Tony Kushner in Angels in America wastes no time being prude, as the idea of Camp appears as early as page 33 when Harper says to Joe, “I heard on the radio how to give a blowjob… You want to try?” The concept of “Camp” is described by Susan Sontag in “Notes on ‘Camp’” as “…the love of the exaggerated… Camp responds particularly to the markedly attenuated and to the strongly exaggerated (39).” To connect these two ideas, begin by considering the audacity of Harper to outright suggest to Joe the idea of oral sex at the time or, in a realistic sense, why Kushner would write about it if not for stylistic purposes or the shock value that finds itself in Camp culture.
Speaking to the linguistics of Sontag’s definition of Camp and placing it in conversation with Joe’s character, I am able to draw the parallel in the vocabulary of “love of the exaggerated”, as Joe’s character and his excitement for sexual activity and willingness to vocalize such feelings shows an exaggerated, arguably liberated version of a gay male (2). To push further in analyzing Camp, specifically in parallel to this piece of text, Camp culture has taken elements of satire, shock value, and sex appeal to create a liberating movement in queer literature.
Overall, the Campiness of Joe’s character lies within his outward sexuality and refusal to hide his gayness. Sontag makes the claim that, “the androgyne is certainly one of the great images of Camp sensibility,” meaning that questioning the boundaries of gender norms is a large component of Camp culture (3). Joe’s character does so in acting arguably feminine, which is another controversial concept as femininity and masculinity are also social constructs.