Uses of Camp by Andrew Ross

INTRODUCTION TO CAMP

  • Definition: Camp is a highly influential category of cultural taste that embraces artifice, irony, extravagance, and exaggeration. It has significantly evolved within popular culture, particularly in response to the profound transformations of societal values and norms during the 1960s. Camp often subverts traditional notions of beauty and taste, finding aesthetic value in what is considered kitsch or 'bad taste'.

ICONIC MOMENTS FROM THE 1960s

1. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1961)

  • Overview: Directed by Robert Aldrich, this psychological thriller is a seminal 'women's picture' that features Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, whose real-life rivalry famously fueled the film's intense on-screen dynamic. It is a cornerstone of the 'psycho-biddy' subgenre, focusing on aging female stars in horror.

  • Plot Elements:

    • Baby Jane Hudson is portrayed as a grotesque, forgotten ex-child star, elaborately made up with childlike ribbons and heavy makeup, clinging to a faded past. Her performance embodies a tragic yet darkly comedic commentary on the perils of child stardom and the aging female celebrity.

    • Blanche Hudson is depicted in a wheelchair, paralyzed from a mysterious car accident that ended her more successful career, making her dependent on her tormenting sister, Jane. The film masterfully uses their entrapment to explore themes of jealousy, resentment, and a crumbling Hollywood legacy.

  • Cinematic Impact: This film brilliantly refracts the chaotic and often brutal history of Hollywood's star system, particularly its treatment of women, while simultaneously creating a new horror film subgenre deeply rooted in the exaggerated and melodramatic aesthetics of camp. Its cult status stems from its over-the-top performances and gothic atmosphere.

2. Baby Jane Holzer and the British Invasion (1964)

  • Event: Holzer's 24th birthday party, strategically timed to coincide with a major publicity event featuring The Rolling Stones, served as a potent symbol of the merging currents of high and low culture. This event was a direct consequence of the British music invasion, which democratized taste and challenged established cultural hierarchies.

  • Cultural Shifts: Holzer, a prominent 'It Girl' and Warhol superstar, epitomized the free-spirited, rebellious lifestyle emerging in the 1960s. Her aesthetic and public persona highlighted the stark contrast between the vibrant, youthful aesthetics of pop culture and traditional, more conservative notions of femininity, leisure, and societal expectations. She embodied a new kind of celebrity, bridging fashion, art, and rock and roll.

3. The Stonewall Riots (1969)

  • Incident Overview: These pivotal riots directly followed the death and funeral of beloved gay icon Judy Garland and occurred when patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village, fiercely resisted a police raid and arrests. This unprecedented resistance quickly escalated into a violent, multi-day conflict with law enforcement.

  • Cultural Context: The Stonewall Riots are unequivocally considered the watershed moment in the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. This event marked a dramatic shift from quiet subjugation and discreet spectacle to overt political protest and collective action, powerfully showcasing the pent-up anger, resilience, and burgeoning pride of the LGBTQ+ community. Camp figures and drag queens were prominent participants, using their characteristic flamboyance as a political tool.

4. Altamont Free Festival (1969)

  • Overview: This free concert, featuring The Rolling Stones, stood in stark contrast to the idealistic peace and love of Woodstock. It quickly degenerated into violence and chaos, culminating in the on-stage murder of a concertgoer. This tragic event became a grim symbol of the emerging counterculture's internal conflicts and its darker, more violent undercurrents.

  • Key Figures: Mick Jagger's performance amidst the chilling presence of the Hell's Angels, who were controversially hired as 'soft police' intended to manage the audience, dramatically highlighted the profound tensions between the utopian ideals of the counterculture and the harsh realities of escalating violence and exploitation. Altamont is often seen as the symbolic end of the 1960s' innocence.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CAMP

  • Camp's Role: Camp functioned as an essential transitional culture, providing a vital expressive framework through which various marginalized and mainstream groups could negotiate and articulate their identities and forms of expression. This was crucial amidst a rapidly changing sociopolitical landscape, where traditional boundaries were being questioned.

