For my cultural artifact, I chose a photo I took at The Rocky Horror Picture Show Musical in Lititz, PA this past year. I’ve been going with my close friends for the past couple years, and it has become a cherished tradition between us. The Rocky Horror Picture Show in both its film and musical forms has become one of the most recognizable pieces of queer media since its release.
When we had our in-class discussion and readings on camp, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was mentioned in one of the articles. The most interesting part of our discussion, I found, was the classification of certain symbols, behaviors, media, etc. as camp vs. campy vs. kitsch. I will summarize the definitions below:
Camp: ““one way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon” (Sontag).
Campy: “as a style and sensibility, comprises a set of widely appreciated characteristics: frivolity, the celebration of the “so bad it’s good,” the overwrought, the histrionic, what Sontag calls ‘failed seriousness’” (Lowder).
Kitsch: “considered to be in poor taste but appreciated in an ironic or knowing way” (Oxford Languages).
The three terms appear to be intersecting, in that something can be described as one, or multiple, of these things; however, that description depends entirely on how it is being perceived. For instance, when I think of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I think of it as an art piece-a way to have fun with the genre of science fiction while also acknowledging and giving in to the expression of sexuality and drama. I would describe it as camp. I showed my friend this same photo (keep in mind we had drastically different upbringings) and she said to me, “Oh… they’re not wearing a lot of clothes.” I believe that if she were in attendance with my friends and I that night, she may have become faint witnessing some of the choreography. She would most likely describe it as campy.
Writing this and thinking back on my discussion with my friend brought to mind the phrase, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I think that is true in any case we are called upon to describe something, even when not describing its beauty. In this course, we often discuss intersectionality in terms of people’s identities, but I think intersectionality can also be applied to our descriptions and world views.
I’d definitely agree with the idea that Camp is something personal and not something with a set definition. Considering the one thing we can agree on about Camp is that has a certain “look” or “feel” to it, it makes sense. Everyone experiences the world differently. During our in class discussion people shouted out a lot of things they considered camp or campy, and trying to find commonalities between each and every one of them based on a set definition would be a nightmare (I tried). Instead, it makes a lot more sense to define camp as something undefinable.