Transgender Warriors

Feinberg traces the oppression of transgender expression to the development of feudalism in Europe. Christian laws linked gender variance to witchcraft and outlawed cross-dressing, though there is also evidence of about “twenty-five female saints who cross-dressed, lived as men, or wore full beards” (68). The existence of these transgender saints demonstrates that ancient beliefs about gender persisted despite the spread of Christianity. Joan of Arc was not revered as one of these cross-dressing saints, however, because the charges against her were political; she could not be allowed to continue because she represented the peasants in the class war against the French nobility. There were no male-to-female saints in Christianity; the definition of “man” was too rigid to allow them to become women. 

As Christianity spread throughout Europe, transgender expression was prohibited in festivals that had previously allowed cross-dressing, such as Halloween and Winter Solstice celebrations. When the Holy Inquisition began in 1233, countless people, usually peasant women, were accused of witchcraft and were thought to have the power to change their sex. Anyone who threatened the power of the ruling class was targeted with accusations of witchcraft, which became a tool to quell peasant uprisings. Feinberg reads about peasant rebels who cross-dressed during these uprisings, but is frustrated to find no further elaboration on the topic.