Boy George talks about being jailed. What does it reveal about him as a person?
Boy George is making the news in the UK thanks to his appearance on the reality TV Show I’m A Celebrity. Some aren’t happy that George is taking part, despite being jailed for false imprisonment in 2008.
That has led to a viral clip on TikTok where George discusses the incident and that clip is what I’m going to analyse here.
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Being convicted of a crime and being sent to prison would be a sensitive subject for most people to talk about. I fully expect to see Truthful Deception in the George’s words.
Truthful Deception is when the person talking wants to avoid lying, but will only tell a limited version of the truth or say nothing at all. Through decoding where they are using Truthful Deception, we can get closer to what the whole truth is.
LEARN MORE ABOUT TRUTHFUL DECEPTION
Let’s see how if he uses it.
You've never really talked about what happened that led to you going to prison? What do you want to say about it now?
It's really difficult one Piers because when I was in court, I chose not to give evidence I chose to just accept what was happening. And for me, you know, I felt that was the dignified thing to do. When I went to trial, I was a year clean, so I was already sober. So that person I was in court and the person that had been arrested, they were two different people. Plus, I just didn't want my mum to have to hear all this stuff in court. I just thought she's been through enough I mean I banned her from coming to the trial.
Straight away, we see that George doesn’t directly answer the question. This is an indication that he finds the subject sensitive. Unsurprisingly.
Rather than answering with what he wants to say, he builds a layer of distance and says how difficult the question in. George then launches into a story about the trial. This is a jump to safer ground, he’s taken control of the subject and has chosen to talk about something much less sensitive.
He moves into image-management mode, creating the two different personas. He gives us the addict who committed the crime and the sober person in court.
George talks about the person who had “been arrested” rather than the person that committed the crime, assaulted another man and imprisoned him. He’s minimising the events that have happened, attempting to make them sound as innocuous as possible.
It’s also worth noting everything he mentions is about him here, there is no reference to the victim.
So far, he has given us two reasons why he didn’t provide evidence, acceptance and dignity. With his image-management hat on, he now offers a third; protecting him mum. His reason doesn’t make much sense as his evidence wouldn’t have been the only evidence in the case, so it wasn’t stopping her hearing much of what happened.
What he is doing is saying “look at me, how nice I am, I didn’t give evidence in my defence because I wanted to look after my mum”.
One short answer in, and I can see that managing his image, how others see him, is one of George’s biggest priorities.
He talks of banning his mum from coming to his trial. That is controlling language. Furthermore, if he barred her from the trial, it somewhat nullifies one of his reasons for not giving evidence.
Accept it
But I just thought, you know what, I'm just going to accept it. I'm just going to accept the consequences of what happens.
Here “happens” is in the present tense, but it comes when discussing the trial, so we can assume it means this refers to the time of the trial. So he says he accepted what happened at the trail and the consequences of that. That is very different from accepting the consequences of his behaviour that led to his arrest.
One of the things that people don't know is that I was prosecuted on my own evidence, I sent myself to prison. I told the police why I did what I did. Now, in hindsight, you know, I was having a psychotic episode, I was a drug addict. So I can't really sit here and say that my reasons for doing it were founded in any way..I wasn’t sane but, but I told the truth I said, this is why I did it. You know, I was having a paranoid episode.
He sent himself to prison? What a great and noble guy! This is more image-management. I’m seeing so much of it now, I’m tempted to say look in the opposite direction of where he is pointing you and you will see the truth. What is he hiding with this? Well, his image-management is trying to depict him as selfless and caring for others, I’d guess the truth is closer to him being self-centred.
There’s an embedded confession here in “I sent myself to prison”. He wants us to think that he sent himself to prison thanks to speaking honestly to the police, but I think the nub of the matter is he realises that, through his behaviour, he sent himself to prison.
There’s more minimising of the crime here when he refers to “what I did”, “doing it” and “why I did it”. None of these have any reference to the cruel and violent aspects of his crime. However, he does own the fact he did it with lots of use of “I” in this part.
The image-management continues with the talk of paranoia and drug addiction. It’s noticeable that all this comes before any mention of the victim and any expressed feelings of regret.
Stopped
What do you accept happened with…
I stopped him from leaving my apartment, yeah. So that I did that, you know, that was why I got done for doing
Actually, you were convicted of assault and false imprisonment, George. You’re minimising again. And “I stopped him from leaving” is very similar to “I banned my mum from coming to court”, it’s the language of control.
Referring to the victim as “him” suggests that George doesn’t have much regard for the person he assaulted and imprisoned.
You think that was worth..
It was terrible what I did, and I'm absolutely ashamed and sorry about what I did. But you know, it's been very difficult to talk about it. But what I did was wrong. You know, it was wrong and I still pay the consequences for that now.
As before, George is owning what happened by using the word “I” a lot. He doesn’t blame anyone else for what happened. However, he is still minimising the crime by referring to it as “what I did”.
From the order he mentions them, I can say that he feels ashamed more than sorry, or that the shame is a bigger priority for him than sorry. And the “sorry” is interesting. It’s unexplained, in what way is he sorry? Sorry for himself? Sorry his actions negatively affected his life? Sorry for the pain inflicted on the victim? He doesn’t say, but as he links it to the personal feeling of “ashamed”, it’s likely to be sorry around himself.
With the mention of still paying the “consequences for that now”, George is portraying himself as the victim of events. That may be true in cases of addiction, but there is another victim of this crime who has received next to no mention in these words.
Sorry?
Have you ever said sorry for any of it?
I just did say sorry
Yeah, I mean, to the guy.
Well…. I really don't think that it will make any difference. And I always felt like not talking about it was was dignified. Because I thought if I talk about I'm just gonna hurt him. I'm just gonna hurt people I love where's the upside?
Have you every said sorry for any of it is a question that needs an answer of yes or no. When those words don’t come, we know that deception is happening.
He tries a short answer to move things on, but he’s pressed for more. The words that follow include some very vague words like “think”, “felt”, “thought”. His words are less solid here than elsewhere. I wonder if he wasn’t prepared for the question, or if he realises he has no adequate and reasonable explanation for not apologising. Perhaps he’s never thought of doing it before. That would fit in with a lot of what I see in his words.
Once more, we can see that his reason for taking a less than desirable course of action is to say he is doing it for the benefit of others. It doesn’t ring true though. George’s reason for not apologising to the victim of a violent crime is that it might hurt other people.
Conclusion
It’s all laid out in words. George’s prime concern is managing his image and what we think of him.
He does acknowledge his part in his crime but he minimises what happened to lessen the severity. He wants to be the hero of this story, the man who jailed himself and stayed quiet so as not to upset anyone.
Rather than revealing the truth about the events, these words reveal George’s character. He appears to selfish and self-centred. If it were to be revealed he is manipulative and controlling that would not be a surprise.