Warning: If talking about killers and death triggers you, reading this article isn’t recommended.

Nowadays being a serial killer is a one-way ticket to being famous. You’ll probably get a show, a couple of movies, a book or two, and thousands of articles. But why? Why are people so obsessed with Serial killers to the point of glamorizing them? How does the media make people glamorize them? Let’s talk about it.

Pretty privilege and popularity

Now, this might seem like a stretch but trust me on this one, the best example to begin to understand this topic is through Ross Lynch. Ross Lynch’s last appearance on the Disney channel was on the beloved show, Austin and Ally, which is an all-time favorite show. After leaving Disney channel Ross’s next role was in a movie called “My Friend Dahmer”, which you might’ve guessed is about Jeffrey Dahmer. Now, this is significant because everyone loved Austin and Ally (and teen beach movie of course) and by connection, they also loved Ross Lynch. I mean he played the role of the main character in two stories with absolutely amazing songs and he’s attractive. You can’t blame anyone for loving him. 

Since Ross Lynch basically had a fan club with millions of members, people were excited to watch a new movie with one of their favorite actors. As a result of this when people sat down to watch the movie, their vision of the main character was skewed. They just couldn’t separate their favorite actor and the role he was playing, a cannibalistic serial killer, and this is why we see so many people calling Jeffrey Dahmer attractive. I can scroll through TikTok and, because of the recent popularity of Dahmer, I’ll likely end up seeing some edit of Ross Lynch playing Jeffrey Dahmer. This romantic portrayal of him is just so beyond messed up. It doesn’t matter how attractive someone finds the actor to be- they’re playing the role of a serial killer and shouldn’t be edited. Learn to separate the actor and the character. 

Now I’m not going to say that people who call a serial killer attractive because of their actor aren’t at fault, because they are. However, they aren’t the only people to blame. Screenwriters, directors, producers, etc. are truly the people who should be blamed for our society romanticizing serial killers. This is where the Ross Lynch example helps put things into perspective. I’m going to get straight to the point: people love money, and Ross was the ideal actor to make money off of. He was fresh off of the Disney channel, had a huge fan base, and is attractive. An actor as popular and well-known as Ross Lynch was sure to get many people to watch the movie. “My friend Dahmer ” goes out of its way to make Ross look hot because pretty privilege is a thing and believe it or not it still applies to serial killers. Producers know this and they take advantage of it. If they got some random actor who wasn’t conventionally attractive to play Dahmer, the movie wouldn’t have been received as well as it was, and producers are well aware of this. This is why they go out of their way to cast attractive actors (bonus points if they’re popular) to play serial killers.

Justifying serial killers

What a lot of people don’t understand is that even if the main character is a serial killer they’re still a character. These serial killers are taken and distorted into what screenwriters and producers think the main character should be like. The issue is that their character is a serial killer, someone who took people’s lives. This changes things. A lot. So, producers need to find a way to make these horrible people seem appealing to the audience beyond just casting attractive and popular actors. Their favorite method of doing this is by emphasizing their tragic past which is usually a difficult relationship with their parents, getting bullied, or both. They do this because they want you to pity them. Pity is an emotion tied with vulnerability and sometimes even shame. When the audience sees a vulnerable character, they feel as though they have some personal understanding of them and they feel compassion towards them, which leads to justification.

People begin to justify serial killers’ actions because they feel that their bad past takes the blame off of them. People like to place the blame on bad parenting, but are we going to compare something that causes someone to bully others to something that could create murderers? Bullying isn’t something we commonly see justified because of bad parenting, so why in the world would murder be justifiable? Is it just an attempt by people who wish to be edgy or different? I wish it was but I know it isn’t.

“Why won’t anyone love me the way he loves her?”

Even though non-fictional serial killers portrayed in media do help skew how people view serial killers as a whole, fictional serial killers do it a lot more and for one main reason: their obsession with their romantic interests. They kill people for them, they only think of them, they are constantly watching them, and their whole life revolves around their love interest. When people watch shows and see this they’re intrigued, fascinated, and even jealous. People already feel alone enough as it is and seeing someone so infatuated and “in love” just brings more doubt to people. “Does anyone love me that way?” “Will I ever be loved that way?” People want to be loved. They want the obsessive relationships that are portrayed in the media because it’s so normalized in these shows, movies, or even books to the point people struggle to understand how wrong it is. 

People are compelled by what they don’t understand

Empathy, sympathy, and compassion are all traits human beings possess. They’re also traits serial killers lack. This leads to confusion and curiosity. You live your life feeling these emotions, how could someone not? This brings people a feeling almost like being left out of something. Human beings like to understand things. We’re curious beings and serial killers are just beyond our understanding. This is why true crime is so popular. People like to analyze these killers because they want to understand what leads them to do what they do. 

The danger behind glamorizing serial killers

Most importantly the glamorization of serial killers also leads to ignoring victims or minimizing what they went through. I’ll give one major example that I think will help put this into perspective. At the Ted Bundy trial women dressed up as what they believed his victims looked like. This is just one of many examples of victims’ trauma and horrific experiences being minimized. 

Families of victims are never left to mourn in peace because of the media’s inability to let a serial killer die and not be remembered. Next time you see a movie or show about a serial being announced please don’t watch it when it’s released. Think about how the families of the victims or the victims feel. Your view or the money you pay to see the movie in theaters might not seem significant but it is. Let’s stop treating serial killers as if they were heroes and let the victims rest in peace.