😍 2022-10-20 05:30:00 – Paris/France.
Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (Milwaukee, 1960 – Portage, 1994) caused such an impact on American public opinion, his crimes were so heinous, that long before Dahmer (Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story) –the series created by Ryan Murphy for Netflix which has not left the list of featured content on the platform a month after its premiere in September – fiction had already noticed.
Just months after Dahmer was arrested and charged with the murder of 17 men (with whom he later practiced necrophilia and cannibalism), Los Angeles-based Iranian author Reza Abdoh created the work in 1991. The law of remainders (The Law of Leftovers), which was about a murderer named Jeffrey, obviously inspired by Dahmer. In 1993, the first film about his life was released, The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmera documentary about his trial was broadcast on television and the cannibal himself was interviewed on the show Interior Edition of the American network CBS (Dahmer was a gold mine for criminologists and fans of noir for his willingness to speak without frills, without justification or pity about his crimes or himself). In 1995, a year after dying in prison at the hands of an inmate, the Thriller in French copycat It elevated him as one of the great monsters of the XNUMXth century in America. The protagonist, Sigourney Weaver, named him with Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, or the Boston Strangler amid an investigation. Time did not need to put on him a halo of fascination and rest: Dahmer was a myth of evil from the moment his name appeared in the media.
More than 30 years later, the fascination with Dahmer is rekindled by a series split between a few enthusiastic critics (“everything is practically unbearable in dahmerbecause the viewer is both inside and outside the murderer's head, as in Capote's classic [A sangre fria]but going further, much further", writes Laura Fernández in EL PAÍS) and the understandable furious reactions of at least the sister of one of the victims, who considers that her enormous pain has turned into entertainment, into aesthetics and in show.
In the middle of this dichotomy are, as always, the spectators. And many of them approached dahmer like who is approaching money theft Is the squid game: see a simple phenomenon and, on Halloween, the possibility of a great costume.
"Several factors influence the fascination that this type of serial killer holds for the public," says Luis Borrás Roca, psychiatrist specializing in forensic and forensic medicine and author of the book. Spanish serial killers (JM Bosch, 2002). “The main reason is the fear of death, the idea that we ourselves can be victims of someone similar. We feel identified with his victims and this leads us to try to understand the motivations of his attacker. The specialist also points out that the case of Dahmer is particularly atypical: sadistic serial killer, fetishist, necrophiliac and cannibal, and it is also a case very close in time. “Jack the Ripper, for example, was someone of similar sadism, but we see him today as someone from a very long time ago. »
Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer in a Ryan Murphy series sequence.
In the American media these days, there's a warning that it's inappropriate to dress up as Jeffrey Dahmer on Halloween. “This is not the killer costume to wear this Halloween,” urges a piece of the new york post office. Instagram users who posed as Dahmer at various Halloween parties already celebrated in the United States have deleted their photos after the rain of criticism. Others, like a influencer American, complained that the platform removed them, as expected after several complaints from other users. "I'm uploading the photo disguised as Dahmer again because the previous one was deleted," he complained. “This costume cost me dearly to undergo censorship. It didn't matter: Instagram deleted it again. The complaints are especially notable and painful on the part of the families of the victims. Shirley Hughes, mother of Tony Hughes, who died at the hands of Dahmer aged 17, was one of the most vocal. “It's already traumatic to see a hit series about the killer, but even more so when people dress like him. »
Some big companies do damage control. eBay, for example, has begun removing clothing or accessories sold as a "Jeffrey Dahmer costume," in line with company policy ("Ads that promote, perpetuate, or glorify hatred, violence, or discrimination," informs the company in its legal section about what it considers offensive material). But don't forget that Dahmer seemed (like so many other criminals) a type Ordinary: It is impossible to stop selling shirts, pants or glasses that remind him of him. It is very easy to find "Jeffrey Dahmer glasses" on the internet: although they are not authorized to be sold as such, the reference is present in the opinions and comments of the product and leads any motor there of research.
“Grief is a very deep feeling,” Borrás argues, “but when the murderer becomes a sort of hero of that grief, the family also feels humiliated, I dare say mistreated. Duels above all require calm. And such disturbing and public acts make that impossible.”
