Is Jacko our Oscar Wilde?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/13/04 at 9:35pm

Richard Goldstein's analysis.
Link

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 1/13/04 at 10:44pm

Interesting article. I agree with most of what Goldstein says, but I think that there is another factor in play, too. Jacko's victims are seen as children while the underage girls in the video are no doubt packaged as precocious pseudo-adults. A quick stroll through the parking lot of any Jr. High will illustrate my point. Even given the similarity of ages, just think about the developmental/maturity gap between thirteen year old girls and 13 year old boys. They are worlds apart.

Not that I'm excusing either of them.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/13/04 at 10:54pm

I would argue that actual sexual precocity is higher in boys than girls, tho. Boys actually ARE horny? Or am I just generalizing from my own sexually precocious youth?

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 1/13/04 at 10:57pm

Goldstein brings up a lot of interesting points.

One thing he misses is the impact of the self-loathing performance art that is Jacko's plastic surgery. I do wonder whether the molestation charges would have had the same facination with the public if Michael Jackson had looked more like a normal human being.

Jacko's supposed paedophilia is bizarrely rendered even more distasteful because Jacko himself seems so neutered, infantile and sexless.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 1/13/04 at 11:03pm

I agree about boys being horny...but I still maintain that 13 year old boys tend to be, collectively, more physically childlike than girls of the same age. A gross generalization, to be sure. And tack a year or two onto the age of the boys, and all bets are off.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/13/04 at 11:04pm

Exactly. Even if the object of his attention were girls and not boys, it would be hard to see him as more virile, the way Goldstein postulates people see R. Kelly.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 1/13/04 at 11:29pm

I'm not arguing that the gender of the victim isn't a huge factor in fanning the flames and I agree that it plays a major role in why Jackson is despised. But gender aside, Jackson is seen as an abuser of non-sexual children. With Kelly, his victims are exhibiting familiarity with their own sexuality. Some (not me) may even see it as the teenage girls having "scored" by drawing the attention of a well-known and virile man. Is it still abuse? Absolutely. But I still think that in addition to all the dynamics Goldstein mentions, the perception of sexual vs non-sexually awakened victim adds a layer to the public's reaction.

And I agree with MasterL...I think the creepiness factor of Jackson's self-mutilation has put an undefinable spin on the accusations. Even in the darker corners of my mind, I can't...and don't want to ...conjur up exactly *what* he's been doing to those boys. He's just unspeakably wierd.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/14/04 at 9:32am

Yes, Master and Ifitfloats... The face connected with sexual deviancy disturbs us because the image -- half Joan Crawford, half Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow -- is itself so completely devoid of sexuality. The cumulative effect of all that surgery is that of a mask. We are particuarly frightened to contemplate what lurks behind it, no? But then, children are often more afraid of clowns than drawn to them.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 1/14/04 at 10:15am

what disturbs me about this article is his unstated acceptance of the underage fantasy and all that falls from that. i suppose he's postulating the forbidden fruit theory, but still.

jacko's nuts. and comparing him to oscar wilde is pitiful. i like oscar wilde. i've read oscar wilde. i've performed oscar wilde plays. jacko, sir, is no oscar wilde. (i'm almost done with my homages to lloyd)

as far as 13 year old sexuality, i taught jr. high english two years ago. the girls get the edge from my observations. of course, those were inner city students in an urban setting. but most of the boys were still more interested in sports and, if you can believe it, pokemon and digiman. there were a few precocious boys, but more girls. i also had to teach health and since we had no health curriculum it usually devolved into a 45 minute round robin chat on whatever they wanted to discuss. invariably it was a girl who brought up a sexual issue.

but i think the acceptance of criminal sexual activity with underage girls goes back to a historical thing in that it wasn't more than a hundred and fifty or so years ago that girls were referred to as old maids if they hit 18 without being married. the fact that r. kelly's sales peaked has more to do, i think, with the idea of the fact that he was being persecuted by the man i.e. "white america." crap i'm gonna betray my true john brich society upbringing here, but i totally believe that in the hood he got mad props. i saw it while teaching that there's a kind of romantic hero quality accorded to anyone who faces charges from the state (the state here being any form of the government). it's similar to the way arab peoples cheered saddam even while knowing in their hearts that he was a rat.

i mean it's nothing new, the whole idea of a criminal as hero. today it's just that there's still so much distrust that even when presented with evidence of a crime, many people would rather concoct various conspiracy theories to explain away the behavior rather than accept their behavior. it's like a badge of honor to get pinched (i mean arrested not groped).

on the other hand, i would not argue that male on underage male sexual crimes are not afforded any kind of mythic quality by the public at large. i think it reveals how homophobia still runs rampant in our society. the whole idea of a pedophile preying on young boys plays into every stereotype, even though the majority of sexual assaults on underage children are heterosexual in nature and committed by a relative. in a basic way, it's also due to the fact that society accepts that at some point in a girl's life, she'll engage in sexual relations with a man, but they still don't accept that a boy will eventually have sex with a man.

in the end, i think that the r. kelly case has too many factors that were not accounted for in this article and to use reactions to his case as a comparison to the jackson case overlook too many societal elements. they also don't acknowledge the key fact that, jacko's nuts.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/14/04 at 1:09pm

When I was in Jr. High, I remember girls being extremely sexually voracious starting in 6th grade, a year or two before most of the boys started focusing on sex.

What really scares me is the thought of pedophilia boosting ANYONE'S career. It really makes me upset.