Michael Jackson: Misunderstood Man in the Mirror – Changing Appearance

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Since his death Michael Jackson’s life has been put on display for all to see. Everyone from bloggers to the media have examined every facet of the pop star’s past. Though some of his behavior could be considered strange by societal standards, only within the context of Jackson’s life can they be truly understood.

Obsession With His Appearance

Michael Jackson’s ever changing appearance is well documented. In the early 1980’s people began to notice a change in Michael Jackson’s facial features. At first the changes were very subtle to the point that they virtually went unnoticed but by the time he released ”Thriller” the changes were distinct and more dramatic. 

Many began to wonder what was going on with Michael. Why was he constantly changing how he looked? To understand you would have to go back to his childhood.

In the 2003 interview with Martin Bashir of BBC, Jackson recalled how he was teased about his appearance as a child. His father in particular, would often comment about the size of his nose saying it was too big. As a teenager, Michael had terrible acne that required constant attention. It is easy to see how the constant badgering of his father combined with an agonizing skin condition could have given a young and impressionable Michael Jackson a complex about how he looked.

In addition to changing the shape and size of his nose and chin, Jackson’s skin began to take on a lighter tone. Some thought that he was bleaching his skin but Michael explained that he suffered from a skin condition called Vitiligo which caused his skin to have light blotches. He further explained that the treatments that he received for the condition made his skin even lighter. Whatever the reason, his skin and his appearance had definitely changed.

There is enormous pressure on those who are in the public eye. Every inch of their body is being examined by thousands of people everyday. They have to look their best all the time and sometimes their worst critic is themselves.

There were no bad looking children in the Jackson family. There was nothing wrong with Michael Jackson’s appearance as a young man but he thought there was. He was obsessed with how he looked. Some in the medical community believed that Jackson suffered from a condition called Body Dysmorphic Disorder in which a person obsesses over a perceived imperfection in their appearance, in Jackson’s case his nose.

In a CNN interview two days after Jackson’e death, Deepak Chopra a close friend said that he felt Michael’s obsession with plastic surgery was a form of “self mutilation”, an expression of a self loathing about how he looked.

No one has a voice in how they look when they are born. Michael Jackson certainly didn’t. To ridicule any one about how they look is an exercise in futility. 

Michael Jackson spent a lot of time and money trying to correct something that he was convinced needed correcting. What really may need correcting is the hearts of people.