True crime is a genre we all know and love. From podcasts to documentaries, something is fascinating about trying to solve a mystery, especially one that truly happened. After you are done with the episode or documentary, you can investigate the internet and social media to find out about the criminal’s latest trials and purchase the inspirational book the survivor wrote. After binge-watching the Jeffery Epstein documentary and Inventing Anna, I fell into that same trap of being a quasi-detective, surfing the internet late into the night assuming I had all this information that no one else did, as if it was not readily available in one Google search.
Recently, Netflix has released some biographical drama series, such as “Monster,” which tells the story of Jeffery Dhamer, a notorious serial killer. With a rating of 4.7 stars out of 5 and appearing on Netflix’s top ten for a while, Monster became a big hit. With the increase in traction for true crime content, the general public has become desensitized to these terrible tragedies, which has led to the glorification and even the sexualization of our history’s most heinous criminals.
One reason for this glorification is that platforms like Netflix have moved away from the documentary format and leaned into the biopic format. When the film format is more Hollywood drama than factual documentary, it allows the viewers to characterize real people. In addition, Hollywood’s top actors playing serial killers inflates the problem of sexualizing serial killers. Just as people obsess over characters from their favorite sitcoms or movies, they begin to do the same for criminals being portrayed by actors. People begin to forget that these violent acts were committed against innocent people, and that did not only affect them but their families and friends. The shows also make people sympathize with the killer because they often have traumatic childhoods.
Regarding the recent Jeffery Dahmer series, the blatant disrespect for the victims and their families has been widespread on social media. For example, a woman by the name of Britnee Chamberlin recently caught media attention for getting a mugshot of Dhamer tattooed on her right leg with the quote above that says, “If you can’t beat them, eat them.” This is horrific since Dhamer killed and dismembered his victims and would eat part of them and engage in necrophilia. Chamberlin’s ridiculous justification for her tattoo is that she does not condone the killers’ actions but is intrigued by their minds, and how they work. Psychiatrists have noted that the fascination with serial killers can be attributed to people’s fear of death. We think that we could be victims of murder, and we want to understand the actions and motives of psychopaths.
People will never give up the opportunity to make money. Therefore, many sellers on Amazon have made merchandise about the series, marketing them as vintage true crime tees or with unsettling quotes like Britney’s tattoo. With Halloween being last weekend, there was also an influx of people dressing up as Dahmer. Instagram users with this costume had their posts taken down, and others have been removed from the platform completely. Shirley Hughes, the mother of one of the victims who was killed when he was 17, was especially upset by the insensitive outfits. She stated that she is already triggered by the Netflix hit itself, and now she has to see people dressed up like her son’s murderer.
The fascination with specific serial killers comes in waves when new films, plays and books come out regarding that person. Learning about them and even obsessing over them becomes a trend that I believe is harmful. It desensitizes these horrible events and disrespects the victims and their families. I think this speaks to our society’s general problem of media consumption. We are quick to jump on any bandwagon without processing what we are watching and listening to, which in turn affects what we do and say. We need to be more cognizant and intentional with these topics, not simply exploit them for money, which is what the entertainment industry tends to do.