Transphobes are losing their minds over Eddie Izzard appearing on TV in ‘boy mode’

Eddie Izzard

Eddie Izzard has sparked confusion and rage among transphobes following her latest TV appearance, because they just can’t wrap their heads around her gender-fluidity.

Izzard appeared on Good Morning Britain on Thursday (25 March) to discuss her screenwriting debut for her new film Six Minutes to Midnight and how she ran 32 marathons in 31 days for charity.

The gender-fluid comedian and political activist, who for decades has sometimes presented as male and sometimes as female in public, publicly requested to be referred to with she/her pronouns at the end of last year.

In January, she explained: “I use ‘girl mode’ and ‘boy mode’ which are not great little phrases, but if anyone’s got a better one, I’ll use it… All my dramatic roles will be in boy mode… but I will be running, I’ll be doing comedy and I will be a political activist in girl mode.”

In Six Minutes to Midnight, based on a true story and set just before the start of the Second World War, Izzard plays a cisgender male English teacher who works at a UK finishing school for the daughters of influential Nazi families. The film also stars Oscar winners Judi Dench as the school’s headteacher and Jim Broadbent as the bus driver.

Appearing on the breakfast show in “boy mode”, Izzard at no point discussed her gender identity and gender expression, but transphobes couldn’t help themselves.

Transphobes took to social media to misgender her, decry “wokism” and confusingly claim that she “decided” to be trans to further her career, despite the fact that 60 per cent of trans people in the UK have a yearly income of less than £20,000, according to the government’s 2018 National LGBT Survey.

Izzard’s gender expression was so confusing to transphobes that she even started trending on Twitter, so some LGBT+ folk took to social media to help them out, and explain that gender-fluidity is “not that complicated”.

One wrote: “Eddie Izzard is trending, and people are being mean about her presenting in ‘boy mode’ because she’s promoting a movie where she plays a cisgender man.

“Gender-fluidity is cool, and not that complicated. Also cis men play trans people all the time, why can’t we play cis men?”

Another explained the irony of the outrage over Izzard’s appearance in “boy mode”, when many transphobes insist that clothes do not define gender.

“OK so clothes aren’t gendered except when Eddie Izzard turns up on telly wearing trousers then all of a sudden clothes maketh the man,” they tweeted.

One person simply posted five simple points “for the attention of transphobes”: “Eddie Izzard has heard it all before. You’re not witty or original. You’re not disguising your hatred with ‘Faux naivety’ as well as you think you are. Eddie has done more for the UK charities than you’ll ever do in your life. Be better. Love Wins.”

 

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