With the release of the season two of “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” the decades long debate of the Menendez Brothers has resurfaced. But with that, the sexualization of the brothers has also occurred.
In 2022, Ryan Murphy produced season one of “Monster,” with the season’s focus on Jeffrey Dahmer. This season created a debate over the sexualization of serial killers from girls all over social media saying things like, “I can fix him” or “I could get him to stop.” Now this is starting all over again with Lyle and Erik Menendez.
For those who don’t know the case of the Menendez brothers, the two brothers shot and killed their parents and were sentenced to life for the crime. While prosecutors claimed they killed their parents for the fortune, the brothers said they killed them due to years of sexual abuse and in self-defense.
But Ryan Murphy does not portray the brothers as victims, but instead as “monsters”, hence the title. He attempted to make the show ambiguous, but instead sexualized the brothers. He even made a plot line of the brothers having an incestuous relationship, despite the fact that in real-life, the brothers testified in court to not having this relationship.
This leads me back to the fact of how “killers” are being romanticized. Subtle details like that throughout the show have made the views twisted on the case, and it has become popular all over again on social media. There are even scenes of the actor Nicolas Chavez, who plays Lyle Menendez, shirtless or naked with only a towel to slightly cover his body that have gone viral. These have turned into edits of the actor, but this is where the problem begins.
Social media users are not separating the actors from the real-life Menendez Brothers. Edits of Chavez are being commented on with things like “I love Lyle,” or other comments objectifying Lyle. There isn’t the separation of the actors from the brothers which needs to be.
Sexualizing brothers who, first of all, are in prison for killing their parents is not an okay thing to do. This glorifies what they did and I’m not saying whether or not what they did was okay, or if they should or should not be in jail, because that’s not the point of this article. The point is that you should not be romanticizing anyone who is in jail for killing anyone.
Second of all, the brothers were sexualized for years. They were abused in their own home, by their own father, with most of the abuse being sexual. They have already been sexual objects for most of their life, so why continue it? Why continue to comment on them being “hot” or how they “shouldn’t be in jail because they are hot,” and similar comments like it?
This cycle is ongoing, as seen by the Dahmer season and now this new season on the Menendez brothers. It’s not going to stop unless you separate the actors from the actual story.
Yes, Nicolas Chavez may be attractive, but he is not Lyle Menendez.
Yes, Cooper Koch may be attractive, but he is not Erik Menendez.
The Menendez brothers are two brothers in prison for life because they killed their parents. Think of this fact in your mind before you think of romanticizing the brothers.