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Michael Jackson,
Duality &
His sexual identity [a thread]
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Duality &
His sexual identity [a thread]
Michael Jackson's sexuality has both fascinated and intrigued the public ever since the singer became a young man. From the soft-spoken boyish charm of his disco-era days to the explicit sensuality of his later performances, it seemed as if everybody had fallen under his spell.
But as with most things in his life, his sexuality wasn't free of controversy. In a society bounded by stereotypes, this curiosity could also take a turn for the worst when faced with the inevitable complexity of human identity. And where there is doubt, there is often judgment.
This thread, which completes the trinity of the main misconceptions about Michael Jackson (race, appearance & sexuality), will focus on the myths surrounding his sexual identity and prove how this apparently complex issue in reality has a quite simple answer.
Before we look into the myths, it’s important to point out some of the issues that helped bring them to life.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the singer’s personality was the contrast between his on-stage persona and his real-life self. Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, who knew him since he was a child, spoke of what he saw as his “two personalities”:
In his live performances and short films, Michael Jackson exuded a confidence that he gained through his talent and years of hard work. His astonishing singing and dancing skills, combined with masculine/sensual moves, awed the public and made him seem larger than life.
But when the spotlight was turned off and the production dismantled, the powerful entity gave way to a shy, polite and private individual, who professed his love for children and nature, and was miles away from what the public typically expected of a young millionaire pop-star.
The singer had a deep connection with children. He saw them as pure-hearted and devoid of the prejudices and agendas of the adults, also allowing him to reconnect with his lost childhood. To him, they represented goodness and were, you could say, uncomplicated.
With women it was different. Not because he wasn’t attracted to them – he stated repeatedly that he was heterosexual and had relationships with various females throughout his life - but because they are complex individuals, and relationships generally aren't easy.
The unusual life that he lived also made it extremely hard for him to meet women and then keep them in his life once they were exposed to the overwhelming media frenzy around him. He often had to hide relationships entirely from the public in order to keep his privacy.
He was very shy. Shy people generally have a hard time expressing their feelings and an even harder time having a relationship in the public eye, because it makes them feel exposed and vulnerable, and they tend to avoid the spotlight at all costs.
Michael Jackson was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. In the http://jw.org website, sex is described as an act that should take place “only between a man and a woman who are married to each other", while the transgression of this law, a sin, equals to “sexual immorality”.
For the JWs, the transgression of a moral law is associated with the word “unclean”, meaning blemished, adulterated and corrupted in a moral or spiritual way. In this context, sex and relationships can often be linked to feelings of guilt and remorse.
The singer left the church in 1987, but the impact of these beliefs from early on and their continuous influence throughout his life by way of his family is one of the plausible explanations as to why he generally avoided referencing/exposing his romantic life.
Lastly, there’s the aura of mystery that the singer liked to create around himself, which to some extent backfired. His scarce interviews and mostly recluse behavior, among other traits, stimulated speculation about his private life.
In a 1987 article, Rolling Stone magazine called the singer a “packaged enigma”, adding that the “calculated exploitation of […] eccentricities is a crafty move that has helped him remain in the news without any new product.” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/is-michael-jackson-for-real-102872/
The “bachelor” image can also be seen as part of this strategy, helping keep his female fans on their toes and forcing the singer to keep his actual relationships behind the curtains.
In summary, we have a scenario in which the singer displays a blatant duality in his public/private life. But what is duality and how does it apply to Michael Jackson?
Duality is a situation in which two ideas/feelings exist at the same time. Like two sides of a coin, these ideas/feelings aren’t contradictory - they’re simply different from one another; they’re not mutually exclusive - they’re complementary. Duality exists in all human beings.
When it comes to Michael Jackson, it means that he could be outgoing in some situations and shy in others, that he could simultaneously feel like a father to children and a child himself. These ideas/feelings are not opposing. They coexist, creating a whole complex individual.
Regardless, the duality in his life was perceived and treated by the media and the public as ambiguity – meaning a single thing that has multiple meanings and therefore causes confusion. And that is where the myths are born.
Myth #1 - Michael Jackson was gay. The singer was the victim of rumors about his sexual identity from a young age and would often be forced to fight against the malicious innuendo of nosy journalists.
Being seen out with women, getting married and having children wasn’t enough to satisfy society’s urge for him to prove that he was heterosexual. They mocked his appearance, his style, his voice, his behavior, and constantly demanded that he explained himself.
But how could he – and why should he - prove that he wasn’t gay? The constant badgering was in reality a demand for him to fit into the socially-constructed stereotypes of masculinity: the deep voice, the strong physique, the dominating personality, the womanizing.
His critics’ questioning was rhetorical. Ignoring the fact that he continuously stated that he was heterosexual, they insisted that he adhered to their version of masculinity. Comedian Eddie Murphy, a friend of the singer, illustrates this behavior:
Most women in Michael Jackson’s life honored his lifelong wish for privacy and discretion. A few of them managed to speak publicly about their relationship with him in a respectful manner.
Lisa-Marie Presley, who was married to the singer from 1994 to 1996, has always maintained that their relationship was real and meaningful. In a 2010 interview she’d say that they had “in every sense a normal marriage.”
Stephanie Mills, who dated him in the late 1970s, spoke of their relationship and how he was “very much a man”:
Finally, pop star Madonna, who the singer went out with on a few occasions in the early 90s, revealed on a TV show that they shared a kiss (at 10:18):
These examples and many others show, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the fact that Michael Jackson was seen out with women infrequently didn't stop him from developing personal relationships away from the public eye.
When it comes to the public display of his sexuality, an interesting theory is that, while the singer wasn’t comfortable speaking about it, it was when he was performing that he subconsciously expressed his feelings towards sex.
