Camp as Armor Against the Terrible Void
Loneliness is a feeling we have all become more and more acquainted with in the last year, and art has been a universal solace, with the popularity of streaming tv and film being the highest it has ever been. (Rajan 2020) Loneliness has been a universal human constant for as long as humans have been alive, but we keep finding new ways to express our sense of loneliness as time goes on. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) and Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) show us how extravagant makeup, hair, and outfits shield our sensitive human psyches from the void of loneliness. The costume says “Look over here! Be distracted, don’t notice my pain!” Camp for these characters is a way of keeping the world at arms length, and let them control how the world sees them.
Between the stories of Hedwig and Dr. Frank-n-furter there are some significant commonalities. They're both musicals and they both have main characters who are outside the gender binary. They are both fabulously campy. The main characters have similar motivations, but handle their issues in very different ways.
Dr. Frank-n-furter of Rocky Horror Picture Show is our de facto main character. He waxes poetic about how he wants nothing more than to build the perfect man and be happy. Granted, he talks about it in a campy, humorous and extravagant way, but the loneliness there is real. He is alone on an alien planet, where no one understands the way he exists. In his final song, his eyes redden and brim with tears. “I’m going home.” the audience materializes and he can finally connect, and Gods, he won’t be alone anymore. On the other hand, we have Hedwig.
First of all, if you haven’t watched Hedwig and the Angry Inch, OH MY GOD please do because it’s such a beautiful story exploring self and trauma and where one fits in the world. Our protagonist Hedwig is obsessed with love, she clings to the ancient greek myth of the origin of love. She sings of how people were of two faces, four arms, four legs and never felt loneliness until Zeus cut them in two, dooming them to always feeling incomplete. She assumes her character on the stage and in front of audiences, one of a funny and witty and sexually available queen, but when she is in private, we see that the well of loneliness in her is so much deeper, much darker than she lets others see. She’s chronically lonely and feels her ache for a partner similar to how an amputee feels phantom pains.
These two characters are doomed from the start, by no fault of their own, but the way they cope with their open wounds is by patching them over with a facade of heavy makeup and lavish costume. Their camp is their armor against the world, their way to make themselves safe against the judgment of a cis-hetero and utterly boring world. The fact that they both use music to express themselves is no coincidence either, theres a modern precedent of queer artists using camp in exactly the way they do. Bowie has Ziggy Stardust, (Light 2018) and Sir Elton John has any of his numerous costumes. (Brucculeri 2019)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Rocky Horror Picture Show create space for queerness and they use camp as an armor against loneliness, just like people do in real life. Not everyone wears a bright red lightning bolt, or a victory roll 70’s tastic platinum blonde wig, some of us use a favorite flannel, or a particularly sharp cat eye. How you armor yourself is up to you, but take it from our heroes, that if you don’t let your guard down once in a while you’ll suffocate under the weight of it.
Source Citations
Brucculieri, J. (2019, March 25). Elton John's Most Gloriously Over-The-Top Costumes Through The Years. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elton-john-costumes-birthday_l_5c95198de4b057f7330a66d8
Light, A. (2018, June 25). 'Ziggy Stardust': How Bowie Created Alter Ego, Changed Rock. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ziggy-stardust-how-bowie-created-the-alter-ego-that-changed-rock-55254/
Rajan, A. (2020, August 05). TV watching and online streaming surge during lockdown. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53637305