Simone Reddington

This summer will mark a decade since Michael Jackson died.  I was a weird, spotty 11 year old back in June 2009 who was finishing my first year at a very strict Christian secondary school, and I already knew that I was never going to fit into the tight cliques there.  The school was a good 20 minute drive away from where I lived; my family didn’t own Bibles or send me to church on Sundays and I was bullied for my short hair cut and teeth before braces.  I felt so low about myself that I believed the kids at school who told me that nobody liked me and that I was going to grow up to be a weird loner whom everyone would still mock, just like how Jackson was presented in the tabloids before he died.  However, when the news of Michael Jackson’s death broke, the media suddenly changed the way they presented the popstar.  He was remembered for being the ground-breaking musician whom the entire world adored back in the 1980s, before he was known for the scandals in his personal life.  As an extremely awkward teenager who was just learning to navigate the hell hole that is our early teenage years in secondary school, I related to how misunderstood he must have felt.  I exclusively listened to Michael Jackson albums that summer as I had no friends from school who asked me to go out and play.  Whenever anyone accused of me listening to music made by a paedophile, I simply pointed out that he was cleared of all charges of child molestation in 2005.  I knew what it was like to feel that the world hated you and would believe every nasty rumour that was spread about you.

In the 10 years since, my life and the world I live in has changed in every single way as I left school and gained a degree at a very open minded university.  I’ve met so many weird and wonderful people, found friends I treasure with all my heart and learnt to accept myself for who I am.  Basically I’ve grown up into a normal, functioning adult like most of do in between the ages of 11 to 21.  I’ve made plenty of mistakes and gained a better understanding of how the world works, and so has the rest of our society. 

The latest child abuse charges against Michael Jackson in the Leaving Neverland documentary shown this week have came after the Operation Yewtree investigation and #MeToo movement.  Sexual abuse is now taken much more seriously and it is now accepted that rich powerful men can get away with A LOT of horrible things.  While we never really know exactly what happened inside Neverland, this last week I have now had to come to the terms that Michael Jackson was most likely a horrible paedophile rather than a nice man who just wanted to Heal the World.

The Finding Neverland documentary has had a huge effect on the legacy that Michael Jackson has left behind.  Radio stations across the globe have banned his music and the episode of The Simpsons that he voice-starred in his now cancelled.  However, I completely disagree with this.  When I heard Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough playing at work the other day, I was still completely in awe of the incredible record that has had generations of people tearing up the dance floor in the 40 years since it was first released.  It was playing in a busy chip shop in Liverpool and nobody complained that they associated with child abuse.  While I have every sympathy with the victims, the past cannot be changed.  You cannot undo what they have claimed happened to them, and you cannot rewrite one of the most influential musicians out of history.

What we, as a society can do, is to stop idolising musicians and artists as though they are morally superior to other musicians.  Imagine a world if we were to destroy every form of art that was made by people who did awful things in the personal life, we would literally have nothing left.  We wouldn’t have any of the art in art galleries that has been admired for centuries and our history books would be empty.  Most of the imposing architecture around the world would be destroyed and we’d live soley in box building built by the government We wouldn’t be able to listen to the music made by the Beatles, David Bowie etc and would have nothing but popstars manufactured by reality TV to listen to.  The novels that we have read and discussed for generations would be out of question.  The interviews that stars give out would have to be incredibly forced as nobody would want to cause offence.  Sounds like a dystopian nightmare doesn’t it? The point I want to make, is that power and influence corrupts people.  Obviously there’s a whole lot of phycological reasons behind paedophilia that I don’t understand, but the reason why famous people get away with evil things like this is because their adoring fans don’t want to believe the claims when victims speak out.  It’s easy to present yourself as a great person when you have the influence and its easier to think you can get away with being horrible to others.  I’ll always love Michael Jackson’s music, but I will never believe another musician/actor/celebrity is a nice person and defend them just because I’m a fan of their work.