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Throwing Stones to Hide Your Hands: The Mortal Persona of Michael Jackson by Elizabeth Amisu
Abstract
Drawing on the emerging scholarly study of ‘Jacksonism’, a movement typified by the study of the multi-modal art, political impact and cultural significance of Michael Jackson, this article de-constructs the mythological personas of the artist by exploring both his cultural deification and many subsequent attempts to degrade his deified status.
Biography
Elizabeth Amisu (elizabeth.amisu@kcl.ac.uk) is a postgraduate scholar of Early Modern English Literature at King’s College, London. She has five years experience as a lecturer of English Literature, English Language and Film Studies.
THROWING STONES TO HIDE YOUR HANDS: THE MORTAL PERSONA OF MICHAEL JACKSON
‘We are not stoning you for any good work,’ they replied, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’ (John 10:32-34, NIV)
Stoning is a ghastly act of communal justice against one person and is still used as a form of execution in various parts of the Middle East and Africa. In the biblical book of Kings two liars slander a virtuous man named Naboth, accusing him of cursing both the King and God. Although Naboth is innocent he is still taken out of the city and stoned.[1]
There are several culprits in his demise: the king who wants Naboth’s land, the queen who wants to please the king, the slanderers whose motivations for destroying Naboth are unclear and the public who are easily led without evidence. The tale has all the makings of Shakespearean tragedy but the parallels to Michael Jackson’s life are unnerving.
At the beginning of his story Naboth is both wealthy and content. However, he is also in the wrong place at the wrong time, namely a place called Jezreel with a vineyard near to the palace of the King of Samaria. Similarly, thirty years ago in 1984, Michael Jackson was in America with a dream to become the biggest star who ever lived[2]. His deification as a solo artist began with the release of his 1979 album, Off The Wall, which was, by 1981 ‘the biggest-selling album ever by a black artist’[3], while the 1982 release of Thriller, its groundbreaking short films and an iconic performance at Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever[4] completed his veneration.
Thriller would sell ‘a bigger number of copies than the number of human beings there have ever been, or will ever be, on Earth. Its numbers are bigger than the number of grains of sand or blades of grass or drops in the ocean or molecules or atoms.’[5] In truth the album has sold an estimated 110 million copies to date[6] and as a result of its unparalleled success, Michael Jackson would be hounded by fans and literally chased by paparazzi for the rest of his life. He was often barricaded in his own home, ‘there’ve been a couple of scuffles at gate on Hayvenhurst, and they can get dangerous… it hurts to be mobbed. You feel as if you’re going to suffocate or be dismembered.’[7]
At this stage in his career he was given a superlative Idol Persona whose facets were unrecognisable from the man they signified. In many ways it was at this point that Michael Jackson became a trademark, a simulacrum of a person.[8] A confessedly shy, mild-mannered dancer, singer and musician, he would be characterised as more god than human with his military jackets and rhinestone gloves. However, in his own words, ‘accomplishments alone are not synonymous with who I am. Indeed, the cheery five-year-old who belted out Rockin’ Robin and Ben to adoring crowds was not indicative of the boy behind the smile.[9]
Jackson was not equipped (it is questionable whether anyone could be) for the astronomical fame bestowed upon him.. A friend and biographer would claim that as a child star and victim of domestic abuse he ‘arrived in adulthood with missing pieces… [who] tried to compensate for this through the home he built, his appearance, his music, and his interests.’[10] The 1995 composition, Childhood, his most autobiographical asks: ‘Have you seen my childhood? I’m looking for the world that I come from… No one understands me/They view it as such strange eccentricities…’[11]
It is difficult to say whether anyone could have coped with Jackson’s extraordinary renown. To some extent he had already started to become un-real as a human being through the dominant over-representation of his image that pervaded throughout the world, it’s ‘actuality… seemed to have been not merely distorted, but overwhelmed, drowned in a sea of his own images’.[12]
Jackson wrote that ‘one of the side effects of the Thriller period was to make [him] weary of constantly being in the public eye’[13] and the more famous he became, the more he became a target of vicious attacks by the press. ‘There was a darker side to the media backlash. Jackson had become the most powerful African-American in the history of the entertainment industry… it is no coincidence that this was the precise moment when the tide began to shift.’[14]
Academic, Joseph Vogel gives a far more likely hypothesis for the creation the malicious ***** Persona. The ‘***** Jackson’ moniker was coined in 1985, “Jacco” or “Jacco Macacco” is Cockney slang for “monkey”. Its continued use can be interpreted as an insult to Jackson’s ethnicity.[15]
Jackson, quite rightly reviled the nickname, the use of which was tantamount to discrimination by the tabloid press. In a 1997 interview he explained that he desperately wanted to shield his son from these cruel jibes. Poignantly, he remarked, ‘Did they ever think I would have a child one day… that I have a heart. It’s hurting my heart. Why pass it on to him?’[16]
The gradual lightening of his skin from the early eighties which went unexplained until a televised 1993 interview[17] was manipulated to contribute further to the formation of this second false persona. He was a sufferer of an aggressive, disfiguring medical condition which, since his personal identity was synonymous with his identity as a celebrity from childhood, was so emotionally crippling he rarely spoke of it, ‘it’s a problem for me… something I cannot control.’[18]
Jackson kept his arms covered at all times and always went out with an umbrella because the sun was toxic to his de-pigmented skin. He described himself as being ‘allergic to the sun’ and was permanently covered in thick layers of cover-up to even out discolorations.[19] However, despite this true explanation the dominant fabrication (which still pervades) is that he did not want to be black. As in Naboth’s story there were certainly slanderers who worked to defame him.
