A Plea to Eddie Izzard

[ShirtingForkBalls]

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/a-plea-to-eddie-izzard?s=r&utmcampaign=post&utmmmedium=web&utmsource=direct

I wonder if Eddie even thinks about these issues?

I used to like him, found him hilarious, brave as a man that was happy to wear lipstick and scarves, I even fancied him a bit.

But now.. the entitlement! Happy to revert to 'boy mode' for the sake of an acting role. Happy to bully teenage girls who queried their presence in a ladies loo. And Eddie Izzard as a woman does not look good.
I assume some kind of breakdown has happened. What a shame

That's pretty tragic about Eddie's childhood though, what on earth was the father thinking?

I just came here to say this. I saw him on some arts programme on Sky arts with people doing portraiture and he kept using that phrase, girl mode, being a girl.

So offensive, like its a coat you put on or off, lipstick and skirts are 'girl mode'. Well I dont wear skirts and rarely wear lipsticks, so am I in boy mode at those times, of course not

Im so annoyed about this

Everything else aside, isn't he a little male old to be a girl? That's just creepy.

Theres no surprise about that, every single person Ive worked with who is trans has some difficult or traumatic history

I work with more trans girls (girls who feel they're non binary or male) than the other way round, they usually all have some sort of traumatic parenting experience, usually involving sexual abuse, vast majority are ND in some way or a myriad of diagnoses.

Its like a epidemic across teen girls, accompanied by apparent feelings of trauma and distress if they are 'misgendered' and seeing self harm as a response to that

But for me, the issues that need to be addressed is that history and is those uncomfortable feelings rather than it manifesting into counterproductive and maladaptive responses such as 'Im non binary'.

bellac completely agree.

Dh is still learning, despite being a fully involved dad and our DD’s are almost grown-up. Last year our DD's were walking the dog and he had stopped (to chat with someone) and wondered why cars were beeping. DD’s didn’t respond to the beeping and kept walking. Dh was genuinely confused until one van slowed down a bit and the men lowered the window and jeered. He couldn’t get his head round it for a moment, then it clicked and he was furious, shouting at the van men, who cleared off. DD’s ignored it all. I reminded him they asked to be picked up from the gym and he used to get annoyed saying why couldn’t they cool off by walking back. We have always brought our DD’s up to ‘be/do anything they want to’ and this reality was upsetting for Dh.

Dds aren’t going to change their activities but do modify their behaviour because they are female (not engaging, don’t walk in gym wear).

No wonder some traumatised girls want to ‘opt out’ of being a girl. All girls need the stability and resilience to deal with the unwanted attention as it isn’t going away.

I used to love Eddie Izzard’s comedy. He is clearly very intelligent academically. But his emotional intelligence needs a lot of work. He can’t understand why ‘girl mode’ is so offensive. To me, it seems he wants to switch on the titillation, wanting the unwanted attention that girls and women get so worn out by. But only when it suits. And we have to all go along with Eddie which implies we accept/want the abuse girls and women get too.

…however I can not help feel for Eddie as I hope he doesn’t mean to be so divisive. I hope it boils down to he really hasn’t put the effort in to understand women’s views, rather than he won’t or dismisses them.

The really telling example is when Izzard wore the same short designer dress as the 49 year old princess of Spain (or something like that), and she looked absolutely amazing and Izzard, well, looked pretty awful. But of course social media and other media fawned over Izzard and was full of "she shouldn't be wearing a short dress at 49" for the female Spanish Royal.

Well put

Im going to sound like a right old fogey now, but I also think that the girl groups or girl performers in the last 20 years or so have become so heavily sexualised and semi pornographic in a way that perhaps didnt happen so much in the 70s to 90s.

Madonna stands out as being the exception to the rule, whereas today she would just be one of many

How do you identify with that sort of role model if you're a little shy pre teen girl, its quite frightening for them, what connection would she have to them

I remember the likes of the Belle Stars, bananarama, Sade, Joan Armatrading, Annie Lennox, Grace Jones, Alison Moyet

I know there were 'pretty girl' performers too but they were not so heavily sexualised and more relatable.

I think he's intelligent enough to know what he's doing . He thinks he's right and therefore doesn't care about anyone else.

Possibly, but didnt he turn up for some Women in the War thing at a school recently, AS A WOMAN

It was meant to be a commemoration of what women achieved in the war and he turns up

Has he got such little self awareness that he does something like that?

Yep

I might be an old fogey too because I completely agree with you. In the 80s and 90s, there were female performers who were where they were because of genuine talent. They had character and wit. And there were a range of fashions/styles/presentations, as opposed to the current identikit styling which seems to be focused purely on making girls and young women look sexually ‘available’.

Lennox et al were great role models for ALL sorts of girls, including the shy ones, the gender non-confirming ones, the ones who weren’t neurotypical, the ones who were lesbian. It’s tragic for our current generation of girls that they don’t have these types of role model.

bellac Jojoanna I very reluctantly most probably agree. It’s such a shame when you have grown up admiring someone and they then disappoint you so much.

Great piece by GL

Brilliant piece Mr Linehan. Legend. Thank you.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=sOJMU6pnGLE

100% - that's why the likes of Kate Tempest becoming Kae and opting out of being known as a woman was so bloody annoying. Women who don't conform to gender stereotypes saying they're not women is just confirming gender stereotypes and narrowing the range of different types of self-declared women!

Same. Just the same old misogynist after all.

This is an excellent piece.

I loved when old Eddie said something like "they're not women's clothes their my clothes". That's the kind of simple logical statement that you can arm your non conforming kids with when they get questioned by their peers.

But I was so disappointed to learn about him using the women's loos way back when he first put a dress on. Just another oblivious entitled male all along then. Really love that Graham referenced that incident in this piece.

I used to love Eddie Izzard’s comedy. He is clearly very intelligent academically. But his emotional intelligence needs a lot of work. He can’t understand why ‘girl mode’ is so offensive. To me, it seems he wants to switch on the titillation, wanting the unwanted attention that girls and women get so worn out by. But only when it suits. And we have to all go along with Eddie which implies we accept/want the abuse girls and women get too.

The very definition of the paraphilia we must not name.

I saw that. This was a deliberate public declaration: as soon as he entered in his dress, lipstick and high heels, he formally declared his new status and requirement of female pronouns from then on.* Everyone on the programme treated him with deference, as if he was some special celebrity.

He seems to me an unusual person and there is a feeling of playing, perhaps experimenting and of keeping people guessing and at bay, and underlying that, something deeper going on, trying to figure out or resolve something but not able to decide or not wanting to be boxed in or commit definitively one way or the other.

*Although I think he may have subsequently muddied the waters again, in the way he had always done previously, invoking the shifting 'mode' nuance and saying that he didn't mind if people didn't use the pronouns.

What I REALLY don't get is what has gone through his mind over time. Did he used to be a cross-dresser, and now he has realised he is a woman

In some ways isn’t it a very standard trajectory, from occasional crossdressing to believing oneself to be an actual woman?

The main difference is that the crossdressing phase was so public.

That is such an obvious answer I can't believe I didn't think of it! Thank you. Men going furthere and further down a rabbit hole.

I think I have been thinking about trans issues for too long from the pubescent girls point of view which seems to be distress > rejection of womanhood > must be a man. Pubescent girls don't think "hang on, I am going to dress exactly like a boy now" and then 5 years later start saying "hang on, I am a boy!"

It's almost like there is an entirely different thing going on in the minds of a cross-dressing man and a pubescent girl.