Heute früh bekam ich eine SMS, Michael Jackson sei gestern gestorben. Mit 50 gerade mal nur 2 Jahre älter als ich - und obwohl ich weder zu seinen kreischenden Fans gehörte und ich noch nicht einmal ein Album von ihm besaß, werde ich dennoch nicht die Gänsehaut vergessen, die ich hatte, als ich ihn zum ersten Mal hörte, ich war 11 und er 13 und er sang Ben, ein Lied zu einem Film, in dem es eigentlich um eine persönlichkeitsgespaltene Ratte ging.Den Film habe ich mir nie gegeben, aber das Lied habe ich geliebt. Seine Musik, ob mit den Jackson Five oder alleine, sein Weg zur Popikone sowie die Skandale um seine Person, gehörten irgendwie zu meinem Leben, meiner Kindheit, meinem eigenen Älterwerden. Auf Feten wurde immer auch mal zu seiner Musik getanzt, später taten das die Kids, mit denen ich arbeitete, selbst die 5jährigen imitierten ihn, wann immer sich eine Gelegenheit bot...So, und nun habe ich endlich einen Clip gefunden, der zu funktionieren scheint...Und während ich das Internet absuche nach dem Ben-Clip, finde ich einen Nachruf auf Farrah Fawcett, die nur einen Tag vor Michael Jackson ihrer Analkrebserkrankung erlag , gegen die sie so vehement gekämpft hat.
Farrah Fawcetts Tod berührt mich tief, denn ich habe diese Schauspielerin einfach nur geliebt für ihre Arbeit in dem Film "Das Brennende Bett"(1984). Sie hat mit diesem auf einem authentischen Fall basierenden Film ganz entscheidend mit dazu beigetragen, dass die öffentliche Sicht auf Frauen, die Opfer von Mißhandlung in der Ehe werden, sich nicht nur langsam veränderte, sondern sich auch in Gesetzen niederschlug. Während meiner Zeit als Diplompädagogin im Ersten Berliner Frauenhaus habe ich den Film bestimmt hundertmal eingesetzt, in Workshops und auf öffentlichen Veranstaltungen, aber vor allen Dingen um mit den Bewohnerinnen über ihre persönliche Mißhandlungserfahrung ins Gespräch zu kommen. Es waren Abende voller Intensität und geteilter Gefühle, jede Frau erkannte sich in Farrah Fawcetts Verkörperung einer geschlagenen Frau wider, die beschriebenen sozialen Hürden, um sich aus einer solch zerstörerischen Beziehung zu befreien, waren von fast allen selbst erfahren. Ohnmacht und Ausweglosigkeit, die im Fall von der im Film dargestellten Francine Hughes 1977 dazu führten, nach 13 Jahren Ehe den Mißhandler in Flammen zu setzen als dieser schlief...Farrah Fawcett selbst kannte die verstörenden Momente von erfahrener Gewalt und sich anschließender Versöhnung, ihr Engagement auch noch viele Jahre nach dem Film in Fragen der Gewalt gegen Frauen werden mir wohl mehr im Gedächtnis bleiben als ihre Auftritte als einer von Charly's Engeln....Und nun schließ ich hier einfach mit ein paar Zeilen aus dem Lied Ben:
You’re always running here and there
You feel you’re not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind
And don’t like what you find
There’s something you should know
You’ve got a place to go...
Farewell to both of you, RIP Farrah Fawcett, RIP Michael Jackson...
- Sorry, no translation here. But later I will summarize my posting as a comment.-
Here the promised summary in English..., I apologize for being late...
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This morning I got a SMS, "Michael Jackson is dead". At age 50 just 2 years older than me. Although I have never belonged to his screeching fans, and not even in possession of a single album, I won't forget the gooseflesh the moment when I heard him consciously for the first time, I was 11 and he was 13, and he sang Ben, a song for a film which was in fact somehow about a rat with sort of a personality disorder. I have never brought myself to watch that movie, but the song I have loved ever since. His music, either with the Jackson Five or solo, his way of becoming a pop icon, the scandals around his certainly troubled personality.., somehow it all belonged to my life, my childhood, my aging. Michael Jackson's music was everywhere, like it or not, on parties you found yourself dancing to it, later the dancing was done by the kids I worked with, given the occasion even the youngest knew how to imitate him perfectly, for the fun of us, who had stopped wondering about him long ago, but still liked bits of his music...
And while I am checking the Internet for that Ben clip, I find out about Farrah Fawcett’s death, who died just one day before Michael Jackson of her anal cancer that she had been trying to fight so vehemently during the last 3 years.
Farrah Fawcett’s death touches me deeply, her outstanding performance in the TV movie “The Burning Bed” (1984) made me love her, just like that. This film, based on an authentic case, was an important contribution in changing public views and laws concerning battered women, it didn’t only show the inner ambivalence, so frequently in abusive relationships, but showed perfectly the whole vicious circle for a woman when she finds herself in need of social, public and financial support in order to leave, especially with kids. During my time as a social worker in a center for battered women and children in Berlin, by the way the very first one in Germany, I have used the film at least a hundred times, in workshops, in public campaigns but primarily in my work with the women in the center, to get in touch with them about their personal background of domestic violence after they had left their partners. I recall intense evenings full of shared feelings and air you could cut through when she finally ended the physical and mental abuse by setting her husband aflame while he was sleeping - Farrah Fawcett in the role of Francine Hughes was the painful reflection of what every woman had gone through to a certain extent.
Farrah Fawcett herself knew the unsettling circle of experienced violence and following reconciliation. She had her own demons to fight which is another story, anyway it is her public engagement against domestic violence still long after ‘The Burning Bed’ what will remain in my memory, much more than her having been one of Charlie’s angels…
RIP, Farrah Fawcett - RIP, Michael Jackson !
And as a personal note, I really wish that there are angels out there taking care of you both now...
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(I could have written also about her other films but jeez, mentioning alone "Extremities" that would have gone out of hand...)
Birgit, this was wonderful. Your tributes to both Michael and Farrah were so beautiful. I could not outdo what you wrote. I did know know you had SUCH a relationship with that movie "The Burning Bed" so now I understand your reaction even more. I can certainly relate to the cycles in addictive/abusive relationships myself and I always appreciated that such an iconic beauty would do so well in that role.
AntwortenLöschenAnd Michael...well, you may have read in Facebook (or not) that he was one of my very first crushes as a young girl. I just adored the young MJ, so much light coming from that guy. His music was part of the soundtrack into my college years. It is no wonder that light got so twisted. And again, I could relate to his pain so much that I could barely allow myself to follow his later life. The way so many people misunderstood his seemingly bizarre antics.
They both touched all of us, sometimes the same way, sometimes differently...but certainly the forces they were touched us all.
Perhaps they have both done their jobs here so well they are now allowed into a place of peace.
Thank you again Birgit!
p.s. I am so impressed that you/Dirk figured out how to get that youtube video on here...
BH
ooops, that was me, Betsy, writing up above
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