In the Sunday Times, one Colin McDowell asks, "What is camp?"
And then proceeds to show he doesn't have a flying fucking fondue-set what it is.
"Camp is a vicious and theatrical world of gossip and character
assassination,
often styled around gender confusion. Popular entertainment adores camp
—think Les Dawson trussed up as a northern housewife, or the performers
Graham Norton or Julian Clary...
"Put a bunch of gay men together and the
feminine side comes to the fore — everyone is sweetie, darling, honey,
and
female names are soon bestowed on each other. However, camp is not
confined
entirely to gay men — I once met a huge truck driver in drag at a party
who
informed us all that his name was Janine, for the evening at least,
while
passing round pictures of his wife and two daughters...."
No it's not, you posh idiotbox.
Do you really think Les Dawson doing Cissie and Ada over the garden wall, or gay men saying "sweetie" - like we all do, obvs, like a decade's old copy of Absolutely Fabulous that's got stuck in the DVD player - defines camp?
Or, indeed, has anything to do with it?
"I've seen them at some of Ollie's dinner parties, and I can tell you, the
feminine side comes to the fore, they even call each other by ladies' names..."
Oh FFS! etc.
But perhaps the kind of hilariously unself-aware gormality that this article exudes is a kind of camp in itself?
• Susan Sontag - Notes On Camp. Ever countered, never bettered. "To talk about camp is therefore to betray it..."
Sunday, 2 June 2013
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