Comments on: I’m Not Like Other Guys…

By: links for 2009-06-30 « Embololalia

links for 2009-06-30 « Embololalia — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:06:12 +0000

[...] Feministe » I’m Not Like Other Guys… It wasn’t until ten years later that Jackson started talking about his own physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father, about how it was so bad that he’d get sick and start to vomit at the sight of his father later in life. So many, maybe most survivors of abuse can recognize the pattern of alternating “nice, friendly comforter” and “violent monster” that permeate the Thriller video. I recognize my own father’s terrifying outbursts of rage in it too. (tags: domesticviolence race gender celebrities music) [...]

By: HP Stevens

HP Stevens — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:59:52 +0000

I have had many conflicting and emotionally jarring thoughts watching the non-stop media coverage and listening to MJ music marathons on local radio stations. Your post helps me process a lot of that, and I appreciate it.

By: productjunkie

productjunkie — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:36:06 +0000

Hey, I just read this.

So smart. Spot on. Thank you.

By: links for 2009-06-29 at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

links for 2009-06-29 at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:04:39 +0000

[...] Feministe " I'm Not Like Other Guys… "Even at the age of eight, I had begun to believe that I was a monster too. That there was something horrible inside me that would mean I needed to be shot with a silver bullet or decapitated. My feelings had to do with a lot of things: family dynamics, pressure to perform, to be different, to be good. The fact that I had to move through the world as a mixed-race child. My troubled gender, and the trouble it put me in with my father and others. I think I recognized MJ as someone who was trying to deal with mixed-up feelings about race and gender too, and feelings of monstrousness. Maybe it was just in that one video [Thriller], which was the title track of the best-selling album of all time, but it’s a crucial point in his story. In a smaller way, in mine too. In many people’s." [...]

By: haloo

haloo — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:44:42 +0000

This was as finely considered a commentary on MJ as we are likely to get for the next 50 years. Kudos, Holly.

I can’t say I can relate to Mike. I don’t think many of us truly can, though. If we could, we would all be out making wonderfully skewed pop music of our own. that other people would lap up like thirsty dogs in the desert. and then what made us unique would get us hounded and dissected by the masses. on a truly terrifying scale.

I have no envy for Mike. and I can’t possibly comprehend the waking nightmare his day-to-day had to be. I’m just glad he made my brain spin on some axes I never knew existed.

maybe, someday, we’ll all learn a lesson from this. and grow. until then, I’m just going to walk around mystified and dazed by this world’s inhumanity to those selected as “others”, like some victim from an atomic age horror movie.

By: belledame222

belledame222 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:19:34 +0000

there’s also something interesting about–werewolf v. zombie. traditionally the werewolf’s about repressed sexuality and rage, usually masculine–i mean, hairy palms ffs. teeth, claws, animal.

A zombie’s something else. Living dead, innit? When you keeping moving and going through the motions even when all the vitality’s been drained out of you, frozen at the last point of development before you “died.” What else has Jackson been for at least the past few decades or so?

also, hate to say it, but he actually looks less like a zombie in the zombie makeup here than he did irl toward the end of his life.

By: belledame222

belledame222 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:51:37 +0000

But then I have this sense of betrayal and sadness toward him (as a member of my community and our collective identity) for continuing the cycles of abuse.

definitely can feel that too. you know, I’d forgotten the name of the kid who’d taken him to trial? wonder how he’s doing, not that I hope they drag him back to the limelight. just…yeah. poor kid.

By: belledame222

belledame222 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:50:11 +0000

btw, was rereading the Maureen Orth pieces in Vanity Fair & caught a bit where apparently Joe Jackson used to get the kids out of bed (to practice) at two AM by putting on a werewolf mask and appearing at their window. also told Michael that there were people in the audience who wanted to shoot him and the only way to avoid them was to -keep moving-.

wonder how he’s feeling now. i mean, he got what he wanted, right? the ultimate stage parent. Father of the King of Pop. yay.

By: belledame222

belledame222 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:48:11 +0000

-nods- it’s really too bad; I think his only hope would’ve been somehow -not- being a celebrity anymore. one layer of monstrosity too many.

By: Mud and Michael « Natalia Antonova

Mud and Michael « Natalia Antonova — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:36:19 +0000

[...] don’t have much else to say about Michael that hasn’t already been said. He was a hero, pariah, scaly monster, ugly punchline and fiery, pulsating star all rolled [...]