With due respect to ...

[blamebrampton]

... those of you who are mourning him, I am probably going to bite the next person who tells me that Michael Jackson was a revolutionary figure in the fight for equality by African Americans. I hasten to add that this has so far been three in real life and double the number of media foik: my flist has been a bastion of sanity.

Aesthetic irony aside, it belittles genuine revolutionary figures. And I am not even talking about political giants like Dr King; there were many entertainers who walked a far more difficult path earlier and with more grace and charity, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Sammy Davis Jnr and Nina Simone.

I'm all for people loving the heroes they choose, but I would love a bit of perspective at times like these. And perhaps a little sense of history.

Flistees who are just missing the singing and dancing, I apologise for intruding on your sad day. 

Comments

[potteresque_ire]

I think this is why I cannot put him in the hero / revolutionary figure category. He puts himself first—and I don't mean that he's selfish—more that he cannot get through the ghosts from his own past. From a person who broke the racial divide as he did, it must be sad and so disappointing for the black kids who had looked up on him to see him ... betray their identity. He's a showcase of how one of the biggest challenges (flaws, maybe) of this country can rip a person apart, but the breakthrough he accomplished was almost canceled out ... by the fact that he himself, as a role model, he ended up trying to eliminate evidences of what had to be the pre-requisite of the breakthough—which was his heritage. I can't imagine what white supremicists have been saying about him :(.

Palin ... is in the Jerry Springer Camp of Politics. :) I can't imagine how someone like her make it that far and what it says about us, as the citizen of the country that has allowed her to do so. Incendiary is too classy of a word to describe her ways.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

I certainly don't see him as a revolutionary hero. I don't think he saw himself that way. He saw himself as an entertainer. But honestly, I don't think it diminishes what he accomplished, despite his enormous failings as an individual. His art became more than him, IMO. I can look at his personal life and shudder, but what he did on a societal level? Artists are STILL reaping the benefits of his trailblazing today.

I grew up in the era of both MJ and Farrah Fawcett, and I'm kind of puzzled why there are so many accolades for her in this post in response to *his* personal failings. She sold one poster. She issued in an era of blow dryers and curling irons. She starred in one television show that was nothing but T&A and a couple of good movies. She was not the only actress by a long shot to star in consciousness raising entertainment. And she died with dignity. She wasn't trail-blazing in the least. What she was was a beautiful woman who ended up capitalized on that beauty--hello, Hollywood--and found she could act. But one television show and two movies is not exactly much of a career. And, frankly, lots of people die with dignity. They just don't have their best friends shooting it all with a video camera. In fact, I have an LJ friend who just lost her mother to Leukemia, and by all accounts, she gave it her all and died with as much dignity as FF. But no one was filming it.

I'm not surprised by the iconization of MJ, but I can't help but equate the iconization of FF with Princess Di. These beautiful women who capture the camera, and then WE, as a public feed, off of that beauty. Is it ANY surprise that MJ under went the knife repeatedly to become a beautiful woman?

[potteresque_ire]

I knew very little about Farrah, but I could sing Beat It with my broom when I was ... 6 or 7 years old, when I was half the world away :)

MJ's influence is undeniable—I still look at his choreography and just the way he moves with nothing but awe and admiration. He's born to be an entertainer, and an explosive one who definitely changes the way we regard his art. I remembered him by watching a few of his videos and stage performances; I think he'd like that—he dedicated his life on it.

And I can understand the attraction of becoming a beautiful woman. I'm not a vain one by all means, there're still days I'd look at a pretty woman (or man) and just sighed, wondering why it can't be me (there, I admit it!! :) ) I don't even rely on my looks at all for my job... the pressure must be a 1000-fold if I am.