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New York, 2:45 AM
Sun Nov 29
12 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/27/09
The intellectualization of Michael Jackson as icon starts in earnest today
It's been going on for years. I worked with a graduate art history student a couple of semesters ago who was taking a (very popular) course on representations of Michael Jackson in modern art. There is a lot of work about him out there, much of it from international artists and writers.
07/27/09
@Imogen Quest (was Percy Bishounen Shelley): There's a fairly bizarre piece by Dana Schutz called "Autopsy of Michael Jackson" (2005).
Oh god. I thought that pic would show up much smaller. If you haven't completely lost your lunch already, there's a full photo here:
http://hragvartanian.com/2009/06/27/dana-schutz-mj/
07/27/09
Look it ought to pretty obvious that Michael was, to put it in purely objective clinical terms, a "homosexual pedophile." That such people actually exist has long been one of NAMBLA's arguments. I think the Catholic church scandals have vindicated them as far as this goes. (Whether such persons ought to automatically be labeled criminal is another moral and political issue altogether. And one that I think our culture will eventually have to confront directly.) That's the source of MJs tragedy. He was the world's biggest entertainer who also happened to have a strong erotic predilection for sex with boys and he just didn't know what to do about it. Except find gullible parents who will let them sleep over at his house in exchange for a whiff of his celebrity and a little extra cash.
07/26/09
07/27/09
1. No wenches, bitches, heifers or hoes
2. Never give up your "bliss" (sex acts).
3. Live with me in Neverland forever.
4. No conditioning.
5. Never grow up.
6. Be better than best friends forever.
Far be it for me to pass judgment, but this was obviously somebody with an alternative agenda as far as sexual conduct is concerned.
07/27/09
Appearing on Hard Copy, Gutierrez [author of Michael Jackson Was My Lover] claimed that he had seen a 27-minute video of Michael Jackson having sex with a boy. Not just any boy, but Jackson's own nephew Jeremy--the son of his brother Jermaine with his former common-law wife, Margaret Maldonado. [...]
Margaret Maldonado, who is estranged from the family, paints an unflattering picture of the Jackson clan in her book, Jackson Family Values. Nevertheless, she is eager to set the record straight about what she calls an outrageous lie: [...]
"The story was an outrageous lie. Not one part of it was true. I'd never met the man. There was no tape. Michael never paid me for my silence. He had never molested Jeremy. Period." [...]
A Los Angeles jury ordered Victor Gutierrez to pay Michael Jackson $2.7 million for slander. At the trial, Gutierrez failed to produce the alleged tape or name his source."
07/27/09
07/28/09
Gutierrez was obviously out for money. I have no sympathy for him going into debt. Also, I believe the court ruling incorporated the book itself (which is why it went out of print). But I could be wrong about that.
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
It's tough to watch for that reason; also because that documentary basically led to the 2003 charges against him by the (by all accounts, extortionist) family featured in the doc.
07/26/09
07/26/09
MJ was gay, however he felt the African American community was so homophobic that he preferred to identify as a pedophile.
07/26/09
You are unkind. He was a wonderful, misunderstood soul, a true giver and didn't deserve the crap he's gotten. Shame on you!
07/26/09
You guys went out for malted milkshakes in tall frosty glasses? You watched Star Wars in theaters? you wore poodle skirts and he wore spats and he was a perfect gentleman and he leaned in to kiss you as the night was over? You two dated for years and he showed passionate interest in you? I mean, obviously this is where this story is going. Obviously you have some sort of evidence of what you're splutting out all over this page, obviously you have some sort of proof more than a ridiculous story and a pointless bias based on some sort of family connection to one of the stratospheric riches.
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
And I think it's unfair to say that Michael Jackson was attracted to, and molested, young boys . . . or rather, it's unfair to state it as fact.
The 1993 trial was a joke. The boy's abusive father drugged him with a "controversial sedative" that makes patients extremely susceptible to suggestions, in order to illicit a supposed confession. The father was also recorded in a phone conversation saying how it was a win-win situation for him, how he wanted MJ's career to be over, how he didn't care how the trial/situation would effect his son, etc. Hell, the boy's mother even said that she believed Michael Jackson was completely innocent. The boy's father was in huge debt, and settled for the money -- something I don't think many concerned parents would do if their child had truly been molested -- and that''s pretty much what the entire thing about, I think. Money.
