“I’m just trying to create a space for myself.” – Eddie Izzard in her interview with The Guardian.
Eddie Izzard has been trying to create a space for herself all her life. An eager child wanting to see her name in lights, Eddie worked endlessly to be chosen in anything to do with acting. As time proved fruitless, she also pursued accolades and knowledge through education, but discovered life to be more fulfilling as a street performer. Fast forward to her breakthrough in comedy at the age of thirty, and on the surface, the rest is history.
But we’ve missed something huge. Eddie has been carving out her public identity, bit by bit, as a transgender woman since 1985 when she came out as a transvestite. Despite the language used, Eddie claims that it’s never just been about looking feminine, but about identifying as female.
In the Big Issue this January she says, “I went through such hell since ’85 that the idea that I’ve come out recently just sounds ridiculous.” Even as late as 2017, Eddie again stated publicly that she’s trans, and yet nothing clicked with the public until now. Why is that? Eddie has been in and out of “boy mode” vs. “girl mode” for 35 years now, so why hasn’t the public bat an eye about it until this time?
I Have A Theory
Well, I have a theory on that. Humans are fluid despite societal pressure to stay confined to boxes that perpetuate capitalism, patriarchy, and all the other consequential “isms”. Though the normative narrative would like us to believe life is mostly black and white, it simply is not. Biology isn’t that simple to begin with, so neither are our social structures and systems. Eddie’s fluidity was excused as eccentricity until finally she came out stating that she “wanted to be ‘based in girl mode’ from now on.” There we have it, a definitive, black and white perspective to grasp onto.
Suddenly Eddie is propelled into womanhood, which she takes graciously stating, “Great. I’ve been promoted to she, and it’s a great honour.” But what about all the years she was fluid, and even now, when she might want to be fluid again? All that time she was valid, and moving forward she will continue to be valid.
I think there is a lot we can learn from Eddie’s identity-discovery journey. For one, we can recognize that a human is valid no matter how they identify themselves. Two, if there is fear of failure and rejection regardless, you might as well live true to yourself. And three, our system of knowing – our system of understanding how the world operates – is continuously of disservice. The way the world actually works is continuously not how we have been conditioned to see it.
Eddie Izzard Embodies This Phenomenon
Eddie embodies this phenomenon, and how lucky we are to see her in full actualization. I say lucky because it’s important to recognize Eddie has lived out of white privilege despite the hardships she’s faced throughout her life. As special and revered as Eddie is, her story is not remarkable. Or rather, her story is not the only remarkable story of self-actualization. Her story is also elevated because she is white.
Trans individuals of all ethnicities have lived since the beginning of humanity. It is the religious, patriarchal structure of colonial forces–which were and are based in white supremacy–that have denied the world for centuries now the right to free expression. Finally society is waking up to the truth that individuals who are “different” are just as valid and valuable as those who fit the status quo. If we were completely homogenous, there would not be enough variability to continue evolution and we would die out. It’s scientific; we only survive and thrive if we have diversity. At last we are starting to approach social dynamics with the same understanding, redefining the normative narrative.
More Thoughts
As a trans human myself–I identify as nonbinary–it’s an incredible experience to witness someone I’ve looked up to realign to their truest self, and continue to fight the good fight through creativity and compassion. After years of acting, comedy, writing, charitable marathons, and now screenwriting, Eddie Izzard approaches her next step in life: politics. “If moderate people don’t go into politics then you leave it to egotistical extremists who are happy to lie. Moderates have got to go in. I’m a radical and a moderate,” Eddie relates in her Guardian interview. I am eager to continue witnessing the impactful work Eddie does and will do. And I am eager to witness the continuation of all of us breaking out of the boxes our forebears forged for us.
J. Sprout
