Word: jacksonism
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Writing a column about how crazy Michael Jackson is would be about as gratuitous as claiming that Matt LeBlanc’s Friends spin-off, Joey, isn’t destined for Frasier-hood. Besides, a recent photo of his face would shame any written argument I might make. But the leap from Off the Wall to child molestation, with which he was recently charged for the second time in a decade, requires no minimal amount of justification. Thus far, we have little more evidence than one child’s claim against Jackson—two, if we include...
Obviously, you say, it’s because Michael Jackson is a celebrity. And celebrities don’t have privacy—they give that up when they get famous. Now, maybe I’m stretching here, but I have a feeling that most of us would envision lost privacy in terms of an airbrushed photo on the cover of Us Weekly, maybe a shout-out or two on ET. But not a haggard mugshot taken at the Santa Barbara County Jail—no, some things should be off-limits even in the realm of celebrity...
This certainly isn’t to imply that I believe Jackson did molest children, though he’s undeniably guilty of one charge: hubris. As MTV’s Kurt Loder argues, Jackson never should have allowed children to share his bed. I don’t find this act nearly as repulsive as Loder, who writes, “Any 45-year-old man who regularly goes to bed with pubescent boys… is appalling.” Have we really become so sterile and mechanical that any expression of affection between adults and children must...
...advised him not to invite children into his bedroom—not because he believed he was guilty of wrongdoing, but because “the behavior is unacceptable to the outside world.” Regardless of what happened in the bedroom, it’s undeniable that Jackson wouldn’t be facing these charges if he hadn’t flouted societal convention. As Loder’s assessment reveals, we as a society consistently pass judgments on one another, founded or not. Defy society and society will punish you—even if you?...
...experience in choreography and dance, she laughingly replies, “My background is in the dance club, at a party.” She prefers to spend her rare moments of spare time watching movies, listening to music (“I’m a Michael Jackson fanatic”), and hanging out with friends like fellow CityStep director Katie O’Brien...