For the past week, Dahmer—technically titled Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story—has firmly stayed at #1 on Netflix. Dahmer has had one of Netflix’s greatest debuts since the premiere of Stranger Things season four. Dahmer non-linearly follows the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, a notorious serial killer who murdered 17 young men, most of whom were people of color, between 1978 and 1991. While true crime dramas and docuseries have recently risen in popularity, Dahmer reminds audience members that these were real people with lives before their death.
Dahmer also highlights two social issues that greatly contributed to Jeffrey Dahmer’s success as a serial killer: homophobia and racism. Jeffrey Dahmer was a homosexual, an aspect of his identity that made many, especially for the time, uncomfortable. As a result, they often overlooked his suspicious behavior in an effort to avoid him—and his sexuality—altogether. In the drama series, after Dahmer was discharged from the army due to alcohol abuse, his father, Lionel, relocates Jeffrey to live with his grandmother. Lionel did this in an attempt to inspire Jeffrey to clean up his act. This, of course, did not happen.
In episode five, it is revealed that Dahmer killed three men in his grandmother’s home and brought back the body of a fourth to dispose of. With both of them living under the same roof, how is it possible that Dahmer’s grandmother, Catherine, had no clue as to what her grandson was doing? In a situation where she would surely smell decomposing bodies and see/hear the various men Jeffrey brought back, would she not, at the very least, have her suspicions? While she may not have known the extent of Jeffrey’s actions, I do believe that she was choosing to ignore his behavior. While there is no direct evidence that Catherine was homophobic, she did attend a conservative church. I believed that Catherine ignored Jeffrey’s actions because she did not want to first acknowledge his sexuality. In other words, she was so unwilling to recognize his homosexuality that she overlooked his behavior altogether.
Homophobia also extends to the police officers who essentially returned Konerak Sinthasomphone back to Jeffrey Dahmer. In episode two, the audience is introduced to Konerak—Jeffrey Dahmer’s youngest victim who was only 14 years old. In this episode, Konerak escaped Dahmer’s apartment. Three neighbors found him half-naked and barely able to communicate or stand (Dahmer injected diluted acid into his brain while he was unconscious). Concerned, the neighbors called the police, but Dahmer convinced the two officers that Sinthasomphone was just drunk and they had gotten into an argument.
Jeffrey also asserted that Konerak was his 19-year-old boyfriend, despite there being no evidence. Konerak died because the two officers acted out of homophobic and racist impulses. They dismissed the concerns of the neighbors because they were not white. They felt less compassion for Konerak because he was Laotian and seemingly gay. They ignored the clearly, deeply concerning relationship (that was not even a relationship) between Konerack and Jeffrey because they fell into the assumption that gay relationships are bound to be ‘toxic.’ The two officers were so disturbed by the notion of homosexuality that they felt the need to be “de-loused” (a euphemism for “washing the gay away”) over the need to help a boy that was undeniably in danger.
Racism is a consistent theme in Dahmer, and there are quite a few scenes that I found very impactful. In episode five, Ron, a man who was drugged by Dahmer, attempts to have Dahmer arrested. However, Ron is quickly dismissed and told that while Dahmer may be an odd guy, being arrested a few times doesn’t make him guilty of everything. This is followed by the officer commenting that Ron should know this, implying that he had been arrested. Ron responds by stating that he had never been arrested and pointed out that the officer believed the word of a white man who had been arrested over that of a black man who had not.
As stated earlier, the majority of Dahmer’s victims were young men of color. Why is this? It’s because, frankly, Dahmer knew that he likely wouldn’t be caught. Police, especially at the time, did not care to look into missing person’s reports for POC individuals. It was the pervasive, systemic racism that allowed his deplorable actions to continue.
I do believe that Dahmer is a series worth watching, as I feel it identifies social inequalities that were fundamental in Jeffrey Dahmer’s success as a murderer. Of course, this does not mean that the series is completely flawless. There were certainly historical inaccuracies, such as the portrayal of Tony Hughes’ relationship with Dahmer. Additionally, I do not find the business aspect of this series to be entirely ethical. Rita Isbell, the sister of Errol Lindsey, gave an emotionally impactful speech during her courtroom testimony for the trial of Jeffrey Dahmer. This statement was included in the Netflix series. After watching Dahmer, Rita shared that she was never contacted about the series and was definitely not compensated. While Netflix is in no way obligated to compensate the families of the victims, not doing so is certainly tone-deaf—especially considering that the commodification of Dahmer’s murders was a theme.
As this blog post comes to an end, I wish to emphasize that while the series may be created for entertainment purposes, it contains the stories of real people. I encourage you to acknowledge the young men below, and if you have time, learn more about them.
