Queer as Camp

I have not had a chance to finish reading this book, but *phew* it is hitting home. Growing up, camp was my whole world. I lived for Summers. Thinking about camp is what got me through the year. Camp is as big of a part of my identity as anything else. I won't write my own novel here but I can talk about camp and what it means to me and so many others for days. Even though I haven't finished this particular book yet, I will be searching out a physical copy for my personal collection!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to find this beautiful book! 📚💕

Queer as Camp is a niche book for readers. Me. I’m one of those readers. It’s a book where queer readers can see themselves in the stories and contemplate their own camp experiences as well as think critically about camp externally. The essays are superlatively written, and a few require deeper knowledge of queer studies than I have. Yet, the genuineness, complexity, and hilarity make this book a great read for those who have a love/hate relationship with camp. It is difficult to rate this book as some essays were more engaging to me than others (sapphic or religious), but overall as an anthology it provides a good cross section of topics! It may be a good idea to read “Notes on Camp” in it’s entirety now as nearly every author quotes it.

Queer as Camp: Essays on Summer, Style, and Sexuality, edited by Kenneth B Kidd & Derritt Mason, explores the intersection of camp(ing) and sexuality from a broad range of approaches.

Just to start with a disclaimer, I never went to summer camp, not the kind that usually come to mind (cabins in the woods, structured activities, etc), so my engagement with the book is lacking that element. That said, because the essays touch on portrayals of camps and camping in popular culture as well as situations I could relate to from other types of camps, my deprived childhood did not keep me from both enjoying and connecting with the collection. So if you never attended a typical (whatever that might mean) summer camp this book still has a lot to offer.

Like any collection from different writers it is uneven. That probably carries the wrong connotation, the essays don't vary greatly in quality, they vary in who they may appeal to. I was fully engaged with several (to the point of rereading them after a couple days of thinking about what I had read). I found several more quite interesting but not really anything I really connected with. Then there were a few I thought were probably better than I give them credit for, they simply didn't speak to me, no fault of the essay itself. Such is the nature of a broad collection of essays.

There is a fair amount of theory involved but I felt like the writers, for the most part, expressed what they were using in a way that most readers without a lot of theory can still follow the ideas and arguments. Knowing some of the theories does, of course, help with your internal arguing with the writers but isn't necessary to appreciate and understand the majority of the essays.

The area of interest to me involves the intersection of the ages of campgoers (still learning who they are and becoming, hopefully, comfortable with that), the interplay between campers who identify across the sexuality spectrum (for some, a chance to see who they are, through homosocial activity, even if they think they already know), and how other aspects of each person's identity (race, ethnicity, religion, even regional identity) plays into it. This collection touches on these issues, some explicitly and some more peripherally, but always offering new perspectives and approaches.

I think anyone who went to summer camp regularly will enjoy this. Certainly anyone whose interests include gender, sexuality, and group behavior will find a lot to like here.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.