Michael Jackson,Television,and Post-Op Disasters

Abstract

This article analyzes Martin Bashir's television documentary Living with Michael Jackson in light of U.S. national preoccupations with the fixity and, conversely, the indeterminacy of racial, sexual, and gendered subjectivities. On one hand, the authors center Bashir's film within the broader context of recent cultural moves by neoconservatives and the broader U.S. public to express a moral core regarding issues of race, gender, family, and sexuality. On the other hand, they look closely at the format, genre, and televisual character of this representation, its timing, and its ability to generate audiences and other media coverage. Specifically, the authors are interested in the ongoing fascination with Michael Jackson as an expression of unresolved social tensions in the U.S. imaginary, especially with regard to notions of indeterminate or unfixable racial and sexual bodies.