Camp Straight: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A Camp Straight is a person who exhibits all of the common characteristics of a [[Flamboyant Gay]] but is heterosexual.

 

 

Some shows purposely do this to [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|insert a gay character (or increasingly to insert a]] [[Once-Acceptable Targets|''stereotypical'' gay character)]] without annoying the [[Moral Guardians]]. Today, we call this person a metrosexual: a straight guy who acts gay. This kind of character also has some [[Values Dissonance]] involved. In the past, this kind of behavior was associated with people like [[The Dandy]], and it was a symptom of them being [[Casanova|ladykillers]], not a contraindication to it.

* Takuto from ''[[Star Driver]]''. He's officially the ''[[Bishounen|Galactic Pretty Boy]], for crying out loud''!

* Guiche from ''[[Zero no Tsukaima]]''.

* Kuranosuke from [[Kuragehime]] qualifies for this... hard.

* Pegasus from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]''. In fact, his being straight is part of his whole motivation - he's trying to revive his dead wife, Cecellia. Yet he still manages to be the most fabulous character on the show.

* Jack Skellington of ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]''.

* ''[[Megamind]]''. That guy has [[Ho Yay]], [[Foe Yay]] or both with pretty much every guy in the movie, and yet he {{spoiler|never gets explicit about any of them in that way}} (Dreamworks kids' movie, remember?) and actually {{spoiler|ends up with Roxanne by the end of the movie following a naturally progressing relationship}} (so no [[Last-Minute Hookup]] there).

* Kuzko from ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]'' and ''[[The Emperor's New School|The Emperors New School]]'' is very flamboyant but has feelings for a girl in the spinoff.

 

* ''[[Prince Roger]]'' is an athletic [[Long-Haired Pretty Boy]] with an obsessive interest in fashion, and who also appears totally uninterested in women. His [[Old Retainer|manservant]] Kostas has been asked questions about the prince's sexuality so many times he just laughs at it.

* Hilariously played with in [[Dresden Files|The Dresden Files]]: Thomas, a White Court vampire who feeds off intimacy acts like this (and takes on a French accent) in his job as a hairdresser, feeding a little off the women whose hair he does, because women believe that the only good male hairdressers are gay and/or European. There's even [[Ho Yay]] between Thomas and Harry, with Thomas calling Harry "dear" in front of others and Harry pretending to be Thomas' flamboyant boyfriend when he's caught breaking into Thomas' apartment. {{spoiler|However, they are half-brothers.}}

* One of the many characters in the [[Deathstalker]] series is an incredibly foppish aristocrat. Kind of a subversion in that {{spoiler|that's just his public persona, he's also the incredibly deadly masked champion of the galactic arena. Once things go to heck, he stops with the fop}}.

* In the Peach Keepers, Sebastian is assumed to be gay by everyone because of his flamboyancy in high school, despite his abstinence from relationships at all in the present day. This causes some angst for Paxton, who finds herself madly in love with him.

* Dandelion the Bard from ''[[The Witcher]]'' novels and games is a prissy fop who dresses colourfully and has a personality very close to [[Camp Gay]] - but he's a veritable [[The Casanova|Casanova]] who can't keep his pants on in the presence of pretty ladies, and often finds himself in trouble with angry husbands and suitors.

* In ''[[Wild Cards]]'', Dr.Tachyon as an alien aristocrat dresses ''very'' flamboyantly and behaves similarly. Fortunato considers and calls him "alien faggot".

 

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''

** In the sketch "Biggles Dictates a Letter", Biggles (Graham Chapman) asks Algy (who is sort of a [[Sergeant Rock]]) and Ginger ("camp flying gear, sequins, eye make-up, silver stars on his cheeks") if either is gay. Algy is the [[Invisible to Gaydar]], while Ginger is the Camp Straight. The latter is lampshaded by Biggles.

** Eric Idle played [[Camp Gay]] or [[Ambiguously Gay]] roles (or at least slightly effeminate ones), but is in fact straight.

* [http://www.nndb.com/people/384/000049237/ According to the NNDB], Christopher Lowell is straight, but acts flaming because he knows no-one would believe an interior designer isn't gay, and wanted to preempt the ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' jokes.

** Frasier and Niles Crane. Artsy, flamboyant, and completely hetero. Actor David Hyde Pierce, who played Niles, actually '''is''' gay in [[Real Life]]. Lampshaded a few times, especially the ski lodge episode. Niles usually gets this a bit more than Frasier; the episode where Frasier is accidentally set up with his [[Invisible to Gaydar]] new boss ends with the boss genially and easily accepting that Frasier isn't actually gay, but incredulous when he learns that Niles is also not gay.

** Gil Chesterton, who is very flamboyant, but states in one episode that he's [[Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy|married to a butch biker chick]]. Of course, this is [[Ret Conned]] at the end of a later episode, in which he enters a gay club. (The simplest explanation is that he's in a [[Transparent Closet]] and his wife is [[The Beard]].)

* ''[[MASH]]'':

** And before that, for several seasons, he was married to a woman back in America. And [[Real Men Wear Pink|despite wearing drag, his general behavior was pretty masculine as well]], unless he was trying to convince a visiting officer of his insanity.

* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'': Lyle the Effeminate Heterosexual, as well as Mango.

* [[Russell Brand]], oh so much. Ridiculously flamboyant and camp, but even he probably doesn't know exactly how many women he's slept with.

* Kevin Barnes, the singer for the psychedelic rock band Of Montreal, is this. He's incredibly effeminate in interviews, but he's married and has a daughter.

* [[Darren Criss]] wears hot pink sunglasses, sings Disney songs, thinks kissing a guy would "the coolest thing ever!," has tote bags, is pretty up-to-date on fashion, likes theatre, remarked that [co-star] [[Chris Colfer]]'s kissing abilities "doesn't go by numbers, he gets hieroglyphics!" and "It takes two to tango!" when he ''did'' get to kiss a guy, called said co-star "a magical creature", voted for KurtCoBlaine as the official Kurt/Blaine [[Portmanteau Couple Name]], fanboys over and clearly ships Kurt/Blaine... oh, he's straight.

** His friends and family were surprised, too; in several interviews, Criss has talked about growing up in gay-friendly San Francisco, and coming out as straight to all his musical theater friends.

** Speaking of [[Depeche Mode]], their first album is this trope in music form. Most of it is your run-of-the-mill flamboyant '80s synth pop, but the songs "Boys Say Go" and "What's Your Name?" ''really'' make you wonder. However, all reports indicate that everyone in the group (including then-songwriter Vince Clarke) is quite straight.

*** And of course, Clarke was later in [[Erasure]], who were even more camp-disco than DM. Helped (or not) by the lead singer of the duo, Andy Bell, who is ''very'' much [[Camp Gay]] on-stage.