# Michael Jackson: Pedo or hellno?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 2, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215 "2013-10-02T21:51:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/1 "2013-10-02T21:51:20Z")
I have a friend (major music fan, very sophisticated about all aspects of pop-music history and culture) who is convinced, still, that Michael Jackson was innocent of all accusations of boy-banging. The way he accounts for Jackson’s remarkable behavior is: Jackson worked his ass off for his family and fanbase from the age of six, he never had a chance to have what most of us would call a childhood, and once he got uberrich, he was resolved to spend the rest of his life acting like a little boy would act, if he were uberrich and emancipated. That’s what Neverland is all about, a big, expensive playground full of toys. Psychologically, the adult MJ **was** a little boy. And little boys are sexless. The boys he sometimes gathered 'round him were nothing more than age-appropriate playmates. If he ever took a shower with a boy, it was only as two little boys might shower together.
That’s my friend’s theory. I have no opinion, really; it’s not entirely implausible. I only recall that when MJ was arraigned in Los Angeles on sexual-abuse charges, there were massive street-demonstrations in his support in Los Angeles, and in Mexico City, Moscow and Beijing. So I guess a lot of people must agree.
What say you?
---
### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/2 "2013-10-02T22:08:14Z")
There is a theory that MJ was chemically castrated.
[http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/michael-jackson-chemically-castrated-as-child-doctor-2231967.html](http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/michael-jackson-chemically-castrated-as-child-doctor-2231967.html)
If so that would explain his seeming inability to see his own behavior as inappropriate as he was literally still a boy. I have no idea if this is true or not, would have made for a fascinating case if he tried raising that as a defense.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/3 "2013-10-02T22:12:57Z")
I am very glad to not know the definitive answer to this question, and the hypothesis your friend holds may well be correct. Even if it is, though, that’s still a seriously creepy way for a grown man to act. There being a cause for the creepy behavior doesn’t really make it any less creepy.
---
### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/4 "2013-10-02T22:31:35Z")
Michael Jackson never grew up. In his mind, he was eight years old. Show me yours, I’ll show you mine is not inappropriate for that age group.
Sipping wine from a pepsi can, and looking at penises? Perfectly normal for a pre-teen.
He wasn’t a pedophile, he was much, much crazier than that.
---
### Author:  [@want2befree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2befree)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/5 "2013-10-02T22:41:39Z")
I agree with your friend. He seemed to have too big of a heart to ever hurt anyone.
---
### Author:  [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/6 "2013-10-02T22:44:29Z")
The thing is, he _was_ a grown man, and he was in enough control to know that. He should have known that he should not have involved (other) children in his fantasies. The issue is not the damage that was done to Jackson, it the harm he caused those children.
---
### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/7 "2013-10-02T22:47:39Z")
What harm was caused to children? Please be specific.
---
### Author:  [@want2befree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2befree)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/8 "2013-10-02T22:49:51Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#):
>
> What harm was caused to children? Please be specific.
Yeah! Cite!
---
### Author:  [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/9 "2013-10-02T22:55:11Z")
> [@coremelt](#):
>
> There is a theory that MJ was chemically castrated.
> [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/michael-jackson-chemically-castrated-as-child-doctor-2231967.html](http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/michael-jackson-chemically-castrated-as-child-doctor-2231967.html)
>
> If so that would explain his seeming inability to see his own behavior as inappropriate as he was literally still a boy. I have no idea if this is true or not, would have made for a fascinating case if he tried raising that as a defense.
I can’t see any reason why castration, chemical or otherwise, might prevent him from maturing intellectually and emotionally – he was certainly not “literally still a boy”. Even if he were, quite young children are capable of understanding when some behaviour is inappropriate – at 35, Jackson certainly ought to have been able to see how his relations with young children might be perceived, even if they were genuinely entirely innocent.
---
### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/10 "2013-10-02T22:57:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> at 35, Jackson certainly ought to have been able to see how his relations with young children might be perceived,
if he wasn’t bat-shit crazy perhaps.
What’s the Straight Dope on “Bat Shit Crazy”? Why is that crazier than other crazies?
---
### Author:  [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/11 "2013-10-02T23:06:19Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#):
>
> What harm was caused to children? Please be specific.
You need a cite that being taken to bed by a grown man is harmful to a child? Seriously?