Due to the rumour mill, the Monster Persona was beginning to emerge, even though Jackson, a poster-child for racial equality took his signature move, the moonwalk ‘from these beautiful black kids in the ghetto’ who he called ‘the real dancers’.[20] We have to look no further for an affirmation of racial pride than his 1988 donations to the United Negro College Fund[21], casting of women of colour as leading ladies in short films, from Ola Ray (Thriller) to Naomi Campbell (In The Closet) with the only Caucasian exception being his then wife, Lisa-Marie Presley (You Are Not Alone).
Significantly, the short film, Remember The Time has an all-black cast director in John Singleton. Set in Ancient Egypt, it features Magic Johnson, Eddie Murphy and Iman.[22] Ancient Egyptians are rarely depicted as full sub-Saharan Africans and the reason for this casting can be seen as presenting an ethnic minority in power. Furthermore, most of Michael Jackson’s leading males were African-American also: Wesley Snipes (Bad), Michael Jordan (Jam), Eddie Murphy (Whatzupwitu), Taj, Taryll and T.J Jackson (Why) to name a few.
Elena Oliete exemplifies the perceived threat of a person who can cross cultural boundaries globally, through the universal mediums of song and short film, simultaneously crossing the physical divides between race and gender. By the early nineties he had already ‘been rejected by large numbers of both black and white people. The former consider him a traitor and the latter do not accept him as a white person […] his skin change has served to show up the artificial cultural construction of social hierarchies based on racial distinctions.’[23]
In Naboth’s tale the king first asks him to sell his lands, to which he replies he cannot give away his family’s inheritance. The king goes home, upset at not obtaining his quandary. It is then the queen asks him why he is so unhappy and on learning why decides to ‘fix’ the situation. Events for Naboth have already begun to spin out of control and there is little he can do about it. [24]
The 1989 video for Jackson’s Leave Me Alone is a parodist depiction of a man physically imprisoned by a media circus, which consists of several animated versions of the stories written about him.[25] By 1992, Jackson was similarly attempting to reclaim his public persona from the already extreme state it had been warped into, ‘I had no idea people thought I was so weird… it feels good to be considered as a person, rather than a personality’ he said at the 35th Grammy Awards.[26]
Despite a dominant discourse indicating his artistic and economic decline, Dangerous would outsell Bad by millions of copies, showing that in 1992 he was becoming, despite the fractured personas, more popular, not less. Through a candid interview at his Neverland home he laid to rest many rumours: ‘I’ve never had my cheekbones done, never had my eyes done, never had my lips done and all this stuff. They go too far, but this is stuff that happens every day with other people.’[27] It was in this same year that he was beset by salacious false allegations which would carry his representation into its most destructive and pervasive Monster Persona.
Jackson’s close friendship with children, from Emmanuel Lewis to Gavin Arvizo was well-documented.[28] In no way had it ever been hidden from the public because there had never been anything to hide. Jackson evidently treated these children as equals and considered them his friends. It is likely they were the friends he wished he had as a child. They accompanied him to award shows and with their families spent time at his home.
