Eddie Izzard is now using 'she' and 'her' pronouns
- Eddie Izzard is now exclusively using 'she' and 'her' pronouns
- The comedian revealed the choice on TV programme Portrait Artist Of The Year
- She said: "I just want to be based in girl mode from now on"
Eddie Izzard is now exclusively using 'she' and 'her' pronouns.
The comedian revealed the change in the recently broadcast final of Portrait Artist Of The Year, the Sky Arts TV programme in which contestants draw and paint well-known people.
Throughout the programme, presenter Stephen Mangan and the contestants and judges referred to Izzard using the 'she' and 'her' pronouns.
Asked why she wanted to appear on the programme, Izzard answered: "I try to do things that I think are interesting. This is the first programme I've asked if I can be 'she' and 'her' - this is a little transition period."
Asked how that feels, she responded: "Well, it feels great because people assume that ... they just know me from before, but I'm gender fluid. I just want to be based in girl mode from now on."
Referring to the decision on which pronouns to use, she added "it feels very positive."
Izzard began her stand-up career appearing on stage and television whilst dressed in clothing often associated with women. However, as she has previously said: "They're not women's clothes. They're my clothes. I bought them."
In 2017, Izzard spoke about being transgender, telling The Hollywood Reporter: "If you are coming out as transgender or gay or lesbian, it's such a tough rite of passage and quest. It assaults your senses because, back in '85, everyone said, 'No, no. Hide about it.' I just thought they were all wrong. The humiliation period, the initial period, is so tough. If you keep at it, it gets better."
She added: "Fame does make it easier for me. But then again, I am quite well known in America, but I can find you a lot of places where they wouldn't know me and I am just some transgender guy going into the loo or shops. But fame can also help some young kid, because he can say, 'I am like that person there.' As a positive role model, that's where I see fame helping. Like Caitlyn Jenner. Now, her politics are not so good. She's very slow on getting onto gay marriage - but still, a lot of people in America can now talk about it because it's further out there in the public domain, so that has to be a good thing. One of the greatest activists is an African-American woman who is on Orange Is The New Black, Laverne Cox. What she had to go through has been very tough. We do what we can, we soldier on, and we try to find positives in the negatives."
Social media this morning has featured many posts in support of Izzard's decision, and tributes from fellow comedians and fans to her stand-up work.
Shappi Khorsandi posted: "Morning! I see Eddie Izzard is trending. I can't tell you what she means to me as a comic. Rocked my comedy world when I was a teen and beyond. Changed everything, made room. I love her and this morning I'm very happy for her. #ohhSherlockHolmes"
Stuart Goldsmith commented: "She's always been an incredible inspiration to me since I saw her "raised by wolves" bit on a late night Just For Laughs clip c.1991. Can honestly say she changed my life."
As recently revealed, Eddie Izzard has announced her latest marathon challenge, A Run For Hope, combining endurance running with endurance gigging. Beginning on New Year's Day, the comic will be running 26.2 miles on a treadmill every day of January, then jumping straight off to perform an hour-long gig every night.
1st January 2021 update: Izzard has given an interview in which she talks further about the topic, saying: "I didn't push for it [on the programme]. This isn't the big thing. I've been out for 35 years. When I was called 'she' on getting my honorary degree at Swansea [in 2019], no one gave a monkey's. Why didn't anyone pick up on it before? It's whatever people want - if they call me she and her, that's great - or he and him, I don't mind. I prefer to be called Eddie, that covers everything." The Telegraph