tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post9023064968716003352..comments2023-06-19T09:18:34.114-07:00Comments on Tiger Beatdown: Michael Jackson, Celebrity, Empathy, and the Culture of SilenceSadyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12163678207182481274noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-10491499367413850092009-07-02T00:24:41.984-07:002009-07-02T00:24:41.984-07:00Thank you for this! I've been thinking about ...Thank you for this! I've been thinking about this, wondering why the only time the abuse comes up is in tasteless jokes, and finding myself torn because I don't want to believe the allegations were true. I was dismayed to see how little this was discussed, even on feminist blogs.<br /><br />Thank you for saying what everyone else (including me) was afraid to say.Rachaelhttp://little-rachael.livejournal.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-5771698399389907952009-06-29T13:50:04.149-07:002009-06-29T13:50:04.149-07:00Oh, also: anyone doing that summer group-read of I...Oh, also: anyone doing that summer group-read of Infinite Jest? Sady?x. trapnelhttp://booksdofurnisharoom.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-59621823806654624132009-06-29T13:49:13.772-07:002009-06-29T13:49:13.772-07:00Another thumbs-up to Snobographer's last parag...Another thumbs-up to Snobographer's last paragraph... I worry that one of the big reasons child abuse goes undiscovered is precisely that we think child abusers are this separate species of Deviant Monsters, different from humans in every way, and of course MJ is basically Exhibit A for that.<br /><br />I don't think we need to worry about the child-abuse stuff staying buried, though -- now that publishers needn't fear lawsuits, I'm sure we'll see a raft of tell-all books in the next few months.<br /><br />Anyone think this will lead to a thoughtful and reasoned national conversation about our dysfunctional approach to children's sexuality? No? Me neither.x. trapnelhttp://booksdofurnisharoom.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-69612038858191133852009-06-29T12:30:40.271-07:002009-06-29T12:30:40.271-07:00Its not that I disagree that abuse should not be g...Its not that I disagree that abuse should not be glossed over, its just that I don't think it has been. Every program I watched dedicated a significant portion to discussing the abuse allegations in depth. But I don't think it means that you can't have a short tribute on a news program that doesn't mention it. Does it really seem appropriate to be like "Jackson was the first African American musician to be played on MTV and also he molested Children btw don't forget that"<br /><br />The media coverage surrounding his trials was very extensive and not in any way ignored. Its still brought up in detail in any program about him that I watch (and I've been watching quite a few) I really think he will always be remembered as the king of pop who was also a child molesting self-mutilating weirdo. In fact I can't think of another celeb besides OJ whose crimes were more public and openly discussed.Kellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01779579307144413466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-1944777336654218162009-06-28T20:30:08.811-07:002009-06-28T20:30:08.811-07:00I'm more disturbed by this 'there's no...I'm more disturbed by this 'there's no smoke without fire' attitude towards a man who was cleared of all charges than I am by anything I've seen in the media or blogosphere about Jackson.<br /><br />I think that sets rather a dangerous precedent. At the very least, you have to allow people to take the very reasonable position that presumes someone who was found innocent of all charges to be, well, innocent. Frankly that seems a great deal more reasonable to me than using generalities ('sexual abuse is common and unreported' and 'false allegations are rare') to assume that someone is guilty, making the legal verdict totally irrelevant.<br /><br />How would you suggest we make this alleged abuse a part of the picture of Michael Jackson, anyway, given that he was found not guilty? Your post doesn't really make that clear. Should we skim over the legal judgement and label him an abuser anyway? That seems to be your position.<br /><br />Feeling that we 'own' or have a personal relationship to celebrities doesn't, or shouldn't, extend to making judgements based on sensationalized stories we see in the tabloid media that someone shouldn't have had custody of their children, or that they were most probably a paedophile. That sits very uncomfortably with me.Katenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-16877857924610086262009-06-28T20:12:15.657-07:002009-06-28T20:12:15.657-07:00@Sady--This definitely had to be said by someone. ...@Sady--This definitely had to be said by someone. I have found the silence surrounding the molestation charges to be weird and disturbing. It reminds me of going to my grandmother's funeral in December, where the immediate relatives of my booze-swilling, wife-beating, family-abandoning, child-abusing, suicide-committing grandfather showed up, and I just wanted to scream "YOU ASSHOLES WATCHED HIM DO THAT TO HER FOR 20 YEARS, WHAT THE BLUE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE ACTING LIKE IT'S ALL OK!"