AIBU to be shocked by public celebration of Michael Jackson?

[2021x]

Now the MJ film is out my social media feed is flooded with people doing the dances and talking about the movie etc. My local cinema is holding special events and screenings.

I personally have no doubt that he was a predatory paedophile. All the signs are there, especially how he talks about how he would never hurt a child and sharing a bed with them is the "most loving thing you can do in the world". He manipulated the world into thinking he had a "child-like persona" but was able to manage a music career worth millions... which someone who is naive would never be able to manage.

I also do not judge people who enjoy his music. It was very popular at the time, and would be associated with all types nostaligic memories. I listen to problematic artists all the time, but I don't pretend that they weren't abusive.

AIBU to be astounded that any business/media outlet would be seen dead even associating with him let alone celebrating such a horrifically abusive man.

You're so right, apologies, I didn't realise there was a second part

No apologies necessary 😅

The original isn't available anywhere officially at the moment unfortunately for those who want to see it. It is available on other sites, but not sure how safe they are to use!

No seriously thanks for being gracious, sometimes it appears I come in all guns blazing

No court said he was.
Many then child stars have said he wasn’t.
The general consensus is that he was trying to warn people about Epstein et al.
I have never thought he was a paedophile- I always thought he was child like in his personality because his parents stole his childhood from him.

In what way did he warn people about Epstein? or try to warn people about Epstein? What about his behaviour warned people about Epstein?

I have never thought he was a paedophile- I always thought he was child like in his personality because his parents stole his childhood from him.

Yes loads of people thought that and still think that, because that's the narrative that has always been spun, a very simple one that he just loves children, is childlike himself and that he never had a childhood, and then people just repeat it.

As far as I recall, when I was a teenager I had no real opinion of him and was very neutral, I don't think I was aware of previous sexual abuse allegations. I did watch the Martin Bashir documentary and remember all the discussion afterwards, and I do remember thinking how odd it was that it needed to be spelled out (including to me) that his behaviour sleeping in bed with children was completely inappropriate, so on some level despite paying no attention to MJ and not knowing anything about him I had in fact absorbed the messaging that he was just a child and 'never had a childhood' myself up until that point. It was very insidious.

Which bit? Genuinely, if your male neighbour, down the street, said he had Peter Pan syndrome and had local seven-year-olds sleeping in his bed because he loved children so much, would you be championing him too?

Or how about if Michael Jackson was still alive, happy to send your young boy over there for a sleepover?

ETA - never mind, realised you mean the opposite, I think!

I think if he was trying to protect them, he should probably have discouraged them from sharing beds with middle aged men.

I still think the child actors, CF,AC, were the ones who especially weren't abused, Macauly Culkin too to "prove" see he could have juvenile boys as "friends" when it was a power thing, those boys were Hollywood, not plucked from obscurity, their parents were not dazzled by Disneyland or blinded by the showbiz lights

Obviously, we have no idea of what actually happened, particularly when talking about specific children, but there are many entirely plausible reasons why an adult, or a child at the time, might deny that something like this had happened.

Grooming, ongoing trauma, identity, complexities of memory, shame, legal pressure, familial pressure, guilt - any and all of this exponentially compounded by his fame (just look at the adoring comments here and imagine the backlash they’d receive), theirs and intense public scrutiny.

It’s simplifying beyond belief to say ‘they said he protected them.’ If it indeed happened, I can well imagine the adult in this scenario saying that…

While I am convinced that MJ was a paedophile and I believe his victims I admit I’m an utter hypocrite: I refuse to listen to MJ’s music, but I still listen to Led Zeppelin and Red Hot Chilli Peppers and David Bowie. While I like MJ’s music, I don’t like it quite enough to overlook the pederastry. Whereas with bands I really love I can just hand wave it away and say they were a product of their age.

And yes this makes me a terrible person.

I think they want anything to do with him wiped out of existence. Which is quite tricky when he was the biggest artist of the 80s.

I don’t necessarily want everything to do
with him wiped from existence. That would be difficult. But not celebrating him like a fucking hero with a major biopic would be a start…

Possibly but you never know.

Sean Lennons music video is deeply disturbing and makes me think he was molested, he said he wasn't and the video was just about being ditched when you're too old to play with, and that nothing illegal happened but that something odd was going on and he didn't know what, but I felt physically unwell watching the video, even worse than Leaving Neverland.

LOL, fair enough.

What’s the ‘lol’ in this situation?

Do you often ‘lol’ when discussing the potential sexual abuse of little boys?

@SwingTheMonkey don't be so ridiculous.

No really. What was there to ‘lol’ about? I mean, I don’t tend to ‘lol’ when discussing the potential abuse of children, but I guess we’re all different…
I said I thought that a potential child sex abuser shouldn’t be immortalised in a biopic. You ‘lolled’. Why exactly? Perhaps you could explain.

I did exactly the same. Went to the cinema with both DC to watch something and blurted something out when I saw that trailer. Loudly. 😳 Couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
DD wanted to watch it the last weekend and went with DH. I put my foot down and refused point blank to go with them and told them both why.

@SwingTheMonkey I take it you’ve contacted Sony Pictures to tell them you disapprove of the forthcoming Beatles biopics? How did it go? And what happened with your correspondence with the companies that made the biopics of James Brown and Elvis?

Why would you 'take it' to mean that?
That poster is just discussing this on a forum, do you contact filmmakers etc to express your approval or disapproval of something before you talk about it online?🤔 Have you wrote to the Jackson family to express love and support before discussing on mumsnet? or are you simply interacting on a forum?

I'm not laughing at child abuse FFS I'm talking about the biopic which doesn't even cover any of that🙄

She'd rather have a go at some of us here than actually do anything constructive.

Oh shit man, this is beyond disgusting.. no one was safe then?

It's just hard to know, there probably are some who he didn't touch sexually but does that mean they were safe? He could have been spying on them changing or doing god knows what perverts like him do to get their kicks when they can't touch a child, or maybe he did touch them while they were sleeping.Aaron Carter said he once woke up to Michael standing at the end of his bed in 'tighty wighties', he didn't know if he was sleepwalking or not, but I don't believe there have been any other reports of Michael sleepwalking.

But what about it made you ‘lol’?