Mick Hartley

Eddie Izzard is now operating in "girl mode" – which means he can use women's toilets, and be rude to people like Labour MP Rosie Duffield who believe in the reality of biological sex. Well, he was always something of a narcissist. Here's what I wrote back in March last year:

I used to think that if you were a man who really wanted to dress up in women's clothes occasionally, then people like Eddie Izzard and Grayson Perry showed the way to do it: not too seriously, and never to the extent of actually believing you were a woman. Well, that was a mistake. Eddie Izzard has come out recently in what he calls, somewhat distastefully, "girl mode". He's gone the full trans route, and would like to be referred to as "she". 

It's not a huge surprise. He's a fine comedian and his live shows are very funny, but he is, clearly, a narcissistic prat. The Guardian front page today shows a picture of the lovely Eddie with cascading hair and lipstick ("make up by Dani Richardson") - "I've been promoted to she. It's an honour" -  unfortunately but tellingly placed over pictures of sixteen women from among the 118 named in parliament yesterday by Jess Phillips as having been killed this year by men. Real women, that is – not pretend ones.

Inside, Eddie talks happily of his boob envy…

Oh yes. A touch of the old autogynephilia, maybe?

Janice Turner in the Times today:

Is womanhood a costume male people can pop on at whim, for reasons emotional, erotic or politically strategic, then remove again when it suits them better to be a man? This is the crux of why Eddie Izzard enrages women and, in seeking selection as Labour candidate for Sheffield Central, has become yet another gender conundrum for Sir Keir Starmer to fudge on phone-ins.

First, the pronouns. This week Izzard self-defined as “gender fluid”, saying that while “she/her” is preferable, “he/him” is fine. So, since gender is indeed ephemeral, superficial and based on regressive stereotypes, but sex is immutable, I’m going with “he/him”. I realise this means I’ve failed what has become a quasi-religious test. Unlike TV presenter Lorraine Kelly I won’t squeal “You go, girl!” at a 60-year-old man, as I don’t believe he’s a woman — but then I don’t think Eddie does either.

Because in his Guardian interview, Izzard said he was “not sure” trans women should take places on all-women shortlists and wouldn’t himself. That alone contradicts both the “trans women are women” mantra and Labour Party policy, thus making him as evil as Labour MP Rosie Duffield and JK Rowling.

The sad thing is women, particularly feminists, once adored Izzard. Not only the greatest 1990s stand-up, he was truly brave. On stage and off, in lipstick, leather skirts and sparkly eye-shadow, he subverted rigid ideas about what men could be. “These aren’t women’s clothes,” he’d say. “They’re my clothes.” He called himself a “transvestite”: a heterosexual guy who sometimes wore frocks. And while some men abused him in the street, women thought he was cool.

Then “transvestite” became an unfashionable term and the concept of “gender identity” took hold. Whether you’re a man or woman was defined not by your sexed body but your inner, soul-like essence. So Izzard started talking about having “boy genetics and girl genetics”. Now his cross-dressing wasn’t a peccadillo, it was part of his DNA.

It's sad. He could have taken the transvestite route: yes, I enjoy and indeed get a kick out of dressing up as a woman – or at least a caricature of a "sexy" woman with pink lippy and the rest – but I know perfectly well that I'm not really a woman. Instead he's taken the currently fashionable route and adopted gender ideology.

He spoke of oscillating between “girl mode” and “boy mode”. His position changed from “I’m a guy who likes pretty nails” to “because I like pretty nails I’m a girl”. In 2019, the US podcaster Joe Rogan asked how he moved from girl to boy mode, and Izzard replied: “I take off my heels.” Women, many with unadorned fingers and flat shoes, boiled at the arrogance of a man defining the female condition by the sexist crap they’ve long abhorred.

Moreover, Izzard seems cynical and opportunist. He told Rogan he appears in “dramatic films in boy mode”. Although his IMDB entry is headed “actress” he’s only ever played men, from a Nazi general in Valkyrie to a master thief in Ocean’s Twelve, and at premieres walks the red carpet in sharp suits. Although now he’s “living in girl mode” he’ll appear next year as Vincent in the TV series Culprits. Could it be he pops into boy mode to secure lucrative male Hollywood roles?

Perhaps Iranian protesters defying compulsory hijabs, girls in Afghanistan fighting for an education or mothers experiencing terrible maternity care in British hospitals should all just switch into “boy mode” when reality gets too much. I’m sure the Taliban would understand….

Izzard told Rogan he campaigns in “girl mode”. Well, of course: trans identity overwrites his privilege as a rich, white, male celebrity. He listed his considerable achievements: performing stand-up in four languages, running 70 marathons, adding that next year “I’m going into politics”.

It is hard not to feel that Izzard cares less about improving the lives of people in Sheffield Central than completing another Eddie challenge. But he will be a better MP than a “supercharged local councillor” candidate, he says, because their activism is local and “mine has been national and international”. Perhaps ex-steel workers and single parents relying on food banks will prefer global grandstanding to diligent case work.

But if he doesn’t win the selection, never mind: Izzard is already working on a “one-woman Hamlet” — and there’s always “boy mode”, if he just changes his shoes.

Yes, the cynicism and the privilege is a little hard to take. And the double standards: if a woman of Izzard's age was dressed like that, with bright pink lipstick, it'd be all – oh dear, someone should really tell her she looks ridiculous, "mutton dressed as lamb", and so on. But for Eddie it's, ooh, you're looking fabulous…