In the latest example of historical revisionism being used to erase women by the woke LGBTQ+ movement, a scholar has claimed that Queen Elizabeth I of England was “non-binary”.
Along with the announcement from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre that they have cast St Joan of Arc as a “gender-neutral” character in an upcoming play, Dr Kit Heyam penned a blog post for the theatre’s website earlier this month defending why “it was necessary” to use modern gender theory when looking at the past.
Dr Heyam, who describes himself as a “trans awareness trainer” with (they/them or he/him) pronouns, said St Joan was not the only historical example of LGBTQ+ figures, claiming that 10th-century ruler Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Queen Elizabeth I of England were both transgender.
“Æthelflæd, who governed Mercia after the death of their [sic] husband, was later described as ‘conducting…Armies, as if she had changed her sex’: to take on a male-coded military role was, in some sense, for Æthelflæd to become male,” Heyam wrote.
“Elizabeth I, similarly, described themself [sic] regularly in speeches as ‘king’, ‘queen’ and ‘prince’, choosing strategically to emphasise their female identity or their male monarchical role at different points,” he added. “Inhabiting that social role and dressing in the clothes associated with it, while living and working among men, may not just have felt like gendered defiance: it may have had a profound impact on their sense of self.”
Born in 1533, Elizabeth I was one of the longest-serving rulers in British history, behind only Queen Victoria and her namesake Queen Elizabeth II, the current reigning monarch. She was famed for her success as a military commander, defeating the powerful Spanish Armada, as for her devotion to England, purportedly remaining a virgin her entire life.
There have long been conspiracy theories surrounding her gender, such as the one promoted by 19th-century Dracula author Bram Stoker, which posited that Queen Elizabeth I cut such a masculine figure because she was in fact a man and that the real Elizabeth had died as a child and was replaced by a boy with similar features.
The “Bisley Boy” theory attempted to explain why she remained a virgin throughout her life and was able to command such respect militarily. However, the theory was based on merely circumstantial evidence, with many counterfactuals, such as her having been inspected by doctors to determine if she could bear children.
Ironically, some gender-critical feminists have noted that the woke LGBTQ+ view of history is actually “gender conservative” in that it assumes that women cannot do “manly” things.
Philosopher Dr Jane Clare Jones told The Telegraph: “This is a really great example of the inherent gender conservatism in gender identity ideology. Traditional gender conservatism says that men must do ‘manly’ things, and women must do ‘womanly’ things.
“Gender identity ideology reverses that and then we end up with the idea that anyone who does ‘manly’ things must be a man, and anyone who does ‘womanly’ things must be a woman.
“This is how we end up in a situation in which historical women who have performed traditionally ‘masculine’ roles end up being re-categorised as ‘trans men’ or ‘non-binary’ or ‘not-women’ in some way. This is a really regressive message to be sending out, especially to young women.”
Feminist author Joan Smith added: “Women and girls are entitled to reject stereotypes without losing our sex. We didn’t have enough female role models to start with, we have spent decades rediscovering women artists, authors, leaders. And now a regressive ideology is trying to take them away.”
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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