<em>Leaving Neverland</em> and the Burden of the Postmortem Exposé
“Can we continue to celebrate the genius in the face of the monster?” asked the writer Pearl Cleage in the title essay from her 1990 collection, Mad at Miles. Cleage was attempting to contend with both the cultural legacy of the jazz legend Miles Davis and the man himself, who had a history of domestic violence against women. Her question and palpable feelings of outrage at Davis are not unlike those of this current moment, in which fans and critics are reckoning with Michael Jackson’s legacy and the long-standing allegations of child sexual abuse against him. For many, though, Jackson—arguably the world’s greatest entertainer—remains pristinely frozen in amber.
, the two-part HBO audiences are granted a front-row seat to the alleged abuse, as it is explained in painstaking and alarming detail. On-screen, Robson and Safechuck, now 36 and 41, respectively, are visibly navigating how to confront and heal from their trauma. As a viewer, I was heartbroken for them. (Jackson denied the accusations throughout his life, and his family maintains his innocence. The Jackson estate is suing HBO for .)
