Even though subjects like what childhood exactly means, what era of life it represents and what its consisted of seem to be generally agreed upon, it's usually ignored that the concept itself is a very new one in historical view, that it completely belongs to modern times. Maybe it's because it's almost impossible to accept that a concept like this -which is surely a source of inspiration and an anchor to remember and to hold on to during bad times in an individual's life- might be only a structure of economics and fiction.
Sesame street, the mother putting a tissue to the back of your neck your when you sweat, scabs on knee caps, hard line honesty, free time to provide a limitless imagination... When you put it all aside, "childhood" is a new concept. In historical point of view, there has always been a childhood era. It was a physical reality and was impossible to change. But this concept which is announced by the governments that is comes to an end when you turn 18, is not as universal and protected through history as we might think.
Once upon a time, the thing called "child" was someone short and would grow tall eventually. When they turned 5 they were expected to act like an adult, and historical sources agree that during any periods of time before the 20th century, the individuals who were in their early teens were as mature as today's grown ups and had the intellectual independency of an adult. There are serious evidence that 30,000 children were sent from France and Germany to fight the Holy War in the 13th century and ended up as slaves in Alexandria. And today's mothers bite their nails when they watch a movie where a child character has to take a short journey by themselves.
We said governments and 18, right? According to the Roman Catholic Church, the age was 7. And it was called "the age of discretion". There is no expression of innocence of childhood or the need of protection up until the 17th century. And even then, the acceptance of childhood was only an exception, exclusive to the nobles. It was going to take many years for this reality to be accepted by all social classes of society.
The modern concept of childhood -like many others- was born as a result of Industrial Revolution. The images of kids running down the streets, shouting the headlines with newspapers in their hands, visuals like Oliver Twist are all from this era. At a time when workers did not have any serious rights and when the working hours could extend to 16 hours a day, children were not an exception. The government had no say about a child's rights and the children were sold to the factories to help the family budget. The children without a family were completely exposed and soon in big cities a serious new concept, "children crimes" emerged. The developing mechanization revealed the physical insufficiency of child workers and around the end of the century, the children's place in labour market along with working conditions were reformed. The children under 16 were prohibited to work except for apprenticeship and the fear of unattended children who were unemployed leaning towards crimes introduced the concept of "obligatory education". Peter Pan made his first appereance in the book called "The Little White Bird" in 1902. And this was how the modern concept of childhood was born. The world was finally reaching the 1950s' immediate family portrait which was consisted of mother, father and two children.
Let's get back to 25th of June, 2009... This article is actually about Michael Jackson even though I know it may not look like it to this point. But what is surprising is that the man who took away our childhood with him when he died might be ironically the last representative of the times when a child was not a child. He was expected to grow up immediately and work relentlessly since he was 5, was beaten and abused by his father to be a good worker and just like his peers from before the 20th century, had no childhood memories like we do. Being famous and rich didn't make his life any more sufferable. Thesis about the effects of a lost childhood on an individual by criminologists and sociologists brought MJ closer to the saying of George Orwell about rich people: "Another poor person with money".
His mistakes were not considered to be relevant to his lost childhood, after all he was the most famous, most talented person who was on top of the world and he had to stay there. He was a blind spot to the governmental child supervision because after all he was too rich to be a statistical data in employment numbers and he was outside of the usual labour market. A background like no one else. When being pushed to grow up without making any mistake emerged as the best possible goal, he was made too vulnerable to handle it. When he wanted to put a stop to endless urban legends and false accusations about himself, he didn't rage and roar like his peers and as a result, his naive, childish and shy responses were ignored by the press. He made the best known dream of a child when asked what to do if they were rich come true and built his own amusement park. The world insisted on judging him based on the perception of what a 40 years old man should be and used his differences, which can be automatically observed on someone who worked since he was 5 and became the most famous person in the world, as a source for their false accusations.
The most famous of the children whom the world failed to do justice closed his eyes to this life, right before he could give many answers to the world one right after the other, on June 25, 2009. Since that day, just like the time the wizard who controlled minds disappeared in Rainbow's Stargazer, we started seeing different angles for the first time. We started to think and discuss about what kind of desease this vitiligo was, the nonsense of the story about him sleeping in an oxygen tank, the psychological effects of being seriously burned while filming a TV ad. We realised how much of a big impact he left in our lives, and that his signature was the biggest mark in our childhoods. Undoubtedly, bringing the feeling of guilt alongside.
Now I can more clearly remember the times when I bought and wore that very similar jacket to the one he wore in the video of Bad and tried to recreate the video with 8 or 10 of my friends, because it was the route to school, the moment I saw his car in front of the hotel he stayed in Istanbul, dangling out of the window of the school bus excitedly with my friends, watching his concert for free from the hill with a view to the stadium until the last moment a cop came and chased me out of there. With his death, it feels like a shield before my eyes has left. Admittedly with a guilty conscience. When his responses to accusations were this apparent, when the pain he was in was this obvious, to feel like it's the first time you come to a realisation, even for someone who is far from a perfectionist like me, is devastating. The unconditional surrender of subconscious to the mass media... no matter how old you are.
It's obvious that urban legends about Michael Jackson did not die after his death. Even in the autopsy report that was printed weeks after his death had undertones that ordered our subconscious to see him as a weirdo and find him bizarre;
"There was nothing but pills and one fruit in his stomach." Let's assume it's true... so? Take one man or woman of middle class to aristocracy two months before summer and tell them to lose that belly and then look into their stomachs. Anything different?
"The marks of countless plastic surgery could be seen.." Let's assume it's true... so? Take the same people from the first example, tell them 40s is right around the corner and give them the phone number of a plastic surgeon. Anything different?
"He was obviously addicted to antidepressants and painkillers." Let's assume it's true... so? Who isn't?
Without a doubt, the media's role in portraying a person will be more vehemently discussed after MJ's death. The cliche of people fiercely wearing individuals with extraordinary talents out might seem like a process that was radicalised since the second half of the 20th century. But is it really so?
"He's on stage since he was 5, he looks like a freak, he's pale like a dead person, he's too skinny and he's charged with molestation." That sounds like a description the media gave for years about MJ but in fact, it was said for the probably first super star in history, Nicolo Paganini, in the 19th century. The violin virtuoso Paganini who was more talented than anyone to that point, had lived his life on tours, had achieved a fame that the class discrimination could not prevent, had his audience scream and faint with his stage performances. His interesting looks and costumes had created urban legends and the most famous one of them, the gossip of him selling his soul to the devil for his extraordinary talent, had followed him to his death and even after his death, the Archbishop had prohibited for him to be buried in a Christian funurel. No, I mean they really really seriously believed that he sold his soul to the devil! Thus, we can track back the ancestry of the likes of [* insert the name of your country's idiotic writer/journalist here] and [* and another one here].
The feast table around which the global media is gathered seems not to be cleaned up anytime after his death. His fan base is so huge and diverse around the globe it's impossible to sum up what we should do for his legacy... except to make his music known by many more generations and when it comes to the matters he was so sensitive about, to shout the facts to the faces of those who can not or will not break their will and judgment free of enslavement.
Thank you MJ. Eternally.
This is dedicated to all child workers.
P.S. I wrote this piece right after Michael Jackson died in 2009. It was translated by bywapiti_baris, whom I still don't know and was posted to various MJ forums. So I thank him for this great translation.
Avi