*shrug*

[averygoodun42]

Okay, you all know that I'm really not into tabloids and celebrity news and all that jazz. (I curse the person/entity who gave us a year's subscription to Us Weekly. Horrid rag! Except for the fashion police.) It all seems to bring out the worst in humanity, with few exceptions.



However, I have been thinking about Jacko's death and feeling melancholy about it, which is odd (the last time I actually felt something like this was when Phil Hartman and his wife died, but that was more horror for the future psychological states of their kids). This time it's for Michael himself that I feel sad. Pity, really.

My guess is that he was transgendered, but it wasn't an option for him to achieve the switch. It's so sad that he was raised in a culture/family/society where he could not really be himself. It is possible that he wasn't, and just wanted to recapture the fairytale of his youth, but... I think there's plenty of evidence that he wanted to be a woman.

So I feel sad for him in that regard.

On the other hand, in the twenty... thirty years since he became the King of Pop, society has become that much free-er, that much more accepting. The LGBT part of society has won (often hard fought and tragic) battles to bring them more and more equality. More and more acceptance and freedom of movement and employment. There are still, and probably always will be, segments of the country and population that will be on the less tolerant side of things, but, much like spousal abuse, racism and other horrible behavioral patterns, it will eventually be deemed universally unacceptable to blare your prejudiced opinions out in public, and even more unacceptable to act them out. It won't change the bigots' minds, of course, but the laws will be on the side of equality and humanity. And sooner, rather than later.

:-)

Comments

[subversa.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is just weird, but here I go.

In 1987, I was reading People magazine, and it included an article about Jacko. In the article, they had reprinted a "letter" he wrote to some fans who were gathered outside his hotel room balcony in Tokyo. The letter was sad, really; terrible spelling and grammar, which goes to show that taking a boy out of school to make him a pop star does not necessarily provide enough education to make him properly literate. But the thing that bothered me about it was his obsessive references to children. I came away from that reading with the vague, distasteful notion that Michael was overly interested in children. Consequently, I wasn't surprised when allegations about him arose.

Now, you suggest that he was transgendered. That is a view I would never have thought of. It certainly gives me food for thought.

It saddens me that he died. Our birthdays were within months of each other; we grew up together. I was never a huge fan, but I recognised his genius. I hope his children can find a stable, loving home, out of the spotlight.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Really? I don't think there's evidence he wanted to be transgendered so much as that he wanted to be a child, having had a very stressful life and his childhood stolen through abuse and celebrity mixed. Hmm.

Regardless. I just hope he's at peace now. I've always felt sorry for him.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

My question, though, is if he had been a woman, would the references to children been so icky? Or would it just have read as someone whose biological clock was ticking? I didn't read the article or letter, so I really don't know, but I do know there's a double standard about gender equality. Women have been encouraged to step up their masculinity, but men don't get to express their femininity without risking serious ridicule or suspicion.

I hope he's at peace now.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

Very likely, but a recent (ill-timed) article in the trash mag made me wonder, since he did favor woman's fashions... And, well, his obsession with children... would that have seemed so strange had he been a woman? Just made me wonder, anyway.

He was a seriously messed up person, and I felt sorry for him as well. I hope he's at peace, too.