Michael Jackson: Trans Man.

Michael Jackson. Dead at 50, with over 750 million albums sold. A genius, a freak, a trail blazer, a victim. Jackson's been called all that and more  – sometimes  in a single piece of prose.

People will be talking about Jackson, his music, performance style, but most of all perhaps his persona, for decades. But ironically, one of the most perceptive reflections on Jackson was penned not since he died on June 25, but years before. Circulating around the internet over these past few days, has been an essay by James Baldwin which originally appeared in Playboy in 1985.

It's not about Jackson, James Baldwin, wrote in the essay, originally titled "Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood" (and later renamed "Here be Monsters.")  Our culture's discomfort with those we consider "freaks" actually reveals something about ourselves. 

"The Michael Jackson cacophony is fascinating in that it is not about Jackson at all," Baldwin wrote. "All that noise is about America, as the dishonest custodian of black life and wealth....the burning, buried American guilt; and sex and sexual roles and sexual panic; money, success and despair…"

Baldwin put his finger on it: we're provoked -- and call "unstable" those who actually destabilize us. While Jackson may have been struggling with his own demons, he powerfully stirred up ours.

"Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated–in the main, abominably" continued Baldwin, "Because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires."

Freaks, so-called, destablize notions we're more comfortable keeping fixed, and mess about with ideas we prefer to box in -- like ideas about identity, sexuality, race, and control. "Freaks"  destabilize. They also release something, if we let them.

So thanks to Michael, and to freaks and transformers everywhere.  On a good day, loosening up that previously fixed-space opens up room for change.

The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Follow "GritLaura" on Twitter.

Comments (33)

1. FLANDERS: "Our culture's discomfort with those we consider "freaks" actually reveals something about ourselves. "

   What non-sense!

   Is there any culture that's NOT discomforted by the ""freaks"" in their midst? Doesn't every ""freak"" in every civilization AT ANYTIME gets outsized attention that is in fact, a form of mass entertainment?

   What horse manure wrt to Baldwin's "American Ideal of Manhood"!

   To most of us, MJ was a bubblegum kid who evolved directly into a freak w/out ever being thought of in the same sentence with "manhood".

   Posted by Happy at 07/01/2009 @ 09:50am

2. Next; Laura Flanders deep psychological mysticism whimsical understanding of the Barnum and Bailey "Freak side Show" in their turn of the century circus!

   Posted by BigPasture at 07/01/2009 @ 10:28am

3. did anyone else notice happy's blatant and immediate contradiction?

   his first response to baldwin's claim that jackson reveals something about ourselves:

   "non-sense!"

   and then in the very next paragraph, happy asks:

   "Doesn't every ""freak"" in every civilization AT ANYTIME gets outsized attention that is in fact, a form of mass entertainment?"

   so our culture gives too much attention to jackson, and yet the claim that that might reveal something about ourselves is nonsense?

   happy, you really need to think things through before you attempt criticize one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the last 200 years, mr. baldwin.

   Posted by darladoon at 07/01/2009 @ 10:41am

4. you know what really says something about our culture?

   these mindless zombie conservatives who troll the pages of liberal publications, seeking out any attempt to dismantle or disengage intelligent and thoughtful conversation, by saying the most mind-numblingly vapid and doltish things....

   really, what does it take for someone to just knee-jerk criticize james f*cking baldwin?

   i really cannot think of a more astute, more poetic, more compassionate writer than baldwin. and here we have two pre-pubescent assholes trolling these pages, with nothing better to do all day except make my life miserable.

   Posted by darladoon at 07/01/2009 @ 10:44am

5. Just keep in mind, Darla...

   these guys think Rush Limbaugh is a "regular Joe" and uptil recently thought the same of guys like Larry Craig and Mark Sanford.

   Posted by Mask at 07/01/2009 @ 11:02am

6. Posted by darladoon at 07/01/2009 @ 10:44am

   I suppose "ignore" is always an option. I don't recall... just checked, no one is on my TN list.

   I liked this piece, calling my att to Baldwin's essay.