It's also been in the news recently that Jeffrey Dahmer's glasses are up for auction for $150. Not really: The glasses currently belong to crime collector Taylor James. On his website, Cult Collectibles, an entire section is devoted to Dahmer with various items already sold, such as his psychiatric report, the letters he received in prison, the diskette containing the trial documents or his Bible, a value of $000. The glasses, the most valuable item, are not directly for sale, but according to James himself, he told the tabloid site TMZ that he was open to hearing offers from this amount upwards via e-mail. contact email on its website. He claims to have bought the glasses from a man who worked for Dahmer's father, Lionel (who is quite prominent on the show and is now 6).
Molly Ringwald as Shari, Jeffrey Dahmer's stepmother, and Richard Jenkins as Lionel Dahmer, her father, in "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story."©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection/Cordon Press
In any case, the phenomenon seems difficult to control. On TikTok, the murderer is a source of humor: “And if Jeffrey Dahmer was Argentinian? asks for a video at 350 I love. “What if Jeffrey Dahmer had a roommate? “, asks another who exceeds two million I love. Another: “What if Jeffrey Dahmer was dating an Arab? And another: “What if Eminem went to Jeffrey Dahmer? " The youtubeur DuB Bridges, with nearly 1,4 million followers, was the latest to come under fire for posting a parody video in which he lived "like Jeffrey Dahmer" for an entire day. In his next video, titled "So I Got Canceled," he admits he didn't know who Dahmer was until he saw the show's first episode.
The phenomenon is not exclusively American: in a nightclub in Aix en Provence, on the Côte d'Azur, the Complex club, an evening on the theme of Jeffrey Dahmer is announced for Halloween. From the club they denounced that the owner had received death threats since the event was made public. Considering they post screenshots of the review on their own Facebook page and don't exactly respond to it assertively, they seem pleased with the ad.
This isn't the first time Dahmer has snuck into the most harmless of popular culture. In the Katy Perry song black Horse (2013), rapper Juicy J. includes the following lines about a woman: “She's a beast / I call her Karma / She'll eat your heart like Jeffrey Dahmer. The theme was number one in the United States and one of the most successful of the decade. Another seemingly innocuous singer, Kesha, included a Dahmer reference in her song. cannibal (2010). “Use your finger to stir my tea / By mail, I'll suck your teeth / If you're too nice, you'll disappear / I'll do Jeffrey Dahmer with you. The song wasn't as big of a hit as Perry's (it didn't make it past 1977 in the US). The controversy, as so often happens, took years to arrive. It was only at the premiere of dahmer when many seemed to remember Dahmer being mentioned in two of their favorite pop songs. A funny comment on the Dark Horse video says "guys, did it take you nine years and a Netflix series to figure it out? ". It has 37 I love.
Among the six authors of black Horse no one has said anything about it so far. Of the four of cannibal, one: Kesha's mother, a regular co-writer of her songs. In a TikTok video, he explains that the Dahmer reference was suggested by a Software called Masterwriter which is advertised as a tool for composers where typing a word suggests possible rhymes. "Kesha and the other songwriters were too young to know who Jeffrey Dahmer was," he said. “When we were looking for a word that rhymes with faded away, the show suggested that of Jeffrey Dahmer. And I thought, 'This is perfect'. There are other examples: Siouxsie and the Banshees have a song about Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper. And Jane's Addiction has one on Ted Bundy (whom Netflix also dared to give Zac Efron a vacuum, though no one has dressed up as him yet).
Despite Ryan Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan's emphasis on not glorifying the killer and honoring the victims, despite how the show makes it clear that an endemically racist and homophobic policing system systematically ignored signs that could have led to the arrest of the criminal much earlier, dahmer it has taken on a life of its own in the hands of the spectators which makes it problematic: where it would be necessary to raise awareness and reflect, there seems to be only fascination, a Dahmer revalued as an icon of horrors. And that he's played by Evan Peters, a well-known Murphy Factory actor and erotic idol for a generation, doesn't help. as requested The catch in an analysis: “What happens when you do a cinematic portrayal of a monster with a beloved movie actor? musical high school? [in reference to Ted Bundy by Zac Efron]. Well, for many unrelated to the real case, but familiar with Murphy's colorful and baroque work, this becomes another installment in his chronicle of the horrors of contemporary America. Like it's another season american horror story. Another Halloween special. It was special, but not that way.
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SOURCE: Reviews News
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