Another fangirl checking in. I’ve always thought his upbringing (mostly Joe) did make him somewhat of a perpetual kid. Then, as menioned, the vitiligo, apparent body dysmorphic disorder, Pepsi injuries, and more issues from his family just combined to royally fuck him up.
The relative normalcy of his children, and now the strength both Paris and Prince are showing make me think he might have been a pretty good dad.
Diosa, I’m not really in your camp that the two older kids are biologically his, but think Blanket might be. Nevertheless, they were his kids. Anyone recall the interview with Paris about her father’s death where she was asked about something the public would be surprised to learn about MJ? She says he made amazing pancakes. Who could imagine MJ making a buncha flapjacks?
Paris is already stunning with her dark skin and blue eyes. She’s going to be gorgeous when she grows up.
Did not know about the porn collection. That makes me feel infinitely better about his alleged proclivities.
I never liked MJ. I got into music just after Thriller, and was culturally clueless (and only 9-10 years old) when it was popular. As a person, I always disliked him intensely as well. My opinion has improved greatly since he died, sadly. All I need to know about him, that explains his behavior, is right here in his Wikipedia entry:
“Big Nose?” Hmm… Maybe there’s a connection between that and this.
I’ll concede that Blanket might be Michael’s biological son. He looks like he could be half-black. But Prince and Paris are white. Not mixed-race. White. I saw all three of them on the news this morning. The contrast between Blanket and his two older siblings is quite striking.
As an aside, is the identity of Blanket’s mother still a secret? I find it incredably wierd that we don’t know who she is. Was she just an egg donor or something?
Sorry, but I don’t see it. As I said in the the last thread about MJ’s kids, Prince and Paris look like they could be Michael’s kids, if Michael’s appearance was real, and not the result of what must be unprecedented levels of cosmetic alteration. I figure the most likely scenario is that Michael found a sperm donor who had some resemblance to him (as he appeared at the time) and used this man to father his children. The goal was so MJ could forget about his real family and more effectively live in his own little fantasy world.
If he had a normal voice, why did he talk in such a high-pitched voice in interviews? That’s really bizarre. I can understand singing in a high register if the music calls for it, but why talk that way? (And only in public apparently?)
If you think Jackson’s possession of hetero porn undercuts the molestation charges, you are wrong. It is often the case that molesters provide porn to their victims to arouse them and to lower their inhibitions.
I don’t understand the people saying the older kids aren’t Michael’s. They have the look of a lot of mixed-race people I have known.Quincy Jones’s daughter Rashida Jones has a similar look to Michael’s kids.
She’s not that exceptional. My cousin-in-law’s got four biracial kids–the baby’s still too little to say much about her skin tone yet, but of the other three, you’ve got one that’s a shade or two darker than Rashida Jones, one that’s got almost exactly the same skin tone, and one that’s quite a bit lighter. And their dad is at least as dark as Michael Jackson originally was. So Imma hafta call bullshit on those kids being too light to be MJ’s.
I’m not Diosa, but you can see from the case of Lee Thomas that vitiligo can turn some parts of the body (especially hands) totally white. You can see how difficult it is to match skin tone (especially darker skin) and how it might be less work, depending on how advanced the de-melaninization (is that a word?) is, to try to match the lighter tones of skin rather than the other way around.
We had a Black male teacher at my high school who had vitiligo; he didn’t cover it up. His face was more depigmented (white) than dark. I would imagine if he wanted a consistent look, it would be much easier to lighten the dark patches than the other way.
I don’t think there is strong evidence that MJ bleached his skin, but there is definitely strong evidence that he used makeup to cover it up. As Diosa has already said, many of his fashion choices - fedoras, the white glove, tape on his fingers, arm braces, long sleeves and long pants even in the summer, and a parasol - were ways he tried to deal with his vitiligo.
It’s actually a testament to his creativity that instead of wearing a nondescript glove to cover his hands, he made it flamboyant and created a fashion statement. For a time he was simply referred to as “The Gloved One.”
Just to throw another anecdote on the pile, in addition to knowing many mixed kids who come out looking more Mediterranean than anything (like Rashida), there was also one girl at my high school who just blew me away. If there was a real life snow white, it was this chick-- porcelain white skin, big blue eyes, shiny straight full almost black hair (in color, I mean). One day, I met her dad-- a very large, very dark black man with a wider nose and fuller lips. I assumed that this was her step father, perhaps who has raised her since childhood, but that there was just absolutely no way this snow white looking child came from this man- I mean, she had literally no trace of him in her whatsoever.
Long story short, after some talking, the topic came up and he laughed and said, “Don’t think I didn’t demand a paternity test the MINUTE she came out of her momma! But I did. And she’s 99.9999999999% for sure mine! Genetics are a CRAZY thing.” I remember on a later visit she actually showed me a copy of the paternity test and he was definitely her father.
So, while I’ll happily concede that there is a perhaps more common set of features that most mixed kids have, there are always outliers. Plus, it’s not like the Jackson kids are anywhere near as white as that chick I knew in high school.
I don’t think they get their hair treated, though. Even when they were masked as kids, their hair was pretty fine-- curly, but less kinky and more the loose curls that go along with fine hair.
All anecdotes are equal. My gut is that they are not his biological children but until we know for sure then it is all conjecture.
As was noted earlier, a poorer, less well known man would likely be in prison for his behavior around children. Troubled youth aside, Jackson wasn’t a healthy man.
As for vitiligo, if it is makeup then that artist should be rewarded. Again, my gut says it was Jackson’s vanity and crazy that led him to destroy his face and bleach his skin. YMMV.
What behavior? People say this, and I used to believe it, but when he died I went and looked at everything, and I see no sign of any proof that he did anything illegal. I can see him socially shunned, maybe, but not put in jail. Especially since at least one of the people accusing him admitted to being coached, meaning it likely was because he was rich that at least one group went after him.
I mean, story after story shows that pedophiles are really good at making people feel safe around them. No one ever seems to get suspicious until there’s actual molestation. Unless, of course, “behavior” is code for molestation.
I also must admit I find it weird that people would rather believe he did something so unprecedented as try to change his race when the mundane explanation of his vitiligo is available, with so many signs of him deliberately covering up his skin while he was still dark.
Well, I am with you on Jackson being a mental case, and likely a molester, but as for paternity, I think the presumption lies with Michael being the father in the absence of evidence to the contrary. (I see no such evidence.)
Just to throw out another anecdote, one of my coworkers is a South Asian woman with a very light “white” looking complexion, with the exception of large, darker blotches on her hands and face. I don’t know this woman very well (we work in different buildings and our jobs aren’t closely connected) and just sort of assumed she had liver spots, scars, or some other condition that caused these dark patches on her skin.
Then I happened to see some old group photos of people in our organization and learned that 15 years ago my coworker had an even, medium brown complexion. I realized then that my coworker must have vitiligo. One of the first thoughts I had after that was actually “Huh, maybe Michael Jackson was telling the truth about having a skin condition and not just trying to look white.” My coworker’s face and hands are now more light than dark, and if she wanted to use makeup to even out her skin tone I think she’d have a much easier time going pale than trying to recreate her former complexion.
