There was a time when children learned to admire the great figures of history, when courage, faith, and sacrifice were celebrated as virtues. Today, alas, even the saints are no longer safe from ideological rewriting. The latest victim? Saint Joan of Arc, patroness of France, a model of purity, audacity, and fidelity to Christ and her homeland.
A British textbook for young pupils aged 11 to 14 now teaches that Joan of Arc was "non-binary." The work in question, titled Who We Are, presents a watered-down and ideologized version of the saint from Domrémy, arguing that some now consider her to belong to this modern category. Why? Because she wore men's clothing and cut her hair.
A willful ignorance of historical context
This claim is not only absurd, but it reveals a profound ignorance, or an assumed contempt, for Joan's historical, spiritual, and judicial context. She wore armor to go into battle, not out of a rejection of her sex, but because it was a practical necessity in a war dominated by men. This wearing of so-called "masculine" clothing was precisely one of the pretexts used by her judges to unjustly condemn her for heresy. As if martyrdom were not enough, must she now be betrayed a second time?
But Joan never denied her femininity. She referred to herself as "la Pucelle"—the Maid—a term that, in addition to describing her chastity offered to God, clearly affirmed her female identity. She said she was sent by God and guided by Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, all figures of spiritual combat and Christian fidelity. Nothing, absolutely nothing in her words or deeds, suggests she would have renounced her nature as a woman.
An insult to all women and to truth
As Professor Robert Tombs of the University of Cambridge so rightly stated:
"Joan of Arc fought as a woman and died as a woman. Calling her anything else is an insult to her and indirectly to all women who are brave enough to risk their lives for their convictions – as if women were incapable of heroism."
To insult her by instrumentalizing her in this way is also to insult all the strong women who have marked history with their heroism, their faith, their commitment. Must we now conclude that any woman who does not conform to modern stereotypes is, in fact, "non-binary"? This is a total absurdity, the fruit of a confused ideology that dissolves the human person into artificial and unstable concepts.
The reality is that Joan of Arc does not fit into current categories because she transcends them. She was not in rebellion against her sex, but in obedience to God. She was not "fluid," but rooted in faith, animated by a clear mission: to liberate France and have the legitimate king crowned at Reims.
The deconstruction undertaken in these textbooks does not stop at Joan. It is part of a broader project: to erase reference points, to blur historical truth, and to substitute an ideology based on subjectivism and emotion for the wisdom inherited from the centuries. Children are being taught to confuse personal identity with ideological affirmation, in contempt of historical, psychological, and spiritual coherence.
A British psychologist has rightly denounced this approach as an attempt to pass off vague concepts not based in reality (like "non-binarism") as historical truths. She also warns that such teachings can induce confusion and anxiety in children already fragile in their identity formation.
It is urgent to restore to Joan of Arc her dignity. Not the one conferred by some "inclusive reading," but the one recognized by the Church in canonizing her in 1920. She does not need to be disguised to be relevant: she already is, because holiness is timeless. She remains a shining model for all, and even more so for young girls called to discover that true greatness lies not in the confusion of genders, but in the total gift of self to a just cause, to a higher ideal, to God.
Joan is not a queer icon. She is a saint. She is not a pretext to justify the follies of the present. She is a beacon of truth in an age that shuns it.