Eddie Izzard...

[Mrsmorton]

Has announced new pronouns.

Again, apologies if this is being discussed already.

"They're not women's clothes, they're my clothes" seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

'Colonising'. Now that's another interesting word that's always been there. And 'appropriation'. And 'crass bloody disrespect for others'.

Gosh. Lots of these words lying around.

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/eddie-izzard-is-not-a-woman

Newspeak was a tool to control thought, wasn't it? That's what's happening today.

He's definitely not a she, I've seen his willy from the front row.

I preferred when he was a lesbian trapped in a man's body. I proper used to fancy him.

It feels like he's jumping on a bandwagon now when he used to be really different and interesting.

Amen

It's not exactly uncommon for middle-aged crossdressers to decide they are female, have always been female, and start demanding female pronouns, after many years of crossdressing. There's a name for the phenomenon; I wonder if Eddie knows it given he's so enthusiastic about new words.

The only difference with Eddie is that he's been doing it all in public. It's disappointing but it seems retrospectively inevitable. His "these aren't women's clothes, they're my clothes" heyday was a more innocent and optimisitic time.

It feels like he's jumping on a bandwagon now when he used to be really different and interesting.

It feels like he is a bit late trying to catch this bandwagon. The wider world (beyond twitter) is catching up and is not stunned, nor impressed.

Well I think this is fantastic. Only two words are now needed to explain the whole farce. Eddie Izzard. Those two words lead people though the car park and up the fell in no time. Thanks Eddie, you've just made our job defending women's right much easier.

*rights

Anyway it’s overwhelmingly going down very well in the wider world.

So what? It's still tedious nonsense.
He'll be remembered as the Benny Hill of the 2020s.

Really - wear what you like, stick on some lippie but 'woman' isn't just some sort of costume. The word 'woman' is already taken and has biological and legal meanings that shouldn't be diluted because there are real world consequences.

I wonder how it would play if someone made a public announcement that they now identified as having one of the other protected characteristics.

50yo identifies as being 70yo and claims free bus pass.

Healthy person identifies as having a disability and applies for job running charity, which is reserved for person having said disability.

White person identifies as being Black and applies for job as civil rights campaigner, which is reserved for person of colour.

Non-pregnant person identifies as being pregnant and applies for maternity leave.

(At least one of these has already happened, of course.)

Wouldn't go down well. Why is sex so different?

Eddie's quite involved in Labour Party politics, I believe. I wonder if the next step is to apply to go on an All Women's shortlist.

Wider world? You mean Twitter

The idea that Twitter represents what most people think is

@Ereshkigalangcleg

Wider world? You mean Twitter

The idea that Twitter represents what most people think is

It does amuse me.

Now there are more words there are more ways to express things.

There are not more words because you are trying to redefine both "woman" and "man" to mean a human being of either sex. You now have fewer useful words, not more, and you have destroyed the word that is needed to refer specifically to people of the female sex. You then cannot talk about those people or how they are oppressed by the other sex. Precisely the sort of thing Newspeak was intended to achieve.

I think I saw something this morning saying that Eddie has said he has 'both male and female genetics' - and I wondered how the fuck he managed that scientific impossibility!!

Self absorbed twat.

It all feels a bit desperate to me. He managed to get on to the Labour NEC only to lose his seat again just months later. Can't see him making any kind of political comeback.

Now there are more words there are more ways to express things. It feels freeing to me; it’s doing what language should do.

Which word is new and what does it mean? As far as I understand, Izzard is using the word 'she' in a restrictive sense to mean somebody who dresses in a particular way. I do not find that freeing at all. In fact I find it very restricting.

All I'm going to say is that Eddie sure dialed down his 'girl-mode' when he wanted to break America. Must be nice to be able to do that.

'Anyway it’s overwhelmingly going down very well in the wider world.'

Says it all really, doesn't it? Healthy, happy people don't need validation from the wider world. I feel very sad for Eddie.

Glinner nails it really in that article: not just about embarrassment and discomfort being the gift Izzard gives to every woman unfortunate enough to encounter Izzard in a single sex space, but also that a person of this intelligence must be aware that they are breaking other people's boundaries and causing this discomfort. Which raises questions about motives really, and about appropriate respect for others, and about whether it's ok to treat others in a way that you wouldn't be ok to be treated yourself.

And when it's a sex class based thing of a person from one class possessing a higher degree of power to make use of another class in a way they would like to, and who they don't grant permission to refuse or opt out or even have a say in it - well that raises a lot more questions.

Particularly when it's being done by someone who often publicly talks about prizing their own liberal and socialist values.

Yes Michelle, that’s a big part of what’s bothering me. There’s a sense aggression and entitlement to this for some reason, from someone I’d never previously associated with either, quite the opposite in fact.