Ohh saw this before but forgot to reply! Just want to explain a bit more...
I know that it is not "popular" to openly talk about MJ being a sex symbol or attractive. But my point is more that though it might not be a popular view to publicly take, it is absolutely a common view in reality. A LOT of women (and surely men) found and still find Michael insanely sexy. The math just wouldn't add up to anything else lol. I'm convinced of it. But the mainstream media did such a great job with convincing us that he is not attractive (I mean...if you look at some of the threads discussing the Bad era there are multiple articles linked of - mostly male - journalists calling him a freak and unattractive...
during the BAD ERA) that it became commonplace for people. Yet, his fans always found him extremely attractive and with his fans making up such a huge population of people, it goes without saying that he is certainly worthy of being deemed a sex symbol. And yet....
enter, me wanting to write a book lol.
Oh yah, I know what you're talking about lol. I'm pretty sure I stumbled across that at some point when I was googling "is michael jackson sexy" back in the day lol. Whatever. Lots of people who aren't fans, who probably don't know literally anything about him outside of tabloid photos, making broad assumptions. If you asked me a. year ago if I thought Michael Jackson was sexy I'd say no, because I hadn't thought of him in years and my image of him was COMPLETELY distorted. The more Michael's content gets shared and his fan base grows (which is happening in every corner of the internet at rapid speed right now) the more people will be reminded of who Michael really actually was and they will see not only how sexy he was, but how amazingly talented and beautiful he was in every way
Very interesting! I am also white and I think it, to some degree, explains why I didn't grow up with a lot of friends/family who listened to or talked about Michael. It makes me kind of angry now because I realize I missed out on someone so tremendous when he was still alive! But whatever. My future kids will be overloaded with Michael so I'll make up for it.
As for your other point about "tarnished beauty" I think that's super interesting! I kind of relate. However, I don't really see Michael as falling into that category, unless we are discussing his vitiligo, which I suppose could qualify since it is so rare (interestingly, I have vitiligo myself but being quite fair-skinned it only becomes apparent in the summer).
Anyway, I think Michael is just stunning. Like in the true definition of the word. I feel physically stunned when I see him. He takes my breath away. He was so gorgeous. Sometimes I think to myself if there is anything "odd" about his appearance it is that it is so overwhelmingly beautiful I can't quite process what I'm seeing lol.
Funny story, I recently watched the entire Bad Wembley show with my mom who, as the other ladies know, has been going through her own realization of finding Michael attractive, but is a VERY traditional woman when it comes to finding extremely traditionally masculine, brutish types of men attractive. Anyway, as we watched she made several comments about how he is "so handsome" and "so goodlooking" by my favorite came at the very end of the show, when he is introducing the band. He's playing around with all of them, being so adorable. He takes his hair down, smiles, does a hair tuck lol and my mom goes "God, he is so handsome it's hard to know what part of his face to even focus on. He's just so cute!" and I was like SHE GETS IT. Because that's totally how it is to me. He is so good looking it is legitimately distracting lol.
Anyway, long roundabout way of saying all of this is so complicated, but I'm so glad we have a space to just praise him endlessly for how god damn beautiful he was