Campiness

Campiness is an aesthetic sensibility characterized by a playful, ironic, and often exaggerated embrace of artifice and theatricality. It is frequently associated with a certain style of humor that derives from the appreciation of the absurd, the artificial, and the over-the-top. Camp often involves a conscious awareness of its own artificiality, finding delight in the surface over depth, and in imitation over originality.

The concept of camp gained significant attention with Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp'," where she described it as a sensibility that "is a tenderness toward the artificial." Sontag identified key characteristics of camp as being its love of exaggeration, its perversity, its delight in the unnatural, and its often self-conscious artificiality. It can manifest in various art forms, including fashion, film, theater, and music.

Camp is not necessarily about bad taste, but rather about a particular way of looking at and valuing things. It often involves an element of performance and a wink to the audience, inviting them to share in the enjoyment of the spectacle. What might be considered gaudy or tasteless in a serious context can be celebrated as "campy" when presented with the right attitude. This sensibility can be found across a spectrum, from high art to popular culture, and its appreciation often depends on a shared cultural understanding and a willingness to engage with its playful subversion of conventional aesthetics.