When Eddie Became Suzy

On 7^th March 2023 – the day before International Woman’s Day – Eddie Izzard announced via Global’s Political Party Podcast that she’d now like to be called Suzy (but doesn’t mind if you still call her Eddie).

The comedian has caused something of a stir among the ‘gender critical.’ Following a public journey of gender fluidity that had many disgruntled takes, she announced her intent to run as parliamentary candidate for the Labour party in Sheffield Central last year. This attracted criticism best summed up by feminist activist Jean Hatchet who opined that, ‘Women are not clothes to be popped on and off according to mood or political ambition.’

Let’s look at Twitter’s initial reaction to the news:

 

By the night of that day, a tweet from Adam Brooks of GBNews came up first when ‘Izzard’ was searched. A typical exchange in the replies went like this:

 

 

Lots seemed to have already made up their minds about the issue:

 

How many, like Sean here, unknowingly base their opinions on not knowing the difference between transvestite and transgender?

 

Suzy herself hasn’t tweeted since Feb 9th but some people were just happy for her journey:

 

There was no shortage of supportive tweets:

 

But they just weren’t doing the numbers like the critical ones.

This was by far the most popular – and from a group themselves no strangers to recent criticism:

 

In case you thought it was just straight bois straight hatin’… nah – it’s the wives of trans-women too:

 

Speaking of marriages breaking down, former comedian Graham Linehan had a joke about Izzard choosing her name in memory of a dead girlfriend:

 

 

Many seemed to just be making an effort to tell people they don’t care. It was nice to see some simple positivity:

 

Thank God Twitter isn’t real, otherwise I’d worry that there’s no balance to be found between women’s hard-won rights and those of the trans community.