<br /><br />However, I think Snobographer makes some excellent points about why one might feel conflicted. Like many celebrities who happen to also come from marginalized groups, MJ was at an awkward intersection of power and privilege--positioned precisely so that he could victimize others while remaining vulnerable precisely because he was an easy scapegoat for the backlash.Other Ashleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-41583577952870104482009-06-28T10:58:02.582-07:002009-06-28T10:58:02.582-07:00You made a lot of good points, most particularly t...You made a lot of good points, most particularly the fact that the human being behind the celebrity becomes invisible, a projection screen for whatever the fan wants the celebrity to be. But I think your contrasting John Lennon with Michael Jackson is a very good and acute point. Lennon had enough self-awareness to realize that his adolescent misogyny was WRONG. He not only quit it, he fought it in himself, admitted it in song, and tried to atone for it. Michael Jackson never did. For that I cannot forgive Michael Jackson, nor will I eulogize him. In the end, he brought nothing to the world that the world didn't already have; he was just marketed and manipulated better. Pity I can give him; sorrow and forgiveness, I will not.happydoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16698131802688196048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-15537211877487143052009-06-27T21:22:02.200-07:002009-06-27T21:22:02.200-07:00Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've been mor...Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've been more and more angered and depressed over the past, er, two days or so, because the very people I usually see talking about listening to victims and so on are downplaying the fact that he was probably a molester. On another feminist blog I read, people did this, and I almost started crying because, even if I don't know these people in real life, I expected them to have more sympathy with the victim. I know that MJ was considered a great icon and so on, and influenced music, but the fact that people are so willing to overlook what he has done because they like his music is disturbing and distressing to me. A lot of people are saying things like, "Well, he was abused as a child, he should be pitied," etc. but I was abused as a child and so were most of my closest friends, and neither me nor they are abusive or rapists. Yes, whatever happened to him when he was little was horrible, but this does NOT excuse what he did, it doesn't make it expected or understandable.Mashahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14854943210859789380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-46548100494957610492009-06-27T19:51:21.903-07:002009-06-27T19:51:21.903-07:00Thank you for this. I've linked to you.
Shak...Thank you for this. I've linked to you.<br /><br /><i>Shakesville</i> has a <a href="http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/06/michael-jackson-open-thread.html" rel="nofollow">comment thread</a> discussing this also. You are not alone.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01347115855111060618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-92232633576249346262009-06-27T18:57:18.594-07:002009-06-27T18:57:18.594-07:00He was ten years older than me, so I was among tha...He was ten years older than me, so I was among that pre-<i>Thriller</i> wave of girls for whom he was one of my first crushes. My crush started fading around his third nose job - perhaps ironically around the time his popularity as a solo artist went stratospheric - but I still loved his work as a musician and performer. He was part of my pop-cultural wallpaper since "ABC."<br />I have to admit I've been wrestling with some level of denial about Jackson's pedophilia since the first accusations in 1993, and I haven't quite reconciled how much my ambivalence has to do with my sentimentality about him. There's always been nagging thoughts in the back of my mind that the whole thing <i>might</i> have been a witch hunt born of homophobia, racism, and opportunism. I mean even if he never installed that damned Ferris wheel at that damned Neverland, there was speculation about his sexuality long before 1993. And stupid and illogical as the association is, where there's homophobia, there's speculation and hideous jokes about pedophilia. Couple that with whatever anxiety white parents who grew up on Elvis and Pat Boone didn't openly admit to when their daughters vowed to marry that androgynous pelvis-thrusting black guy and you've got a perfect breeding ground for sexual panic. Michael Jackson's sexuality has been as much a part of the landscape lo these many decades as Michael Jackson has. So I was ambivalent about the accusations in 1993 because framing MJ as a sexual deviant wasn't exactly anything new by then and he was just too perfect a target.<br />But then came the Jesus juice, the motion sensors in the hallway leading to his bedroom, his compulsion - even after 1993 - to continue having boys in his bed, and his preference to befriend boys almost exclusively. My doubts just don't really hold up under all that. There's reasonable doubt and then there's willful stupidity.