   I realize I really don't believe much of the MSM media when it comes to artists. Most of the "celebrities" I've had the pleasure to meet (not many) in everyday encounters, Cher, Richard Betts, Liza Minnelli, for example, have been sweet, humble, down-to-earth people, rather in contrast to my usual freakish self. It seems the MSM remanufactures people into the kind of images Plato's troglodytes must have seen.

   Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 07/01/2009 @ 11:06am

7. i really cannot think of a more astute, more poetic, more compassionate writer than baldwin. and here we have two pre-pubescent assholes trolling these pages, with nothing better to do all day except make my life miserable.

   Posted by darladoon at 07/01/2009 @ 10:44am

   Ok, you got my curiosity. How did the posts by Happy and Rio make your life miserable? and if it really did, what does that say about the stability of your life and emotions?

   Posted by antisocialist at 07/01/2009 @ 11:26am

8. I don't know Baldwins work, and I don't know what he would have thought of MJ for Laura to suppose MJ is a typical freak of the type baldwin was speaking I don't know.

   What I do know is that MJ had issues. He was an amazing preformer, and I could care less about the wierd transformation he underwent. What bothered me most about him were the sleep overs he had with children, dangling his child off a balcony (WTF!), in general not freakiness, but pyschologically unstable.

   To state that since MJ was different thus makes him a needed freak for society is like saying any child molesting sociopath is a needed freak for society. NOT THAT MJ WAS! Its just that not all freaks are equal. Charles Manson is a freak would Baldwin argue he has been treated "abominably" or leading people to brutally murder people is a notion that society should not be uncomfortable with?

   Call me a prude, but I don't think sleeping with children is OK, yes it bothers me. Same as rape or murder bother me.

   "Freaks, so-called, destablize notions we're more comfortable keeping fixed, and mess about with ideas we prefer to box in -- like ideas about identity, sexuality, race, and control."

   I think the notion that child molestation or abuse is something everyone should want to keep fixed.

   Many people find MJ freaky for different reasons. To me how he looked is irrelevant, it is the little disturbing actions of his private life that make him freaky to me, as in that freaky child molester way. Sorry if I am overly comfortable with the notion that grown men should not be sleeping with children.

   Posted by Extraneous at 07/01/2009 @ 11:28am

9. 'It is rare that one likes a world-famous man--by the time they become world-famous they rarely like themselves.' -- James Baldwin -- Harpers Magazine

   Posted by HonestLiberal at 07/01/2009 @ 11:45am

10. This is a good piece. I think people need to realize what we are expecting our stars to do. We expect to see them in every city performing their finest and in top form. To perform to the fullest it takes rehearsals(alot of rehearsals). This takes time. Traveling to these cities takes time. So now even if you are in a city for 7days a rehearsal is called at 0800, breaks @1200 for lunch, revenes again @ 1330 until they get it right. The rehearsal ends at 1900 that night. Now the performers are so wound up with stress and still have to make the personal appearances for the public and press. Where do they go? The dancers need to practice their routines now on a dance floor. They have to eat and mingle at the same time. Maybe drinks to calm the stress down. I believe it is called PR for the concerts. Isn't it? Doesn't most everyone turn to TMZ for the newest announcements? I mean if Michael Jackson were in my hometown I would want to see all the action. It is now 0230 and performers are crawling into bed. Have to sleep fast and heavy. Sleeping pill perhaps? Rehearsal-1900-performance-travel to next city. Begin again! Could we really say we could do this without alcohol and drugs and be "HONEST". By the way they call them drugs because they have an action. The person takes on the action of the drug. Now we call them "freaks", because of their actions. But we'll buy tickets for their concerts, won't we? You betcha'. We want to see a "super star". There are no super stars. We are all human. It is what we put in our systems that make us abnormal. "Yes" being a super star is abnormal. Sorry to bust anyone's bubbles. "OCD" and stardom WILL kill you. Proven over and over. Betsy Poplawski of Prescott Valley, Arizona.

    Posted by 9Greatdanes at 07/01/2009 @ 11:48am

11. "Now the performers are so wound up with stress and still have to make the personal appearances for the public and press. Where do they go? ..."

