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FOCÁL<br />
UP!<br />
This month we’re<br />
having words<br />
about…<br />
Water<br />
Cooler<br />
Chatter<br />
‘Celebrity’<br />
Big Brother<br />
Image: Shane Jenek<br />
Image: India Willoughby<br />
Anyone watching this year’s Celebrity Big<br />
Brother – well, the first CBB of the year<br />
(there will be another one in September)<br />
– will be aware of that issues of sexual and<br />
gender identity have been at the forefront<br />
of the contestant’s minds.<br />
In perhaps the most unlikely twist yet,<br />
former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant,<br />
Courtney Act (also known as Shane<br />
Jenek) has become the house’s font of all<br />
LGBT+ knowledge – and both Shane and<br />
Courtney are doing a bang-up job.<br />
There was immediate tension between<br />
Courtney/ Shane and trans former<br />
newsreader, India Willoughy, who was the<br />
first evictee, as India claimed she had a<br />
phobia of drag queens (a claim derided<br />
by Twitter users who were quick to circulate images of her<br />
posing with several drag queens).<br />
It was an extraordinary situation: India is a trans women<br />
who does not feel any affinity with the wider LGBT+<br />
community. “I do feel women like me have been sort out<br />
drowned out by the LGBT narrative,” she said. “This is part<br />
of the problem with being hitched to LGBT, it’s the confusion<br />
element.”<br />
Courtney/ Shane pointed out that had it not been for<br />
LGB and T activists campaigning so ardently for so long, the<br />
freedom for a trans person to be a newsreader may not exist.<br />
Indeed, for his part Courtney/ Shane has been more than<br />
considerate, explaining to other housemates why a trans<br />
woman might have a problem with a cis man in drag, and<br />
making efforts to increase the group’s understanding of the<br />
trans experience. Shane’s approachability and eloquence on<br />
the subject has in effect made him the hetero housemates’<br />
queer glossary.<br />
Many viewers have suggested that India’s dislike of Courtney<br />
is less about the latter’s career as a drag queen, and more<br />
about jealousy, which seems like a valid criticism. For India,<br />
the sight of a carefree, cisgender man, easily jumping<br />
between genders without being burdened by issues related<br />
to gender identity must be grating to say the least.<br />
As always, there are also several rather generic ‘lad’<br />
charcters – a former Love Island contestant, a former<br />
comedian desperate for redemption after making careerending<br />
rape jokes, and former Apprentice contestant,<br />
Andrew Brady. On more than one occasion during the men’s<br />
‘lad’ chats Brady has referred to both India and Courtney as<br />
“it”, without being challenged by Big Brother.<br />
However, viewers and housemates have been quick to<br />
point out that Brady and Shane/Courtney have been flirting<br />
up a storm. It’s a complicated bromance in a house where<br />
all the gender and sexual buttons are being tweaked. Stay<br />
tuned!<br />
Celebrity Big Brother airs daily at 9pm on 3e<br />
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