Core Post 3 - Lauren Sullivan

I found both readings’ discussions of “crossing over” quite interesting. While Dyer details the societal structures in place and the ways in which Paul Roberson navigated those structures to cross over to widespread popularity among white audiences, I would like to focus on the ways that Michael Jackson’s star image does and does “cross over,” as discussed by Kobena Mercer in “Monster Metaphors.” For Mercer, Jackson is not so much a cross-over star but one that navigates between social distinctions: “[n]either child nor man, not clearly either black or white and with an androgynous image that is neither masculine nor feminine, Jackson’s star- image is a ‘social hieroglyph’” (307). Mercer claims that musically, Jackson does not cross-over from black to white, and rather lands somewhere in the middle by popularizing “black music in white rock and pop markets, by actually playing with imagery and style which have always been central to the marketing of pop” (308). Jackson’s image of moving between distinctions of race, gender, age, and sexuality results in ambiguity that ties interestingly with Jackson’s professed love for acting. Jackson expresses a fascination to become someone or something else by believing, and then embodying, it (309). This, paired with Jackson’s reluctancy to set rumors about his personal life straight (307), favor a sort of ambiguity and fluidity that highlights the performative nature of social distinctions. According to Mercer, this has a sort of liberating quality. Because Jackson’s music exists within the “Afro-American tradition of popular music,” his persona is in dialogue with “imagery of black men and black male sexuality” (320). Thus, his androgyny challenges stereotypes of black masculinity and expands the “types” of black men represented in media (320). Michael Jackson’s persona of vague ambiguity draws the desire for audiences to decode him, and his refusal to be categorized or broken down offers a more liberated alternative outside of mainstream norms. His unmatched popularity suggests that this appeals to people, despite, if not because of, the way that Jackson deviates from widespread societal constraints and expectations within American culture.