<br />What's unfortunate is that he's such a caricature of what people generally think a child molester is. His effeminacy and his eccentricity are conflated as a profile of the *type* of person who *of course* would molest kids, which I worry disappears the vast majority of child molesters who are perfectly normal-seeming, unambiguously heterosexual guys. <br />Uncontested assertions I'm seeing around the 'nets that child abuse victims necessarily grow up to be crazy child abusers aren't sitting well with me either.snobographerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11874569135368534339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-83157324511094925392009-06-27T18:08:14.402-07:002009-06-27T18:08:14.402-07:00Thank you. I've been avoiding all the tributes...Thank you. I've been avoiding all the tributes to him recently, because all the the silencing and the way people seem to have projected on to him has been really throwing me for a loop.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-6388464434624441142009-06-27T15:57:14.931-07:002009-06-27T15:57:14.931-07:00I think part of the tendency to lionize MJ right r...I think part of the tendency to lionize MJ right relates to that sudden switch of him being part of the cultural background to a vision of his life in its entirety. That vision is gutwrenching because we all participated in the sideshow his life became and when you see how sad his childhood was and how messed up he was because of that and how that then impacted on other children due to his actions, it suddenly highlights how terrible human nature can be. We don't want to acknowledge that so we focus on all his good attributes. I've been moved to tears many times in the last couple of days and like you say it's not really about MJ, but about what his life and death reveals about us.ms poinsettianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-31194954512675647132009-06-27T14:16:39.992-07:002009-06-27T14:16:39.992-07:00Thank you for this post. You elegantly summed up t...Thank you for this post. You elegantly summed up the problems I've had with the coverage of Jackson's death. It's one of those things where I thought what you were saying, but was unable to articulate it (until I read your post, that is). It's nice to be able to outsource your thinking once in a while.Jordan Lichtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-23368544901128476452009-06-27T13:21:05.003-07:002009-06-27T13:21:05.003-07:00When I was very little, I thought Michael Jackson ...When I was very little, I thought Michael Jackson was awesome because my brother did. My brother had the one sparkly glove and everything. After the allegations, I had a recurring, incredibly disturbing dream that Michael Jackson molested me. When I heard he had died, I was just sad about the whole thing, the whole cycle of abuse. I wish he had been able to break it, I hope his victims are able to break it. They say the strongest contributing factor to being able to break the cycle of abuse is having an empathetic witness. I somehow doubt that a parent who was willing to hand over his or her children to a pop star in exchange for monetary compensation was capable of being such a witness, but I hope those kids had someone in their life they could turn to, who would tell them that what he did was really not okay.ChelseaWantsOutnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-47783192851548901052009-06-27T09:48:03.143-07:002009-06-27T09:48:03.143-07:00Fugitivus, six million times yes to everything you...Fugitivus, six million times yes to everything you said. <br /><br />"Michael Jackson was an utterly destroyed man, and that's tragic, and it's horrible, and it's a direct result of *pretending abuse doesn't exist.* And by that, I mean both the abuse in his childhood, and the abuse he perpetrated as an adult: if either one of those had been stopped, this man would have had half a shot of being far less broken and crazy."<br /><br />I try to exercise some caution in linking being abused as a child to becoming an abuser, because it's an easy way for the abuser to get off the hook. Lots of abused children grow up NOT to be abusers. But if either Michael Jackson the victim or Michael Jackson the abuser had been stopped, there would have been a lot less pain, for him and for the kids he hurt. Michael Jackson's well-being should have been paramount when he was a kid. His well-being as a wealthy, powerful adult exploiting his position to prey on chidren is no longer what I would consider an important issue. His tragedy as a child was how he was treated. His tragedy as an adult is far exclipsed by the tragedy of those he hurt.<br /><br />I mean, seriously. The man could have bought an entire psych hospital to help him address his damage. He could have gone to any corner of the earth he chose, to find some healing and peace. He had no choice as a child, but he had the very definition of choice as an adult.<br /><br />It seems that the media and the public consuming the media are behaving monstrously at every point in this story they are creating together. There seems to be this willful desire to create a specific type of consumable out of this person's life, and this desire overrides any ethical consideration or any consideration of the *truth* of that life, at its every point.