    Where do they go to unwind? They travel the world in unimaginable luxury, are treated like Gods, get specuial treatment with in and out side the laws whereas we would go to jail(see Kennedys), and they earn, what $ 500 million?

    Where do they go? To private $10,000 a day/night resorts or build their own, Neverland...or fly around in their own G-5 jets preaching to the the rest of us the values of peace, saving energy and simle living...

    Its crapp. Jackson was born weird and died weird. What happens in between is his fate and a result of his own choices...

    I gotta go with EXTRANEOUS on this one.

    Posted by YourJomamma at 07/01/2009 @ 2:25pm

12. i just never cared for his music...never thought it was so brilliant.

    now begins the "anna nicole meets howard hughes post mortem soap operic circus".

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/01/2009 @ 2:31pm

13. ...guys like Larry Craig and Mark Sanford.

    Posted by Mask at 07/01/2009 @ 11:02am

    "Sanford can still do good work." --Sen. Graham, MSNBC, June 28, 2009

    (And some of his best work, apparently, was done in Argentina.)

    Posted by schnellerheinz at 07/01/2009 @ 2:46pm

14. Many people find MJ freaky for different reasons. To me how he looked is irrelevant, it is the little disturbing actions of his private life that make him freaky to me, as in that freaky child molester way.

    Posted by Extraneous at 07/01/2009 @ 11:28am

    I think you're in left field....by focusing on his "freaky child molester way".

    He became a novelty by first carving down his nose....he became a freak by unceasing cosmetic surgeries to his face...hence creating sensations every so often by `showcasing' his Latest and Greatest Face of Michael.

    The world is filled with child molesters and other than being thought of as criminally freaky, they aren't the type of `freaks' one can reliably put on the cover of Nat'l Enquirer to sell rags.

    I'll wager, there is but a handful of disturbed people who would butcher their own face the way MJ did.....that's why he was a freak...and a very, very unique one at that!

    King of Pop? More apt to be...the Freak of Pop!

    Posted by Happy at 07/01/2009 @ 4:00pm

15. Posted by antisocialist at 07/01/2009 @ 11:26am

    They sucked up valuable moments of my life I'll never get back again. I'm crying right now thinking of all those lost moments.

    Posted by Extraneous at 07/01/2009 @ 11:28am

    What you know is exactly nothing about Michael Jackson. Imagine if you had camera crews following you around all your life and televising all your stupid moments live in technocolor, and then someone comes behind and wants to pass judgment on the couple fragments they saw without looking at the totality of the man. 'Cause you and I are constantly waving at crowds outside our hotel windows, right?

    Sure, he was flawed. But then again, aren't we all? Maybe Michael Jackson had at least one thing right - perhaps we should start with the man in the mirror.

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/01/2009 @ 2:31pm

    Michael Jackson, like you've never heard his music before.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYTwzq1FLd0

    Tell me you didn't like that! You've never had the organ do you so good in your earhole.

    Posted by srjenkins at 07/01/2009 @ 8:59pm

16. Private companies cut 473,000 jobs from their payrolls in June, according to a survey by ADP employer services on Wednesday. The figure was slightly lower than the revised 485,000 jobs slashed in May, but was worse than economists expected and raised fears that the unemployment rate would continue to climb.

    California is now officially a banrupt debtor state thanks to the same kinds of economic programs the Obamanation that makes desolation and the Demoncrats have passed to doom the U.S.A. economically!

    The trillions in new national debt they have passed assures the young of no future, no new jobs, no start up manufactoring etc., at least NOT in the U.S.A. !

    Who were the irresponsible fools that voted for this Cabal of defeatism and apologetics...... oh yeah many post here still praising the Magic Messiah of the left!

    Posted by BigPasture at 07/01/2009 @ 9:46pm

17. Maybe we so-called "normal" folks are the real freaks, for we want the impossible to be possible.

    We want to pretend that racism is over in the U.S., just because it's most egregious forms no longer exist (slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, lynching, etc.), and then we want to call a Black man who wants white skin, "a freak."

