Joan of Arc's complexly gendered self- show defied traditional Medieval cultural expectations for women. The most in-chief(postnominal) aspects of this presentation were her rejection of traditional fe young-begetting(prenominal) roles in favor of permanent virginity, which she power saw as an aspect of her mission, her decision to wear male order and to assume male roles (as directed by the voices), and her refusal to give up her cross dressing. Each of these facets of her presentation was essential to her acceptance as a possibly genuine representative of God. Each of these choices and behaviors rendered her emphatically not- feminine. This non-female image had a double function--it was essential, in a social sense, to her susceptibility to lead and advise, and it was the demonstration, in a religious sense, of the sanctified temper of her mission.
Joan's choices responded to a complicated set of needs among those she hoped to help, and among those who would follow the Dauphin. The transvestism had both social and religious implications that made her a more than plausible candidate to aid the Dauphin. Charles VII's acceptance of Joan's assistance was contingent upon(p) on believing that she was engaged in a heaven-sent mission, or, at least, that her claims might be true. Even if Charles or his advisors could not fully accept this, it was clear to them that
Lightbody, Charles Wayland. The Judgments of Joan: Joan of Arc, A Study in Cultural History. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1961.
Ultimately, the rattling actions that were conducive to Joan's success were turned against her. When the English put her on trial, her spiritual claims were reversed by judges who held that she practiced witchcraft. It was the rally rather than God, they said, who directed her actions. In a similar fashion, Joan's virginity was denied, and her male attire and masculine behavior were held to be unnatural and sacrilegious. In a time when most people believed readily rich in the possibility of divine revelation it was "not so much the genuineness of the experience but the origin of the revelations" that was important (Gies 24).
Clearly a prophet who was believed could be helped by the rejection of her female status, while the same actions could, in a false prophet, be taken as evidence that God had nothing to do with her claims.
It was true that, among her enemies, Joan's behaviors and her successes were seen "as something fearful, monstrous, unnatural" (Lightbody 60). But, in order to field of battle her to a trial for heresy, these fears had to be organized in such a way that they clearly demonstrated her defiance of the indorsement of the church building. Thus, "the vital question upon which the whole trial turned, was that of submission to the Church" (Scott 106). The fact of Joan's gender was important because her inquisitors' placed their emphasis on two factors: the fraudulence of her claims of virginity, and the fact that her transvestism was an affront to God, which she moldiness repudiate by assuming women's clothes again. They had not distressed themselves very much about trying to prove that Joan's voices had been delusions or hallucinations (Gies 24). Their own belief in such mystical visions was strong. Instead, they assay to prove that the source of her voices was demonic rather than divine. She was, they claimed, a witch and a
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