Michael Jackson has been, for most of my life, my favorite singer. I used to practice his dances in my room and ask my parents to relax my hair. I memorized every word on Thrillier, Bad, and Dangerous. I stayed home to watch the prime time premier of the video of Remember the Time.
As I got older I learned that I couldn’t like him that much if I wanted to be socially accepted. So I made some jokes and paid less and less attention as he got stranger and stranger. I still play his music for my son though. And I still think he was one of the best entertainers of the last 50 years, as most people in the world do, I think. I also think that the problems he’s had over the last 30 years can be laid largely at the feet of his father, and what he did in the first 10 or 15.
Michael was the most talented of his brothers, even at 6 or 7 years old. Joe made performing the family’s first priority, and Michael was the star. The group sang anywhere they could get the gig, including strip clubs. Michael was in the spotlight and under pressure to perform for the family’s success from such a young age.
His childhood was lost, and it seems like he spent his adult life trying to get it back. And no amount of money, fame, or talent could counteract the follies of a 9-year-old psyche in a 30, 40, or 50-year-old man with nearly unlimited resources. And as he became more and more outlandish, the public seemed to take more and more pleasure in ridiculing him, and it went on for years with little – if any – sympathy. As I think about it, I can hardly understand why.
Is it because he was such an easy target? He had a lot of plastic surgery, but that’s hardly unusual any more. He seemed insecure and socially inept, and couldn’t seem to interact well with adults. But based on his childhood, what more could you expect? I completely understand the fears surrounding his actions with children, but I’m inclined to think that nothing happened. Courts aren’t typically lenient on people who’ve been brought to court multiple times for similar offenses. I find it hard to believe that they would overlook any evidence after the first trial. (And why were parents letting their kids sleep there unsupervised anyway?)
His life and the ridicule directed at him are a sad commentary about American society. His life was derailed from the beginning by a parent who used his children’s talents for personal gain instead of raising them. And, to my knowledge at least, no one tried to help him later in life. Rather we took to deriding him for those faults that were created in him by others, taking morbid pleasure in the depth of his descent.
A comment from the Boing Boing post on Jackson’s death:
#15 posted by Galaxyhead, June 25, 2009 4:31 PM
The fellow’s talent and regrettable mistakes stemmed from traumatic abuse. If anything, people should view him as a pivotal example as to why we need a better understanding of the effects of emotional abuse on children, and the sometimes awful background that leads people, even those we assume to be geniuses, to commit the deviant acts we are so ready to condemn them for.
And now that he’s gone we seem to all miss him, though the question of whether most miss him more for his talent or the the target on his back is not for me to answer.
Ryan Campbell
An interesting read: http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/2003/04/orth200304?printable=true¤tPage=all.
Charles
He was definitely strange. But where else would a victim of chronic childhood abuse go with his life with no support and no limits?
MiMi Jones
As I watched the news yesterday I found that I wasn’t surprised but I was sadden for a young man who had the whole world at this feet and he was not happy.
I fully agree that by being pressured to perform, be cute, be perfect, be everything, he began to be nothing. His childhood was taken away and he had no time to play. Had you had the opportunity to visit Neverland I would have said yes, but there definately would be no sleep overs especially if it was after the rumors and allegations had been made. Any parent that would allow their child to be there without their supervision would be just a guilty as Mr. Jackson in my eyes.
Michael obviously had an issue with how he looked. He was not satified with his African American features so he needed to change. But then that was good so he changed again and again. This is a sign of a person who does not love himself. This doesn’t mean that all people who have plastic surgery don’t love themselves. Having a chin put in where you have little to none to improve your appearance or having the hooding over your eyes removed as you aged to stop the impairment of your vision are different from multiple surgeries to completely change your looks.
He was also obsessive about protecting the identity of his children. Perhaps because he never had any privacy when he went out. Just as all famous people.
Performers and politicians suffer from the publics obsession with their lives. The public will give them no privacy. As I write I am filled with a feeling of empathy to all who are in the public eye. No wonder many have private, gated communities to keep the prying eyes of the public away.
All parents make mistakes and Mr. Joe found a gold mine and mined all of it. In retrospect getting your hair relaxed wouldn’t have been bad for us but the teasing for you would have been fierce. Of course when you showed up with blond hair while you were in college, I nearly flipped. But today, and everyday I am very proud of who you have become.
Charles
I don’t think his plastic surgery was about being uncomfortable with his black features. I think it was the result of being constantly picked on, and having no real comfort or encouragement from his parents. He was definitely a person plagued by insecurity.
I think my blond hair was pretty similar, though I think it was less about insecurity, and more about wanting attention. And it worked.
Nate Nichols
Motown music is what my parents brought me up I’ve been listening to Jackson 5 since I was a toddler, I remember my mom dad and my little brother crowded around the tv watching him sing Billie Jean and watch him moonwalk for the first time. Thriller was the first tape I ever owned and its the only album I’ve bought 7 different times cause its been so warn out from play. I too like you also used to sit in my room and listen to his music for hours, trying to imitate the moves, listening to the lyrics and hearing the amazing productions. I’m sad that he’s gone but I’m saddened more by his life he was very talented but screwed up. It started with his father and it was something he never overcame. I dont expect much from the media but its disturbing how much they focus on the negative of the last ten years. Even in his death he’s still the subject of cheap shots. Nice blog its very well written and it echoes my sentiment.
More from authorCharles
Thanks, Nate.
It would have been hard to be in entertainment news over the last 15 years and not spend an inordinate (or appropriate) amount of time reporting Michael’s sometimes eccentric, sometimes psychotic antics. But why was there no intervention? The guy was universally loved in 1992, and when he went haywire in 93-94, no one was willing to step in. It was like a train wreck, except the firefighters and rescue workers just stood in the crowd and watched it burn.
There are a lot more people to blame for his downfall than him and Joe.