<br /><br />The words "Michael Jackson" evoke revulsion for me. For himself, for the media, for the justice system and the public. Seriously - will no one think of the goddamn children?Spatulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02341100471594319746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-64199275042188645102009-06-27T09:33:17.570-07:002009-06-27T09:33:17.570-07:00Ok, I don't know what happened; I was just rea...Ok, I don't know what happened; I was just reading the latest "Sexist Beatdown" and wanted to comment; now I've just realized that I sent my comment to this posting?! Which I haven't read. But probably doesn't contain the word "ricockulous." Which is what my comment pertained to. So please disregard. Terribly sorry.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-12179547430419259292009-06-27T09:30:46.669-07:002009-06-27T09:30:46.669-07:00I'm about to pee my pants over "ricockulo...I'm about to pee my pants over "ricockulous." Cannot. Wait. To. Use. In. Conversation. Ok, that is all. I'm going to go back and read the rest of this awesome dialogue now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-37127168066681706032009-06-27T08:25:01.134-07:002009-06-27T08:25:01.134-07:00Wonderful post. I felt the same way about JG Ball...Wonderful post. I felt the same way about JG Ballard as you did about Wallace... he said things FOR ME that I could not say, he articulated a vision that I shared with him, but could not communicate at all until he put it into words. (and the word we fans have for that is "Ballardian") And yet, make no mistake, he was <i>an elitist British doctor</i> who probably wouldn't have given me the time of day if we had met in person. <br /><br />Michael and I were less than a year apart age-wise, so I grew up with him, literally. This means as he stayed so childlike, I was getting older and taking on grown-up responsibilities. (I made mix-tapes for my child and included his songs, so she is devastated now also.) I would be driving my kid to clarinet recitals whilst listening to the radio chat about his weirdo all-night, cartoon-watching slumber parties. (<i>No way</i> I'd let my kid go there, I thought.) <br /><br />I was extremely upset over all of the abuse-allegations, since I knew his fame and money meant he wouldn't get the psych treatment another defendant would receive, which is what (IMHO) he needed. John Lennon is a great example--but the difference is that <i>Lennon himself realized</i> he was a mess and went into all kinds of bizarre therapies, primal screams, etc... I can't imagine that kind of self-awareness from MJ. Too far gone. John Lennon grew up orphaned and poor, not spoiled. By contrast, Michael's whole life consisted of people simultaneously catering to him and exploiting him. How can anyone get out from under that? Of course, that is the exact way he approached children--talking about them as if they were little angels/saints/Gods, and then exploiting them, too. <br /><br />I've read about how Michael and his brothers shared bedrooms while on tour, 5 boys in one room, and he had to endure Jermaine and Tito and the others bringing fans back to the room for sex. He had a sexual crash-course, a tutorial, right in front of him. He would try not to watch or listen, but sometimes the room would get FULL, and there was no choice. <br /><br />We must see his death as a tragedy, and to do so, we must understand everything that happened to him. To do otherwise is to shortchange him AND the children he abused. <br /><br /><i>This is a way to learn how child abusers are created.</i><br /><br />I am still devastated by his death, though. I posted a song by the boy, not the man, and when he sings "there's so many things we haven't done"--he just sounds so wistful and there is such longing... I started crying all over again. <br /><br /><i>There's so many things we haven't done.</i> And he just kept trying to do them, after he grew up...<br /><br /><i>(((sobs)))</i>Daisy Deadheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17993200276152025235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-38092033680303333652009-06-27T07:26:33.946-07:002009-06-27T07:26:33.946-07:00Thank you for writing this. I have been boycotting...Thank you for writing this. I have been boycotting the news coverage because I cannot stomach the media fueled mass hysteria, and revisionist history that has been going on since MJ died. <br /><br />It would be more useful if, instead of lionizing MJ, his passing could open up a discussion about the exploitation and abuse of children, and how these abuses are perpetuated over and over, generation after generation. <br /><br />But that would mean that the people who had a stake in enabling his behavior (family, business associates, fans) would have to take some responsibility, and we all know how that would go. <br /><br />Fuck it. That dude sure could dance.susanitahttp://beeslyposse.