I can't help thinking that his age must come into it, also.
At 19 he's pretty much a kid.
Sure, but he's a kid who, even allowing for BB exaggeration, has achieved a lot in terms of setting up and managing a hairdressing business. When he talks about this, it's clear that, for a teenager, he's got a lot of responsibility. I've occasionally come across individuals who've disproportionately poured themselves into the Career box - either because work/career advancement is hugely important to them, or because they're using it as a distraction from other areas of their life - to the extent that they're complete novices when it comes to self-exploration. Craig could be one of those. Even if he himself is unbelievably well-defended against the idea that he might be gay (and he seemed to read 'camp' pretty much as 'gay'), it's difficult to imagine how a male running a hairdressing salon could be ignorant of the default assumptions generally made of male hairdressers. When Sam suggested he was "camp", Craig reacted as if a) he'd been grievously insulted, and b) this was the first time anyone had ever said it.
If his persona is contrived, he's superhumanly good at compartmentalisation to appear so instantly angry/outraged. At the moment, I'm tending to the view that, for whatever reason, he's utterly neglected serious examination/exploration of his own sexuality, and has instead thrown himself into work (work traditionally associated with teh gayers, oddly enough). Now he doesn't have work as a distraction, I'll be interested to see whether he unravels in a good or a bad way.
Craig is a creature of contradictions. He seems, to me, to be someone who'd much rather be loved than hated, but would rather be hated than ignored. He's a shy, (over)sensitive soul who nonetheless made the most antagonistic audition video ever. He's apparently appalled by the merest suggestion of poofery, but entered (and has excelled in) a profession where poofery is the norm. He's not going to 'diminish his soul' (or whatever) merely to be popular, but he'll perform a strained Britney drag act, apparently to appear 'fun'.
Given some of his vocabulary ("evil", "soul"), I wonder about his experience of religion, whether some sort of fundie upbringing's powering some of this compartmentalisation/denial/self-loathing. |
