A somewhat aggressive critique of the current revitalized trend of sexualizing serial killers.
Despite the title of this article, this was something that was very hard for me to write. Not in the sense that it is a gray area in what should be a black and white issue, or that there is nuance to the issue (which there is, and we will further examine), but in the fact that this is something that really shouldn’t be controversial, there shouldn’t be gray areas to explore, and above all else, it should not be a trend. For me, this is one of those things that is hard to describe in that they should be pretty self-explanatory, still, for those in the back and maybe those who don’t fully understand the true ramifications of their escapades, this is my response.
Like many of us, I got COVID over break, and of course, the isolation period is the perfect opportunity to deep dive into the internet without any sort of restriction. Now for me, this internet deep dive was comprised first of Netflix documentaries. There truly are so many out there worth your time, I’ve always been drawn to the true-crime variety. Then from there, the deep dive ensued in full strength, Reddit, Tiktok, articles, whatever you think someone with 10 days of isolation, nothing to do would have the time to do abnormal amounts of research about, through this odyssey I came across something that sickened me deeply, and something more than that, something that was truly sickening and a trend in those of my age group. The fetishization of serial killers, young women on the internet saying they wouldn’t mind if Ted Bundy took advantage of them, saying that it did not matter Richard Ramirez’s crimes, he is still attractive anyways. I was completely dumbfounded, despite the general blase nature of my generation in the face of the injustices and terrible things that occur in our world, the fact that someone would try and justify murder, rape and violent crimes, saying that they wouldn’t mind if it happened to them was truly the most horrific thing of all. Through deeper inquiry, I then discovered what at first seemed to rectify some of the disgusting things that I was reading, the discovery of a mental condition.
Hybristophilia is a condition in which sexual arousal occurs as a response to the knowledge of another person committing crime. When I first came across the concept I was relieved. Hopefully, there was some sort of scientific explanation for this trend. Hopefully, there weren’t people out there just blindly supporting serial killers because of their attractiveness. From here I’m sure you and I are thinking the same thing, “well if it’s an actual condition, we can’t fault them too much for that, right?” Here’s where I am going to stray away from that, sure this condition is a legitimate and scientific occurrence, when it becomes an issue in a broader social context is when one is perpetuating the notion through social media, online, etc. that these evil people are somehow any less terrible based upon their appearance.
This is what brings me to my main argument, I still maintain that you are not a feminist if you fetishize serial killers. These horrific killers, in the cases of Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez, have perpetuated terrible crimes upon women including rape, necrophilia, abduction, and murder. There is no excuse for these actions, and there is also no excuse to be putting these opinions onto the internet claiming any different. You are not a feminist if you are putting it out there that these crimes are any less horrific because of the person’s attractiveness. Furthermore, you are not an ally or a feminist if this is something you perpetuate, denying the women’s experiences. Fetishizing these people is doing nothing but invalidating women who have experienced acts of violence or rape, so please, stop.