However, ‘Michael’s innocent childlike qualities had been warped into something pathological and creepy in the public’s perception.’[29] The fact that Jackson was clearly emotionally vulnerable and had been an advocate of children’s rights since the start of his adult career was hardly reported by the press.[30] Despite this, in a 1993 poll, 88% of TV Viewers believed his innocence and 78% were in favour of him.[31] The stoning which followed was clearly not orchestrated by the people but by the press.
Jackson had always been very vocal about his affinity for young people, ‘children are pure and innocent and good’. In autobiography and several interviews he explained this affinity was rooted in his own sense of lost youth, ‘I remember my childhood as mostly work.’[32] He gave millions of dollars of his own money to children’s charities and very often visited orphanages and hospitals, giving away gifts to sick and dying children at his own expense.[33] There was significantly little coverage of Jackson’s considerable humanitarian effort compared to coverage of unproven claims and wild conjecture, as Charles Thomson’s articles, One of the Most Shameful Episodes In Journalistic History and Michael Jackson It’s Time For Outlets to Take Responsibility in Covering the Rock Star illustrate.
The moment the allegations appeared, much like the two slanderers in Naboth’s story, the press seized upon them and the public, primed by the depersonalizing Idol Persona and the damaging ***** Persona were ready with stones. All they needed was a monster and they would, if they had to, make one. Jackson, who was categorically anti-drugs[34] would, from this point on, struggle intermittently with painkiller addiction.
Repeatedly, Jackson attempted to explain himself, even appearing at the NAACP awards. ‘Not only am I presumed innocent, I am innocent! And I know the truth will be my salvation.’[35] There was a wealth of evidence that he was guiltless, much of which is expressed by Mary Fisher in her explorative article, Was Michael Jackson Framed? As she looked into his accusers, she discovered a trail of prior wrongdoing. Not only was Jackson innocent like Naboth but his accusers were guilty of both extortion and slander. Their reward would be millions of dollars. For sharing his talent with the masses and his money with sick children, his reward would be shame and disaffection. The queen in Naboth’s tale probably paid her slanderers richly while they escaped unharmed.
Jackson, who was a high profile and generous champion for disadvantaged children would be typified as a child molester for the rest of his career. He would, while attempting to restore his three false personas and depict his true Mortal Persona in a frank and honest documentary, Living With Michael Jackson[36]be seized upon by the same lawyer and District Attorney through a similar extortion case, after which he was summarily acquitted.[37]
Soon ‘Jackson’s fruitful artistic career and musical denunciations of society’s oppressive cultural constructions had been eclipsed by the widespread social condemnation of the singer as a monstrous child abuser… The zombie-like singer and author of Thriller had effectively become a real monster and, as such, he was accused of the most monstrous crime.’[38]
The ritual process of stoning begins with slander. Jackson was effectively slandered repeatedly by the press and his accusers with lies which were disseminated amongst the public. Although, in 1994 Jackson had not been found guilty of any wrongdoing and was further acquitted in 2005, the process had already begun. Negative images and cruel words reduced him to an object, as far removed as possible from the compassionate human being he was. ‘Most people don’t know me, that is why they write such things… I cry very often because it hurts and I worry about the children, all my children all over the world. I live for them… have mercy, for I’ve been bleeding a long time now. MJ’[39]
Jackson never concealed the emotional pain he felt at the libel of the world’s press and the slander of the public. His appearance was an area of significant weakness for him, ‘the biggest struggle was right there in the mirror. To a great degree, my identity as a person was tied to my identity as a celebrity’[40] and there may be some truth in the hypothesis that he suffered from body dysmorphic disorder[41], ‘my appearance began to depress me… once I came offstage, there was that mirror to face again.’[42]
Fame, like the concept of persona, is simply a figment of our imagination created in a generalised consciousness. “It’s science fiction,’ Jackson said in a 1995 interview, ‘It’s not true. I know myself and it’s sad when other people have to read those things and they believe it. I know eventually the truth will prevail and I’m about truth.’[43]
Hence, we must consider a holistic representation of Michael Jackson, one which is not based on conjecture and tabloid sensationalism but hard evidence. It is the literary academic’s place and duty to write about Jackson, the artist. For this is what he was. Only through academic study of his life and creative work can we gain insight into his genius and innovation.