Claiming that he was not to blame for his actions is one thing - I don’t agree with it, but it’s a valid opinion. Claiming that his actions weren’t wrong and harmful is absurd.
---
### Author:  [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/12 "2013-10-02T23:11:03Z")
If you heard about a neighbor who slept with little boys, what would you think?
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/13 "2013-10-02T23:11:34Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> I have a friend (major music fan, very sophisticated about all aspects of pop-music history and culture) who is convinced, still, that Michael Jackson was innocent of all accusations of boy-banging. The way he accounts for Jackson’s remarkable behavior is: Jackson worked his ass off for his family and fanbase from the age of six, he never had a chance to have what most of us would call a childhood, and once he got uberrich, he was resolved to spend the rest of his life acting like a little boy would act, if he were uberrich and emancipated. That’s what Neverland is all about, a big, expensive playground full of toys. Psychologically, the adult MJ **was** a little boy. And little boys are sexless. The boys he sometimes gathered 'round him were nothing more than age-appropriate playmates. If he ever took a shower with a boy, it was only as two little boys might shower together.
>
> That’s my friend’s theory. I have no opinion, really; it’s not entirely implausible. I only recall that when MJ was arraigned in Los Angeles on sexual-abuse charges, there were massive street-demonstrations in his support in Los Angeles, and in Mexico City, Moscow and Beijing. So I guess a lot of people must agree.
>
> What say you?
Yep. Just a sad man who never got to have a childhood and wanted to recreate one.
Creepy? Maybe. Pedo? No.
---
### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/14 "2013-10-02T23:13:07Z")
He had a life-sized mannequin of a pre-pubescent boy in his bedroom. Do we really need to debate anything?
---
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/15 "2013-10-02T23:30:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I am very glad to not know the definitive answer to this question, and the hypothesis your friend holds may well be correct. Even if it is, though, that’s still a seriously creepy way for a grown man to act. There being a cause for the creepy behavior doesn’t really make it any less creepy.
Well, it just makes it creepy in a different way. One way or another MJ was seriously messed up in the head, no argument there.
---
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/16 "2013-10-02T23:32:52Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#):
>
> What’s the Straight Dope on “Bat Shit Crazy”? Why is that crazier than other crazies?
Because bats are crazy, I suppose, or at least they appear so to humans, not flying with steady direction like a bird but flitting and tumbling all over the place, and sleeping hanging by their toes from cave-roofs.
---
### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/17 "2013-10-02T23:36:39Z")
> [@Steophan](#):
>
> You need a cite that being taken to bed by a grown man is harmful to a child? Seriously?
“Taken to bed” implies something more than what apparently happened, which was sleeping together in the sense of sleeping.
---
### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/18 "2013-10-02T23:44:14Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#):
>
> What’s the Straight Dope on “Bat Shit Crazy”? Why is that crazier than other crazies?
Bat shit was historically used as a source of saltpeter for the production of gunpowder. (This fact is given a nod in D&D, which lists bat guano as a material component of the [fireball spell](http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/fireball.htm).) That establishes an association between bat shit and explosives.
So, I’d say that “bat-shit crazy” is explosive craziness, the kind that makes one prone to crazy outbursts and over-the-top nutty behavior, as opposed to more quiet forms of insanity. The old guy on the park bench who thinks the pigeons are talking to him isn’t bat-shit crazy, he’s quietly crazy…unless he gets up and starts ranting that we must bomb Saskatchewan, because the pigeons have warned him that the wendigo are massing their forces.
Or maybe it has to do with inhaling ammonia fumes.
---
### Author:  [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2013, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/19 "2013-10-02T23:51:50Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#):
>
> “Taken to bed” implies something more than what apparently happened, which was sleeping together in the sense of sleeping.
It’s at least in part the fact that that assumption will be made that is harmful. Then there’s the fact that he was prepared to pay tens of millions of dollars to hide the facts about what he did.
An adult should not be in bed with a child for pleasure. At the very best, what he did was inappropriate and harmful. At the most likely, it was wrong and illegal. At worst, he ruined people’s lives.
---
### Author:  [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215/20 "2013-10-03T00:05:56Z")
I think it may have initially been the whole “manchild who is still 8 years old emotionally” thing, but I’ll bet dollars to donuts that it went very very wrong probably during the first “sleepover”. And what parent with an ounce of brains allows their child to go off with a strange man alone?
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-pedo-or-hellno/670215.md?page=2)