I've also felt that MJ was innocent of the charges. Maybe he did have children in his bed, but there was no malicious intent. Michael believed that he was a child himself, so in his mind, we wasn't a 45-year-old playing with children, he was one of them. Even the first incident (settled out of court) always smelled fishy to me. Speaking for myself, if my child had been molested, I would have wanted justice, not cash. And apparently that father was later heard commenting on "winning the lottery," and so on, so the whole thing seems very suspect to me. MJ had deep emotional issues, and convicting him of child molestation, sending him to prison would not have been the answer. It may have killed him. A psychiatric facility, maybe, but prison . . . I shudder thinking about it.
Lupita, most of the cosmetic procedures that I've had done were also to rejuvenate. Like MJ, I've tried to look forever 25, which is my way of not looking like my N mother. Even when I was a child, M always look old and haggard, grumpy, mean. I think the way she lived her life took a toll on her looks. She was never happy, and SO full of hatred. In addition to being an N, she was also a sociopath, and hated everyone. She felt that she was perfect, and that everyone else was flawed. I honestly don't remember her EVER saying something nice about someone. She was a horrible bigot, especially towards blacks. I look back at photos from my childhood, and can't believe that M was only 30-years-old in those pics. She looked at LEAST 20 years older.
Like MJ, I think part of me obsesses over looking young because I'm still emotionally young. I never had children, and have remained somewhat in a state of arrested development, always trying to get back the childhood I never had. I get very confused when I start to see signs of aging, almost like I'm perplexed by it and don't know what it is. I feel 25 emotionally, so if I look in the mirror and see something else . . . I can't explain the feeling. It's like I feel detached from my body. So end result, I've worked my butt of to remain thin so I can still dress the age that I feel I am. And I've had the procedures. A mini-lift, laser resurfacing, botox when needed (stress makes me furl my brow like you wouldn't believe). When you read all that, the first reaction is probably that I look like Joan Rivers, but I really do look very young, and very natural. (I was also blessed with a skin condition in which I have too many oil glands, and excessive oil production. This has caused severe acne all my life, but the trade-off has been that my skin has not wrinkled - a curse at 20, a blessing at 49). Being the opposite of M, physically, has allowed me to actually like myself, not because I feel pretty, but because I feel that I'm NOT HER.
Anyway, my point is that I really get MJs desire to stay forever young, because his brain was forever young. Someone recently asked me if I could envision Michael Jackson at 80, and no, I can't. And having a skin condition myself, I've always believed that he did have the Vitiligo. I don't know why so many people questioned that. I had a black friend who had that condition, and she had white spots all over her body. Jackson often said that there was no known method of bleaching skin, so I asked a friend who is a plastic surgeon, and she told me that it's true. Skin can be made darker through natural means (sun exposure) or drugs like melanin pills, but black skin cannot be bleached. It makes me angry that so many people doubted him.
I can see where it would be hard for "normal" people to understand MJ. But for me, someone who was also emotionally damaged by an N parent, I got what was going on in his head. Many of my own friends have questioned me for defending him, but they aren't able to view things through my eyes. I sit around wondering what it must be like to be "normal," and not be haunted by what my mother did to me. I'm sure MJ did too. I think that's all he really longed for . . . to feel "normal."