Michael Jackson. What's the image that comes to your mind? The young boy singing with his brothers? The moonwalking Michael of the 80s? The gloved hand? The Michael on trial showing up in court in his pajamas? The Michael whose face became an unrecognizable oddly alien looking plastic surgery warning?
I am a child of the 80s. MTV was on all the time. We planned activities around World Premier Videos. And I cannot tell you how many times I watched the video for Thriller. MJ was a huge talent. No way around it. His voice, his dancing, his music. It was all amazing. My personal favorite album is Off the Wall. You hear his influence through popular music still today.
About a month ago Brent, Christopher and I were talking about MJ and what his legacy would be when he eventually died. If people would forget all of the accusations and oddities and just talk about the music. Would he be bigger in death than he was in life? Would his legacy follow the likes of Elvis? Would the company that bought out Neverland turn it into a tourist attraction like Graceland and would people actually go?
Part of what stirred this discussion was the sold out series of concerts planned for this summer in London. I was amazed at how quickly those tickets sold. We talked about how for some people all that mattered was the music and for others the questions and doubts would always be too pervasive to overcome. That it was very easy for people to say, you weren't there, you don't know what actually happened. He was never found guilty so that means he didn't do it. To that I say, you are right, I will never know for sure what happened, but I didn't need to be there to form my opinion.
When Christopher was 6 or 7 years old he came home from spending the night with friends of ours and he had two adult size Tae Kwon Do uniforms and a few different belt colors. I asked him where they came from and he told me the neighbor of our friends gave it to him. We talked about why and who and as I got all the details my mom radar started pinging like crazy. This was an adult neighbor of our friends who had kids of his own, but chose my son to give his uniforms to. His daughters were still young, 5, 6 and 10 and could very well still choose to go into martial arts at some point so why give up his belts to a stranger? And what did he want in return? Just for Christopher to come show him new forms as he learned them.
I talked to our friends to see what they knew of their neighbor. Was he really interested in their girls as well? Their youngest daughter was already showing the signs of being an incredible athlete, was he some sort of coach? And what I found was that he really never showed much interest in the girls. They had actually been surprised with how enamored he had been with Christopher. Now Christopher always has been an amazing kid, I will let you know, but even through my biased parent eyes this just felt off.
So the adults all had a talk, this guy had done nothing wrong, yet it still didn't sit right with anyone. Why would he ignore the girls and not Christopher? Why would he give his items away to a stranger and not his own kids? Why would he try to arrange more time with Christopher? So it was decided that Christopher was not to be left alone with him, ever. The uniforms were returned with a "thank you but I would rather earn the belts myself" and that was that. Did he have nefarious intentions with my son? Who knows. He might have genuinely been just a nice guy who thought boys did martial arts and girls didn't. But it felt wrong.
A grown man who builds a personal amusement park, has a petting zoo, spends most of his time with prepubescent boys including having sleepovers? It just feels wrong doesn't it? Now strip away the music. The videos. The feeling that we must "know" him because we have heard his music. And well he's famous after all. So imagine you are watching the news one day and you hear about a man that has been accused of child molestation. He has been accused in the past and paid the family over 20 million dollars to make it go away. He is known to have sleep overs with young boys on a pretty regular basis. His friends say that it's all innocent really. When he was asked after the first set of accusations why he didn't stop hanging out with young boys his answer was "because I don't want to." Now, if this wasn't a celebrity if this wasn't someone who could make a good music video, what would you think about him?
I had a friend ask me if I thought the fact that I am the mother of a son influenced my feelings on MJ. I can't say for sure, but I would guess that it does. Christopher was a baby when the first set of accusations hit and you are at your most fiercely protective right then. But I have to think that even if I was the parent of a little girl, or not a parent at all MJ's behavior would ping my "this in not right" radar.
Then MJ died. And Brent, Christopher and I got our answer. Yes, people forgot about the accusations and set about making him even bigger in death than he was in life. And trust me in the 80s especially he was pretty darn big in life. News reports slid right past the child molestation accusations. Calling them, "his later day problems" or "the unpleasantness" and focused on the music. Fans came back out of the woodwork to weep publicly and loudly at losing this great genius.
Now the question comes up. Does it matter anymore? What is left is the music right? We will never know for sure what happened. MJ is dead. We should just enjoy the music he left behind right? So what does it matter that he could very well have been a serial child molester that possibly ruined the lives of dozens of young boys over the years?
Oh...that part. Yeah, it still just doesn't feel right to me. And I don't know that it ever will.
Talented man. Damaged childhood. In my mind probable child molester. Guess which is the most important part to me?
And this is why I on't havehero worship for Hollywood stars! They are people too and should be held accountable for their actions, regardless of their ginormous paychecks!! And you know something else: where we all of these so-called "friends" when MJ waas having these sleepovers? I wonder if any of them ever told him "Hey, maybe you should not be doing this. This isn't normal behavior. Yo should get help, talk to someone, sort through your childhood demons." I didn't like the man MJ had become. But Istill enjoy the music that he made back when he was simply a fantastic artist who inspired a whole generation of kids to learn the moon-walk.
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