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-77330873748863316012009-06-26T19:26:35.997-07:002009-06-26T19:26:35.997-07:00Thanks for this. I really think there's a huge...Thanks for this. I really think there's a huge generation gap going on here because, like you, my first very cohesive memory of Michael Jackson is the abuse allegations. I can recognize that he was a fine artist, that he was a huge symbol, that his superstardom opened doors for African-Americans. I can recognize that he had huge impacts on people's personal lives. But I never lived any of that.<br /><br />What I did live through was being a child of about the age of the ones he was accused of molesting, and thinking to myself, "If someone that rich molested me, they'd get away with it." And then I watched him do so, and had to revise my ideas of the world: somebody had done an unspeakable wrong, gotten caught, the whole world knew... and he got away with it. That was the first thing I really knew about Michael Jackson.<br /><br />It's not necessary to think horribly about Michael Jackson, and throw away everything else he ever did and ever meant, in order to admit that he molested children and that was a fucking horrible thing. What we can do -- and what we should do -- is talk about his childhood as more than an excuse or a sympathy card. We can talk about the fact that he was abused as a child, and then went on to abuse children, and that those two things are fucking connected -- which is why we have to *talk about* and *prevent* and *stop* abuse, goddammit. That's how that whole abuse thing works -- it destroys people, unless society intervenes. Michael Jackson was an utterly destroyed man, and that's tragic, and it's horrible, and it's a direct result of *pretending abuse doesn't exist.* And by that, I mean both the abuse in his childhood, and the abuse he perpetrated as an adult: if either one of those had been stopped, this man would have had half a shot of being far less broken and crazy. <br /><br />Most of the time, the public can go on without fully understanding the epidemic proportions of child abuse, and the real and huge social and human costs. Right here, we have a chance to make the devastating effects of child abuse known, to humanize it in a way we usually don't. We have a chance to make child abuse something that happens to one we consider the best and the brightest of us, and something that is capable of destroying our most beloved icons down to their very soul. This could be a perfect time to talk about how this incredibly talented and charismatic person was so broken by the horrible abuse perpetrated upon him that he went on to abuse others, and himself, to a heart-breaking and sickening degree. This could be a time to talk about the fact that being rich, or being loved, or being talented, does not mean you weren't abused, and it does not mean that you weren't abusive, and it doesn't mean that we as a society get any kind of collective pass on not having intervened in the way we should have.<br /><br />My generation didn't really get the chance to connect with the music, or the icon. But there's a lot of us that could connect with the fact that there was a talented and incredible person who was so utterly destroyed by child abuse that the fabric of his entire life was warped and unrecognizable. There's a lot of us who could really deal with hearing more about "child abuse: it's a real problem, and it destroys lives, and we need to help kids before they get this fucked-up" and less with "child abusers: if they dance well, we just love 'em."<br /><br />All I can think while watching this news coverage is that it must suck pretty hard to be one of his victims right now. Everywhere you turn, somebody is calling your rapist the most wonderful man alive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-78546552301333245962009-06-26T19:02:41.125-07:002009-06-26T19:02:41.125-07:00I hang around a fairly articulate and intelligent ...I hang around a fairly articulate and intelligent board where people discuss celebrities when they need a quick mental vacation. Very rarely did anyone address him other than "wacko" and worse, in the past few years. He was a figure of derision and rubber-necking, horrified fascination. Now the very same people are posting teary, nostalgic, idolizing thoughts about the very same Jackson that was the board's favourite boogaboo object of vilification! <br /><br />I don't get it. Does dying magically erase a history of madness, child exploitation and extremely probable abuse? Does it make what he did to himself invisible? Does it make what he did to kids invisible? What the hell is this glowing treatment of him as someone who was a great public figure, now that he's dead? He was a great public figure, then he became a self-mutilating child abuser, and remained so until he died! Where did all of that go all of a sudden?Spatulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02341100471594319746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-18171742505362975202009-06-26T18:39:52.354-07:002009-06-26T18:39:52.354-07:00Thank you for verbalizing exactly what's been ...Thank you for verbalizing exactly what's been on my mind since I heard about MJ's death. Well done.<br /><br />There is no doubt in my mind that MJ was a pedophile. His befriending children from troubled homes (with money-hungry, negligent parents), giving them alcohol and gifts...it's classic grooming behavior. The fact that he was never convicted means nothing--the majority of predators are not, particularly when they have money, power and, in MJ's case, an iconic status that seems to hypnotize people into believing he can do no wrong (sort of like...oh...priests, maybe?)