There may or may not be a method to this madness.

wehaveallgotknives:

beguines:

flowlingual:

beguines:

Susan Crane, “Clothing and Gender Definition: Joan of Arc”, The Journal of Medieval and Modern Studies, vol. 26, no. 2, Spring 1996

A bit cringey to me. In my mind being a full PERSON means taking on all roles as needed. But maybe that’s just the enby in me…

But saying the other women can do the women’s roles while she isn’t required to… cringey.

This is a direct quote from Joan of Arc, written in the record of her trial for heresy in 1431. We can’t take twenty-first century ideas of gender and apply them successfully to fifteenth century people. We can, however, recognize that the things Joan of Arc did and said regarding gender were extremely progressive for the time period within which she lived, and ultimately were a contributing factor to her execution. This is a nineteen year old girl, on trial for a crime for which the punishment is death, staunchly refusing to conform to her society and church’s ideas about gender even though she is fully aware that doing so could likely save her life. She was an extremely devout Catholic and was refused the right to go to mass and receive the sacraments, a matter of inexplicably profound importance to her, specifically because she refused to wear the clothing they deemed acceptable for her gender. It’s difficult to overstate just how transgressive her actions were regarding fifteenth century gender roles—especially saying something like this to a room full of powerful clergy members who were deciding whether she would live or die.

sorry Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for cringe

(via criticalrolo)