Everything about Camp Style totally explained
Camp is an
aesthetic in which something has appeal because of its
bad taste or
ironic value. When term first appeared in 1909, it was used to refer to ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical, effeminate or homosexual behaviour. By the mid-1970s, the term was defined as "banality, artifice, mediocrity, or ostentation so extreme as to have perversely sophisticated appeal." American writer
Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "
Notes on 'Camp'" emphasised artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness and shocking excess as key elements.
Camp films were popularized by filmmaker
John Waters, including
Hairspray and
Polyester, Celebrities that are associated with camp personas include
drag queens and performers such as
Dame Edna,
Divine (
Glen Milstead),
RuPaul,
Boy George, and
Liberace. As part of the anti-academic defense of
popular culture in the
1960s, camp came to popularity in the
1980s with the widespread adoption of
postmodern views on art and culture.
Origins and development
Camp derives from the French slang term
se camper, meaning “to pose in an exaggerated fashion”. The
OED gives 1909 as the first print citation of
camp as "ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical; effeminate or homosexual; pertaining to, characteristic of, homosexuals. So as a noun, ‘camp’ behaviour, mannerisms, et cetera. (cf. quot. 1909); a man exhibiting such behaviour". Per the OED, this sense is "etymologically obscure."
According to writer and theorist
Samuel R. Delany, the term
a camp originally developed from the practice of female impersonators and other prostitutes following military encampments to sexually service the soldiers. Later, it evolved into a general description of the aesthetic choices and behavior of working-class homosexual men. Finally, it was made mainstream, and adjectivised, by
Susan Sontag in her landmark essay (see below).
The rise of postmodernism made camp a common perspective on aesthetics, which wasn't identified with any specific group. The attitude originally was a distinctive factor in pre-
Stonewall gay male communities, where it was the dominant cultural pattern. Altman argues that it originated from the acceptance of gayness as
effeminacy. Two key components of camp were originally feminine performances:
swish and
drag. With swish featuring extensive use of superlatives, and drag being exaggerated female impersonation, camp became extended to all things "over the top", including
female female impersonators, as in the exaggerated Hollywood version of
Carmen Miranda. It was this version of the concept that was adopted by literary and art critics and became a part of the conceptual array of 'sixties culture. Moe Meyer still defines
camp as "queer parody."
Components
Attitude
Camp has been from the start an ironic attitude, embraced by anti-Academic theorists for its explicit defense of clearly marginalized forms. As such, its claims to legitimacy are dependent on its opposition to the status quo; camp has no aspiration to timelessness, but rather lives on the hypocrisy of the dominant culture. It doesn't present basic values, but precisely confronts culture with what it perceives as its inconsistencies, to show how any norm is socially constructed. This rebellious utilisation of critical concepts was originally formulated by modernist art theorists such as sociologist
Theodor Adorno, who were radically opposed to the kind of popular culture that consumerism endorsed.
Humor and allusion
Camp is a critical analysis and at the same time a big joke. Camp takes “something” (normally a social norm, object, phrase, or style), does a very acute analysis of what the “something” is, then takes the “something” and presents it humorously. As a performance, camp is meant to be an
allusion. A person being campy has a generalization they're intentionally making fun of or manipulating. Though camp is a joke it's also a very serious analysis done by people who are willing to make a joke out of themselves to prove a point. It's about being pretentious and contentious; It is a heterodox
bouleversement all wrapped up in a tongue-in-cheek pose, which elicits shock and is meant to be offensive.
Another part of camp is
dishing, a conversational style including retorts, vicious putdowns, and/or malicious gossip, and showing disrespect, associated with the entertainment industry and also called "chit chat" .
Drag
As part of camp, drag occasionally consists of feminine apparel, ranging from slight make-up and a few feminine garments, typically hats, gloves, or high heels, to a total getup, complete with wigs, gowns, jewellery, and full make-up. In the case of
drag kings or female male-impersonators, the opposite is true and often involves exaggerated displays of traditional male sexuality.
Contemporary culture
Television
Television shows such as
CHiPs,
Batman,
Gilligan's Island, and
Fantasy Island, are enjoyed in the 2000s for their what is now interpreted as their "campy" aspects. Some of these shows were developed tongue-in-cheek by their producers. TV soap operas, especially those that air in primetime, are often considered camp. The over-the-top excess of
Dynasty and
Dallas were popular in the 1980s.
Mentos television commercials during the 1990s developed a
cult following due to their camp "
Eurotrash" humour.
The
ESPN Classic show
Cheap Seats features two Generation-X, real-life brothers making humorous observations while watching televised camp sporting events, which had often been featured on
ABC's Wide World of Sports during the 1970s. Examples include a 1970s "sport" that attempted to combine
ballet with skiing, the
Harlem Globetrotters putting on a show in the gym of a maximum security prison, small-time
professional wrestling, and
roller derby.
