Medhurst

In Medhurst's essay, "Batman, Deviance, and Camp", Medhurst's begins with in depth and detailed information about his views on Batman and the background of why he views Batman the way that he does. Batman was not the idol figure to Medhurst as he appeared to be to everyone else. Although not many would have ever come to this assumption, but Medhurst gives good reasoning as to why he thinks Batman is a homosexual. He uses concrete details from episodes to prove his idea. He explains the Batman lives with another man, his butler Alfred, and has plentiful flowers around the house (310). Not only that, but wears night gowns as well to bed (310). This may be seen as deviance to some, but this all relates back to camp. Medhurst tries to prove the Batman is gay in multiple ways, but in reality everyone is aware that he is not. You can make almost anything seem as something it is not. Medhurst does a great job of using camp by remaking the normal. The normal to us is that Batman is straight, but Medhurst makes Batman being a homosexual the normal throughout his essay. In the end everyone knows that Batman is indeed not gay, but this essay gives other perspective as to how idol figures such as this one can easily be interpreted as something else. As Medhurst states clearly, "Most camp humor has a relatively short life span, new targets are always needed, and the camp aspect of Batman has been squeezed dry. (318)" This idea the Batman is gay is just temporary; something new will always come along to take its place.