  • Intellectual Insight: Cultural critic George Melly keenly observed that camp was central to transitional moments in pop culture history, acting as a subversive force that aided in the 'forced march around conventional good taste.' This meant camp actively challenged and re-evaluated established aesthetic norms, pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable or artistic.

CAMPSPECTRUM: VARIED INTERPRETATIONS

  • Unique Perspectives: Different marginalized groups perceived and utilized camp in distinct ways tailored to their specific experiences and contexts:

    • For gay individuals, camp was profoundly transformative, playing a significant role in shifting societal attitudes both before and after pivotal events like the Stonewall Riots. It offered a means of coded communication, community building, and subversive self-expression in a heteronormative society.

    • Various subcultures, spanning from working-class to middle-class, developed distinct relationships with the aesthetics of pop culture. Their engagement with camp revealed deeper narratives of aspiration, identity formation, and resistance against dominant cultural paradigms.

CONNECTING NARRATIVES AND AESTHETICS OF CAMP

  • Cultural Evolution: The transition from traditional forms of cultural production (like classical Hollywood cinema) to new media and cultural technologies profoundly reshaped public taste and consumption patterns in the postwar era. This shift created fertile ground for camp's emergence and popularization.

  • Historical Context: The decline of the classical Hollywood star system fostered a pervasive nostalgic longing, favoring a revivalist aesthetic witnessed in films of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Camp often tapped into this nostalgia, reinterpreting past glamor through an ironic lens.

REFLECTIONS ON CINEMA AND CAMP

  • Cult Figures: The intense cult of nostalgia surrounding aging celebrities (e.g., Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard) perfectly encapsulates the melding of glamor, melodrama, and morbidity that is characteristic of camp. These figures often become objects of both admiration and ironic amusement.

  • Historical Juxtaposition: Camp effectively operates as a medium through which past cultural forms, styles, and figures can be redeployed, recontextualized, and redefined using contemporary aesthetic codes, allowing for new interpretations and subversive commentary.

BRITISH INVASION AND ITS IMPACT

  • Cultural Exchange: British popular culture's dynamic engagement with American arts, notably through the interpretative lens of camp, unveiled a complex relationship concerning notions of power, taste, and cultural influence. It demonstrated how imported culture could be re-appropriated and transformed.

  • Critique of Imperialism: The clash of cultural elements, brilliantly illuminated by British subcultures adapting American influences within a supposedly 'classless' framework, challenged traditional stereotypes and established hierarchies. This process often involved ironic imitation and subversion.

CAMP AS A DYNAMIC AND POLITICAL FORCE

  • Gender Role Re-examination: The exploration of the sexuality spectrum within performance art, foregrounding the fluidity of gender and challenging binary norms, has provided a crucial platform for both camp and broader countercultural expressions to flourish. Camp often uses exaggerated gender presentation to critique societal expectations.

  • Social Commentary: Camp's inherent capability to highlight subversion and parody in relation to mainstream constructs has found significant resonance in the discourse surrounding feminism and LGBTQ+ rights, serving as a powerful tool for social critique and advocacy.

TOWARDS A MODERN UNDERSTANDING OF CAMP

  • Current Cultural Reflection: The ongoing exploration of camp emphasizes its dual and often contradictory role: it functions both as a critical commentary on traditional structures and as a vibrant celebration of marginalized identities and unconventional aesthetics.

  • Western Masculinity and Androgyny: Camp emerged amidst a significant backdrop of changing masculinity norms, actively challenging rigid stereotypes and redefining emotional expression through more theatrical and fluid presentations of self.

IMPACT ON POP CULTURE AND MERCHANDISING

  • Evolving Taste: Andy Warhol's influential perspective on camp as a cultural economy underscores the inseparable mingling of humor, commerce, and aesthetics within mainstream consciousness. Camp became a marketable commodity, blurring lines between art and advertising.

  • Critique of Ownership: Camp continues to provoke essential discussions on cultural appropriation, the complexities of identity, and the pervasive commodification of subculture in modern times, forcing audiences to question who owns 'taste' and 'authenticity'.