Eddie Izzard interview - one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read

[SmugglersHaunt]

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/apr/26/suzy-eddie-izzard-dickens-great-expectations-hamlet

Uses she/her throughout, ‘one woman show’ etc etc - calling anyone who disagrees that TWAW ‘fascists’.

Every time I think I’m inured to this rubbish I read or see something that makes me despair. What a pathetic, preening liar he is.

I met Eddie Izzard several times on the campaign trail and enjoyed working with him - he put the graft in and didn't just swan in, take photos and leave as some people did. I also liked the way he wore a dress/make up and wasn't saying 'I'm a woman', it was just 'I'm me' (I'm sure it was all male pronouns then). I do remember being at a precampaign talk when he talked about how he could empathise with all of the female campaigners as he was wearing high heeled boots. There were a lot of rolled eyes as the majority of the women present wouldn't have dreamed of wearing impractical things like that when trudging up and down leafletting/canvassing.

It's such a shame. He was brilliant in the 90s, absolutely hilarious and no-one cared that he wore dresses and nail polish, we all thought it was cool. Tbh a lot of my friends did too (alternative/goth/grunger culture).

Still... middle-aged man turns into a twat shocker, eh.

Quite, an interesting bit of colour there wasn't it? Surely a journo with any curiosity at all would follow that up by asking about it, or at least flagging up the connection.

Let's see the Graun tie themselves in knots if/ when boy mode makes a reappearance as it surely will. It's not even funny anymore.

If they didn’t expect me to pretend they’d changed sex? Fine.

if they wanted to try to force me to pretend they’d changed sex? Not fine

people who want to force you to do stuff are not healthy people to be around

I can’t comment on the toilets issue because I obviously wasn’t there

Is this what it comes down to? I wasn't there, it didn't affect me, it doesn't matter. So you'll never be in a prison, or hospital ward, or a refuge so they don't matter either? As long as someone's "true self" is "celebrated."

My true self doesn't want men in women's single sex space. Why can't you celebrate that? To misquote Spock - the wants of the many outweigh the wants of the few, or the one.

Someone’s true self should be celebrated.

@Mermaidparades take the trans issue out of the conversation for a minute. Your statement above if you really mean that then are you also happy to celebrate the true selves of thieves? Rapists? Murders? Paedophiles?

If you truly believe that a person's true self should be celebrated what about all the women who won't be able to do that as they are no longer able to go into supposedly single sex areas as they are now mixed sex because we are all expected to celebrate the true self of a man?

Why does Eddies true self have to be celebrated at the expense of women's rights and feelings?

You’ve summed up how I feel!

So gender stereotypes all the way then?

I've lived through the 60's, 70's and 80's and have no issue with either sex ignoring such stereotypes and looking however they wish.

Men can dress in skirts, use nail polish, wear lipstick if they wish. None of that makes them a woman in reality. None of that means they should be able to use women's spaces. Hard won spaces.

I had short hair when I was about 7 or 8. I was still a girl. Gender stereotypes are more rigidly adhered to than they ever have been. That's not progress.

I've been told by an eminent journalist and a former Guardian writer that Kath Viner, editor of the Guardian, genuinely doesn't understand why women are making a fuss. She just doesn't see that there's an issue. She has told people this their faces — can't understand what the fuss is about.

Kath Viner is married to Adrian Chiles, former husband of Jane Garvey, who also adores Eddie Izzard. It gives a tiny snapshot of the closed circles that these people, with their power to influence, move in.

Wow.
I don’t think it’s ok for children, men and women with medical conditions to not show their faces to society. In the absence of a third way, as most older public places do not have a third way, people should stick to the toilet of their biological sex. This enables the most people to use toilets safely. You do realise a trans person can also be epileptic/ have a stroke/a heart attack/ faint too? They also need the safety design in the toilets that allows visibility ie gaps at the bottom of the doors. It’s reality that new style full height doors in mixed sexed toilets are the source of deaths and assaults. That is more important than feeling a bit uncomfortable going into a toilet of your sex rather than your gender.

Stephen Fry write a book years ago that had a character just like this in it. I can’t remember the characters name - he’s a small role in the book (called Making History) really but Stephen Fry makes the point this character pretends to be whatever gets him the attention he wants.

Oh no no no, a ‘third’ way isn’t acceptable, women have been suggesting a third space for years - but apparently that’s transphobic because TWAW!

No one wants Eddie to hide away and not participate in society, but apparently it’s ok if women have to self exclude because they are a sexual assault survivor and terrified of men, or because their religion forbids it or simply because they don’t feel safe in intimate spaces with men (and let’s face it, given the stats, that’s not an unreasonable fear). There are women right now, self excluding from help they really need because they cannot guarantee that a penis will not be sharing that service.

Jack Monroe being another example of this

I vehemently disagree with treating people with disdain because their outward appearance doesn’t match their birth certificate

Izzard's appearance (bloke) very obviously matches his birth certificate (baby with cock and balls). He's being met with disdain because he wants us all to think that by putting on a woman costume that birth certificate is incorrect.

If Jim Davidson dressed up like this and did a skit in a working men's club taking the piss out of mothers-in-law (silly deluded old harpy-trollops thinking they're still sexy!) Guardian writers would dutifully line up to slate him. However, a Labour luvvie does it and it's clever and progressive.

What is JM these days? I've lost track! Don't worry I'll survive without the knowledge, but JMs life history and special feelings used to change on a very frequent basis!

@Mermaidparades
I think this explains the problem perfectly.

Perfect visual there, Parsnip!

I hope you do get it because your current true self is to support abuse of women. Go you.

This is a really good point. If his appearance does not match because he wears a frock and mail varnish, mine doesn't match because I don't do those things. Way to go mermaid, you just excluded me from the category of woman.

And probably about 80% of us on this board!

Exactly. I rarely use makeup or wear dresses. I never wear heels. I don't see what that has to do with the biological reality that I am female. I've never consider it a "mismatch" because the teetering high heels, a face of make up and frilly dress to me has very little to do with the reality of being female

I’ve got a family member just beginning their trans journey, I’ve witnessed their internal struggle firsthand. I do worry for their future.

I've witnessed the struggles of women who, for good reason, feel unsafe in vulnerable situations with men. Do you have any empathy for them? I hope things go well for your family member and they get any help they need to accept biological reality. Your story is not a rationale for letting some men into women's spaces.

Like many of us I liked Eddie when he was an out and proud transvestite, he was funny, he wore women's clothes and a bit of slap and looked ok.
These days he seems a parody of his former self, taken to the extreme.
And as many women are totally pulled to bits in the media for the crime of being less than pretty and hence unworthy of the male gaze, I have to ask -- how and why does Eddie Suzy get away with it?
(Rhetorical question, obviously.)

That explains your current stance. I wonder how,with their internal struggle, they have decided that being the other sex is the correct answer to their problems? Why would medication and surgery, and the trampling of other people's right to single sex spaces, be the natural route to being your true authentic self? It's not a logical route to happiness is it.