QUEER FIGURATIONS IN THE MEDIA - CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE JACKSON,MICHAEL SEX SCANDAL

This essay examines the discourse of stigmatization set off by the 199 3 child molestation scandal implicating Michael Jackson, and reflects on the implications of the scandal for the political possibilities and limits of non-normative identity constructions ill the media, and of queerness specifically. After a brief overview of queer theory and its significance to media studies and a discussion of the ''queering'' of Jackson by the media long before the scandal, I examine three central aspects of the scandal: (a) the commodification of ''witness testimon y'' as it relates to the question of sexual innocence in the case of c hild molestation; (b) the effeminization of Jackson as a homophobic co ntainment of him by the press; and (c) the interpretive excess in the media's focus of an alleged pedophilic ''bedroom scene'' that served a s the condensation of queer queer perversity. I argue that because chi ld sexual abuse is a serious social problem, it cannot be treated sepa rately from the regimes of knowledge that construct and regulate human sexuality in the legal, psychiatric, moral, economic, and cultural/me diated spheres. Therefore, if Michael Jackson's troubles preceded the scandal it is critical for us to understand the source of those troubl es and their discursive life especially in the media.