February 2026

Trying to fully grasp the meaning of camp, in the Susan Sontag sense, of course, is a bit like – as groups of singing nuns are wont to say – trying to catch a cloud and pin it down. The essence of camp is “its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” Nothing found in nature can be camp. Camp is about theatricality and impersonation, about the performance of roles and identity – and about drawing attention to that performance and artifice. “It’s not a lamp, but a “lamp,” not a woman, but a “woman,”” Sontag writes. “To perceive Camp in objects and persons is to understand Being-as-Playing-a-Role.” Genderbending, gender exaggerating, and androgyny are all noted as camp because they all...