To construct his Mortal Persona we must utilise his artistic canon in the form of autobiography, poetry, and lyrics, musical composition, fashion, live performance and cinematic works, supported with his collaborative material, extended body of posthumously released material, documentaries, and countless video and print interviews.
In a particularly moving speech at Oxford University, Jackson was unexpectedly candid in his revelations, ‘all of us are products of our childhood. But I am the product of a lack of a childhood, an absence of that precious and wondrous age…’[44] The speech, though eloquent and moving was given little press coverage and considered as yet another oddity. Its valuable content in support of children’s rights was generally ignored and the 1993 allegations mentioned to lessen its importance. Ironically, Jackson’s uniqueness, lauded when moonwalking and providing a sense of escapism for its audience was now condemned for creating a theme park home and befriending child stars. Everything Jackson said and did was given salacious nuance. How then, could anyone benefit from his unique charm, talent and perspective?
Jackson’s Mortal Persona is that of a human being who, despite his difficult upbringing and daily pressures, was still a loving father, devoted son, entertainer, philanthropist and humanitarian. Jackson, his friends, and family tried to promote his Mortal Persona and encourage a positive reception of the vulnerable man behind the art but this mostly fell on deaf ears. For many it was not till the final moments of his televised memorial, during which his eleven year-old daughter described him as ‘the best father you could imagine’ that his humanity really began to pierce the social consciousness. This man, though a simulacrum, though an idol, was still purely Paris Jackson’s dad.[45]
When a victim is stoned in the modern world they are usually buried, leaving only the head exposed. Perhaps, similarly the public and press hide the signifiers of humanity because it is evidence that these people are, in fact, living. They feel pain and their image on a screen, album, magazine, or catwalk doesn’t stop that from being the case.
The nature of injustice Jackson endured in life was unparalleled and his great success came at a terrible price. He sings prophetically in the Bad 25 track, Price of Fame, ‘Father always told me you won’t live a quiet life/if you’re reaching for fortune and fame… I feel the pressure settin’ in/I’m living just to end./I’m feeling all this pain/Don’t you ever complain!’[46]
The real Michael Jackson continually fought a losing battle in our dangerous simulacra-infested celebrity culture. In his own words the wall was ‘too high get over/Too low to get under’. He was truly ‘stuck in the middle. And the pain [was] thunder’.[47]He lay between a demonised representation of himself and an idolised representation. Nevertheless, it can be argued that the ‘people’ did not hate Michael Jackson any more than they hated Naboth. They were a tool in the hands of his slanderers. Though the public carried Jackson out of the city, they could not stone him. Despite the powerfully negative press which had become daily fare, all the masses really wanted was to see him dance and sing, hear his new releases and receive the gift he was born with.
The This is It tour sold at the rate of eleven tickets per second and forty-thousand per hour. In March, just three months before he died, The Essential Michael Jackson album, consisting entirely of (repeatedly) previously released material was number one and Jackson was quoted saying ‘he believes his children are now old enough and want to see him on stage’.[48] It would have been their first time for them to see him perform live.
Like the superhuman some thought Michael Jackson was, he resurrected his Idol Persona in preparing for a highly anticipated comeback at London’s O2 in 2009. Inertia and his own self-confessed ‘will of iron’[49] kept him going when others would have abandoned public life entirely. In this way he was truly singular. He was writing a classical release due to be recorded in London,[50] working on a new album and his principal physical problem, despite his prior conditions, was an easily treatable lung infection.
By many credible accounts, Michael Jackson was a healthy, if slightly thin, fifty year-old man when he died. Apart from an incompetent doctor and an unfortunate propensity for the use of Diprivan (which should never have been administered to him) he could have lived long and given the world so much more. A needless death is Naboth’s tragedy and sadly, it is also Jackson’s.[51]
When a person is stoned their torn, crushed, faceless body is taken out of the sand (in which it has been buried) and checked for signs of life. If a doctor confirms so they are shoved back in and the stoning resumes. It is not the last stone that kills. It’s a culmination of all those that went before. Instead of picking up stones to throw we must, with careful consideration, decide whether we should in fact extend our hands in support.
Michael Jackson’s fifty years on earth were a singularity. He was commoditized before starting secondary school, meaning many of his earliest memories were the roars of adoring crowds, which unfortunately, were also the sound of stones being lifted and checked for the right weight and size. Understandably, his solo music professed alternate desires to escape his numerous problems (Why You Wanna Trip On Me, Leave Me Alone, Xscape, Fly Away, They Don’t Care About Us) and be strong in the face of adversity, (2 Bad, Will You Be There, HIStory, Keep The Faith, Heaven Can Wait).
