024 on the quilt of the journal Photowearing armor.

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