Last year, around International Women’s Day, I noticed a number of books suddenly appearing on Amazon. These were celebrations of influential women throughout history, but something was apparent - all of the women considered noteworthy were politically left-leaning. Astonishingly, women like Margaret Thatcher did not feature in any of the books I investigated. Michelle Obama, Greta Thunberg.. all women viewed favourably by mainstream - or left-leaning - media are paramount, but women like Ayaan Hirsi Ali are ignored. I decided to right this wrong, and create a book for young girls that would teach them about the great women of history, and modern culture, that are erased by a society dominated by left-wing thought and thinkers.
Among the woman I pay tribute to are Margaret Thatcher, Hirsi Ali, Yasmine Mohammed, and historical figures ranging from Joan of Arc and Emmeline Pankhurst to Golda Meir.
Here is a section of my chapter on Joan of Arc, an astonishing woman whose legacy ought to be an inspiration to girls today. Instead, she is rewritten and currently characterised as “non-binary.” I will explain how and why the erasure of her female identity sends a tragic message to girls, and how their female identity is undermined.
“A young girl can lead armies in a world where women have little power; that should be the lesson girls receive from her legacy. It is a testament to what women can do and every young girl should learn her story. However, instead of celebrating her achievements and her womanhood in 2023, a theatre in London humiliated and offended her legacy - it declared that she was not, in fact, a woman.
I concede that the word misogyny can be overused, but indeed, this is a classic example of it. Joan of Arc was powerful, intelligent, brave, charismatic, and a leader of men. Therefore, she can’t possibly have been a woman. That is the message girls today receive, and it is a thoroughly destructive one. Instead of inspiring girls, Joan of Arc’s legacy has been stolen from them.
“I, Joan” arrived at the Globe Theatre in 2022. It brought to life the story of Joan of Arc, but not as the woman she was, but as a modern, “woke” revision. As already described, Joan was “non-binary,” and the event was advertised with an image of the icon wearing a “chest binder.”
Michelle Terry, artistic director at the Globe, made the following incredible statement:
History has provided countless and wonderful examples of Joan portrayed as a woman. This production offers the possibility of another point of view.
Another point of view? Is Joan’s womanhood merely an opinion? Can we apply the same principle to any historical figure? Of course, Joan was previously portrayed as a woman because that is what she was. Producing a film about a dog but casting a cat in its place for “another point of view” is the equivalent of portraying Winston Churchill as a woman—just from another point of view. Isn’t there another word for this? Lying, perhaps.
By discarding essential truth to present “another point of view,” we have entered a new reality - a lack of one. If we follow this thinking to its logical conclusion, we must begin to accept that nothing is real; there is no woman, no man, no black or white… we can make it up as we go along.”
On my next blog, I’ll offer a preview of the fascinating chapter of the life of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, former Somali refugee to the Netherlands who became an MP and fought for the rights of Muslim women in her adopted country. It became so unsafe for her there that she fled to the United States. She is one of the most fascinating and courageous activists in the world today, yet is not celebrated by mainstream feminism because of her criticisms of Islam and mass immigration.