Sandi Toksvig

Sandi Toksvig (born 3 May 1958) is a British-Danish comedian and TV presenter born in Copenhagen, though long resident in the UK. Toksvig co-founded the Women's Equality Party in 2015 with Catherine Mayer.

• [On men who take off their shirts in public.] There's an awful lot of lard out there. No woman would do that.
• [On teaching her children to have good manners.] It's mainly because I wanted to send them out in the world and have everybody like them.
• [On working in television in the early 1980s.] I can't remember the number of times I was told, 'Don't you worry about that, you pretty little thing.' Wow. I've got a first-class degree from Cambridge, but OK.
• I don't want anybody to say to me, 'I'm fine with it, I accept you.' You think, wow, thanks so much, because if you hadn't I would have killed myself.
  • "Sandi Toksvig minds her manners" The Herald (Glasgow, 19 October 2013)

• There are only two countries in the world where representatives of the state religion automatically get a seat in the legislature: the UK and Iran. Obviously, there are fundamental differences between the two countries and in the religious representatives’ views, but it is symbolic all the same. How can it be that our democratic system draws parallels with an Islamic theocracy?
  • "A seat in the House of Lords isn’t God-given. It’s time parliament ejected all the bishops" The Guardian (5 July 2023)
  • On proposals to remove the automatic right of 26 Church of England Bishops (known as the Lords Spiritual) to have seats in the House of Lords.

• When the feminist movement started in the 60s and 70s, lesbians were often excluded, because we were told that we would make the movement less palatable. I have been excluded myself, so how could I do that to someone else?
  • From an interview, as cited in "Sandi Toksvig: 'I'm so distressed by anti-trans 'radical feminists' I could weep'", i (24 November 2023)
  • Referring to transgendered people.

• [Guests have been asked to say their favourite thing about Denmark].

Lucy Beaumont: My favourite thing to come out of Denmark is em Saga Norén the character.

Sandi Toksvig: Oh played by the genius eh Sofia Helin in The Bridge so the only trouble with that and I love the gift but she's Swedish...

[Audience laughter]

Lucy Beaumont: It's very similar though isn't it?

Sandi Toksvig: Yep. [Looks disgusted and then looks away]

[Jason Manford grimaces and makes cut gesture.]

Rhod Gilbert: You're very particular about what's Danish and it doesn't really matter.

Sandi Toksvig: You do know there was a murder on that bridge don't you?

Interviewed by Julia Llewellyn Smith, as cited in "Sandi Toksvig: ‘Feisty old ladies are the backbone of society’", The Sunday Times (6 October 2024)

• [Homophobic hostility is being caused by the] intemperate language on social media around the trans discussion. That's opened the door to people thinking it's now fair to have a general go at diversity, that the world is too woke. I don't know how you can be too woke — woke means being awake to the dangers that are around you. Mental health within the LGBTQ community is not good and that's not because you're not comfortable with who you are. It's the way society treats you.
• [Objecting to "radical feminists" opposition to trans people] How could you be so white and privileged and heterosexual and never marginalised in your life yet you decide to punch down on people?
• [The issue of safe spaces for biological women] I don't get this. I'm in my 45th year in showbusiness, travelling the country touring. I've been to every service-station toilet in the country. Every one has a sign up saying male cleaners in attendance. I don't recall anybody saying, "We need to group up against these male cleaners." Why would someone dress as a woman when they could just pick up a cleaning cloth? If it really bothers you there's a toilet some place else. Go there. Shut up. Let's join together and fight stuff that actually needs fighting. Why are they talking about this when women in Afghanistan are not allowed to sing or to look a man in the face? Who is benefiting from all this? The patriarchy. It makes me so sad.

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Sandi Toksvig