The 2005 trial is iffy, too. The parents were known scammers; various other celebrities claimed that the family had tried to get money out of them, too, before starting on Michael Jackson (an easy target as he was a very eccentric person). And both Jackson and the accuser spent hours being examined by a mental health professional, who, at the end of it all, concluded that Jackson did not fit the profile of a pedophile (indeed, police interviewed 40+ kids who had visited Neverland, and found no corroborating stories), but that he was in fact a "regressed 10 year old." In the end, he was not found guilty of anything, and was acquitted of all charges.
Just something to keep in mind before you go stating that Michael Jackson was indeed a pedophile. =/
07/26/09
07/26/09
Which is not something I would do if I were not guilty of that particular crime and had the money to defend myself, would you?
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
And now that he's dead, arguments about whether he did, or whether he didn't are getting really hackneyed and stupid. When he just died, it was great. But now? Now it seems dumb to carry on.
07/26/09
Anyway, I guess I'll just leave it at that. You've said your piece, and now I've said mine . . . and yeah, it's dumb to carry on. =/
07/26/09
07/26/09
Anyway, Michael was queer, his actual sexual orientation is irrelevant.
07/26/09
Obviously, there is no connection between being a homosexual and being a pedophile. Regardless of whether the molestation charges are true (and lets be honest they probably are) it is undisputed the MJ was obsessed with childhood and children. That obsession has nothing to do with his alleged homosexuality but it probably had a lot to do with any molestation that went on.
But the fact is just because a man has qualities that you don't want associated with homosexuality doesn't mean we can't talk about it. The whole thing is like saying the gays have to hide and not bring attention to themselves. Just because you don't give people a chance to say it out loud does not mean they aren't already thinking it.
Being able to have the conversation about whether he was gay and why that doesn't have any bearing on child molestation charges is valuable. Chances are you won't convince anyone but you aren't introducing the idea to people for the first time either. Gays are never going to be equals until society treats them as equals. Admit that some homosexuals are murderers, thugs, car jackers, pedophiles etc. Just like any subset of human beings will have some of those people mixed in. I understand that gays will prey on your children is a hurtful and pervasive myth that has been used to bash gays since biblical times. I understand that its just a very touchy subject for anyone fighting for their very basic rights. But forcing everyone to just go along with the idea that MJ was straight isn't going to work or help.
Its just not a mature or appropriate reaction to say that everyone should just shut up about it and maybe it will go away. It won't.
07/26/09
He was extraordinarily effeminate. For many people that may automatically translate to mean "he's gay," but I think that history has shown that there isn't any real correlation between effeminate behavior and homosexuality. Although some traditions may have evolved around that concept.
07/26/09
The article isn't about gayness per se, but gayness is where the whole issue certainly starts and for these purposes, ends.
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
Maybe we don't want him, but maybe he's ours, ya know? (Not just "gay ours" but "societally ours" -- 'cos how sad if he was gay that he couldn't just roll like that from that get-go.)
(Also: though I've always thought he was gay -- maybe he wasn't! It's not like I know!)
(And: like the vast majority of the people on this planet, I don't know for a fact what went on between Michael and those children, so of course all assumptions in this comment that Michael abused them are very grain-of-salt.)
Anyhow, it's a fascinating article, well worth a click-through.
07/26/09
07/26/09
Sidebar: "the gays" is still a funny tag if you're not super-deep in the Gawker weeds. Scale back yr visits to 3 to 4 times a wk -- it'll seem charming and droll.
07/26/09
With regard to Harry Homophobe: he already thinks MJ is a big homo pedophile as it is - avoiding discussion of his sexuality is not going to help anybody. Also, I'm not sure how religiously Harry reads the NY Review of Books.
P.S. The whole "the gays" thing is getting old, Gawker. Does it still seem clever, or do you just not want to change the tag?
07/26/09
I don't see anything in Hilton Als' piece arguing that Jackson was a homosexual. It mostly focuses on themes in his work and life commonly thought of as "queer," and their meaning to a large audience of black men who identify themselves as gay.
07/26/09