Camp is an aesthetic in which something has appeal because of its bad taste or ironic value. When the 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."^[1] American writer Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp'" emphasised artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness and shocking excess as key elements. Aesthetics (or esthetics) (from the Greek word αισθητική) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty. ... Taste (sociology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Ironic redirects here. ... Image needed Susan Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American essayist, novelist, filmmaker, and activist. ... Notes On Camp is a well-known essay by Susan Sontag organized around fifty-eight numbered theses. ...

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. John Waters (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, personality, visual artist and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. ... This article is about the 1988 film. ... Polyester is a 1981 John Waters film starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole. ... Drag artist Lypsinka. ... Dame Edna Everage is a character played by Barry Humphries. ... Divine with dogs Harris Glenn Milstead (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988) was best known for his drag persona, Divine. ... Divine with dogs Harris Glenn Milstead (born October 19, 1945 in Towson, Maryland - died March 7, 1988) was better known by his drag persona Divine. ... RuPaul (born RuPaul Andre Charles on November 17, 1960), is an American drag performer, dance music singer, actor, and songwriter who gained worldwide fame in the 1990s; appearing in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. ... George Alan ODowd, better known as Boy George (born June 14, 1961 in Eltham, London) is a rock singer-songwriter and club DJ. He grew up in a large, working-class Irish family in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. ... Wladziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987), better known by only his last name Liberace (pronounced [ˌlɪbəˈrɑːtʃi]), was an American entertainer. ... Popular culture (or pop culture) is the widespread cultural elements in any given society that are perpetuated through that societys vernacular language or lingua franca. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969. ... The 1980s was the decade spanning from 1980 to 1989, also called The Eighties. The decade saw social, economic and general upheaval as wealth, production and western culture migrated to new industrializing economies. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated Po-mo[1]) is a term originating in architecture, literally after the modern, denoting a style that is more ornamental than modernism, and which borrows from previous architectural styles, often in a playful or ironic fashion. ...

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." The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is the most successful dictionary of the English language, (not to be confused with the one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English, formerly New Oxford Dictionary of English, of...

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). Samuel Ray Delany, Jr. ... Image needed Susan Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American essayist, novelist, filmmaker, and activist. ...

The rise of postmodernism made camp a common perspective on aesthetics, which was not 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.^{[citation needed]} 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."^{[citation needed]} LGBT rights Around the world By country History · Groups · Activists Declaration of Montreal Same-sex relationships Marriage · Adoption Opposition · Discrimination Violence This box:      The Stonewall riots were a series of violent conflicts between New York City police officers and groups of gay and transgender people that began during the early... Homosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love, or sexual desire exclusively for another of the same sex. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Swish is effeminate behaviour and interests (camp), emphasized and sanctioned (Kleinberg 1978), in pre-Stonewall gay male communities. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Carmen Miranda, pron. ...

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^{[citation needed]}, who were radically opposed to the kind of popular culture that consumerism endorsed. Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ...

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 are 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. An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference/representation of/to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. ...

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

Fudgie Frottage, San Francisco underground performer and producer of the world's longest running drag king contest where exaggerated displays of masculinity are encouraged and rewarded.

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. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 400 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1200 × 1800 pixel, file size: 159 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)This photograph is from an article from the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 400 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1200 × 1800 pixel, file size: 159 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)This photograph is from an article from the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www. ... Fudgie Frottage, San Francisco underground performer and producer of the worlds longest running drag king contest. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A drag king performance troupe NYC Drag King Alliance Switch NPlay photo:Jenny Norris Drag kings are mostly female-bodied or -identified performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of their performance. ... Manliness redirects here. ... A drag king performance troupe NYC Drag King Alliance Switch NPlay photo:Jenny Norris Drag kings are mostly female-bodied or -identified performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of their performance. ...

Contemporary culture

Television

Television shows such as CHiPs, Batman, Gilligan's Island, and Fantasy Island, are enjoyed in the 2000s^{[citation needed]} 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. CHiPs is an American television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (licensee by Turner Entertainment) that aired on NBC from September 15, 1977 to July 17, 1983. ... This article is about the 1960s television series. ... For the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) video game, see The Adventures of Gilligans Island. ... -1... Dynasty was an American primetime television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 10, 1989. ... The Southfork Ranch, home of the Ewing family The original cast of Dallas. ... This article is about the mint and fruit-flavored candy. ... This article does not discuss cultist groups, personality cults, or cult in its original sense of religious practice. See cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term cult. A cult following is a group of fans devoted to a specific area of pop culture. ... Eurotrash can refer to An pejorative term for Eurodance. ...

