The Camp Gay can be seen as the Spear Counterpart to the Butch Lesbian stereotype.
(One wonders what would have happened if the other prominent homosexual literary figure of the period - burly backwoodsman-styled Walt Whitman - had instead become the model for the stereotype.) However, the Camp Gay stereotype seems to have existed at least as far back as classical Roman times, when comic authors like Petronius and Martial satirized lisping, effeminate homosexual men. It has been suggested that the ultimate ancestor of the modern Camp Gay was Oscar Wilde, whose mannerisms combined with his very public visibility defined the "obvious" homosexual for the English-speaking world at the end of the 19th century. A character who acts like this but nonetheless insists that he's not actually gay may be occupying a Transparent Closet, or he may actually be Camp Straight. Some professions are Always Camp, but not necessarily gay. It will never be threatening in any way or make any other character uncomfortable, as the essence of camp is a nonthreatening, charismatic affectation. His sex/love life will also typically be portrayed as being much healthier in these cases. More positive portrayals of this character type will sometimes be portrayed as the Only Sane Man among a group of dysfunctional (and usually straight) characters-expect this variant to have flamboyancy as his only quirk and often sass or snark his less well-adjusted peers when they get crazy. Even media produced by gay creators will sometimes take potshots at these characters, for the crime of " making the rest of us look bad." Unlike Straight Gay characters, Camp Gays usually show in media as caricatures or one-off jokes (see Monty Python's Flying Circus for a few examples) because they're still often seen as Acceptable Targets. This can result in Unfortunate Implications, as it can imply that gay men are a monolith. The stereotype, like many, still survives because for some fraction of the population, this is in fact Truth in Television, if still greatly exaggerated by media.
Even though (compared to heterosexual men) he will rarely be shown having sex, he talks about it every second of the day, and if he isn't, he will be talking about clothes, or complaining about his terrible friends. Insofar as he has a personality, it will often be vain and catty, or even cowardly. Not all characters speaking this way are necessarily camp - Captain Peacock on Are You Being Served? once used the phrase "strides for the omi with the naff riah" when trying to be "hip" in one episode. Older English examples will have characters speaking in the 20th century "gay language", Polari - some words of which have made it into the larger lexicon (e.g. There is nothing ambiguous about this guy.Įxtreme cases will include near-opaque slang and drag. He will often speak with a lisp and is given to flouncing, prancing, and standing with one hand on his hip as the other is flapped around or held out in a limp-wristed gesture. These will all be in bright or pastel colors. He wears tight ( often leather) pants and a blousy shirt that was clearly meant for a woman, often with a bandana, scarf, or kerchief tied around his neck. He's flamboyant in his dress, speech, mannerisms, and interests.