ABC After School Specials, which tackled topics such as drug use and teen sex, are an example of camp educational films. In turn, the
Comedy Central television show
Strangers with Candy, starring comedienne
Amy Sedaris, was a camp spoof of the specials.
In a
Monty Python sketch (Episode 22, "Camp Square-Bashing"), the British Army's 2nd Armoured Division has a Military "Swanning About" Precision Drill unit in which soldiers "camp it up" in unison. In the English
sit-com The Office one of Tim Canterbury's pranks on Gareth Keenan includes a pun on meaning of the word camp.
Film
Movie versions of camp TV shows have made the camp nature of these shows a running joke throughout the movies.
John Huston's
Beat the Devil (1953, starring
Humphrey Bogart) was an exaggerated
film noir send-up). Filmmaker
John Waters directed camp films, such as
Pink Flamingos,
Hairspray,
Female Trouble,
Polyester,
Desperate Living,
A Dirty Shame, and
Cecil B. Demented. Filmmaker
Todd Solondz uses camp music to illustrate the absurdity and banality of bourgeois, suburban existence. In Solondz's
cult film Welcome to the Dollhouse, the eleven-year-old girl protagonist kisses a boy while
Debbie Gibson's "Lost in Your Eyes" plays on a
Fisher-Price tape recorder.
Educational and industrial films form an entire sub-genre of camp films, with the most famous being the much-spoofed 1950s
Duck and Cover film, in which an anthropomorphic, cartoon turtle explains how one can survive a nuclear attack by hiding under a school desk (its
British counterpart
Protect and Survive could be seen as
kitsch, even though it's very chilling to watch). Many British
Public Information Films gained a camp cult following, such as the famous
Charley Says series.
Fashions
Retro-camp fashion is an example of modern
hipsters employing camp styles for the sake of humor. Yard decorations, popular in some parts of suburban and rural America, are examples of kitsch and are sometimes displayed as camp expressions. The classic camp yard ornament is the pink
plastic flamingo. The
yard globe, garden
gnome, wooden cut-out of a fat lady bending over, the statue of a small black man holding a lantern (called a
lawn jockey) and ceramic statues of
white-tailed deer are also prevalent camp lawn decorations.
The
Carvel chain of soft-serve ice cream stores is famous for its camp style, campy low-budget TV commercials and campy ice-cream cakes such as
Cookie Puss and
Fudgie The Whale.
South of the Border is a roadside attraction on the
North Carolina-
South Carolina border with a camp faux-Mexican theme and is also known for its campy billboards stretching along
Interstate 95 from
Washington, D.C., to
Florida.
Branson, Missouri, is a popular tourist destination that features camp entertainment with pseudo-
patriotic or otherwise
jingoistic themes, overtones and messages. The
gambling meccas of
Las Vegas and
Reno, Nevada, are famous for the camp architecture of the casinos and hotels. In recent years,
Wisconsin Dells has developed a camp reputation for its waterparks, waterpark resorts and motel swimming pools featuring foam-and-fibreglass sculptures of dolphins and killer whales.
Many celebrities have camp personas, although some tend to possess these traits unintentionally. Some celebrities even capitalize on their camp appeal through commercials and in TV and movie
cameo appearances (for example, TV commercials for
Old Navy clothing stores). Celebrities with camp personas include
David Bowie,
John Waters,
Elvira,
Pee-wee Herman,
Elton John,
Freddie Mercury,
Richard Simmons,
Dame Edna,
Divine (
Glen Milstead),
RuPaul,
Boy George, and
Liberace.
Celebrities who are
gay icons include
Judy Garland,
Liza Minnelli,
Bette Midler,
Carmen Miranda, and
Joan Rivers. Video games characters with camp personas, effeminacy and gay icons include
Him from
Powerpuff Girls,
Doctor N. Gin from
Crash Bandicoot series,
Agent Pleakley from
Lilo & Stitch movies,
Reni Wassulmaier from and
Bridget from
Guilty Gear series.
The terms "camp" and "
kitsch" are often used interchangeably; both may relate to art, literature, music, or any object that carries an aesthetic value. However, "kitsch" refers specifically to the object proper, whereas "camp" is a mode of performance. Thus, a person may consume kitsch intentionally or unintentionally. Camp, however, as Susan Sontag observed, is always a way of consuming or performing culture "in quotation marks."