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. ESPN Classic features reruns of famous sporting events, sports documentaries, and sports themed movies. ... Cheap Seats is a television program broadcast on ESPN Classic hosted by brothers Jason and Randy Sklar. ... ABCs Wide World of Sports is a long-running sports anthology show on American television. ... For other uses, see Ballet (disambiguation). ... For the animated television series, see Harlem Globetrotters (TV series). ... For the NES video game, see Pro Wrestling (video game). ... For the skate brand of the same name, see Roller Derby (brand). ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American television network. ... DVD release for Martin Tahses After School Specials from 1979-1980 An after school special is a type of American television program intended to be viewed by adolescents when they returned home from school, usually at about 4:00 . ... Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel in the United States. ... Strangers with Candy is a television series produced by Comedy Central. ... Amy Sedaris (born March 29, 1961, in Endicott, New York) is an American actress, author, and comedian. ...

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. This article is about the television series. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... The Office is a British television comedy series, created, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and first aired in the UK on BBC Two on July 9, 2001. ...

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)^{[citation needed]}. 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. John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director and actor. ... Beat the Devil is a 1953 film directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart. ... Bogart redirects here. ... John Waters (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, personality, visual artist and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. ... Pink Flamingos is a 1972 film directed by John Waters. ... This article is about the 1988 film. ... Female Trouble is a 1974 film by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters starring Divine, Edith Massey, Cookie Mueller, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Michael Potter and David Lochary. ... Polyester is a 1981 John Waters film starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole. ... Desperate Living is a 1977 film by Baltimore, Maryland, USA filmmaker John Waters starring Liz Renay, Edith Massey, Mink Stole, Jean Hill, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Susan Lowe. ... A Dirty Shame is a 2004 film by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters starring Tracey Ullman, Selma Blair, Johnny Knoxville, Chris Isaak and Mink Stole. ... Cecil B. Demented is a 2000 cult film directed by John Waters. ... Todd Solondz (born October 15, 1959) is an American writer/director known for his controversial films. ... A cult film is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans. ... Welcome to the Dollhouse is a 1995 comedy /drama independent film written and directed by Todd Solondz. ... Deborah Ann Debbie Gibson (born August 31, 1970), is an American singer-songwriter who was a teen pop icon. ... Fisher-Price is a well-known brand of toys, with headquarters located in historic East Aurora, New York. ...

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 is very chilling to watch). Many British Public Information Films gained a camp cult following, such as the famous Charley Says series. The title screen from the film. ... The front cover text reads: This booklet tells you how to make your home and your family as safe as possible under nuclear attack. Protect and Survive was the title of a series of booklets and a public information film series produced by the British government during the late 1970s... Kitsch is a term of German origin that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior copy of an existing style. ... Public Information Films (known as PIFs) are a series of government commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the UK. The US equivalent is the Public Service Announcement (PSAs). ... Charley Says was a series of very short cel-animated cartoon Public Information Films for children, produced in the United Kingdom in the 1970s by Londons Central Office of Information. ...

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.^{[citation needed]} 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. A hipster is a person who derives their identity largely through their association with a subculture which has been deemed hip, a word taken from African American Vernacular English (AAVE). ... Lawn flamingos in their natural habitat. ... Yard Globe Yard Globe - a. ... This article is about the mythical creature. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Binomial name Zimmermann, 1780 The White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as the Virginia deer, or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer found throughout most of the continental United States, southern Canada, Mexico, Central America, northern portions of South America as far south as Peru, and...

