Sky Arts ‘Portrait artist of the year’ - anyone watching?

[Toughie]

‘Our sitter is one of the most celebrated comedians of our time, she has ....she is ....’
I was expecting Jennifer Saunders or Ruby Wax.
No. Eddie Izard.
‘I’m gender-fluid’... ‘I want to be in full-on girl mode from now on’ ... ‘I’ve asked to be referred to as ‘she’ and ‘her’ etc.
I’m trying to work out why it irritates me so much.
I think it might be the black high-heeled lace up boots.

What the hell has happened to PAOTY? Used to be about painting, now it's all about effing diversity. I can't stand Izzard (having paid to see perform twice) - raised male, socialised as male, all the privilege and benefits of the patriarchy, and now wants to be a 'girl'. No surgery, no hormone treatment, just lipstick and stilettos. What an insult to the lived experience of women. And the winning artist was a joke too. Hard to watch tonight.

@QuietlyExcited

What the hell has happened to PAOTY? Used to be about painting, now it's all about effing diversity. I can't stand Izzard (having paid to see perform twice) - raised male, socialised as male, all the privilege and benefits of the patriarchy, and now wants to be a 'girl'. No surgery, no hormone treatment, just lipstick and stilettos. What an insult to the lived experience of women. And the winning artist was a joke too. Hard to watch tonight.

Yes I was looking forward to this series but it was terrible actually. The standard was poor. There were some really good painters in the heats who were inexplicably overlooked.

Seeing what Curtis did with Carlos Acosta, I get why he won.
It is disappointing about Eddie, who I've always liked and admired his quick brain, because as one pp said, he was always so seemingly confident and proud about being a man who wore lipstick and heels. Maybe he wasn't really and felt like he wasn't part of a group and now, he's jumped on a bandwagon out of a need to belong. It's disappointing and makes him much less interesting.

@Tollergirl if you can stomach it I would ask to watch the video so as to put you in a better position for questioning it.

The Curtis Acosta painting wasn't much cop either. The composition was good but CA looked like the giant in Princess Bride.

I love this series. But - Switched off at 'girl mode' and the artists using ' she'

Oh god I am so disappointed to hear this. PAOTY is my favourite TV programme but I am always a series behind because I live abroad. I can well imagine Kate Bryan fawning over Izzard (despite her whole shtick being championing women artists, so you'd think she'd know what one is)... but it's tragic to hear that they all seem to have bowed down at the altar of wokedom.

My mother in law was on the show she did the stitch portrait but didn't have enough time for her to finish her work.

I've really enjoyed PAOTY, there have been some amazing artists and sitters. I liked Bernardine Evaristo and Jane Horrocks. So many interesting artists that I was disappointed by the final three. Kofi was the best, the portrait of his son was lovely. Curtis and the scribbling is ok, but not overwhelming. Carlos Acosta has such a strong, dynamic presence, I don't think it was the best fit. Eddie Izzard, nope.

Eddie izzard's take on gender used to be fresh. Now he's just doing doughnuts on my sex tbh.

He ain't in girl mode, he'd be in invisible crone mode like the rest of us.

What's he on about? There is no such thing as girl mode. Being a woman isn't a feeling FFS. Just shows you how little respect he has for women.

No surgery, no hormone treatment, just lipstick and stilettos.

He may have had some hormone treatment as he was sporting a prominent pair of boobs/moobs? recently.

I am so disappointed with Eddie, I saw him live twice and his ‘le sange’ sketch was the best ever. But then I came across his story about being aggressive to the 13 yo girls who ‘whispered about him’ invading the women’s toilets to change into a dress and then asked him why he he had done that. He shouted at them and then presented it like he was the victim and entirely in the right as a 20 something man to treat the girls like he did. Pathetic.

Yes, a man pushing 60 in "girl" mode
You'd have gone through the menopause with the flooding, sweats, brain fog, dryness, hormone changes, thinning hair etc.
But putting on high heels, lipstick and a dress is of course equivalent.

He wishes he looked like Angela Merkel and had had a tenth of her political success.

Sorry, late to thread but back to one of the early posts and a bit of a derail -

my 15 yr old DD was made to watch a film about "puppy play" during RSE today at school!

WTF - I would be so angry Tollergirl
It's just sickening.

Anyway, I was busy watching master chef but thanks for the heads up, I shall have a peek on iPlayer and scroll through to the sad face at the end.

I really feel there's a daily mail story in there - "the artist painted a horrid picture of me"
accompanied by lots of sad face photos in his £325k house.

Oh, before you all tell me it's not on iPlayer I've just caught up - I'll get there!

Whenever I see this Eddie Izzard "I'm in girl mode today" thing I think:

Wow. Imagine a life where "gender" simply means whether you've got lipstick on or not. Imagine being able to wake up in the morning and declare yourself male or female, simply by your choice of outfit, and have everyone around you go along with it.

I wish Eddie would realise that his ability to do this makes him incredibly privileged in this world. 99.9% of us will never experience what this is like.

So glad I wasn’t the only one bitterly disappointed that the “female comedian” turned out to be Eddy Izzard in girl
mode

@Tollergirl

It's made me really cross and I was so looking forward to it! WTF is "girl mode"? This is just topping off a generally WTF day as my 15 yr old DD was made to watch a film about "puppy play" during RSE today at school! I asked what the teacher said the rationale for this was? I suspect it's just the wokeism that is now normalising fetishism in the guise of educating our DC.

More annoyingly this had led to me dropping several stitches in my knitting project. Hey ho, I can pick up dropped stitches because I'm like, in "girl mode". As my DD said, he's too old for that anyway he should have said "woman mode"

as my 15 yr old DD was made to watch a film about "puppy play" during RSE today at school! I asked what the teacher said the rationale for this was? I

WTF? I would be going into the school about this. There is absolutely NO reason for that to be shown to 15 year olds.

Ohh my first ever deletion in 10 years! Never mind...

@Tollergirl

I'm so relieved that others are thinking the same because I have been worried about being "that parent " and DP has only just got home from work (he is now WTF +++). Neither of us are prudish and we are fairly open with DC but I am really struggling to see why this is considered appropriate teaching material for Y10.

We have now agreed that we will be contacting the school to ask a very simple "why?". Thankfully my DD is eminently sensible and is always happy to tell me what they've been doing in these lessons but this has just got me v puzzled, as well as pretty cross, actually. She also has a great sense of humour because she said "do you think if xxxx (our dog) had watched it he would have been offended by people saying they were dogs!!

If anyone is interested I will keep you posted about the school's response.

Please do - I will be fascinated to hear the reasoning behind this. I wish you well in contacting them.

I really want to hear what the school day the rationale was. I'll have to remember it's in the portrait painting thread!

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive and interested. I have sent an email to the school but obviously timing is not great as they break up tomorrow. Still, I will follow it up next term if necessary.

Once again apologies to those who were only looking for a discussion on Portrait painting! Depending on the response from school I may start a new thread ...

A middle-aged male in "girl mode" sounds like that Stefonknee person. Get a grip, Izzard.