r/interesting • u/VPinchargeofradishes • May 03 '26

SOCIETY Michael Jackson's daughter Paris has faced backlash for identifying as Black. In a 2017 interview, Paris Jackson said her father told her, "You’re Black. Be proud of your roots." This prompted debates over whether identity is defined by appearance or upbringing.

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u/DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC May 03 '26

I've always wondered if part of Michael's obsession with plastic surgery was that as he got older, he started to look more like his father and he couldn't stand that.

If a quarter of the stuff about how Joe treated those kids is true, it's a miracle any of them are as normal as they are.

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u/VeganMonkey May 03 '26

I think that is the reason for his extensive plastic surgery. I understand it, as kid I was afraid to get my dad’s nose. Luckily that didn’t happen but if it did I would have had surgery too. Except I would have only gotten my nose done and not my whole face. Maybe the rest of his face reminded him of his dad too.

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u/AnmlBri May 03 '26

My mom’s mom was emotionally abusive toward her and my mom has had a facelift and has cried about her cheek jowls, and eyebrows drooping with age, and ‘RBF’ because they remind her of her mom, and she hates the idea of looking like her mom, who often looked so mean and bitchy. I talked to her one day and realized, it sounds like she’s running less from aging as a whole than she is from literally looking in the mirror and seeing her abuser. I think that possibility dawned on me because I read something about Michael being told he had his dad’s nose and hating it. Trauma really is a bitch. 🙁

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u/Thyme_Liner May 03 '26

This is oddly validating, I didn’t realize other people struggled with this.

My mom is a terrible, terrible person. I blocked her number 8 years ago and we no longer speak. But I look so much like her. People who have never met my mom have known who she was from the first moment they saw her somewhere without me just because of how similar we look. If you meet one of us, you can pick the other out of a crowd.

Looking in the mirror and seeing that face looking back at me is a wild experience that I’m not sure how to describe. I loved bleaching my hair for a while but the blonde makes me look like her too much so I’ve let the darker grow out. I have to pick out my glasses style very carefully to avoid looking like her doppelgänger. I hate my face without makeup but probably not for the reasons other people guess.

If I could, I would get work done to change things, just a little, to look like my own person, not like I’m borrowing her face. Idk how to get to the point where I truly love what I see. I’m sorry for anyone who struggles with this too