ABSTRACT
Critiquing Margot Jefferson's study on Michael Jackson, which argues that Jackson's physicality was anchored in strong, knowable structures, Julian Vigo proposes an alternative reading of Jackson's body based on her interest in postcolonial criticism, cultural studies, and gender. She firmly rejects Jefferson's hope to anchor Jackson within a concrete system of realities and instead pushes the reader to understand Jackson as postmodern body, one which challenges traditional binaries of race, gender, and ability. Many influential writers and theorists, including Jean Baudrillard and Bernard-Henri Levy, have attempted to deconstruct the persona of Jackson. Likewise there are various media sources whereby pop psychologists and social pundits have discoursed upon the figure of Jackson in deconstructing his "race," body, and sexuality. The paradox of Jackson is that all parts of his life were rendered public; the popular dissections of his life produced both factual and fictive representations of his body which collectively all came to hold as much truth as they did fiction.