In the 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey he hints at that when asked about the “crotch grab”. He says he thinks it happens “subliminally”, that “the music compels him to do it", and that he doesn’t think about it, “it just happens” (at 22:15):
The myth that Michael Jackson was gay shouldn’t be taken lightly. It comes from a place of prejudice, where being gay is considered an offense, and because there's no "proof" that he was attracted to male adults, it also fuels the theory that he liked young boys.
Actual evidence points at a different direction. The two times Neverland was raided, in 1993 and 2003, investigators didn’t come across any gay erotica or child pornography, but they did find extensive heterosexual material (source: FBI files https://vault.fbi.gov/Michael%20Jackson)
Additionally, at a time when other huge pop/rock stars, like Elton John and Freddie Mercury lived their lives openly as gay men and were loved by the public, it's naive to believe that Michael Jackson wouldn’t have come out, if that was the case.
Coming out would’ve actually made his life easier, because not only would it have ended the continuous speculation about his sexual identity and his love life, but it would also shut down the child abuse allegations. So why didn’t he come out? Simply because it wasn’t the truth.
Myth #2 – Michael Jackson was asexual. This myth is generally based on either of two theories: 1) the Castrato theory, in which the singer would’ve been castrated as a child to keep his voice from changing, 2) the “Peter Pan syndrome”.
As staggering as the thought that a man who fathered three children, had a normal voice of an adult male and often kept facial hair could be castrated, let’s take a look at evidence that says otherwise.
There are various accounts that the singer had a normal voice of an adult male and willingly chose a higher pitched/softer tone when speaking in public or performing. Here he's seen at James Brown’s funeral in 2006:
The US National Cancer Institute defines castration as the “removal or destruction of the testicles or ovaries using radiation, surgery, or drugs”. No such thing was found in Michael Jackson’s autopsy, which simply states that he had "the genitalia of an adult male”.
Prepubescent castration prevents the larynx from developing to the size of an adult. An intervention of this magnitude would certainly be noted in the autopsy report. But, as seen below (WARNING: explicit content), it only mentions that the larynx was “intact without fractures”.
Now to the “Peter Pan syndrome” theory. This theory became popular with the publication of the book “The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up”, by Dr. Dan Kiley (1983). The book focuses on men who show a big disparity between their age and their maturity.
Analyzing young men coming of age, Kiley described them as narcissists, who, during their late teens and early twenties “indulge in an impetuous lifestyle, […] while an unrealistic ego trip convinces them that they can and must do whatever their fantasies suggest.”
Other signs of PPS include throwing temper tantrums (which could be “mistaken for manly assertion”), taking love for granted (never giving it in return) and, above all, deep irresponsibility, which “begins as innocent, typical rebellion, but mushrooms into an adult lifestyle.”
Michael Jackson became the poster boy for PPS for two reasons: 1) his fascination with Peter Pan, the character, which made him collect extensive memorabilia of him and go as far as saying that he was “Peter Pan in his heart”.
2) His love for children’s games and pastimes, carnival rides, Disney, animals and, last, but not least, the infamous set up of his Neverland ranch. There, he created a world for himself (and others) that reflected the innocence and joy that he yearned for in his life.
Some of the people who knew the singer help disseminate the PPS theory by implying that, due to these reasons and his often shy/childlike behavior, sex couldn’t possibly be in his mind. Actress Whoopi Goldberg provides a good example (at 6:07):
But – and this is where it gets interesting - although the singer displayed some stereotypical signs of "never wanting to grow up", he failed to meet two of the essential standards of PPS: he had meaningful relationships with women and he took on big responsibilities.
Confusion stems from the difference between the terms “childish” and “childlike”. Cambridge Dictionary defines childish as “typical of a child”, while childlike means “showing the good qualities that children have, such as trusting people, being honest and enthusiastic.”
Michael Jackson was childlike, not childish. While he enjoyed having water balloon fights and climbing trees, he was also an astute businessman and a master of his craft. Children don’t have the drive, the discipline and the intelligence necessary to thrive the way that he did.
So, instead of a case of PPS, we're again faced with Michael Jackson’s duality: the same person that allowed himself to be childlike and playful was also a high-functioning adult.
The Castrato and the PPS theories both aim at explaining the singer’s alleged asexuality by stating that either he was physically or psychologically incapable of having sexual urges. This thread has shown that that is not the case.
While asexuality isn't in the least abnormal and shouldn’t be used as an “accusation”, society’s ignorance on the matter leads it to see it as “another proof” of the singer’s “strange” ways. Ironically, by adding to the "weirdness", this myth also helps propel the CSA narrative.
Analyzing the two main myths about Michael Jackson’s sexuality and the motivations behind them, we understand that what the public mistakenly perceived as ambiguity turned its healthy curiosity about the singer into an obsession for a definition.
The media is largely to blame for this obsession, having fueled it through continuous speculation and lies, which only worsened the confusion. The singer and his team didn’t exactly help, by only taking a hands-on approach to his public image once it was too late.
The success of the 1993 CSA allegations, which served as the model for every other accusation against the singer, was only possible because the accusers realized that by galvanizing the public’s confusion and their thirst for a definition, they could pin a heinous crime on him.
But there shouldn’t be any confusion about Michael Jackson’s sexual identity, because the answer to the big question, as it was said in the beginning of this thread, is actually quite simple.
Firstly, it’s urgent that we stop seeing him from the point of view of ambiguity. Duality is better, because it encompasses the complexity of not only his identity, but of all individuals. We all have feelings pulling us in different directions and are far from being coherent.
Secondly, there's no grey area when it comes to Michael Jackson’s sexual identity, and the reason for that is quite simple: he identified as a heterosexual male. Like with his race/ethnicity, he was the only one that got to define it, and he should have his autonomy respected. //
