There’s been an increased output in true crime content over the last few years, whether that would be Sarah Koenig’s Serial or Buzzfeed Unsolved. One form that has risen is episodic documentaries. The one that people are talking about these days is Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. This series focuses on Jeffrey Dahmer, who was known for killing seventeen men and boys and performing necrophilic acts on them. However, the families of the victims aren’t happy to hear about the docuseries’ existence. One of the families even said they rejected the idea, which led to the producers doing extensive research against the family’s wishes. This month,
The families of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims had to watch the stories of how their loved ones were murdered re-purposed for entertainment & become extremely popular, to the point where the actor who played said serial killer won a Golden Globe. I would be mad too.
— IG: dr.setshwaelo✨ (@melosets) January 15, 2023
Evan Peters was given a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Dahmer in the docuseries. His acceptance speech didn’t mention the victims which made the victims’ families rightfully upset. People are disgusted by the fact that the showrunners are making money off of events that traumatized them which is understandable. I can’t blame them for it. I don’t exactly know what they’re dealing with but you can’t deny what they’re feeling.
Last month, Sword and Scale, a company that focuses on true crime content, put a poll on Twitter asking people which race they prefer the murder victims to be. Excuse me? I rather there be no victims. What kind of messed up question is this? It has been taken down since then but the fact that people still make true crime content without any level of sympathy is beyond vile. People’s trauma isn’t something to make money off of. If they truly cared, they would at least consider the victims’ and their families’ feelings before making such content. There needs to be an end to romanticizing murderers and remembering them for what they were; monsters who were on the hunt for innocent people.