Friday 12 August 2022 11:19 AM Backlash grows against Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for new play depicting Joan ... trends now
A new play about Joan of Arc, where she is non-binary and uses the pronouns 'they' and 'them', was today branded offensive and sexist by feminists.
It is billed as 'questioning the gender binary' but academics have called it 'a violation of history'.
The upcoming production at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre sparked a backlash yesterday after MailOnline's exclusive on the newly-written show.
And this morning feminist academics said the twist on Joan 'was modern nonsensical ideology'.
Dr Sarah Rutherford said the idea the historical heroine could be no-binary was insulting.
She said: 'This offends me. Joan of Arc is a female cultural icon.
'She was escaping the constraints of being a woman at that time. Non binary, I have been told, means neither male or female.
'We know she was a woman. Please stop applying a modern nonsensical ideology to historical figures.'
Dr Sarah Rutherford said Joan of Arc was a 'female cultural icon' and non-binary label offensive
Rehearsals of the new play which opens later this month at Shakespeare's The Globe Theatre
A publicity picture for the new play at The Globe, which has prompted some controversy
And Victoria Smith called out the Globe for its defence of the upcoming production.
She wrote online: 'You're right, you won't be the first or the last to decide gender non-conforming women aren't really women.
'It's called sexism.'
Ann Widdecombe, former Conservative MP and a Catholic herself, told MailOnline holy figures in religion should be treated with respect.
She said: 'It is insulting when people play around with the saints just because they want to make some kind of point.
'It is a farce beyond measure. Joan of Arc was a woman. There is no evidence she thought of herself in any other way.
'She was a woman, how on earth someone can suggest she was non-binary is beyond me. This play is effectively de-womanising her.
'They are effectively re-writing history, I think she would have laughed at it in utter scorn while Shakespeare would have clutched his head in disbelief.'
The Globe Theatre, on the South Bank in London, is one of the word's most famous attractions
Pre publicity for the upcoming show says Joan is non-binary and uses pronouns 'they' or 'them'
The theatre has defended itself - confirming the titular figure 'Uses the pronouns ‘they/them’ in the show - but insisted Shakespeare would have approved.
Joan has been adopted as a feminist icon and for the suffragette movement was even featured on their posters.
Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, told MailOnline yesterday: ‘Playwrights are allowed to have a bit of poetic license but I think what is interesting about the play is that it very much falls in with the idea of rewriting history.
‘The reinterpretation violates the historical reality. It’s plundering history to legitimise views in the here and now.
‘Someone like Joan of Arc would not have any idea what non-binary was. It is a recharacterisation of something that did not even exist at the time.
‘It completely violates the meaning of history – it’s the projecting of a fantasy backwards.
‘I imagine in time someone will suggest Jane Austen was transgender or George Elliot was non-binary.
‘It completely violates the meaning of history – it’s the projecting of a fantasy backwards.
‘For French patriots Joan of Arc is someone very special. Her role was all the more heroic because she was a woman.’
Debates about gender identity currently ongoing mean the move by the Globe - which was given £3million of taxpayers' money in 2020 to help it through the pandemic - is sure to prompt controversy.
It is not clear whether the play was commissioned or funded by the Globe itself. Isobel Thom plays the title role.
The play is written by Charlie Josephine who is non-binary and whose website says uses the pronouns they/he.
In an interview about I, Joan, the writer said of the production: 'It's going to be this big sweaty, queer, revolution, rebellion, festival of like joy.
'It's a big story, on a big stage, Joan of
