Michael Jackson’s Hidden Sexuality
Hilton Als’ essay on Michael Jackson in the New York Review of Books has flashes of brilliance, especially about the pop star’s sexuality. Conclusion: “In the end, the chief elements of his early childhood—his father, his blackness, the church, his mother’s silence—won, and the prize was his self-martyrdom: the ninety-pound frame; the facial operations; the dermatologist as the replacement family; the disastrous finances; the young boys loved, and then paid off. Michael Jackson died a long time ago, and it’s taken years for anyone to notice.” The culture is certainly noticing now.
