COURTNEY ACT

Courtney Act is a beautiful woman, except she isn’t, and that’s the key to the cherished stereotypes that her alter ego, Shane Jenek, has set about smashing, albeit graciously! With an autobiography, Caught In The Act, out now, Shane spoke to Ian Horner.

A lot of gay men still have a deep shame about their identit y… It’s important for our healing that we unpack that shame.

DNA: You’ve shied away from nothing in this book. Any worries about your parents’ reactions, for example? Shane Jenek: They both said, “Gosh, we didn’t know a lot of this stuff. I wish you could’ve told us.” But that was the problem: I didn’t know either. I didn’t have the language to explain confusion about gender and sexuality. The book reads as you finding out who you are and reshaping your voice. Looking back, I can completely see how the idea of gender and sexuality had been f luid in my life and in the world around me, but I never had the tools or the language to understand it, which is where the shame comes from. In Grade 4, my confrontation with an alpha male schoolteacher was the first sign that I was different to what I was supposed to be. I didn’t fit the ideal.

Understanding that gender is f luid came from my friendship with Chaz Bono, who explained that it was okay for boys to be feminine and girls to be masculine. That was in 2015. I feel bad it took someone to say it out loud to me because it was so apparent, so obvious. It was probably the most liberating moment for me, feeling at peace with who I am.

Gay, straight, bi, trans men, CIS men – some of those categories are more prone to interrogating their masculinity than others, but there’s this rigid box of what a man is supposed to be that limits so many people. There’s no finite “this is a man”, “this is a woman”. How successful do you think gay men are, generally, at working that out? Some more than others. Toxic masculinity and heteronormativity are the waters we all swim in. It’s the world we grew up in. Lots of gay men struggle with the intersection of their gender and their sexuality.

The older I get, the more I realise I am all of those high-school labels and words and accusations. I have epitomised and embodied and outdone it all! If those kids in high school could see me now as a drag queen doing what I do, I’m much more to their disgust than they ever could have imagined [laughs]!

I’ve let go of all that shame but, for a lot of gay men, there’s still a real struggle with masculine and feminine ideals, even down to bottom shaming. Little Nas X, in one music video, depicts himself as a bottom in a shower scene and that’s a wonderful ownership of his sexuality as a gay man. But it’s not how you’d normally picture the protagonist of their own story. There are all those phobias that gay, bi and queer men struggle with still.

Sometimes gay men think they understand it all because they’ve overcome one hurdle. But we often don’t see a lot of allyship for the intersections of queer identities, whether that’s gay men of colour, sexual racism, even misogyny in the gay male community. Brené Brown [US professor and author] says empathy cannot exist where shame does. A lot of gay men still have a deep level of shame about their identity, so there’s a lack of empathy for other experiences. It’s important for our healing that gay men unpack that shame and understand it, that it’s not theirs, it was given to them. What do you want Courtney to do next? I love being on stage, performing, entertaining. Wrapped up in that is making people think differently about things they believe to be true

Showgirl, Courtney.

WORD UP!

that maybe aren’t, that however people feel, dress, act or love, as long as it’s with respect and consent, is absolutely the most important thing. Living up to someone else’s ideals is always going to bring you up short. Writing this book is a huge part of that.

We’re doing a second season of One Plus One [on ABC TV] and I’m getting to play a leading lady in a Noël Coward play with the Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House. That’s another wonderful and unexpected turn. Again, subverting that idea of gender, because the role in Blithe Spirit isn’t a gender-bending role. You’ve met some amazing people and we all take away something from experiences like that. What’s your abiding memory of Gaga? She’s the real deal. When I watch her in concert or consume her pop culture I remember in the beginning of the Gaga era, feeling excited and inspired by her, but having met her and having spent time with her several times, it always leaves me feeling hopeful in humanity, that a pop star like Gaga is authentic. People might roll their eyes at stuff she does, but she’s just being unequivocally herself. What went so wrong during Drag Race? The filming was a wonderful experience. I had a great connection with Bianca Del Rio and the cast, but when I watched back the edited version it was different. It didn’t align with my experience of shooting it. I could see why fans misunderstood what was going on. You don’t have to get entertainment through conf lict but that’s the way they cut it. They manipulated the questions to Joslyn Fox and I and cut our responses together to create a different narrative.

At that point, it was the biggest piece of my story, and it was easy to feel consumed by it. But, with time and distance, I managed to double down on defining my own character. You know, if I’m not that, then what am I? Mathu Andersen did Ru’s hair and makeup on the show for ages. He observed that Courtney came across as “frozen Barbie fish sticks” – cold, dismissive and over-confident. Look, there are elements of that in my personality, sure, but ten percent of my character became 80 percent of the story. They did it with hard cuts, sound effects, cuts to reactions. But that’s reality TV, it’s all like that. How much is RuPaul personally responsible for that manipulation? It’s his name on it. He either understands it and is gaslighting everyone, or he doesn’t understand the process of his own show. But I watch the show from where I am now and I’m thankful for it. Ru’s a pioneer and he created a space that I was allowed to be part of. I understand his cultural impact and I hold that in high esteem. And I’m glad he’s including trans men and trans women now. The LGBTQIA+ world has fought for every ounce of acceptance. Have we reached a point where we can tone down the fight and step up the grace, without weakening our position? We’re not a monolith. Different people have different ways of moving the game pieces and all play a part in queer identity. From my experience, I have more inf luence by engaging more, especially with the centre-right. I won’t bother with those with extreme religious views, but I will engage with the uninformed – those who don’t have the information.

I don’t have a chip on my shoulder about my identity. I don’t need validation or approval. I understand they don’t understand. I must show my humanity. At the end of the day, all we’re talking about is loving another human.

Straight white men are probably the people most at risk from gender stereotyping. The “boys don’t cr y” role model is damaging so many, literally driving so many to destruction. We must allow ever yone the space to be authentic. The man who is farthest from my identity probably has the most to gain from my stor y.

MORE: Caught In The Act (Pantera Press), by Shane Jenek, is out now.

Courtney will co-host the Elevate Sydney Festival, Cahill Expressway, January 1-6, with Todd McKenney, Leo Sayer, Marcia Hines and Tim Minchin. w: elevatesydney.com

Courtney appears with Boy George in Fantabulosa, playing Sydney and Melbourne in March. w: premier.ticketek. com.au

Courtney stars as Elvira in The Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Blithe Spirit at Sydney Opera House from March to May. w: sydneytheatre.com.au