I have listened to about six obituaries, and seen about two hundred Facebook postings. I have seen extraordinary YouTube videos; reminders of a great talent. I’ve heard “King of Pop” and “great talent” and “genius” and “savvy investments.” And I’ve seen maybe two or three oblique references to “controversy” or being “troubled” from individuals (not on the news). Even a feminist blog referred gently to “shortcomings.”
On So You Think You Can Dance last night, Nigel Lithgow celebrated Jackson as an artist; given the nature of the show, that’s appropriate, but then he said something about “a great life.” No. A great art, yes, but not a great life.
Can we please, and I know I’m interrupting the great national outpouring of grief, but can we please remember that this man was almost certainly a child molester? Of multiple children on multiple occasions? Can we please just notice that?
Can we remember: This man was tried for this crime, and afterwards the jurors said they really felt like he’d done it, but that the prosecution hadn’t proved their case and they had no choice but to acquit despite feeling he was guilty.
I get that people are complicated. I’m not a great believer in (you should pardon the expression) black or white. Everyone has good and bad within them. But how is it that in this barrage of information I am the first person I’ve heard mention this kind of important thing?
You want an answer? It’s because this culture has already decided it’s not important. If we just ignore child abuse and pretend it’s not there, minimize it when forced to confront it and put it back undercover as soon as possible, everything runs so much more smoothly. If we just forget the little part about the children suffering horrifically, everything is so much better. If we forget that part.
I don’t want to forget that part.
But hey, this isn’t exceptional. It’s not like we usually condemn child molesters but Michael was so special that in this one case we’re giving it a pass. This is the normal functioning of Western patriarchy. This is how it’s done.
I don’t know that I have a lot more to say about that. I don’t think I need to amass evidence, here, that we ignore child abuse wherever possible. I don’t think I need to point to the many newspaper articles, for example, about men in their forties “having sex with” twelve year old nieces or whatever. Not abusing, raping, attacking, assaulting, or molesting, mind you; “having sex.” That’s even prettier than “controversy.”
I’m not interested in prettying it up. I’m not here to make nice. An extraordinarily talented child molester died yesterday. Some people are not grieving the loss of talent. Let’s remember them, too.
I just posted something similar to this on my Dreamwidth account. I do enjoy the music he made, but not the life, not the angst, not the mollestation surely.
You are not alone.
It wasn’t ignored on the MSNBC coverage I watched last night. Olbermann spent considerable time talking to Diane Dimond, who has devoted years to covering the molestation allegations, and they didn’t try to smooth it over.
Also (and it kills me to say this), when I saw some people on-line complaining about the Fox News coverage, I turned it on, and they didn’t avoid calling him a child molester. It was done in their typical sneering, belittling style which makes you hate being on their side, but they did it.
I saw the dance show, heard CBS, NPR, and WSJ on the radio, and saw E! and Yahoo! headline news online. I also looked at a half dozen of my usual blogs. I think it’s a fairly broad sampling, although obviously not comprehensive; I never saw what you saw.
Today, I saw several progressive blogs address these issues, but I also saw progressive blogs sidestep them and miss the guy because Thriller is so cool.
Oh all coverage I’ve seen mentions it.
If they are getting into details they do mention he was acquitted. Were you a witness or have other inside info the court didn’t? Was he very odd and doing things of bad judgement? Absolutely! Is it possible he molested children? Yes. Is it definite that he did? NO.
It’s standard to go easy on the recently deceased. That’s our culture. It’s not an exception. It’s a chance for people to talk about something other than all the vilification and mocking he’s gotten for the last 20 years. It’s a chance to remember that there ever was anything else.
OTOH I was bemoaning the lack of mention of the early J5 music, but they’ve started doing that now. You’re a year younger than me, and I’m a year younger than MJ. Don’t you remember the boy of the early 70s and how devoted every black girl in school was? The Jacksons at least played music unlike the white boys we were supposed to like (osmond, cassidy, etc ugh).
That’s the Michael I’ve always remembered. The rest is multi-layered tragedy.
In talking with my wife, this came up in the convo:
“Saint Michael the (alleged) Child Molester, Defend us in Court!”
Yes, Michael Jackson was talented. He was an iconic figure in the music industry for the last 40 or so years. I was saddened to learn of his death. However, I can’t subscribe to the whole “never speak ill of the dead” mentality.
I think Michael was a tortured soul who was never truly happy in his own skin, physically or otherwise. I don’t believe that he was “asexual” as I’ve heard some describe. I believe that his sexual preferences were darker and whether or not he was acquitted for his crimes, he couldn’t escape his own self imposed sentence. His death came by means of a lethal injection used to treat the internal anguish brought about by his crimes against innocents. It’s a fate that, in my humble opinion, should be met by all child molesters.
I for one was pleased to hear of his death. He was obviously not suited to life on Earth. I have many fond memories tied to listening to his music as a teen. I admit to his having a talent but that was never enough to overcome the knowledge that he was also a pedophile. (convicted or not) Many, many child molesters never see a guilty verdict for a great number of reasons. Without physical evidence (often years after the fact) it comes down to one word against another and a judge cannot convict on that alone.
Now that he does not stand to profit from any sales of his music I may actually go out sometime in the future and purchase the music I recall from my high school years. LEt that money go to support his children who most certainly will need it.
Apparently too many have been trained to detrimentally use/glorify status/position/reputation/dominance, and those who possess it, at others’ expense.
“This is the normal functioning of Western patriarchy.”
Yup. An abusive Power and Control paradigm. You so nailed it and canonizing the dead is often just an excuse to wallow in it.
Perhaps a huge part of not speaking ill of the dead comes from not wanting to declare someone’s going to hell…and if they can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater the opposite is to avoid speaking ill of the dead (lying by omission).
Honesty is preferable but that’s a break from, dare I say it, dualism.
I saw an article that claimed that Michael Jackson’s death (and that of Farrah Fawcett) made Generation X realise that they were grown up. It went on to detail how important Jackson was to that generation. *rolls eyes*
Speaking as a younger person, “Generation Y”, Jackson has always been a weirdo and a child tiddler in my recollection. (Alleged, ok…) I share few of the “fond memories” that older people do, so it’s surreal to me that his life is so glorified now that he’s dead. Have they missed the last twenty years?
And frankly, if you need a celebrity death to make you realise you’re grown up, then really, you aren’t grown up at all, are you? 🙁
Diane Dimond (comment #2) is a friend of mine. She’s been very vocal in this.
Diane Dimond is a liar. Pure and simple. She’s a malicious slanderer of innocent people. If she’s a friend of yours, that makes you one, too.
If diane dimond is a friend of yours then it explains your biased blog and your mentality. When you do some research instead of listening to diane’s bull then read redemption by geraldine hughes, conspiracy by aprodite jones, mary fischer article (this lady is actually qualified unlike dimond) for GQ magazine, then go to mjeol 2 community and see the video that tom mesereau states he had witnesses to testify in court in 2005 that jordan lied for his father. I prefer to read articles from qualified journalists like charles-thomson.net. Watch larry nimmer dvd the untold story of neverland and the trial and triumph of the king of pop michael jackson. Some of the comments on here are very sad and quite ignorant.
You know what? This is a six month old thread. I’m locking comments.