4
The Gay & Lesbian Review
/
WORLDWIDE
about the relationship between the two male stars.
Back to the kind of camp that winks at its gay audience: an-
other example would be the vampire as a literary and filmic per-
sonage. Richard S. Primuth argues here that the treatment of
vampires—whether as arch-villains (Dracula), as disguised trai-
tors, or as misunderstood rogues—tracks closely with the image
of homosexuals over more than a century, serving as a metaphor
for GLBT people and other outsiders.
The phenomenon of female cross-dressing proves a curious
case, as it is male-to-female cross-dressing that’s undoubtedly
the classic expression of camp. Clare Wall points out that “drag
kings” have been around since the ancient world, both as liter-
ary figures and in real life. While straight society has typically
had no trouble recognizing female cross-dressers for what they
are—Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for it—what they fail
to see is that it typically signifies a lesbian sexual orientation.
I would also include Elton John under the camp rubric, not
so much for his music as for his onstage persona. Be it remem-
bered that from the start of his career in the 1960s until 1988,
Elton was not officially out as gay. Hippiedom provided a cover
for those crazy outfits and giant glasses, but surely these styles
were signals of another kind directed at those in the know. I have
avoided using the phrase “camping it up” thus far, but Elton’s
antics in the 70s and 80s would certainly qualify.
R
ICHARD
S
CHNEIDER
J
R
.
C
AMP is a vague-ish term whose meaning has been de-
bated over the years even as its cultural manifestations
have shifted periodically. The first mainstream treatment
of the phenomenon was Susan Sontag’s classic 1964 essay,
“Notes on Camp,” which clearly linked it to the (then) under-
ground homosexual subculture and recognized camp as a pri-
vate language with which this minority could communicate. It
was a matter of hiding in plain sight in that expressions of camp
were typically available to a mainstream audience but contained
winking references or styles that only certain viewers or readers
were likely to pick up on.
Sontag’s essay is revisited and updated here by Bruce
LaBruce, who sees the phenom as having fractured by now into
several strains, all united by a commitment to style over sub-
stance, performances unconstrained by reality or good taste.
What’s more, he regards camp as the currently dominant style in
popular culture, however diluted, having moved in on the ironic
sensibility of the 1990s and early 2000s.
There arose in the same year as Sontag’s essay a comic strip
called
Harry Chess: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E
., surely an in-
stance of camp by any definition. In this case, the pitch was to
an expressly gay readership (of
Drum
magazine), but it did
something quite interesting by presenting a parody of the TV se-
ries
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
and other “buddy” shows, im-
plying that there was something a little “campy,” if you will,
One Hundred and Eighth: Campiana
FROM THE EDITOR
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