In this solo minisode, Sam enters the wilderness of mirrors to unpack Michael Jackson: child star, King of Pop, fairy-tale monster, walking logo, and one of the strangest cultural phenomena of the 20th century. Using Margo Jefferson, Wendy Lesser, Mark Fisher, Foucault, Bakhtin, Peter Pan, The Little Prince, Shirley Temple, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Bob Fosse, P.T. Barnum, Neverland Ranch, pork pie hats, patent leather shoes, and white spats, Sam pursues Michael as a figure of inversion: the child who was an adult, the adult who became a child, the Black man who became white, the man who became a woman, the innocent who became the guilty. Along the way, she considers the glamour and horror of child stardom, the maternal diva archive, the carnivalesque body, the freakshow of Wacko Jacko, and why Michael’s legacy remains endlessly unresolved.
Stargirl’s 100th episode, we love you Emma <3
On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson
On Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart by Weird Studies
The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson, edited by Mark Fisher
His Other Half: Men Looking at Women Through Art by Wendy Lesser
Moonwalk: A Memoir by Michael Jackson
The Autobiography of PT Barnum by PT Barnum
Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin
My Family, The Jacksons by Katherine Jackson
Michael Jackson’s Interview in Gold Girl Magazine, 2002
Michael Jackson - Thriller (Original)
Who’s Loving You - The Jackson 5 on The Ed Sullivan Show
Interview with Suzanne de Passe, Motown Costume Designer
Human Nature, Wembley ‘88 - Michael Jackson
Sylvester Stallone on Michael Jackson
Bob Fosse, The Little Prince, and Michael Jackson
MJ Productions’s Letter to The Little Prince
Marianne Williamson officiates Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding to Larry Fortensky
Elizabeth Taylor surprises Michael Jackson with an elephant
Nymphet Alumni’s Ep. 157: American Freakshow
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