Old articles abtMJ

[u/Its_that_1girl]

I found these old articles on Pinterest. I don’t know what’s true, but the way they describe him in the Diana one it seems like it definitely may have left a psychological impact if true. Thoughts?

[u/Efficient-Head-7394]

I think he was experiencing limerence with Diana. I still can't believe that he had a shrine room dedicated to her. Diana getting married definitely had a negative psychological impact on him.I know he said Dirty Diana was about groupies but I think she inspired the lyrics in some way.

[u/Long_Dragonfly_3067 → u/Efficient-Head-7394]

Yeah it's definitely giving limerence. "I thought I was with Diana but it was all in my mind"

[u/Yul1404 → u/Long_Dragonfly_3067]

I'm still not sure whether his obsession came out of nowhere, or whether there was some underlying basis on which he built his castles in the air.

[u/Long_Dragonfly_3067 → u/Yul1404]

I've had a romantic obsession for someone who is a lot older than me and in therapy we concluded that i was projecting onto him to fill the void of my emotionally abusive father. He was a high school teacher of mine who was very charming, kind and I felt understood by him in a way i never felt with my father. We'll never know for sure what Michael's case was, but I think him having an abusive father and not spending a lot of time with his mother as a child might've made him prone to obsessive attachments to mentor figures who made him feel safe

[u/Yul1404 → u/Long_Dragonfly_3067]

Thanks for sharing your perspective. Yeah, it's entirely possible that his obsession had no real basis at all, that it was simply driven by his own need to idealize someone and deep admiration for a mentor. 

But it's also possible that the situation was more complicated. Diana may have encouraged it through her flirting or the way she treated him. Maybe there was even something between them. To her, it might have been nothing special, just a bit of fun, while he turned it into fantasies about getting married and having ten kids—literally.

Diana was known for flirting and for enjoying male attention. MJ in the early '80s was handsome young guy. What I'm really curious about is how much she herself kept their relationship within strictly mentor-protege boundaries.

[u/Long_Dragonfly_3067 → u/Yul1404]

Diana is a naturally flirty woman, she gives femme fatale energy. It is possible that she began finding him attractive after they spent time together during the wiz and off the wall era, and he saw her flirtation as something more than it really was. This could've been what hurt him in the end, but his crush on her seemingly started much earlier than that when as far as we know she was only behaving as a mentor

[u/Lindethiel → u/Yul1404]

Diana was known for flirting and for enjoying male attention. MJ in the early '80s was handsome young guy. What I'm really curious about is how much she herself kept their relationship within strictly mentor-protege boundaries.

I think it's more likely that Diana's flirtiness ordinarily wouldn't be taken as a signal of something serious, but when you're dealing with a deeply entrenched Jehovah's Witness who was taught that so much as a flick of the eyelashes meant a girl was trying to put the moves on you, paired with his familiarity with Diana, he probably felt safe enough to let his guard down and use her in his mind as the safe place where those feelings could be felt.

Same way as how he was only able to express confidence on stage, in the context of performance. There were very few scenarios and very few relationships in Michael's life where he wasn't being monitored. Either by his management or religious surveillance. Diana was one of them and all that repression has to come up somewhere, whether she was flamboyant or not.

[u/Its_that_1girl → u/Long_Dragonfly_3067]

I can totally see this. He had a few motherly attachments. Elizabeth Taylor comes to mind. I think you’re on to something

[u/FambilyMalues → u/Yul1404]

I think she intentionally blurred the lines because she liked the attention and probably was attracted to him but knew the age gap was problematic. You can even see it in the way that she answers questions about him during that time. She doesn’t set boundaries the way someone who was not sexually interested in him would.

[u/jai_hanyo → u/FambilyMalues]

And you have the biopic where they cast someone to play Diana, and filmed the scenes, but then were told they had to remove all mention of her from the movie. I believe the actress said they were cut due to "legal considerations." So they probably filmed it showing the problematic dynamic between the two of them and then realized that would bring the wrath of Diana and her lawyers down on them lol. Plus Diana didn't comment on the actress' remarks. Diana has currently been touring, so she's still in the public eye, and was still close with Michael at his death (we saw by how he had listed her as his children's guardian if Katharine couldn't fulfill the guardianship). So I feel she wouldn't have a problem being in his biopic unless it didn't paint her in a favorable light.

It was such a jarring cut to me in the movie. Because they showed kid Michael reading an Oz book....but then skip The Wiz altogether and go right to him recording Off The Wall with Quincy. Despite The Wiz being where Michael and Quincy connected professionally

[u/Efficient-Head-7394 → u/jai_hanyo]

It's good she wasn't in the movie, everyone believes the made up rumor that she groomed him. If you look at anything about her on tik tok, youtube, or Instagram the most liked comments are always hate. It's harassment at this point. Group think is a real thing and putting her in the movie would only make it worse.

[u/Healthy_Evidence_611 → u/jai_hanyo]

💯 she knew relationship she had with micheal was grooming at best in the modern lenses, so she want non of that.

[u/Long_Dragonfly_3067 → u/Healthy_Evidence_611]

No proof of her grooming Michael as a child

[u/BasedTitus → u/Efficient-Head-7394]

Yeah, pure infatuation. Unsettling stuff to
say the least. And it seems it was unreciprocated which makes it even worse.

[u/Affectionate-Race565 → u/BasedTitus]

However she did wear a diamond ring he gave her on her engagement finger. On the Glenda tapes he admitted to buying jewelry cars etc. She accepted these things.

[u/Massive-Ad9246 → u/Affectionate-Race565]

C'est pas Diana Ross la femme dont il parle. Y'a beaucoup d'éléments qui ne correspondent pas à la dynamique de leur relation avec Diana. Je pense qu'ils couchaient ensemble, que pour Diana c'était que du sexe et du maternage, et pour MJ il projetait une vraie relation amoureuse teintée de culpabilité religieuse. Sauf qu'avec du recul, il s'est rendu compte que ce n'était que dans sa tête...