If anyone were to make a list of all their favourite musicians, artists, writers, dancers, poets, scientists etc. and took a deep dive into all their pasts, I'm pretty certain they would find lots of examples of really horrible people. Tesla was a eugenicist. Chaplin had a thing for young girls. Wolfe (as in Virginia - women can be awful too!) was a hardcore elitist - meaning she believed that education was wasted on the poor. My favourite author H.P. Lovecraft was pathologically racist. Whether you choose or not to shun their work, you should at least be honest with yourself about who that person was. Believe people when they tell you about sexual abuse - the vast majority are not making this shit up. Call out bigots and abusers, liars and science-deniers.
Let me tell you a story about a painting. It's titled The Straw Hat. I fell in love with it many years ago. It came to symbolise much of what living in the North of Western Australia means to me. Its theme is quintessential Exmouth. I loved it so much that on a low wage I saved for a limited edition, autographed print. I saved further to have it framed perfectly and proudly displayed it in my dining room. I wanted to know if the artist felt the same as I did about the image he created, whether it conjured all the same feelings of pride and sentimental attachment to this place as it did for me. He is a Western Australian artist after all. His name is Rolf Harris.
That was one of the more difficult sacred cow slaughters I had to come to terms with. Filthy, fucking, rubbish, paedo human. All those women and girls he abused. I'd like to say there's a special place in hell, perhaps even a worse one, for people like him, but I'm not religious and he isn't even worthy as fertiliser.
These are not easy calls. Neither Jackson nor his monstrous father are still alive, so they cannot now profit from people listening to/purchasing either Jackson 5 music or Michael Jackson's solo efforts. But by keeping that music alive, do we risk a future where people don't understand what that music, and the money and power it generated, cost its victims? How important is it for history to list Jackson's father as a child-abusing monster, and Jackson himself as a child sex abuser, first, and as instigators and creators of great music second? It's easier to separate the art from the artist after the artist is dead; that way we aren't giving money to bad people. But what about when the victims are still alive?
I have no answers to any of the above, beyond working not to put any my money into monsters' pockets.
If anyone were to make a list of all their favourite musicians, artists, writers, dancers, poets, scientists etc. and took a deep dive into all their pasts, I'm pretty certain they would find lots of examples of really horrible people. Tesla was a eugenicist. Chaplin had a thing for young girls. Wolfe (as in Virginia - women can be awful too!) was a hardcore elitist - meaning she believed that education was wasted on the poor. My favourite author H.P. Lovecraft was pathologically racist. Whether you choose or not to shun their work, you should at least be honest with yourself about who that person was. Believe people when they tell you about sexual abuse - the vast majority are not making this shit up. Call out bigots and abusers, liars and science-deniers.
Let me tell you a story about a painting. It's titled The Straw Hat. I fell in love with it many years ago. It came to symbolise much of what living in the North of Western Australia means to me. Its theme is quintessential Exmouth. I loved it so much that on a low wage I saved for a limited edition, autographed print. I saved further to have it framed perfectly and proudly displayed it in my dining room. I wanted to know if the artist felt the same as I did about the image he created, whether it conjured all the same feelings of pride and sentimental attachment to this place as it did for me. He is a Western Australian artist after all. His name is Rolf Harris.
That was one of the more difficult sacred cow slaughters I had to come to terms with. Filthy, fucking, rubbish, paedo human. All those women and girls he abused. I'd like to say there's a special place in hell, perhaps even a worse one, for people like him, but I'm not religious and he isn't even worthy as fertiliser.
Thank you for addressing the abuse. As a survivor, it's important.
These are not easy calls. Neither Jackson nor his monstrous father are still alive, so they cannot now profit from people listening to/purchasing either Jackson 5 music or Michael Jackson's solo efforts. But by keeping that music alive, do we risk a future where people don't understand what that music, and the money and power it generated, cost its victims? How important is it for history to list Jackson's father as a child-abusing monster, and Jackson himself as a child sex abuser, first, and as instigators and creators of great music second? It's easier to separate the art from the artist after the artist is dead; that way we aren't giving money to bad people. But what about when the victims are still alive?
I have no answers to any of the above, beyond working not to put any my money into monsters' pockets.
I like the Jackson 5 better than Michael on his own. Before Thriller he had some good songs. After Thriller, nah.