'Leaving Neverland' is not so much an attack on Michael Jackson (he is dead, after all) or his estate (though they do undoubtedly stand to lose significantly if/when they are ever found to be complicit in any abuse), but is an exposé of the nature and impact of child abuse, how abuse can occur when 'hidden in plain sight', how abuse can be/is often not interpreted as abuse (and could more accurately be called 'child sexual seduction', as Oprah Winfrey put it) and how money and celebrity can give people the opportunity and power for abuse to occur and to even withstand legal scrutiny. Despite his death nearly ten years ago, Michael Jackson could yet prove to be a watershed case.
It is also perhaps a wake-up call to the very nature of celebrity and fame itself - it is undoubtedly true that a vast number of people are willing to turn a blind eye to the possibility of a celebrity being capable of abuse simply because they enjoy/respect their work, or have convinced themselves that they 'know' an artist because of their public persona. What is clear from several very high profile cases recently, notably Bill Cosby, Jimmy Savile and Michael Jackson, is that some (if not most) famous people are very careful to present a persona to the public that is both likable/lovable, while keeping other aspects of their lives (and personalities) completely hidden. Unfortunately, this has had the effect of creating vast legions of fans who are all too willing to be apologists for their favourite artists/performers because they, too, have been seduced into believing that they can do no wrong.
It's weird to think that so many people don't seem to be able to even consider the possibility that a celebrity is not capable of heinous acts, simply on the basis that their carefully crafted pubic image seems to contradict such an idea. Jackson may well have finally shattered that dangerous myth.
