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Camp (style)
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<p>Camp is an <a href="/facts/Aesthetics/FSD8f7oF">aesthetic</a> and sensibility that regards something as appealing or amusing because of its heightened level of artifice, affectation and exaggeration, especially when there is also a playful or <a href="/facts/Irony/w8oHsT9Q">ironic</a> element. <i>Camp</i> is historically associated with <a href="/facts/LGBTQ_culture/FUCvQsUP">LGBTQ culture</a> and especially <a href="/facts/Gay_men/cBIllcne">gay men</a>. Camp aesthetics disrupt <a href="/facts/Modernism/AfPDL45X">modernist</a> understandings of <a href="/facts/High_art/ckeCtLtk">high art</a> by inverting traditional aesthetic judgements of beauty, value, and taste, and inviting a different kind of aesthetic engagement. </p><p>Camp art is distinct from but often confused with <a href="/facts/Kitsch/6jlx8rNY">kitsch</a><i>.</i> The American writer <a href="/facts/Susan_Sontag/YRkqTzp4">Susan Sontag</a> emphasized its key elements as embracing frivolity, excess and artifice.<i></i> Art historian <a href="/facts/David_Carrier/sb3uPjSE">David Carrier</a> notes that, despite these qualities, it is also subversive and political. <i>Camp</i> may be sophisticated, but subjects deemed <i>camp</i> may also be perceived as being dated, offensive or in <a href="/facts/Bad_taste_(aesthetics)/4mwByEph">bad taste</a>. <i>Camp</i> may also be divided into <i>high</i> and <i>low</i> <i>camp</i> (i.e., camp arising from serious versus unserious matters), or alternatively into <i>naive</i> and <i>deliberate camp</i> (i.e., accidental versus intentional camp). While author and academic Moe Meyer defines <i>camp</i> as a form of "queer parody", journalist <a href="/facts/Jack_Babuscio/wK9B1GkF">Jack Babuscio</a> argues it is a specific "gay sensibility" which has often been "misused to signify the trivial, superficial and 'queer'". </p><p><i>Camp</i>, as a particular style or set of mannerisms, may serve as a marker of identity, such as in <i>camp talk</i>, which expresses a gay male identity. This <i>camp style</i> is associated with <a href="/facts/Theories_of_humor/xA58xRLx">incongruity</a> or <a href="/facts/Juxtaposition/IUYNbbyR">juxtaposition</a>, theatricality, and <a href="/facts/Humour/XR1rm13y">humour</a>, and has appeared in film, <a href="/facts/Cabaret/n0fKcALB">cabaret</a>, and <a href="/facts/Pantomime/0kJXtsGJ">pantomime</a>. Both <a href="/facts/High_culture/ckeCtLtk">high</a> and <a href="/facts/Low_culture/Xgrh3GPf">low forms of culture</a> may be <i>camp</i>, but where high art incorporates beauty and value, <i>camp</i> often strives to be lively, audacious and dynamic. <i>Camp</i> can also be <a href="/facts/Tragedy/dapwNdf8">tragic</a>, <a href="/facts/Sentimentality/KDk3EaH2">sentimental</a> and ironic, finding beauty or <a href="/facts/Black_comedy/HyjoJzFA">black comedy</a> even in suffering. The humour of <i>camp</i>, as well as its frivolity, may serve as a <a href="/facts/Coping/Seg3zu9m">coping mechanism</a> to deal with <a href="/facts/Homophobia/Xzeqopl5">intolerance</a> and <a href="/facts/Social_exclusion/8or1ar6F">marginalization</a> in society. </p>