    Emmett Till died at age 14 in 1955. Michael Jackson was born in 1958. Is it really that hard to imagine what it was like for a Black baby-boy to be born in such a climate? Is it hard to imagine that he might grow up feeling that a white-skin is safer to be in?

    We want to pretend that children can be repeatedly physically and sexually abused, and then expect them to grow-up to be adults who are completely at ease with their bodies and sexuality.

    We want Black baby boys to head towards manhood with full macho-ness, while society has made clear that once they embrace that manhood, they will be targeted for violence and death.

    Yup, with our unreal expectations, we "normal" folks are the real freaks.

    Posted by nicjv at 07/01/2009 @ 10:26pm

18. I just recalled a TV interview w/ Prince I saw a long time ago and it was something like "all the way to the bank, baby..."

    Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 07/01/2009 @ 11:03pm

19. "Is there any culture that's NOT discomforted by the ""freaks"" in their midst?"

    You don't discomfort me, Happy. Nor does Big Pasture.

    Posted by onthehelm at 07/01/2009 @ 11:24pm

20. "The trillions in new national debt they have passed assures the young of no future, no new jobs, no start up manufactoring etc., at least NOT in the U.S.A. !"-----Posted by BigPasture at 07/01/2009 @ 9:46pm

    Curious, RIO.....what was keeping that from happening...

    under Dubya and the Republicans?!??!??!???

    I'm SURE you have some other "reason"....heheh

    Posted by Mask at 07/02/2009 @ 05:57am

21. Laugh all the way to the soup line masked idiot!

    The most insidious part of Obamacare is the backdoor taxes, and defacto control of our healthcare by the nanny state that President Obama's plan is loaded with. And here is another one that is not getting much play. Employers would be socked with requirements to pay for 72.5 percent of the cost of insurance premiums for their full-time employees under the plan being considered in the House.

    They would also be required to pick up an as yet undetermined percentage of the insurance plans for part-time employees, as well. This alone will insure that part-time jobs across the nation are terminated for the destructive cost involved in having them.

    Or, conversely, many full-time jobs will be eliminated if the costs of insurance is so steep and that of part-timers less so. Either way, jobs will be lost because of these new, never before seen expenses.

    According to the draft legislation in the House, businesses would be required to pay the federal government a fine of 8 percent of their payroll if they do not offer a basic insurance package to their employees. The House bill has yet to determine how large a small business must be before they are forced into this requirement.

    Let's think about what this means, though. This new mandatory expenditure will greatly drive up the costs of business for small and medium sized businesses and force many of them to close up shop. They will not be able to compete with the larger corporations that will have the resources to offer insurance plans even for part-time workers.

    Posted by BigPasture at 07/02/2009 @ 09:20am

22. This means the permanent elimination of mom-and-pop business nationwide and the proliferation of large, corporate held shops of all sorts. From the corner market and small book store to the local garage and sandwich shop, small businesses will be hounded out of business by overweening government mandates. This will naturally open the business to even more national chains of all sorts.

    It seems to me that the self-same people that claim they want nationalized healthcare are the same sort that decry the giants like WalMart. But here they are pushing an idea that will give them more WalMats from sea to shining sea!

    Seems a bit illogical of them, doesn't it?

    The Obamanation that makes desolation and the Demoncrats are determined to destroy the U.S.A. economically forever!

    Posted by BigPasture at 07/02/2009 @ 09:22am

23. Posted by srjenkins at 07/01/2009 @ 8:59pm

    I know a lot more about MJ than I know about you. Celebrity is not a defense. You can't claim that since your on camera all the time that it is ok to have sleep overs with little boys. His whole neverland ranch was a playground for little boys. Maybe at heart he thought of himself as a little boy, never grew up and it was never a sexual deviant thing. IDK! But, it is still freaky. I do not question his artistic ability, there is no arguing his amazing talent. Artists for centuries have been a little odd. Vangogh cutting his own ear off is a bit freaky. The article spoke to how the people we call freaks are really just representing repressed feelings of the rest of society, I think that is horseshit. I don't really care about how MJ looked, thought it odd, but whatever, what I can't accept is the way he treated his once friends like Paul McCartney, or that he would have sleep overs with little boys. That is freaky and I will not let celebrity be used as an excuse. Poor MJ...BS

    Posted by Extraneous at 07/02/2009 @ 11:05am

24. Posted by Extraneous at 07/02/2009 @ 11:05am

    I'm curious. Does your concern flip the other way? Suppose there is a single woman that has sleepovers for little girls at her ranch where they go horseback riding. Same concern?

