The internet has a pretty weird obsession with serial killers . Back in 2019, a surge of Ted Bundy-related content released, with Zac Efron even portraying him on film. This caused plenty of internet-users to express attraction toward the killer , who had also received plenty of love letters during his prison sentence .
Even before then, there were groups on the internet thirsting over serial killers, despite the fact that these men literally killed people (and typically did much worse things, too).
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And now, Jeffrey Dahmer is getting the internet serial killer treatment.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve definitely heard about Netflix’s 10-part series, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story , starring Evan Peters as the titular serial killer.
Let’s remember that, much like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer was a real person.
And the crimes he committed were real. As the Netflix series (as well as the dozens of other Dahmer-related media) shows, he brutalized, murdered, and cannibalized at least 17 men, most of whom were people of color and/or part of the LGBT community.
But that hasn’t stopped some on the internet from thirsting over him.
In the weeks since the series released, some have taken to TikTok, Twitter, and other social media to express their lust over Evan Peters, who (let’s not forget) is portraying a serial killer, rapist, and cannibal.
Others posted that they actually felt bad for Dahmer when he was ultimately killed in prison.
Considering the number of victims this man had, he probably isn’t the one you should be feeling sorry for.
There were plenty of people, though, who were quick to point out how problematic these kinds of sentiments are.
TikTok user D Piddy ( @blackkout___ ) replied to a user who explained how she only felt bad for Dahmer’s death, pointing out how multiple men of color were shown being brutalized throughout the series.
There are also plenty of tweets calling out the people thirsting over Dahmer and Peters.
The vast majority of people believe the new series (along with other shows, movies, and books) does a lot more harm than it does good.
Not to mention the fact that the families of the victims… are still alive.
Dahmer’s crimes occurred between the late ’70s and early ’90s. The victims’ families not only had to live through the trauma of their loved ones’ deaths at the time, but have to live through each iteration of media content relating to it.
To that point, many are critical of Netflix’s decision to make the series in the first place.
In fact, the victims’ families have expressed their anger over Netflix and Ryan Murphy creating a show that did nothing but retraumatize them .
While some claim they find Evan Peters attractive in the role and not Dahmer himself, it still seems pretty icky.
It’s perfectly okay to find Evan Peters attractive, but maybe don’t thirst over him while he’s in a role like this.
As a whole, this is just another case of the internet having the wrong opinion on a serial killer.
Like I said earlier, this newfound thirst for Jeffrey Dahmer is more of the same. But that doesn’t mean that any of it is okay.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
