A Brief Note on the Changing Appearance of Michael Jackson

Those who know me either already know about or should have no trouble understanding my attraction to the music, dance, videos, and presence of Michael Jackson. Frankly, I'm always taken aback, rather violently, when I hear people disparage Jackson's person. If the comments were slanted towards his work, my tolerance for criticism would be tempered with good reason. Unfortunately, and this is something I'm sure that everybody experiences, if not participating in, people cannot talk about Jackson (in any capacity, really) without someone offering barbs about his legal and cosmetic history. This could be a testament to Jackson's talent as a musician and video artist (I understand that he's not the directorial force behind his short film/music videos, but there's no reason at all to suspect that he's not a primary creative force behind them... but more on that at a later time). People have been so focused with his looks and molestation gossip (and it is just that: gossip) and thankfully, very, very little of that has migrated into responses to his art. In other words, his work is solid enough to transcend the reputation of his admitted strangeness as a celebrity.

But my intentions here are to briefly focus on his marked physical transformation, that phenomenon that unjustly rides under the marked misnomer in our pop consciousness as his "disfigurements." These days, the focus tends to remark on the changes to his facial structure, things brought about by corrective (nose job after breathing difficulty), cosmetic (cleft in chin), and logistical (hitting high notes) surgeries. Of these, derisive commentary oozes an air of misinformation and a strategic temporal recalibration of the ideal of celebrity worship. As far as I can tell, it is the extent to which Jackson's appearance has changed, coupled with his ubiquitous presence within popular culture, that is the impetus for this overt response. Here I concede that Jackson's dysmorphia is a troubling affair that must not be ignored, but I contest that this fascination should quit at the slightest interference of our impressions of his role as an artist and entertainer. There are those that find him hideous (I am not one... at one point, I was grotesquely fascinated but after doing quite a bit of research into Jackson for a few weeks, I find his current appearance quite striking, if a bit divorced from his earlier beauty... the worst I will go is "ghostly"), but it has become safe to acknowledge this aversion to his physical appearance as a legitimate item of pop criticism.

This is what rubs me the wrong way: since when was it okay to knock someone for their psychological problems, particularly when no soul (save his own) is being harmed by it? I admit that it is more than likely the case that what has given Jackson his dysmorphia and his predilection for the company of children are probably inseparably intertwined, but I have to repeat two things: 1) Jackson absolutely cannot be construed to have had any illegal interactions with children and 2) this has nothing to do with Jackson's work as a musician. But far too many people cite it in a tone of validation for such hearsay-hearsay and shallow, irresponsible criticism.

Secondly, there is his dissolve--from black to white. One word: vitiligo. There is no record of Jackson transplanting or bleaching his skin amounting to this effect. However, there are innumerable cases of 1) vitiligo lightening the skin of young black people 2) harmful instances of vitiligo that are exacerbated by sunlight 3) black people whose skin, because they are reticent to sunlight, gradually lightens to the point of near whiteness and 4) ignorant people who don't bother to get their facts in order before perpetuating falsities about celebrities. It is true that, again, the effects of the vitiligo (and the subsequent treatments, ie, staying out of lights, masking his dark skin to match the lighter shades, feeling ugly) are probably significantly intertwined with the rest of what ails him (and me, by the extension of obnoxious people). However, the artistic benefits of this dissolve are extraordinary, resulting in one of the finest song/videos of the 90's, "Black or White," an great tune made perfect by Jackson's physical demonstration of his ideals.

My point is this: the man is disfigured in a purely ideological way. His discontentment is digging him deeper and deeper into his dysmorphic hole, and his need for acceptance is growing farther and farther from possibility thanks in part to those not as interested in pop culture or Jackson's work as myself. I'm not on a mission to promote an artist, but rather I feel an obligation to crack the skulls of schadenfreude-ridden suckers out there who somehow think it's doing their culture any good by dissing a dude of nearly inarguably immaculate talent (though with little talent for PR, I'll give them that) with unsubstantiated rumors and a practically willful disengagement from the reality of the situation. Come on, people. From ABC to Invincible, do you really want him to stop, having been given enough? If you say yes, you don't know what's best for you.


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This post is an installment in a continuing series of content coordinated by theme or motif with posts from Enoch Allred of Chiltingham, John Allred of clol Town, Jon Fairbanks of Funkadelic Freestylings of Another Sort, Eli Z. McCormick and Miriam Allred of Modern Revelation!, John D. Moore of Whatnot Studios, Joseph Schlegel of Sour Mayonnaise, Sven Patrick Svensson of Sadness? Euphoria?, and William C. Stewart of Chide, Chode, Chidden. This week's theme: 'Disfigurement'.