    What about summer camps run by adults, like Tinkerer School? Does it make a difference if multiple adults are there? If it is run as a business?

    Are there personal biases in play? Perhaps you cannot imagine wanting to spend your time with children or preferring being around children rather than adults? Some people have the same preferences in respect to animals rather than people, but these kinds of concerns aren't raised because we don't value animals the same and the idea of bestiality is something people are less likely to be suspicious of.

    It is also easy to imagine that, in any relationship that a child has with a non-family adult, that the suspicions and protectiveness felt toward the child will be expressed as baseless accusations against the adult.

    Also, do you have any good friends that you have rejected later in life? Maybe something like that is in play with Paul McCartney.

    This isn't to defend Michael Jackson. Some of the claims made about him might be true. It is also fine for you to not like him, as a personal preference. But, you should also recognize that you are making judgments based on a rather partial picture and you could very well be very wrong.

    And even if he had every personal defect that people claim and more, it still doesn't change his cultural contribution.

    Posted by srjenkins at 07/02/2009 @ 11:33am

25. Can we look for just a few seconds at the core beginnings of MJ? His controlling, promote at any cost, not too bright, get it while you can father JOE? Consider that at the age of 11 MJ was convinced by this evil non-genius that he should have operation so his voice would not change....that this simple operation would guarantee his stardom forever. And that 11 year old MJ -hoping his father would then come to love him, even though his nose was too big and he wasn't perfect....says yes.

    It takes only a few years for MJ to find out the operation was the permanent removal of his cojones. And while it does assure him of a child like quality of voice for the rest of his life, he will never be able to father children, have a real marriage or be a true man. The ultimate abuse by a father on a trusting child, seeking approval.

    And so the sleeping with children would be harmless, the constant plastic surgery on his face and skin treatments, the bizarre diet rituals (needed to keep from gaining weight caused by hormone defiencies and finally but not least - the less than warm relationship with his father and fathers' consultants/managers.

    Freak? Probably. Totally his fault? Hardly.....

    Just a theory based on lots of credible rumors....

    Posted by rankandfile at 07/02/2009 @ 2:48pm

26. Yeah Mask, another key characteristic of regular Joe's is how they can't as Bush would say ABSTRACTIFY.

    Once someone's mixed a little black in the white paint, it's over. Gray = Black. They're ousted. Marked as freaks.

    Or, alternatively, redeemed via some pretzel logic and liberal scapegoating.

    It's power and control. They love O'Reilly's hate, so blame the chick, love Rush's hate, so blame the women/drugs, love Gingrich's hate, so blame the ex. ETC. So long as the Hater keeps up the hate, it's Big Tent Time.

    Posted by winyahn at 07/02/2009 @ 6:52pm

27. As one who once considered himself a "freak," let me say that I am appalled to be joined in that description by MJ.

    Posted by SHUNK at 07/03/2009 @ 01:26am

28. Well, the deconstruction for a Nation with any pretense at morality begins here:

    Michael Jackson Was a Huge, Gaping Asshole!

    Chauncy Haden

    "It's time for the voice of reason. Michael Jackson was an asshole. There, I said it, and I'll say it again. Michael "creepy, boy-loving" Jackson was an asshole. Got a problem with that? Too bad. I refuse to jump on the "rest in peace, we love you, Michael" bandwagon and shed tears over someone who was so f-ing despicable. How quickly the world forgets or conveniently chooses not to remember."

    Allow me to quickly recap the life of this troubled superstar: Michael Jackson was a pedophile. Michael Jackson was a drug addict. Michael Jackson abused his own children both physically and emotionally. .."

