After months of waiting, the Met Gala is finally here, and I am dying to see this year’s outfits. The theme is based on Susan Sontag’s seminal 1964 essay, “Notes on Camp”, in which she tries to explain and describe the sensibility known as Camp. Trying to define Camp is like trying to see who’s on screen during the Battle of Winterfell. You can kinda make out what’s going on, but you’re never really sure what’s actually happening. Sontag even says herself,“Camp is esoteric… To talk about Camp is therefore to betray it.”训练营只有一个规则。不要谈论营地。
Reading about Camp is like watching an episode of the Twilight Zone. It’s a mindf-ck that both makes you feel like the smartest person in the room and the biggest idiot in the entire world. Everything seems to be camp, although there are some things that are definitely NOT camp. Camp is different from kitsch and carnival. Unintentional Camp is better than conscious Camp, unless you fail at trying to be Camp in which case it’s even better. Here’s some of the gems I read from “营地上的赋格”艾伦·佩罗（Allan Pero）：
“Camp is a midwife in the birth of melodrama.”
“Camp is the embroidery of nothingness.”
“与普遍的看法相反，营地不是歇斯底里的，而是搞笑。”
甚至Sontag都说了一些相当矛盾的话：
“Camp is art that proposes itself seriously…”
“营地的重点是剥夺认真的重点。营地嬉戏，反严重。”
为了依靠大胆和大胆的敏感性，这些区别是非常微妙的，这通常就是为什么很难掌握什么营地的原因。
If you want to learn about Camp, here are some great resources:
“营地”的笔记（全文）
坎普（Camp）是今年的大都会（Met Gala）的主题，几乎不可能定义。Here’s our best effort – Vox
What is Camp? Allow These Artists, Performers, and Pop Culture Experts to Explain –W Magazine
为了讨论它，我们可以将营地大致归类为轻浮，模仿和奢侈的欣赏和喜悦。营地是关于技巧，戏剧性和表演的。竭尽全力。当然，这是对它如此可怕的事物，这是一个很好的事，当然，它是一种好事。The Roomis a great example. Despite being one of the worst pieces of cinema, it was made with such serious intent and purpose that its over-the-top acting, ridiculous plot, and extraneous scenes add to the Camp factor. Most of the articles describing Camp rely on examples; its easier to identify but harder to explain. It’s like how I’m attracted to Nick Kroll dressed as Liz onKroll Show。我不知道为什么，我只是。
At least in the West, Camp has a definitive queer history. (Important to note: most of the Met exhibition focuses on the white history of Camp, largely ignoring the黑营的贡献和其他国家的露营。Bollywood is the epitome of Camp！）营地最正式的起点来自路易十四法院的17世纪法国。路易十四是额外的AF。他发明了芭蕾舞（在Sontag的文章中大喊大叫），以便他的仆人在他周围更优雅地移动。他还赞扬了高跟鞋的普及，尤其是那些红色高跟鞋的高跟鞋（吃你的心），甚至制定了一项法律，阻止他人穿高跟鞋高于他的高跟鞋。巴黎通过他的努力成为艺术，时尚，品味和装饰的中心，它在很大程度上保持了地位。他甚至负责冬季和夏季的时尚季节that we have today呢
路易十四可能不是同性恋，因为他有几个情妇，但他的兄弟菲利普（Orléans）是另一个故事。菲利普（Philippe）是一个同性恋营地偶像，以他的迪卡普里奥（DiCaprio）风格派对和他的倾向倾向而闻名。他对妇女的角色感兴趣，穿着奢华的衣服，手镯，戒指和珠宝，尽管是一个勇敢的战士，但他担心在战场上对皮肤的阳光伤害。
法国营地成为英国法院的时尚，这些“丹迪斯”或“通心粉”（这是我们从那里得到洋基涂鸦的地方）会打扮成化妆。由于其骄傲的吉祥物奥斯卡·王尔德（Oscar Wilde），坎普与同性恋更加直接联系。奥斯卡·王尔德（Oscar Wilde）生活和呼吸营地。Sontag在她的文章中多次引用他：
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”
“To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.”
