Because of such movies and TV Shows like "My Friend Dahmer", "You", and "Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story", there has been an outburst of women and men alike on Tiktok and Youtube saying they feel sorry for or attracted to the killers, fictional or otherwise. Just a minute or two ago, I found something on my YouTube Shorts. It was a fan edit of Ted Bundy with the song "Gilded Lily" by Cults playing in the background. To my horror, someone had requested this and even commented on the video saying they loved it. I will not be disclosing the names of the people because I do not want people to give them hate. As I will discuss after this section, I don't believe everyone who is like this is all bad. As you could most likely tell, they need help.


HYBRISTOPHILIA, ITS' VICTIMS, AND HOW IT AFFECTS THEM

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Now, there is a very real disorder where a person does find criminals attractive, called Hybristophilia, also commonly referred to as Bonnie and Clyde Disorder. Wikipedia defines it as "A paraphilia involving sexual interest in and attraction to those who commit crimes.". It is a real thing that happens, and it has causes just like any other disorder. According to Wikipedia, the causes include and are not limited to "low self-esteem, lack of a father figure, believing they can change a criminal, seeing the child the criminal was and wanting to nurture them, and hoping to get into the media spotlight with books or movies.". Now, I don't want to paint everyone with the same brush. Not all Hybristophiles are terrible, evil people. Most, if not all of them, are people who need therapy and a healthy, controlled environment. But now we are done with talking about people who have a very hard disorder to have, now let's talk about people who don't. Now, we are going to discuss the media's reaction.


THE MEDIA AND ROMANTICISING CRIMINALS

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In The Daily Mail, a writer wrote an article about Ted Bundy, titled "All American Boy On Trial", and then went on to describe how he couldn't be guilty because of his "Lean, all-American face". The entire quote reads...

"From the beginning, there was a basic contradiction in the strange case of Ted Bundy. The moment he stepped into the courtroom in Utah three years ago to answer a charge of kidnapping, those who saw him for the first time agreed with those who had known him for all of his 28 years: There must have been some terrible misunderstanding. Here was a young man who represented the best in America, not its worst. Some say that Ted Bundy is the most prolific mass murderer in American history; Bundy claims he is the tragic victim of a tangling web of circumstances. Here was this terrific-looking man with light brown hair and blue eyes, looking rather Kennedyesque in a beige turtleneck and dark blue blazer, a smile turning the corners of his lean, all-American face, walking almost jauntily before the judge, but free of any extravagant motion that could lead one to think that a swaggering- even dangerous -personality existed beneath that casual, cool exterior.".

Yes, that came from an actual article from The Daily Mail. It was given a thumbs-up for writing and publishing. Minors and young adults are slightly understandable (see Hybristophilia causes), but how are the media and the world as a whole supposed to react to The Daily Mail essentially saying "Ted Bundy? That's some hot shit, man!". So now that we are done talking about the media as a whole, let's talk about attention grabbers.


ATTENTION SEEKERS AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE VICTIM'S FAMILIES

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People using serial killers or criminals in general for attention is not a new concept. It's been happening since the two most notorious cases in the US, Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy from the 70s. But who would think it would be happening in the 2020s to 2023s? Well, we can thank Paris Barclay and Joe Berlinger for this. Enter in, Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story", and "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile", starring Evan Peters (Dahmer) and Zac Efron (Bundy).  While more movies and shows are going back to 1907, these are the two most popular. There are more that have been made lately, but as I said, these are the two most popular according to my research. And the trailers for these have led to people on TikTok and Youtube saying things like "Dahmer, I'll take a whiskey coke!", with heart emojis, wink emojis, or smile emojis. And yes, that is an actual thing that was on a TikTok. There have been many women saying things like "Why is Dahmer so hot? Like eat me too!", or "I wanna write letters to Robert "Willy" Picton", with even more heart emojis.

Also, back in the 70s during Ted Bundy's case, women stood in the back with hoop earrings and dyed brown hair parted down the middle, to resemble his victims. Now, it makes me wonder how would those women feel if it was their sister, brother, mother, father, friend, or lover. But how would they feel if it was them? If they could still speak to others, they would be begging for justice. So why isn't that there for victims and their families? I've even seen other people call Ted Bundy's girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, a "bitch" or "witch" because she got away from him. By the way, she luckily is well, and wrote a book about her experience with Bundy, called "The Night Prince". Some women make thirst traps of killers like Dahmer, Bundy, and Ramirez, using songs like "Alors On Danse" and "Such a Whore". Another tidbit about imitating the victims, during Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez's trial, there were goth women in the back, dripping in black attire and covered in chains, buckles, and belts. Some women even sent him pictures of their feet because he claimed to have a foot fetish. Sorry for that information. Another thing, the women who portrayed Bundy's victims might have had Hybristophilia and weren't attention seekers. Also, some women said they wanted an autograph from him because he was a killer, and it would be "cool" to have an autograph from him. I do not know if they succeeded.

EDIT, 7/1/23

I now realize that I have made a mistake in my judgment on who I choose to support. Although I didn't specify this, I was watching a video by "iiluminaughtii", AKA Blair Zon while writing this a month or two ago. At the time, I was a really big fan of her and simply ignored the videos discussing what she had done. But a few days ago, I decided to watch Turkey Tom's video on her and immediately decided to stop my support of her. I apologize for any positive comments I made on or about her, and I now realize I should have researched or looked at more content of hers' to see if she was someone who deserved my support.