I read an interesting article over at Beautiful Without Consquence this weekend which raised the question of whether or not anorexia played a role in Michael Jackson’s untimely death.
While he always looked painfully skinny to me, I hadn’t heard much about that suspicion until now.
But then today on the Huffington Post, I found a second article that brought up the very same suspicion.
I’m no expert, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the autopsy/toxicology reports will show a combination of malnutrition, various illnesses and over-medication/over-reliance on prescription drugs contributed to his death.
If he was, indeed, starving himself … coupled with the cocktail of drugs he was supposedly on, it’s no wonder his heart gave out.
What I think is saddest of all is that an intervention could have probably helped save his life. Unfortunately, the world has lost yet another iconic figure.
Love him or loathe him for his wacky, crazy and controversial personal life, it’s hard to deny that he was a creative genuis … or that he will be missed.
How about you? What were your thoughts of MJ’s passing? Did you grow up listening to him?
Let There Be Light 
i love his music. i’ve always felt a bit sorry for him. he was pushed into stardom and obviously had a messed up childhood which carried into adulthood.
I heard on the radio this morning that he weighed 110 pounds at the time of his death….wow.
I feel sorry for his whole situation, since I am not sure how anybody would react/live a “normal” life with that type of fame.
I grew up listening to the “Thriller” record (!), and making up dances with my sisters to “Billy Jean.” It’s all so very sad, but it is a bit comforting that in 30 or 40 years, I can still imagine his music being loved by so many – just like Elvis.
110 lbs … unreal. For a 6 foot tall guy, that is sick, sick … so very sad. I have been comparing him to Elvis, too — our generation’s Elvis.
Over the years, the articles I have read about MJ and his family have all left me shaking my head. The cult of the celebrity has created it’s own monster. I am not surprised by the anorexia claim, he tried desperately to retain a youthful image and slenderness is a part of that in today’s misguided standards of acceptability.
We tend to think that celebrities have a choice about their image, but MJ proves the extremes that they will go to in order to be accepted in the adulterated the youth culture. I have often wondered how he would have aged with so much plastic surgery. Besides the body/weight issue, why is it that aging is seen as a something to be avoided at all costs? The man took to wearing wigs and starving himself. He altered his appearance to the extreme. He isolated himself from any type of normal life. He cultivated his own world and it was empty.
I don’t admire MJ for anything. To me, her represents all that is wrong with how we view celebrities, how we pressure them into perfect robots and how they become so convoluted from the pressure of it all. It’s incredibly sad.
Excellent points, Elisasnnh. Esp. about the fear of aging … he did seem so very isolated and alone.
I don’t know that I blame him wholly for his own demise; since the age of like 8 or so, he was in the limelight and his handlers over the years seemed to wean more control than he had of himself. I saw a spot on the Today Show where it was a video taken by his friend who opened a grocery store for him at midnight so he could see what it’s like to shop and fill a cart. Crazy.
Celebrity can really screw people up. Very, very sad.