This month we’re having words about…

with Stephen Meyler

Water Cooler Chatter ‘Celebrity’ Big Brother

Anyone watching this year’s Celebrity Big Brother – well, the first CBB of the year (there will be another one in September) – will be aware of that issues of sexual and gender identity have been at the forefront of the contestant’s minds.

Image: Shane Jenek

In perhaps the most unlikely twist yet, former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant, Courtney Act (also known as Shane Jenek) has become the house’s font of all LGBT+ knowledge – and both Shane and Courtney are doing a bang-up job.

Image: India Willoughby

There was immediate tension between Courtney/Shane and trans former newsreader, India Willoughy, who was the first evictee, as India claimed she had a phobia of drag queens (a claim derided by Twitter users who were quick to circulate images of her posing with several drag queens).

It was an extraordinary situation: India is a trans women who does not feel any affinity with the wider LGBT+ community. “I do feel women like me have been sort out drowned out by the LGBT narrative,” she said. “This is part of the problem with being hitched to LGBT, it’s the confusion element.”

Courtney/Shane pointed out that had it not been for LGB and T activists campaigning so ardently for so long, the freedom for a trans person to be a newsreader may not exist.

Indeed, for his part Courtney/Shane has been more than considerate, explaining to other housemates why a trans woman might have a problem with a cis man in drag, and making efforts to increase the group’s understanding of the trans experience. Shane’s approachability and eloquence on the subject has in effect made him the hetero housemates’ queer glossary.

Many viewers have suggested that India’s dislike of Courtney is less about the latter’s career as a drag queen, and more about jealousy, which seems like a valid criticism. For India, the sight of a carefree, cisgender man, easily jumping between genders without being burdened by issues related to gender identity must be grating to say the least.

As always, there are also several rather generic ‘lad’ charcters – a former Love Island contestant, a former comedian desperate for redemption after making career-ending rape jokes, and former Apprentice contestant, Andrew Brady. On more than one occasion during the men’s ‘lad’ chats Brady has referred to both India and Courtney as “it”, without being challenged by Big Brother.