In the spirit of Halloween, I got curious about any Joan of Arc costumes and what it would consist of. It shouldn't be surprising that the theme of Halloween for women's costumes spread to Joan and sexualized her, like the poster of an opera of Joan of Arc naked on a horse that Dr. Wolbrink showed in class. Some are better than others at portraying what has been described in the previous readings.Obviously the costume on the right would not be able to protect Joan in battle. Most of her body is showing in this costume which no virgin saint would have worn.
This costume of Joan at least has the red bottom and has the body covered... even though we know she wore men's clothes so the skirt would have been out of the question.
My favorite Joan of Arc costume is probably this last photo. It is in male clothing and has chainmail (or what looks like it). It covers the entire body and is a simple color. If it wasn't for the bright red lipstick, the costume may fool someone into thinking it is a feminine-faced man dressed as a knight instead of a virgin saint.
What do you think? What would be the best way to portray Joan of Arc as a costume for Halloween?
I was looking up Halloween costumes the other night, and i did notice that they had Joan of Arc costumes. Although they portray her more like a sexy knight probably because the controversial about her virginity. And along with our 21st century perspective of sexy costumes now a days, we can agree that the first two costumes certainly is not accurate. And the third one doesn't really convince me either because i imagine Joan with gold spurs, like in many of our sources that describe her during battle.
ReplyDeleteI agree but it is as close as I could find. At least the last one doesn't go out of its way to enhance the chest piece of the armor.
ReplyDeleteCindy,
ReplyDeleteJust as we discussed in class on Monday, most of the Halloween costumes for women are overly sexualized and tend to leave nothing to the imagination. I have to agree with Lucy that it is odd to portray Joan of Arc in a sexy way when she herself was not sexual. Do you think that its just due to the trend of taking historical figures and re-introducing them into the 21st century in a more "up-to-date" way?