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. For other uses, see Carvel (disambiguation). ... Cookie Puss is a character created by Carvel in the 1970s as an expansion of its line of ice cream cake characters freshly made and sold only in its stores, which also includes Hug-Me Bear and Fudgie the Whale. ... Fudgie the Whale 2008 Fudgie the Whale is a versatile ice cream cake shape developed by Carvel. ... South of the Borders large neon welcome sign. ... Official language(s) English Demonym North Carolinian Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Largest metro area Charlotte metro area Area  Ranked 28th in the US  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (340 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (900 km)  - % water 9. ... Official language(s) English Capital Columbia Largest city Columbia Largest metro area Columbia Area  Ranked 40th  - Total 34,726 sq mi (82,965 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 260 miles (420 km)  - % water 6  - Latitude 32° 2′ N to 35° 13′ N  - Longitude 78° 32′ W to 83... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 95 I-95 meeting the PA 420 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main highway on the East Coast of the United States,[1] paralleling the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Florida and serving some of the most populated urban areas in the... For other uses, see Washington, D.C. (disambiguation). ... This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... The Titanic Museum is shaped to look like the real Titanic and is a popular tourist attraction in Branson The Duttons performing their famous song where they all play each others violins at their theater in Branson Missouri Herkimer and Cecil are performing at the Presleys Country Jubilee Branson is... Patriotism is a feeling of love and devotion to ones own homeland (patria, the land of ones fathers). ... The Spirit of 76 by Archibald McNeal Willard, 1891 Jingoism is a term describing chauvinistic patriotism, especially with regard to a hawkish political stance. ... Gamble redirects here. ... For further information, see Las Vegas metropolitan area and Las Vegas Strip. ... Reno redirects here. ... Wisconsin Dells may refer to: the Dells of the Wisconsin River the town of Wisconsin Dells in Wisconsin in the United States This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

RuPaul regularly capitalizes on her camp appeal through TV and movie cameo appearances.

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.^{[citation needed]} Celebrities who are gay icons include Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Carmen Miranda, and Joan Rivers.^{[citation needed]} 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 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Bridget from Guilty Gear series. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 527 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2430 × 2762 pixels, file size: 6. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 527 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2430 × 2762 pixels, file size: 6. ... RuPaul (born RuPaul Andre Charles on November 17, 1960), is an American drag performer, dance music singer, actor, and songwriter who gained worldwide fame in the 1990s; appearing in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. ... A cameo role or cameo appearance (often shortened to just cameo) is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television. ... A cameo role or cameo appearance (often shortened to just cameo) is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television. ... Old Navy is a brand of clothing and chain of stores owned by Gap Inc. ... David Bowie (pronounced ) (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, producer, arranger, and audio engineer. ... John Waters (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, personality, visual artist and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. ... Cassandra Peterson (born September 17, 1949) is an American actress best known for her on-screen horror host persona Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ wearing a black, gothic, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation. ... Pee-wee Herman is a fictional character played by Paul Reubens. ... Sir Elton Hercules[1] John CBE[2] (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is a five-time Grammy and one-time Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. ... Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British musician, best known as the lead singer of the rock band Queen (inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001). ... For other persons named Richard Simmons, see Richard Simmons (disambiguation). ... Dame Edna Everage is a character played by Barry Humphries. ... Divine with dogs Harris Glenn Milstead (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988) was best known for his drag persona, Divine. ... Divine with dogs Harris Glenn Milstead (born October 19, 1945 in Towson, Maryland - died March 7, 1988) was better known by his drag persona Divine. ... RuPaul (born RuPaul Andre Charles on November 17, 1960), is an American drag performer, dance music singer, actor, and songwriter who gained worldwide fame in the 1990s; appearing in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. ... George Alan ODowd, better known as Boy George (born June 14, 1961 in Eltham, London) is a rock singer-songwriter and club DJ. He grew up in a large, working-class Irish family in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. ... Wladziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987), better known by only his last name Liberace (pronounced [ˌlɪbəˈrɑːtʃi]), was an American entertainer. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 - June 22, 1969) was an Academy Award-nominated American film actress and singer, best known for her role as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939). ... Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) is an Academy Award-winning American actress and singer. ... Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress and comedienne, also known to her fans as The Divine Miss M. She is named after the actress Bette Davis although Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one. ... Carmen Miranda, pron. ... Joan Rivers (born June 8, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, talk show host, businesswoman, and celebrity. ... Look up him in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Powerpuff Girls is an animated series starring three little girls with superpowers who have dedicated their lives to fight crime and the forces of evil, though there are criticisms about their actions. ... Doctor N. Gin , spelled N-Gin in the Radical games) is a fictional video game character and secondary villain in the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. ... This article is about the first game in the series. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... For the television series, see Lilo & Stitch: The Series Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution on June 21, 2002. ... Bridget can mean: Another spelling of Brigid from Irish mythology. ... Screenshot of Ky Kiske attacking Sol Badguy. ...

