The sensibility and aesthetics of camp have made their way into the cultural mainstream of today,seemingly devoid of their original ties to queerness and their political potential. Drag, once thequintessential camp practice, has witnessed an ostensible golden age in the last decade, having shiftedfrom subcultural entertainment and protest to becoming both a part of the mainstream media landscapeand a marketable product for profit. Simultaneously, in recent years, drag has become the newest targetof a conservative moral panic and right-wing harassment, especially within the United States, resultingin the initial introduction of several state bills that intended to limit or outright prohibit dragperformances.This talk aims at documenting the intricacies of these recent U.S. policies, showcasing theirdiscriminatory intentions, and analyzing the current position of drag in U.S.-American culture. In thisendeavor, approaches to drag outside of the cultural mainstream are read as directly responding to thesephenomena through the means of camp in ways that go beyond exaggeration and artifice. Theseapproaches instead emphasize the structures of camp by looking back, utilizing, and recontextualizing itsown cultural legacy and celebrating camp’s decidedly queer past. In doing so, this engagement with draghighlights the potential of camp to still be subversive and politically effective.