International aspects
Thomas Hine identified 1954-64 as the most camp modern period in the US. During this period, many Americans had much more money to spend, but often exercised poor taste due to their lack of sophistication, education or experience. In the UK, camp is an adjective, often associated with a stereotypical view of
feminine gay men. Although it applies to gay men, it's a specific adjective used to describe a man that openly promotes the fact that he's gay by being outwardly garish or eccentric. "Camp" forms a strong element in UK culture, and many so-called gay-icons and objects are chosen as such because they're camp. People like
Kylie Minogue,
John Inman,
Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen,
Lulu,
Graham Norton,
Lesley Joseph,
Ruby Wax,
Dale Winton,
Cilla Black,
Rick Astley ("
Never Gonna Give You Up"), and the music hall theatre tradition of the
pantomime are camp elements in popular culture.
The Australian theatre and opera director
Barrie Kosky is renowned for his use of camp in interpreting the works of the
Western canon including;
Shakespeare,
Wagner,
Molière,
Seneca,
Kafka and most recently – 9 September 2006 - his 8 hour production for the Sydney Theatre Company “The Lost Echo” based on
Ovid's Metamorphoses and
Euripides' The Bacchae. In the first act (The Song of Phaeton) for instance, the goddess Juno takes the form of a highly stylised
Marlene Dietrich and the musical arrangements feature
Noel Coward and
Cole Porter. Kosky’s use of camp is also effectively employed to satirise the pretensions, manners and cultural vacuity of Australia’s suburban middle class, which is suggestive of the style of
Dame Edna Everage. For example in “The Lost Echo” Kosky employs a Chorus of high school girls and boys whereabouts one girl in the Chorus takes leave from the Goddess Diana and begins to rehearse a dance routine, muttering to herself in a broad Australian accent; “Mum says I've to practice if I want to be on “Australian Idol”.
Literature
The first post-World War II use of the word in print, marginally mentioned in the Sontag essay, may be
Christopher Isherwood's 1954 novel
The World in the Evening, where he comments: “You can't camp about something you don't take seriously. You're not making fun of it; you're making fun
out of it. You're expressing what's basically serious to you in terms of fun and artifice and elegance.” American writer
Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "
Notes on 'Camp'", Sontag emphasised artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness and shocking excess as key elements of camp. Examples cited by Sontag included singer/actress
Carmen Miranda's
tutti frutti hats and low-budget
science fiction movies of the
1950s and
1960s.
In Mark Booth's 1983 book
Camp he defines camp as “to present oneself as being committed to the marginal with a commitment greater than the marginal merits.” He discerns carefully between genuine camp and
camp fads and fancies, things that are not intrinsically camp, but display artificiality, stylisation, theatricality, naivety, sexual ambiguity, tackiness, poor taste, stylishness, or portray camp people and thus appeal to them. He considers Susan Sontag's definition problematical because it lacks this distinction.
Analysis
As a cultural challenge, camp can also receive a political meaning, when minorities appropriate and ridicule the images of the dominant group, the kind of activism associated with
multiculturalism and the
New Left. The best known instance of this is the
gay liberation movement, which used camp to confront society with its own preconceptions and their historicity. The first positive portrayal of a gay secret agent in fiction appears in a series,
The Man from C.A.M.P. in which the protagonist is paradoxically effeminate, yet physically tough. Female camp actresses such as
Mae West,
Marlene Dietrich, and
Joan Crawford also had an important influence on the development of feminist consciousness: by exaggerating certain stereotyped features of femininity, such as fragility, open emotionality or moodiness, they attempted to undermine the credibility of those preconceptions. The multiculturalist stance in cultural studies therefore presents camp as political and critical.
Political theorists like
Theodor Adorno saw camp as a means of maintaining the status quo by misdirecting the workers away from the cause of their oppression: the capitalist system. Also, camp's ephemerality was deemed to engender unthinking
consumerism, which relies on novelty and frivolity. Aside from the
Frankfurt School argument, camp often faces criticism from other political and aesthetic perspectives. For example, the most obvious argument is that camp is just an excuse for poor quality work and allows the tacky and vulgar to be recognised as valid art. In doing so, camp celebrates the trivial and superficial and form over content. This could be called the "
yuck factor".
Camp-style performances may allow certain prejudices to be perpetuated by thinly veiling them as irony. Some feminist critics argue that
drag queens are misogynistic because they make women seem ridiculous and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. This criticism posits that drag queens are the gay equivalent of the
black and white minstrel. Some critics claim that camp comedians like
Larry Grayson,
Kenny Everett,
Duncan Norvelle and
Julian Clary perpetuate gay stereotypes and pander to homophobia.
As a part of its adoption by the mainstream, camp has undergone a softening of its original subversive tone, and is often little more than the condescending recognition that popular culture can also be enjoyed by a sophisticated sensibility. Mainstream
comic books and B
Westerns, for example, have become standard subjects for academic analysis. The normalisation of the outrageous, common to many
Vanguardist movements—has led some critics to argue the notion has lost its usefulness for critical art discourse.
Further Information
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