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."^{[citation needed]} Kitsch is a term of German origin that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior copy of an existing style. ...

International aspects

Pop singer Mika is renowned for his camp-styled performances

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 is a specific adjective used to describe a man that openly promotes the fact that he is 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 are 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.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Mica Penniman (born 18 August 1983), known as Mika (IPA []), is a Lebanese-born, London-based singer who has a recording contract with Casablanca Records and Universal Music, and rose to fame around the end of 2006 and the start of 2007. ... In some cultures, makeup is associated with femininity. ... Kylie redirects here. ... Frederick John Inman (28 June 1935 – 8 March 2007) was an English actor who was best known for his role as Mr. ... Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (March 11, 1965) is a British television personality best known for his appearances on the BBC television program Changing Rooms. ... Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, OBE, (born 3 November 1948 in Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire), best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, songwriter, actor, model, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through the 2000s. ... Graham Norton, born Graham William Walker on 4 April 1963 in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, is an Irish actor, comedian and television presenter. ... Lesley Joseph (born 14 January 1946) is a British stage and television actress. ... Ruby Wax (born Ruby Wachs; April 19, 1953) is an American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s. ... Dale Winton (born 22 May 1955 in London) is an English radio DJ and television presenter. ... Cilla Black OBE (born 27 May 1942) is an English singer-songwriter and television personality, born Priscilla Maria Veronica White to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother in Liverpool. ... For other uses, see Rick Astley (disambiguation). ... Audio sample Info Never Gonna Give You Up (help· info) For other uses, see Never Gonna Give You Up (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Pantomime (disambiguation). ...

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 have to practice if I want to be on “Australian Idol”. The Western canon is a canon of books and art (and specifically one with very loose boundaries) that has allegedly been highly influential in shaping Western culture. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... Wagner may refer to more than one place in the United States: Wagner, South Dakota Wagner, Wisconsin Wagner may refer to more than one person: Richard Wagner, German composer Cosima Wagner, daughter of Franz Liszt and wife of Richard Wagner Heinrich Leopold Wagner, dramatist and author John Peter Honus Wagner... For the 2007 film, see Molière (film). ... Seneca may refer to: Roman figures (any links to Seneca in Roman pages should be relinked to one of these two) Marcus (or Lucius) Annaeus Seneca also called rhetor, Roman orator and father of Seneca the philosopher and dramatist. ... Franz Kafka approximately 1917 Franz Kafka (July 3, 1883 in Prague - June 3, 1924 in Vienna) was one of the major German language writers of the 20th century most of whose work was published posthumously. ... For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation). ... A statue of Euripides. ... Marlene Dietrich IPA: ; (December 27, 1901 – May 6, 1992) was a German-born American actress, singer and entertainer. ... Noël Peirce Coward (December 16, 1899 – March 26, 1973) was an Academy Award winning English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. ... Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter from Peru, Indiana. ... Dame Edna Everage featuring on a billboard at the Myer department store in Melbourne. ...

Literature

Carmen Miranda in the trailer for The Gang's All Here (1943)

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. Carmen Miranda, pron. ... The Gangs All Here is a 1943 musical film produced and released by Twentieth Century Fox. ... Christopher Isherwood (left) and W.H. Auden (right), photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Christopher Isherwood (prior to 1946 Christopher William Bradshaw-Isherwood) (August 26, 1904 – January 4, 1986), Anglo-American novelist, was born in the ancestral seat of his family, Wybersley Hall, High Lane, in the north west of... Image needed Susan Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American essayist, novelist, filmmaker, and activist. ... Notes On Camp is a well-known essay by Susan Sontag organized around fifty-eight numbered theses. ... Carmen Miranda, pron. ... Tutti frutti can mean several things: Tutti frutti (Italian for all fruits, many fruits) is a confection, in most cases ice cream, containing a variety of chopped and usually candied fruits. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The 1950s decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969. ...

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. The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of both cultural and ethnic diversity within the demographics of a particular social space. ... The New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on union activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism. ... Gay Liberation (or Gay Lib) is the name used to describe the radical lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. ... Cover of 1966 paperback The Man from C.A.M.P., by Don Holliday. ... MAE-West is a major Internet peering point located in San Jose, California. ... Marlene Dietrich IPA: ; (December 27, 1901 – May 6, 1992) was a German-born American actress, singer and entertainer. ... For other persons named Joan Crawford, see Joan Crawford (disambiguation). ...

