Camp (style)

Camp is an aesthetic and sensibility that regards something as appealing or amusing because of its heightened level of artifice, affectation and exaggeration,^[1][2][3] especially when there is also a playful or ironic element.^[4][5] Camp is historically associated with LGBTQ culture and especially gay men.^[2][6][7][8] Camp aesthetics disrupt modernist understandings of high art by inverting traditional aesthetic judgements of beauty, value, and taste, and inviting a different kind of aesthetic engagement.^[6]

Camp art is distinct from but often confused with kitsch. The American writer Susan Sontag emphasized its key elements as embracing frivolity, excess and artifice.^[9] Art historian David Carrier notes that, despite these qualities, it is also subversive and political.^[10] Camp may be sophisticated,^[11] but subjects deemed camp may also be perceived as being dated, offensive or in bad taste.^[12][5] Camp may also be divided into high and low camp (i.e., camp arising from serious versus unserious matters), or alternatively into naive and deliberate camp (i.e., accidental versus intentional camp).^{[3][11][13][14]} While author and academic Moe Meyer defines camp as a form of "queer parody",^[7][8] journalist Jack Babuscio argues it is a specific "gay sensibility" which has often been "misused to signify the trivial, superficial and 'queer'".^[15]

Camp, as a particular style or set of mannerisms, may serve as a marker of identity, such as in camp talk, which expresses a gay male identity.^[16] This camp style is associated with incongruity or juxtaposition, theatricality, and humour,^[17] and has appeared in film, cabaret, and pantomime.^[18][19][20] Both high and low forms of culture may be camp,^[3][21][8] but where high art incorporates beauty and value, camp often strives to be lively, audacious and dynamic.^[6] Camp can also be tragic, sentimental and ironic, finding beauty or black comedy even in suffering.^[18] The humour of camp, as well as its frivolity, may serve as a coping mechanism to deal with intolerance and marginalization in society.^[5][22]