AMAZING post!
I really hope a lot of people read your comment on that site, because you make such fantastic points and it's articulated so well.
Also, um, this person needs to be directed the Manhood thread in the MITM forum...:blush:
Michael was an incredibly sexy man, but sexiness does not always correspond with looks (even though I have honestly always found him attractive in every "era"), but it encompasses a huge number of things.
It's disgusting that the media had created this idea of Michael as this hideous, inhuman creature whose nose was falling off and who wanted to look like a white woman, when in reality he really hadn't changed that much aside from perhaps the color of his skin.
(Also, god, the man was aging and becoming mature)
I think he was a threat - he was the opposite of the typical American idea of "masculinity" and totally threatened the American macho mentality.
I honestly think men felt threatened by him, and their recourse was to tear him down in this way and try to emasculate him.
When really, Michael was more of a man than any of them could ever hope to be.
Sad.
I think that is very probably true.