What does the changing treatment of Michael Jackson reveal about celebrity culture?
Molding the King of Pop into whatever narrative you want is easier than ever now.
I have been thinking about writing this article for a solid week now because the number 1 question in my head these days is, “how come a man, who lived a life surrounded by so many people was left so utterly alone his whole life”.
1958-1968/69
As I discussed in my previous article, the Jackson family was being worked to the bone by their allegedly abusive father Joe Jackson so they could break free from the generational curse of being black in 1960s America. The abuse and exploitation is all too well known, with Michael himself saying that “I am scared of my father to this day” and many other statements which show the extent to how much his psyche was damaged permanently.
Michael also famously wrote a letter to Bill Bray, his bodyguard stating, ‘Joseph never ever had time for me, he only saw me as a way for him to make money. And as you know, mother was a perfect mother, but I never was with her. My childhood was on stage... What I'm simply trying to say is: thank you for being a father’
Combine this with La Toya’s book [source] which goes on to say things like, ‘Joe wore a character trait that was incapable of sympathy, empathy or compassion. He often retrieved one of his hand guns from his firearm collection and threatened to kill his children and during his refractory rages, he would force his sons to wear boxing gloves and fight each other.’
Sadly, La Toya has recalled instances of the sexual abuse she faced at the hands of Joe Jackson as well, both in her book and interviews, “When everybody was asleep, Joe would sneak into the living room, tuck in next to La Toya and Rebbie and molest them. What further broke La Toya’s heart, was that her mother Katherine uncovered the defilement of her daughters, but chose to quieten, instead of denouncing Joe and having him arrested and sentenced for his paedophile infractions.”
I could attach more testimonies about Joe, however, this gives us a clear picture of how the Jackson family was terrorised by their patriarch.
To add to this terrorism, Joe Jackson was enabled by Katherine. As much as she was a good mother in her children’s words, she was also an enabler because Joe’s abuse extended beyond his children to his wife, evident in how he cheated on her just to spite Jackie, ‘Joe’s writhing jealousy towards Jackie, who had an attractive appearance, heightened incessantly. Jackie received the most attention from female fans while the Jacksons were on tour and Joe would pick on him and punch him so hard he’d often lose consciousness. Joe ended up seducing and impregnating Cheryle Terrell, a neighbour in their new home in Hayvenhurst, Encino in California, because of her strong liking for Jackie. During a trip to Senegal, Joe went on to brag to his children about impregnating Cheryle and siring a child named Anna.’
1968/69 - 1975/76
After a tumultuous set of formative years, Michael along with the Jackson 5 got signed to Mowtown, after they were discovered by Diana Ross (allegedly). Diana, is also a mythical creature in Michael Jackson life’s lore. Two statements which come to the forefront when I think of Diana Ross and Mike are the following: [Diana Ross is]’my mother, my sister, and my lover all rolled into one’ from his 1988 autobiography, Moonwalker. And his will stating if his mother Katherine Jackson is unable to care for his children, next in line for their custody will be Diana Ross.
This is enough evidence to say comfortably that there was no bad blood between them as Michael loved his kids and would only give someone access to them if he truly trusted them. However, as stated by Michael in one of his private leaked calls with Glenda Stein, ‘I thought I was with Diana, that was just in my own mind’. Combining that with Diana’s sometimes inappropriate comments about Michael and ongoing public speculation about the nature of their relation leads me to believe this is a facet of his life which is heavily overlooked and shaped his perception of love in a lot of ways.
1994/3-1996
I know, jumping from 1970s to 90s is huge, but in this article I want to focus on the major relationships that MJ had hence I am moving on to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of King of Rock, Elvis Presley. I had a huge Elvis Presley phase in college, I went through his songs, his life history, his controversial age gap with his first wife Priscilla Presley and read about his twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley who passed away shortly after his birth whose “shadow” he felt throughout his life. What I did not look too deeply into was the fact that when he passed away at just 42, the person who found him was his 9 year old daughter Lisa Marie Presley.
Lisa Marie, not only carried Elvis’s striking looks but also the deep seated trauma of discovering her beloved father dead at such a young age until her ultimate demise on January 12, 2023, at the age of 54. Despite people online speculating that MJ and Lisa’s marriage was a publicity stunt to divert attention from the 1993 sexual abuse allegations against MJ, I believe their love was true. My logic points me to the fact that MJ had been seeking out Priscilla Presley’s company in hopes of crossing paths with Lisa. Lisa also detailed her relationship with Michael in her book, a great summary of which I found here. I do believe, Lisa had a ceiling with her love, Mike we know, had issues around body image and being loved enough and with Lisa’s traumatic childhood, I believe it was a very sad scene of “right people wrong time”.
1996 - 1999
Throughout Lisa and Mike’s tumultuous marriage, Debbie to me looks like a looming shadow who promised the most essential thing Michael wanted, kids. The thing that blows my mind is her own admission that she was complicit with fueling MJ’s addiction stating “I was basically as bad as [Klein],”, “I regret that. I will regret it. And I am so sorry that I participated in it.”
It is common knowledge, that Debbie performed more of a transaction than marry Jackson. While Lisa Marie was seeing Michael slowly slip off into drugs due to Dr. Arnold Klein’s extremely aggressive treatment Debbie was on the sideline all along promising children and looking the other way knowing how highly potent drugs were being given to MJ.
This comes full circle with how Katherine was an enabler to Joe’s anger and Debbie was the enabler to MJ’s harmful drug addiction. Debbie being complicit in MJ’s drug abuse was such a revelation his family was shaken too.
To conclude this article, I want to firstly state, I am not trying to diagnose any celeb with anything. All I see is a pattern of a “ceiling of love” being hit over and over again. Ceiling of Joe Jackson’s love which extended as a manager not as a father, of Diana Ross’s which hit after she realised her age gap with MJ (allegedly, I again am not sure what the nature of their relation was), of Lisa Marie who left when she noticed MJ slipping into the shoes of her father and of Debbie who I think hit the ceiling as a fan.
The whole ordeal of Michael’s love pattern is jarring to read about knowing how the only thing he wanted was being loved and experiences true selfless love, the only thought that brings some comfort is his kids, who carry his legacy forward gracefully even today. However, I am left to wonder how through all of this, a man with 8 siblings and parents was left fending for himself when everyone around him was working against him. I am not painting out Michael to be a helpless human, sure he was addicted to substances which were aggravated by the doctors and people around him, but one has to stop and wonder, where was the Michael Jackson Estate, which is funding the Movie Michael right now when the legend was alone and suffering?
While the whole world talks about his prayer like devotion to his craft and iconic dance steps, I am left wondering how everyone failed him when he was grappling with addiction so severe it ultimately took his life. Right now, the whole MJ estate is reaping the profits from the Michael Movie success and the consequent streaming boom in his songs (which is not wrong) I find it hard to understand how the entire family and the world glossed over La Toya’s comments about her father, how Diana Ross pulled her name out of he movie and the movie makers glossed over his pain med addiction.
With the recent Cascio Case it is apparent that everyone thinks, MJ’s legacy can be and fit into whatever mould they so please, whether the mould is the estate or the mould is the Cascio family’s version.
To end, I just want to attach a heartbreaking statement from the book “Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days” by Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, “Because all I felt was anger. That overtook everything else. I sat there with all these people getting up onstage and talking about what a great friend Michael was and how much he meant to them, and the only thing I could think was: Where were they?…Where were all these people when he needed them?” – Bill Whitfield
