Mama, I’m in love with a criminal…
The recent release of Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters’ on Netflix has sparked controversy online, as many feel that victims of true crime are being inappropriately sexualised by fans. The concern of many viewers is that the trauma of victims, such as Lyle and Erik Menendez, is being romanticised on social media, overlooking the severity of the issues represented on screen.
The sensationalism of true crime is nothing out of the ordinary in recent pop culture: Evan Peters’ portrayal of Jeffrey Dahmer in Netflix’s ‘Dahmer’, Hulu’s original film ‘Fresh’, in which Sebastian Stan portrays a cannibalistic murderer, and Netflix’s ‘You’, which romanticises stalking and violence are all well-known examples of this phenomenon. This genre of media has been criticised for its fetishisation of murderers and cannibals, but also the effect it has had on the public’s perception of crime in real life. It is becoming increasingly common for members of the public to feel ‘desensitised’ to violent crimes; this phenomenon describes the experience of feeling limited, or no strong emotion when faced with harrowing images or descriptions of horrors.
The most recent addition to this trend is Luigi Mangione, the killer of United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson. After Mangione fatally shot Thompson in New York on December 4th, images of the killer went viral on social media, as some users supported the murder of a ‘parasitic’ healthcare company’s CEO. However, his support goes further than the radical political aspect, as many internet users, particularly on TikTok, have been commenting on Mangione’s appearance, and even making fan edits of the convict.
The trope of the ‘sexy psycho’ has become far too common in the media, and it has had clear impacts on the way in which real victims and perpetrators are presented in the media, through TV shows and news outlets. Fictional or TV adapted criminals are often given emotional human traits that audiences find easy to sympathise with; however it can be argued that these distorted demonstrations of criminals create a glamourised version of the tragic reality of crime and abuse in society. But does the way we view fictional criminals affect the way we view real ones?
The case of Erik and Lyle Menendez has been subject to controversy and debate since their trial took place in the early 1990s: after a lifetime of abuse and mistreatment, the brothers murdered their parents as an act of retaliation and self-defence in 1989. While their innocence is debatable, this is no concern for their cult-like fanbase, who claim that the 30 years served by the brothers is more than enough of a punishment for their justifiable, although immoral, crime. Since their incarceration, the brothers have lived in separate prisons, however the recent attention that has been brought back to their case may change this…
After having both a documentary and series released about the brothers this year, attention both in the media and from the general public, has reignited their controversial case; while Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters’ is being criticised for its inaccuracy, the documentary provides a more factual, but perhaps biased, explanation of the story. Although thousands of people online have condemned the commercialisation of a tragic sequence of crimes, you cannot deny the positive impacts it has had on the process of finally achieving justice for the brothers. After thousands of social media users criticised the unfair sentencing of the Menendez brothers, judges in the United States have finally decided to retrial Erik and Lyle, this time considering evidence of their sexual and physical abuse. For the first time in nearly 30 years, since their original trial in 1996, Erik and Lyle Menendez are set to appear in court in order to try to lower their sentence from the original verdict of life without parole. This could mean that the online controversy surrounding the Netflix series about them will ultimately be the cause of their release after decades of imprisonment.
So, is it really such a bad idea to draw attention to true crime in the media? Should social media and streaming services use their influence over viewers to bring victims to justice, or is it in fact the media’s aim all along to gain a rise out of viewers with their calculated publications? If so, the rising commodification and sensationalisation of true crime will inevitably have irreversible impacts on justice and human empathy. So, are murder trials better off being left inside the courtroom?
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