The overt queerness of Camp is reflected in the 1909 Oxford Dictionary definition, “戏剧性，充满意义或同性恋。在整个20世纪初，同性恋图标与营地的敏感性不断相交。像Mae West，Marlene Dietrich和Joan Crawford这样的明星体现了营地。坎普还充当边缘化人群的交流工具，这是寻找志趣相投的人的秘密密码。Chi Luu写了关于营地语言学评论，“what better way to protect a private self than behind the safety of an over-the-top, ironic performance?”
Drag is of course a prime example of this, and of Camp. Susan Sontag talks about the Camp taste for both “the markedly attenuated” and “the strongly exaggerated.” Camp favours both androgyny and hyper-exaggerated femininity and masculinity. Sontag writes,“最精致的性吸引力形式……是违背性别的谷物。”阻力是夸张(夸张的外表和makeup), artifice (impersonation), and theatricality. Some queens are campier than others (looking at you Nina West), but the artform itself draws deeply from this well.
Many have criticized Sontag for her controversial stance on the politics of Camp. The second point of her essay is,“不用说，营地的敏感性被脱离，非政治性或至少是无政治性的。”Although she names homosexuals as the “vanguards” of Camp, she says“然而，人们觉得，如果同性恋者没有或多或少发明的营地，其他人会。”荒谬！卢伊在讨论营地语言学时写道“其他哪些亚文化还具有驱动力和表达的紧迫性，以发展像营地一样轻浮的东西？一方面，您在隐藏公众曝光和虐待的风险方面有一个受到社会污名化的亚文化，另一方面，同一社区对戏剧性，社会上面对性别弯曲的自我表达的热心渴望。”
While it may have started in queer circles, Camp has evolved significantly since Sontag’s essay. Modern Camp can be found in almost every discipline. A宽壁社论even goes as far to claim that Sontag’s essay unlinked Camp from its queer history and “gave it a wider currency.” Warhol created a film called Camp in 1965, and the aesthetic began to show up in all sorts of art, film, and fashion. John Waters, the king of Camp, made粉红色火烈鸟in 1972. Camp informed the works of Cher, Bowie, Elton John, fashion houses like Chanel and Versace, Bjork’s famous Swan Dress, Lady Gaga’s meat dress, and a whole plethora of furniture, costumes, music, film, and art. Arguably, the campiest person today is in the Oval Office, with artifice adorning everything from his skin colour to his rhetoric.
尽管营地已经在文化上占主导地位，但它似乎已经忘记了其最初的意图。电影制片人布鲁斯·拉布鲁斯（Bruce Labruce）谴责了桑塔格（Sontag）depoliticization of Camp哀叹其注入主流文化已经削弱了其力量和意义。没有其原始背景，营地就与叛乱，生存和颠覆的根源分开了。从历史上看，我认为营地是那些“其他”的人可以使用他们排除在外的结构的边界和规则。
今天，大都会盛会的客人名单并没有反映出这种观点。Wintour确认Rupaul将参加，我们可能会看到Bob Mackie和Cher。莉娜·怀特（Lena Waithe）计划纪念纽约球场。1zplay“It all began with the black queens in inner cities looking for a way to be themselves, and then the culture got co-opted, so I really want to pay tribute to them. I think we might play with color and really lean into the drama.”球场景表明，阻力不仅仅是性别，还与模仿，体现和表现有关。
到目前为止，这给了我们晚会的三名LGBTQ成员。我有些失望，尽管我们今晚必须确定。和Shangela anointed by Queen Bey，，，，Trixie running an empire，，，，and威拉姆在SAG奖，，，，Camp at the Met gala would have been the perfect year to have Drag Queens on the committee. Sasha Velour could dress circles around the committee members.
我仍然很高兴看到我的最爱今晚会穿什么。但是，就主题和整体历史而言，我认为如此时尚的播客Ruby McCollister的主持人最好总结一下。“衣服可以是campybut only fully animates itself on a person that embodies its psychological illness of 'being' camp… This Met Gala is gonna be so fabulously bizarre because all these blandos are going to be wearing these clothes, vestiges, shorn skins of someone’s outrageous, compulsive psychology. Crazy. That dichotomy: the pedestrian wearing the deranged…hell…that's camp.”
因此，当我们庆祝今天营地难以形容的敏感性时，让我们也要记住它的根源。
Attached - Shangela at the Shorty Awards and GLAAD Media Awards on the weekend.
