I haven't been able to write a post on the loss of Michael Jackson. Not quite sure why, but I have read so many amazing posts looking into how complicated a figure he is and all the different thoughtful positions folks have taken in understanding his story.
I am sure you are sick of reading about MJ at this point (I am not and continue to listen to his music and read more about him), but please check out Jay's newest video on the tragedy of fame that played out in Michael's life.
I think this is essentially a feminist reading of the way fame played out in his life, looking at the production of fame. Also, I have been looking for some queer readings of Michael and his play with masculinity. My friend Cole passed this link along.
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I'm still caught up too Samhita, unapologetically so. I loved those links that's good conversation. Don't worry anyone weary of it can ignore us (it astounds me when people enter a thread just to say they hate the thread??).
I second that. I hate how the media talk about it and then the story disappears. Ughgh. Thank you for posting!
Entering the thread
to say I hate the thread and
Jay "Smooth" please shut up.
Unnecessary.
only those who can't
muster substantive critique
hide behind haiku
:)
Perhaps I'm jealous.
These ladies are eating out
of your hands, player.
And critique? Question:
Have any sense of your own
ridiculousness?
Interior League,
what's amiss with you today?
To each man his own.
I can't stand vloggers.
All blowhards and know-it-alls.
Plus I'm an asshole.
Some men have a clue,
And treat women like people.
Women like them more.
Oh come on, Eileen!
Think I do this to be liked?
Who is clueless here?
My robot masters
compel my cold precision,
not your petty "likes."
Well I have to say I'm a little weary of it, if only because its still hard to believe...and know the media will drag his name & family through the mud once the custody & probate cases heat up.
I was looking forward to you posting about this last week though, so I'm glad you finally got around to it. I don't always agree with your postings, but I appreciate your focus on some topics 'not traditional' to Feministing. (btw, you take a lot more personal abuse than any other mod on the blog; i'm glad you manage to keep a thick skin--keep your head up).
As always, Jay manages to break down incredibly complicated messages and feelings into something accessible and beautiful. Sigh.
No Kidding. I really wish there were more Jay Smooth's to listen to & less 50-Cents cluttering up the landscape.
My sad experience is you really can't have a good conversation about Michael in a "mixed" (that is non-minority forum) because you overwhelmed with people who want to sidetrack things. I'd really like to for instance see what gay columnists of culture's take on MJ was as well as other especially communities of color.
To paraphrase CathieFromCanada:
Last month, Michael Jackson was the scum of the earth, a pedophile and a self-absorbed, self-destructive spendthrift who had wasted his talent. Comeback? You've got to be kidding.
Today he is a tragic figure, a winsome boy genius cut down in his prime by the cruelty of celebrity. Comeback? Woulda been the greatest concerts EVAH!
Sad, isn't it, when someone basically lucks out by dying.
TOTALLY lucked out.
He's going to have such a massive payday because he died!
...Oh, wait.
*rolls eyes*
Wow. Way to miss the point.
Hmm. Read it multiple times.
What exactly IS your point?
Hey, if you have to have to ask...
...you weren't clear.
...then you'll never understand.
Something else just came to mind:
Who among us who bought the original LP pressings of "Off The Wall" & "Thriller" could have foreseen the day when MJ would be reduced to the status of a punchline & "Weird" Al Yankovic would still be culturally relevant?
What I've really been struck by is the commentaries and memories coming out of every corner of the globe. And when I'm at work in my library, and patrons of every background ask me if we have any MJ. Some of them - total strangers just minutes before - start talking to each other about the songs, the dancing, the memories. Makes me want to relabel his stuff and put it in the 'World Music' category.
First time I've seen this Jay character but I like! I like! First I thought I was just agreeing with what he was saying, then I realized I was actually being hypnotized and would probably agree with anything he said.
Seriously though, what I've been turning over and over in my mind is the aspect of the MJ tragedy that has to do with women and desire. I actually kind of only started paying attention to the man/music after he died - yes, really - so I'm coming at this with the innocence of the uninitiated... and it strikes me as incredibly interesting that two of his hit songs are bitter lashings-out against women who have desired him against his will (Billie Jean and Dirty Diana). Both are stories of, basically, unwanted sexual attention to him by female characters - I'm sure fans have extrapolated wildly enough already about what they mean. All I can say is that they purvey a pretty unusual sentiment for mainstream pop.
Then there's the whole virginity/surrogate children thing - when Oprah interviewed him in his house, she asked him if he was "a virgin," and he quite obviously found the question excruciating (whatever "virgin" means here). He seems not to have consummated his marriage, and just used that woman to make his first babies by other means. With the second surrogate mother, he didn't even put on a show of marrying her (or show her at all). Basically, several fascinated evenings spent on the internet have shown me no evidence that he was drawn to women, and plenty that he was slightly repulsed by them. When tied to his particular history as a kid star and then a really hot young pop star, it all makes me wonder about how damaging a fear of women is when women are not generally accepted as being scary, or powerful. Their unsolicited desire for you, no matter how real, is invisible to society (because of this) - so if it scares you, it's surely not easy to process. At least in the case of female sex objects, it's accepted that men's desire can be scary.
Man, I may be reading too much into this. Would love to see other, clearer-thinkin' feminists' views on this issue. Oh, and insert the word "heterosexual" into the above where appropriate.
Thank you so much Samhita for bringing this video to our attention and of course to Jay Smooth for making it (and your comment on this post pretty much killed me with the laughing).
Michael's passing has been so difficult to process - a bundle of raw emotion, memory, nostalgia, press, politics... Watching this video, specifically the section where Jay discusses the woman on the street dancing not for the cameras but for Michael, was the first time I was able to cry about this loss, for which I am incredibly grateful.