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". Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ... Consumerist redirects here. ... For related articles, see Critical theory and Critical theory (Frankfurt School) Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist critical theory, social research, and philosophy. ... Emotional redirects here. ...

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. Drag queens are performers - usually gay men, sometimes transgendered women - who dress in drag, clothing associated with the female gender, usually highly exaggerated versions thereof. ... The Black and White Minstrel Show was a British television series that ran from 1958 until 1978 and was a popular stage show. ... Larry Grayson (21 August 1923 – 7 January 1995), born William White, was an English stand-up comedy and gameshow host of the late 1970s and 1980s. ... Kenny Everett (born Maurice Cole in Crosby, Merseyside, 25 December 1944, died 4 April 1995), was a popular English radio DJ and television entertainer. ... Duncan Norvelle (born 1958, at Hoton, near Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, UK) is a comedian in the variety tradition who appeared on television from the early 1980s. ... Julian Clary (born 25 May 1959) is an English comedian and writer who is openly gay and known for his playing-on-stereotypes camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre. ...

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. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ...

See also

• Drag queen
• Hipster (contemporary subculture)
• Mystery Science Theater 3000
• Popular culture studies
• John Waters
• Johnny Sokko And His Flying Robot
• Batman TV Series (1966-1968) and Adam West
• Edward D. Wood, Jr.
• Replicas of Michelangelo's David
• Barbarella
• Lucia Pamela

• Power Rangers
• The Cramps
• Ultraman
• Old Timeyness
• Lowrider
• Donk (automobile)
• Outsider music
• Russ Meyer
• Soulja Boy

Drag artist Lypsinka. ... In the 1990s and 2000s, the 1940s slang term hipster began being used in North America to describe young, well-educated urban middle class and upper class adults with leftist, liberal, or libertarian social and political views and interests in a non-mainstream fashion and cultural aesthetic. ... Mystery Science Theater 3000 (often abbreviated MST3K, sometimes MST 3000 or MST 3K or just MST) is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc. ... Popular culture studies is the academic discipline studying popular culture. ... John Waters (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, personality, visual artist and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. ... Giant Robo (ジャイアントロボ), also known as Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, is a tokusatsu, anime and manga series created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. ... This article is about the 1960s television series. ... Adam West (born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928) is an American actor who is best known for playing the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne on the 1960s TV series Batman (which also had a film adaptation). ... Edward Davis Wood, Jr. ... Barbarella, also known as Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy is a 1968 erotic science fiction film directed by Roger Vadim, based on the French Barbarella comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest. ... Lucia Pamela (May 1, 1904–July 25, 2002 Los Angeles), was an American musician, bandleader, and eccentric. ... Power Rangers is a long-running American childrens television series adapted from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai Series, though it is not simply an English dub of the original. ... The Cramps are a punk rock band originally formed in 1972. ... This article is about the Japanese superhero. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Essay / neologism / original research (nicely written though) If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... For other uses, see Lowrider (disambiguation). ... The cover of a Donk magazine Donk is a slang term referring to a type of highly customized automobile, typically an inexpensive American-built sedan modified by significantly increasing the ground clearance and adding large-diameter wheels with low-profile tires. ... Outsider music is music performed either by social outsiders, who have no or few associates in the mainstream music business, or by musicians who choose to live and work in seclusion, often due to compromising behavioral or psychological conditions. ... For the baseball player, see Russ Meyer (baseball player). ... DeAndre Way (born on July 28, 1990 in Chicago, Illinois), better known by his stage name, Soulja Boy, is an American rapper, best known for the dance and song called Crank That (Soulja Boy). // DeAndre was born in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Atlanta, Georgia at the age of six. ...

Further reading

• Core, Philip (1984/1994). CAMP, The Lie That Tells the Truth, foreword by George Melly. London: Plexus Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-85965-044-8
• Cleto, Fabio, editor (1999). Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06722-2.
• Meyer, Moe, editor (1993). The Politics and Poetics of Camp. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08248-X.
• Sontag, Susan (1964). Notes on Camp in Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Farrer Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-312-28086-6.

Notes

References

• Levine, Martin P. (1998). Gay Macho. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-4694-2.

External links

• Why I hate 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy': And how camp became outdated by Johann Hari