The release of the new, most-watched show on Netflix since ‘Stranger Things 4’; ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,’ has resurfaced trauma as well as stigmatization of the victim’s families. 

Netflix originally placed the new true-crime show in the LGBTQ category! This caused further outrage and backlash. After two days, Netflix removed the LGBTQ+ tag from the Dahmer show. By labeling ‘Monster’ in that category, they have taken the focus away from his crimes and placed it on his sexuality, which perpetuates nasty stereotypes about homosexual men. 

Daeden Beck, Greyhound News Editor said, “Dahmer’s story wasn’t of LGBTQ+, but of horrible atrocities.” 

This show was green-lighted by Netflix, without the victim’s family’s approval or knowledge. This triggered severe emotional trauma in the families that saw or even just heard about the new show. Eric Perry, who was also related to Erroll Lindsay, said, “This show is not even necessary. It’s hurting people that have survived the horror.” 

Erroll Lindsay was murdered at 19 by Jefferey Dahmer in 1991. His living sister Rita Isbell spoke out. Isbell stated that she didn’t have to watch the gruesome show because she had already lived it. 

It’s controversial whether or not Dahmer’s killings were racially motivated. Jaylen Kinnie-Bethea, a Senior Reporter of the Greyhound News said, “I do not believe Dahmer’s killings were racially motivated. I believe he just genuinely had an attraction to black men as he has said in interviews he chose the most attractive man he saw that night to take back home with him.” 

In debate, the rest of the board proposed that he went after men who were easy to take advantage of – some of his victims speaking very little to no English. Reanne James, Greyhound News Manager stated, “I think that he purposely targeted marginalized groups of people that he knew were vulnerable because of the racism and xenophobia in our country and used this to his advantage.” 10 out of 17 of Jefferey Dahmer’s victims were of color. At the time of the killings, many cops were racist and ignored “gay stuff,” allowing Dahmer to get away with many of his heinous crimes.

Companies are profiting from the pain of these families, these stories are not remedies for the scarred. With no remorse, on October 7th, Netflix released another Dahmer series. ‘Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes,’ reveal a more psychological viewpoint of Dahmer along with a timeline of his killings.

Reanne James, Greyhound News Manager, did not watch either show. She shares, “..after finding out on social media that the victims’ families were not consulted in the creation of the show, that made me completely ignore any media regarding the show or any current news about Jeffrey Dahmer at all.”

Beck stated, “I think it was just another laugh in the face, another way to get representation and make money off of people who have already suffered great loss.”  The Tapes consist of various interviews with Jeffrey Dahmer, within the 2 years before his death, while he was incarcerated at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin.

Dahmer was killed on November 28th, 1994 by Christopher Scarver after being sentenced to 15 life terms, equivalating to over 900 years. He was convicted of brutally murdering and dismembering 17 males, ranging in age; from 14 to 33 years old. 

Being in the midst of October, Lia Hickey, a Junior at Naugatuck High School shared her opinion, “Halloween is just around the corner and I feel like a lot of people are going to come dressed up as Jeffrey Dahmer. This isn’t something that happened years ago, this [his killings] just ended in 1991.”