"The Spirit of Extravagance:" Dean of Drag Lady Bunny and her hair.http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n34/thats_lady_bunny_honey/lady_bunny_1
Susan Sontag states in her essay “Notes on ‘Camp’” that Camp is the “victory of ‘style’ over ‘content.’” This statement accurately summarizes what ended up happening in the episode “A Family that Drags Together” from “RuPaul’s Drag U.” The three women who appear for a “drag education” are related to three of the professors, as two sisters and one mother. Each of the women has her own reason for going on the show, be it gaining confidence or becoming closer to her respective drag queen, but what the women are trying to achieve, the “content,” is ultimately of no consequence. What does matter is how they present what they achieve—the “style” in which they show their accomplishments. Sontag remarks that “the whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious,” and that “‘sincerity’ is not enough.” The women take a completely over-the-top, farcical route to accomplish their serious, sincere aims, thus living up to the intense artificiality of Camp—and, of course, of drag.
I could not agree more with the point Sontag makes. While I admit, that content is extremely important, the importance of style is quite surprising. For example, in law, if a lawyer has a really good argument, but terrible presentation, it is likely that he will lose. No matter how much one knows, if that knowledge is not presented with style, it mean very little. The importance of style just goes to show how subjective we, as humans, all really are.
ReplyDeleteI would first like to say that I love the picture of Lady Bunny that you found! I had a very similar interpretation of Sontag in relation to Camp, dressing in drag, and the amazing and entertaining show we watched. I would agree that "content is of no consequence", because so often people consume products that are cheaply made but are associated with high-end, expensive brands. What's worse, often times people know that the products they are consuming are not worth nearly what they pay for them, yet they buy them anyway. Case in point: Free City is a brand that uses Hanes products and other clothing cheaply made bulk clothing manufacturers, screen prints on these items and sells them for $100 to $200 more than they are truly worth, and Free City is hugely successful.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to consumption, content definitely is of no consequence.
http://www.freecitysupershop.com/