Transgender Warriors

Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431) was a French peasant who led an army and ousted the English from part of France when she was a teenager. She petitioned to lead the army because she claimed she had received visions from God informing her of her destiny. She was eventually captured, imprisoned, and tried for heresy; one of the major charges against her was that she had worn men’s clothing. Feinberg focuses heavily on Joan of Arc as an individual known to have engaged in gender-nonconforming behavior. In Feinberg’s view, Joan of Arc’s clothing was a central facet of who she was, as evidenced by her refusal to stop wearing men’s clothing, even after she was imprisoned. Joan of Arc has been revered as a martyr and a saint in the centuries since her death. She was burned at the stake when she was around 19 years old. There have been dozens of books, films, songs, comics, and even video games that have featured or described Joan of Arc over the years. They take many different approaches to the subject of Joan of Arc’s gender expression. 

Feinberg draws an important connection between Joan of Arc’s Sex and Gender Self-Determination and her Political Solidarity and Action. The Catholic Church persecuted her on the basis of both her politics and her gender expression, and the two were closely linked. Joan of Arc was sentenced for wearing men’s clothes, which were an important part of her gender expression, but she was also sentenced to death because she posed a danger to the French ruling class. Her role as the leader of a peasant uprising and her gender expression challenged Christian, patriarchal gender roles. Feinberg notes that many peasants considered Joan of Arc’s gender presentation to be part of what made her sacred, showing why they believed that her mission to liberate France really was ordained by God. Joan of Arc’s gender expression was a source of power that threatened the established social order and linked her to others in her social class.

This link made Joan of Arc an important symbol for Feinberg; she represents the intersection of transgender identity with political activism and liberation struggles. Throughout Transgender Warriors, Feinberg repeatedly connects transgender identity with broader liberation movements as a way to demonstrate that all forms of liberation feed into each other. Joan of Arc was oppressed because she was a peasant girl in the 15th century and because of her gender expression. Both facets of her identity meant that she had a vested interest in political struggle and liberation. If Joan of Arc had lived in a more equitable world, like the ancient communal societies that Feinberg frequently references, her gender expression could have been celebrated, not reviled. Joan of Arc’s liberation and oppression were directly tied to her material reality: She lived in a patriarchal society that privileged the wealthy while also oppressing women, the working class, and anyone who exhibited gender variance.

Transgender Warriors is dedicated to Marsha P. Johnson and Brandon Teena. Johnson (1945-1992) was a Black American LGBT rights activist and drag queen. She is sometimes described as a trans woman; as Feinberg notes, it is difficult to accurately ascribe labels to individuals in retrospect, as those labels may or may not align with an individual’s self-understanding. In any case, Johnson’s activism and gender nonconformity were central to her reputation in New York City’s LGBT community. She is widely remembered as one of the individuals to have taken part in the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. As Feinberg notes, Johnson was found dead at the age of 46. Though her death was ruled a suicide, evidence strongly suggests that it was actually murder. In the aftermath of her death, there were protests demanding justice, recognition, and protection for LGBT people.

Brandon Teena (1972-1993) was an American transgender man. Like Feinberg, he had a masculine gender expression starting in his early childhood. His mother was unwilling to accept his identity. At the age of 18, Teena tried to join the United States Army, but was rejected after he listed his sex as male. When Teena was 21 years old, he was raped and murdered along with two other people in Humboldt Nebraska. His death is one of the most famous anti-trans hate crimes in American history. Teena’s headstone is inscribed with his deadname (his name given at birth; trans people largely condemn the use of one’s deadname on the grounds that it erases one’s true gender identity). His life story is the subject of the 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry, which stars actress Hilary Swank as Teena. The film received critical acclaim, but some of the people who knew Teena said it was an inaccurate portrayal of events. The film and its legacy have contributed to the widespread misconception of Teena as a lesbian instead of a trans man.