<br /><br />I also agree with what EmmaTX said above about the likelihood of him abusing his own children. Pedophiles often do.<br /><br />Child molesters do not stop molesting unless they are dead or in jail. Maybe MJ's death will bring some closure to his victims, although I can't imagine how they feel seeing this international grief frenzy over the man who abused them.BeckySharperhttp://www.harpyness.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-88381573777110591502009-06-26T18:07:02.788-07:002009-06-26T18:07:02.788-07:00I find mass public grieving over celebrities insin...I find mass public grieving over celebrities insincere and distasteful at the best of times (although I agree with you that what people are really grieving are themselves and what exists in their own imaginations), but I think what compounds this with Michael Jackson is what a tragic life he led: from the inner demons he appears to have fought, to the abuse he appears to have committed. <br /><br />The former doesn't excuse the latter - AT ALL - but it probably goes some way to explain it. And I wonder if, if we could talk about abuse in a way that wasn't about victims and villains (which is hard to do, because the effects of it are so awful), it might become easier to talk about. Perhaps focusing on "what"s, "why"s and "how"s rather than "who"s is part of the answer?<br /><br />I can understand that in the immediate aftermath of someone's death, a lot of people don't want to acknowledge the bad things they did in life. But I also agree that sweeping matters like this under the carpet does much more harm than good, not only for the people who have come forward about Michael Jackson, but for sexual abuse survivors more generally.Rachelhttp://rachelhills.tumblr.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-83723670025678872872009-06-26T18:00:50.627-07:002009-06-26T18:00:50.627-07:00Agreeing with the other commenters and this post a...Agreeing with the other commenters and this post at large - this is so far the only blog I've seen that actually did a good job of addressing the abuse, and what <i>ignoring or glossing over the abuse</i> means. <br /><br />It's really distressing to me... I see all these tributes & praises, maybe peppered with <i>some </i> superficial acknowledgement of some of negative & dangerous things he did in life. I'm seeing words like "Alleged," "Accused," but I thought we were supposed to listen to victims... The overwhelming sentiment is... well, sentimentality.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726951603608379154.post-11456940640261400802009-06-26T17:51:16.793-07:002009-06-26T17:51:16.793-07:00It's funny: when I saw crowds spontaneously ga...It's funny: when I saw crowds spontaneously gathering yesterday, the thought that went through my mind is "Michael Jackson cannot be the John Lennon of my generation." Just for totally different reasons!<br /><br /> Not because of the music -- <i>musically</i> speaking, I imagine that he does and should have that kind of status. But because when crowds spontaneously gather like that, they're doing it for more than just the music. At that point, you're doing it for a person. And I do think that there is a difference between John Lennon and Michael Jackson, and that you alluded to it -- John Lennon started out as a very man very difficult to admire and transformed himself into someone that it is possible to like and respect as a person. Starting out as someone incredibly sympathetic and turning into someone who I absolutely believe was a sexual abuser, Michael Jackson kind of took the opposite trajectory.<br /><br />That said, I of course think it's bullshit that we never talk about John's abuse. As I said in the post there, it's obscured in most Lennon bios. Even when they generally portray him as a total prick, and an asshole, and someone who would get into bar fights and use homophobic slurs, etc. The part about abusing women? Usually gets left out. And it's ugly. And it says a lot about where our priorities lay. And it absolutely feeds into that culture of silence.<br /><br />Which is why I included it in those posts. Even though it would have been easier to leave it out. And few people would have ever known the difference. Because it's <i>important</i> to talk about. And it's important not only to understand him as a person and his transformation and some other such bullshit (though it is necessary to those comparably rather unimportant matters), but also because we can't just let abuse be erased for those we like. We <i>can't</i>.<br /><br />Look. I get it. I love John Lennon. To itty bitty, tiny bits. I have an imaginary friendship with him, even though he was dead before I was born. I understand being able to look past a person's enormous, huge, monumental faults and still love them.<br /><br />I don't understand denying and covering up the faults. And that is precisely what I've been seeing people do.<br /><br />Anyway, I've written enough of a book. But thank you Sady, so much, for this post.Carahttp://thecurvature.comnoreply@blogger.com