    Nice piece, huh? Trans Man my ass.

    Posted by jones at 07/03/2009 @ 10:32am

29. The key psychological idea of LF's post I take to be: As freak (even the kind that he was)MJ revealed something to us about ourselves. "Man in the mirror" See him? -- see yourself.

    This is undoubtedly accurate as a cemment on mass psychology. He epitomed what "we" wanted to see. What it took behind the scenes to prodice the "God feeling" Deepak Chopra called it "we" don't want to know. And he epitomized just that.

    To the point where it negates itself, in a kind of double denial. As mirror of the group psyche, flip the token over on its other side and what comes up is not just Huge Gaping Asshole, but serial child molester. Not man, not boy, not woman, husband, black, white -- all and none of these at once. A true composite of the Unconscious. This double denial, his and ours, is the focus of Americas alter-reality, its nothingness as an entity among us.

    But the edge of this Nothingness is pure sado-masochistic, passive-aggressive baby-boomer psychosis. It emerged at Abu Ghraib. There is a mocking, as-if-superior tone to the anal assault on male Muslim identity in the torture scenes, even hinting at a "more progressive religious outlook" theme. This is also repressed.

    The homosexual*/pedophilic link merges in the unconscious with the rising Great Gay Jew link: Harvey Milk =>good, BRUNO => b-a-a-d (its all a spoof, to get us to laugh at ourselves, heh heh)

    btwn us -- I believe it's the esoteric Genesis; the talking snake in Eden was a gay Jew, and He's back.

    Michael Jackson (assuming just one) is the focus of America's denial. He denied even having face surgery, everything bad that could be used against him. Americans who want to deny what lies behind the mask identify with his denial, and let it slide, because of PC and libel laws.

    Posted by jones at 07/03/2009 @ 12:08pm

30. I'm in the camp of those who veiw Michael Jackson as incredible entertainer. He wasn't a philosopher or a political artist. He wasn't a joker or an actor. he was simply a recording artist who made people jump to their feet and dance. His music will live on. He thrived in his creativity.

    He used his wealth in many charitible causes and also to advance his own interests. He was prone, as most artists are, to let 'others' control his life. He wasn't, and I strongly believe this, a pedophile. He was however a victim of a rabid media.

    I do feel, however that he will not be all that missed because he was a good decade beyond his prime. The black community will hold him up as the 'king', just as 'white America', held Elvis up as king. In truth, both of these men were trailblazers for all Americans whose need to be entertained was met in full Both Elvis and Jackson paid a serious price for their fame.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/04/2009 @ 1:59pm

31. Ditto what gunslingers said, except that I think his fans will miss him. I haven't come across anything that leads me to believe MJ was guilty of molestation. I am however appalled that so many people associate sleeping with children to sex, than with anything I've read MJ may have done. Maybe if his predators got more love and human contact as children they'd be less prone to being capable of willful betrayal and inflicting pain and torture on another human being. Whatever Michael did to his own body, was his business. It's sad for his children, as it as for the family of any addict. In his case the predators that dished out the degree of betrayal and humiilation that they did, are to blame.

    If our society is going to dissect MJ's life, the true, the speculation and the untrue, the least we can do is hold the real creeps accountable.

    Posted by fdlstx at 07/05/2009 @ 3:58pm

32. Weekend Update: General Francisco Franco and Michael Jackson are still dead.

    Posted by Mistral at 07/06/2009 @ 09:36am

33. Just an FYI, the term 'trans man' most often refers to a transgender man, that is, a person who transitions from female to male. Clearly that's not what Flander's had in mind; she was talking about Jackson transcending or transversing the boundaries between racial identities and sexualities, not gender identities.

    However, I would not be the least bit surprised if this article turns up in the Google Alerts of many confused, and possibly offended, transgender people. Frankly, many of us bristle at being compared to Jackson's sexual misdeeds, even by accident. (and IlyaKuryakin, you should know that 'tranny' is a decidedly unwelcome slur)

    Posted by tinamou at 07/06/2009 @ 10:40pm