Join Eddie Izzard as she runs 31 marathons in 31 days

RunRagged wrote:

I used to really admire Eddie for saying, "These aren't women's clothes. They're my clothes; I paid for them." And for plainly calling himself a transvestite. Now that was brave - and back then he really was breaking down regressive, limiting sex stereotypes that feminists have been railing against for decades.

Women approaching 60 don't generally go out of the house dressed in the low-cut, tight ultra-short minidresses, stiletto heeled high boots and and heavy makeup Eddie now often favors when in "girl mode." And any woman his age who did dare go out like that would be ridiculed for being a pathetic old bag well "past her sell-by date" who was trying too hard. She'd also probably be called an attention-whore, a plain whore, and she'd get a lot of rude catcalling, vulgar remarks and sexual harassment.

RunRagged wrote:

But when Eddie dresses in strumpet style and calls it "girl mode," claims he has a mix of "girl genes and boy genes" and spouts rubbish saying sex is a spectrum and human embryos and fetuses all start out "exactly the same" with no sex differentiation, he's hailed as a brave and pioneering civil rights champion.

RunRagged wrote:

Well...... wrote:

Anyone genuinely interested and not an **** may find her autobiography interesting. She talks a fair bit about background, gender, running etc.

It's always strange some people can be so offended by how someone else wants to identify themselves. You can see really who has the genuine identity issues from that.

She also talks somewhat about those other numpties. Again, probably not worth it if you're a Trump supporter ;).

I used to really admire Eddie for saying, "These aren't women's clothes. They're my clothes; I paid for them." And for plainly calling himself a transvestite. Now that was brave - and back then he really was breaking down regressive, limiting sex stereotypes that feminists have been railing against for decades.

But Eddie's newer schtick of deciding to live FT in "girl mode" - and saying he's now a lesbian for real when he used to say it as a joke - strikes me as a big step backwards - sexist, presumptuous and smacking of "male entitlement."

I and many other women also find his view of what makes a woman a woman to be offensively superficial and cartoonish. Men like Eddie seem to think being a woman is all about makeup, clothes, nail varnish, long hair and trying to look hot and sexy. Eddie arriving at LAX in 2019:

https://youtu.be/666nq6zat3A

Women approaching 60 don't generally go out of the house dressed in the low-cut, tight ultra-short minidresses, stiletto heeled high boots and and heavy makeup Eddie now often favors when in "girl mode." And any woman his age (especially one who looks as weathered as he does and as most of us do at 58) who did dare go out like that would be ridiculed for being a pathetic old bag well "past her sell-by date" who was trying too hard. She'd also probably be called an attention-whore, a plain whore (or worse), and she'd get a lot of rude catcalling, vulgar remarks and sexual harassment.

What's more, even if a lot of women of Eddie's age did customarily dress like that, I doubt many would choose to wear such attire on long-haul international flights on commercial airlines. We tend to dress for travel in practical, baggy clothes that are layered, sensible flat shoes and hoodies. Or womanhoodies, if you will.

But when Eddie dresses in strumpet style and calls it "girl mode," claims he has a mix of "girl genes and boy genes" and spouts rubbish saying sex is a spectrum and human embryos and fetuses all start out "exactly the same" with no sex differentiation, he's hailed as a brave and pioneering civil rights champion.

It's like no one remembers that the "gender bar" was crossed (or perhaps I should say, cross-dressed, LOL ) decades ago by true pioneers like Lou Reed, David Bowie, Marilyn Peter Robinson, Grayson Perry, George Sand, Marlene Dietrich, Annie Lennox and Grace Jones. And it's like Eddie never took basic biology nor paid any attention to what's been learnt about biology in his lifetime.

No one cares about Eddie's so-called "identity." He's free to see himself however he wants.

But many women, and many men, do care that Eddie and other men like him are using their way of dressing, taste for cosmetics and "gender identity" woo as "proof" that they aren't really men any longer- or never were in the first place - but, rather, they are some new breed of more highly evolved humans endowed with a magical ability to "identify into" the opposite-sex - or to escape above/beyond sex entirely by adopting a constantly changing "gender identity." And we do care that such costume changes and preposterous claims are being used as carte blanche for males to gain access to ladies loos, female change and locker rooms, showers, saunas, hospital wards, sports, prisons, shelters and rape refuges - and to all the support groups set up by female people to discuss female-only topics (like lesbianism and female-specific health matters) too.

Also, lots of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are plenty pissed off that their organizations and the entire gay rights movement have been taken over by, and now lionize and completely center, heterosexual males from very privileged backgrounds like Eddie, Caitlyn Jenner, Jennifer Pritzker and Martine Rothblatt. Most of whom have spent their lives married to or in sexual partnerships with women, and (unlike Eddie) have fathered children. And many of whom "have form" for espousing views in the past as well as today that many consider not only regressively sexist, but deeply homophobic.

I did read Eddie's biography when it came out. A lot of women did. We feel for Eddie, traumatized by the death of his mum at age 6 and still heartbroken over the loss and trying to bring her back. But we still don't want him using the ladies loos, change rooms and showers at the gym or pool with us, our own now-elderly and increasingly frail and vulnerable mums or our young daughters.

In fact, a lot of women vehemently object to Eddie's campaign to make all the communal toilets in schools, at workplaces and in public and private places outside the home mixed-sex.

Eddie says all communal toilets and other facilities where people deal with intimate bodily functions and get undressed in part or full must be made mixed-sex coz that would be "inclusive" and modern - and coz he says mixed sex facilities will put an end to bullying and sexual harassment.

If Eddie had grown up as an actual girl who starting at age 11 or so had to learn to deal with the practicalities and embarrassment of managing periods in school bathrooms - and who since puberty had been subjected to leers, gross remarks and gropes from boys and men at school, work and out in the world - I suspect Eddie might have a different view.

In his biography, Eddie tells an anecdote about how when he was in his mid 20s he decided to use a ladies loo in the London underground to change from "boy mode" into "girl mode" (or maybe it was the other way around, Eddie is so "fluid" I cannot keep track). Whilst in the stall, a group of 13 year-old girls entered the loo, and when he came out of the stall they were clearly uncomfortable and started whispering and nervously giggling. The way Eddie tells the story, the girls were tormenters and oppressors who were entirely in the wrong for not wanting a man in the ladies loo - and he was a blameless victim who did nothing wrong.

Funny thing is, many women who were once fans and defenders of Eddie have read his biography and take umbrage at Eddie's portrayal of those teen girls, and at many other things Eddie says in the book as well as all the "gender identity" nonsense he's been coming out with more recently:

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3140981-When-did-Eddie-Izzard-become-such-a-huge-knob-headhttps://youtu.be/k_Okeis0Vvc