It is possible that Michael Jackson’s formative years would grow to an almost painful need for love and cause him to regress in an attempt to regain his lost youth. These were things he could not help and should never have been used against him. Ultimately, it was the sharp focus of our cruel collective gaze that caused him the most suffering: ‘Does it affect me? Yes. But I’ve become immune in a way too. I’m very strong. I have rhinoceros skin. But at the same time, I’m human, so anything can hurt like that…’[52]
The one facet of Michael Jackson’s Mortal Persona which was not readily publicised before his death, was his unparalleled capacity for love. He genuinely loved people he did not know, children especially. He showed that love through paying medical bills, taking entire families on holiday, giving away millions of dollars and thousands of hours. He never asked for recognition for this and rarely, if ever drew attention to it. This was the one extraordinary characteristic we could have drawn from most and still can now.
We are all capable of looking to the truth before making judgments, of treating people as people, not personas, whether they’re on television or on a perfume bottle. Jackson reiterated throughout his career that the reason he loved children was because they treated him like a human being, not an idol, ***** or a monster.
Jackson’s last persona was created in his tragic and sudden death and was created by collective public mourning. One can imagine the crowd leaving Naboth, their work done, only to find out he had not cursed the king or God. They see now that they have been misled and their guilt is unbearable. What then becomes of all Naboth’s children, family and friends? For them there is no reason, only an innocent man cruelly betrayed. What became of the two slanderers? In our case it is the children Jackson so wanted to help, his grief-stricken fans and all who loved him who suffer.
The public, not the slanderers created the final persona of Michael Jackson and the world’s press were forced to accept and conform to it. Especially The Daily Mail, who regarded the artist as ‘a fairly minor figure… little more than a novelty act.’[53] The outpouring of grief was, finally, an acceptance of the magnitude of Jackson’s global artistic and social impact. The Idol Persona was now obsolete and the Immortal Persona was appropriated with the release of the film, This is It[54], allowing audiences a cathartic opportunity to see him live one last time.
Twelve fans reportedly committed suicide in Australia[55], over a billion people watched his memorial. Everything in Jackson’s life had been superlative except for the man himself. By contrast he was soft-spoken and slight, with a slender frame which had to be accentuated through clothing.[56] The people of the world beatified his Immortal Persona, their infinite King of Music.[57] It is ironic that this same fierce love was not levelled at him in later life, showering him with the same degree of affection as he experienced in tabloid hate.
Michael Jackson sought immortality through his art. It was his dream that his work would stand the test of time and be as prevalent as Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. None of us will live long enough to know if he achieves this dream. The sad fact is that the catharsis of the tragic contributes to timeless narrative, as in the preventable climax of Romeo and Juliet. Naboth’s story, though thousands of years old resonates with pathos. We are always moved by the loss of an innocent man attacked without provocation and resentful of what could have been.
What cruel force drove the king, queen, slanderers and all who attacked Naboth? Was it a deep-rooted hatred for his success or simply a desire to acquire what was rightfully his? The questions of human nature remain, unsolvable to the very end. However, Jackson, in his inimitable style once again takes all the pain in the world and turns it into a golden legacy. His death served, for a short time, to unify people of all races under his banner while a song he had written to honour the untimely death of a dear friend became his own requiem, ‘like a sunset dying with the rising of the moon. Gone too soon.’[58]
[1] 1 Kings 21:13, NIV – Naboth’s Vineyard: Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.’ 3 But Naboth replied, ‘The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors.’ 4 So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, ‘I will not give you the inheritance of my ancestors.’ He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat. 5 His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, ‘Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?’ 6 He answered her, ‘Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’’ 7 Jezebel his wife said, ‘Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I’ll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.’ 8 So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him. 9 In those letters she wrote: ‘Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 10 But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them bring charges that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.’ 11 So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them. 12 They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 13 Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, ‘Naboth has cursed both God and the king.’ So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. 14 Then they sent word to Jezebel: ‘Naboth has been stoned to death.’ 15 As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, ‘Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead.’ 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.
http://elizabethamisu.com/post/88515649217/throwing-stones-to-hide-your-hands-the-mortal-persona