We should leave these criminals to just be that, criminals, not 90s heartthrobs or broken angels.
DISCLAIMER and *TRIGGER WARNING*
My intention was to not bash the accounts mentioned (Angelica Blanch tried her best to blur the names out of the accounts mentioned but it didn't upload properly).
This is my personal opinion on the situation. I am going to be talking about school shooters and serial killers. If this content is triggering for you, I advise you not to continue reading.
Numerous Ted Bundy groupies were interviewed after Bundy’s trial. When responding to the question,
“Are you a little scared when you look at him?” One of the girls’ response was,
"Yes, it scares me being in the same room as him. But I know there’s other people in there.” The interviewer followed with,
“Why do you do it?” She replied with,
“I don’t know…”
Serial killers are not romantical figures. Period. The fact that I had to type that sentence baffles me. But as apparent as this may seem, there is a whole community of people, mostly women, who fantasize about murderers and school shooters. And it’s common.
On January 24, Netflix released its new documentary-style TV show titled, Conversations with a Killer: Ted Bundy Tapes. Some of you may know Ted Bundy because he was one of the most notorious serial killers in the late 20th century. His “charming” and “handsome” features were used to his advantage when luring his victims, which were mostly young, college women.
Bundy confessed to murdering 36 women. However, experts speculate that he is responsible for over 100 cases of murder. We might never know for sure.
Despite all this, Bundy had “fans” that would send him love letters while he was in jail. And not only one or two, he also received hundreds. Young women would even go as far as to dress up as his victims, in hopes to attract the attention of the serial killer. He even married one of his so-called “groupies”.
So what sparked the women to behave in such a way?
Hybristophilia
Hybristophilia is a paraphilia (a condition characterized by abnormal sexual desires), and is sometimes known as “Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome.” It’s when individuals derive their sexual arousal and pleasure from violent acts and having a sexual partner that commits crimes.
There are two types of Hybristophilia.
Passive Hybristophilia
Ted Bundy had fangirls who would show up to court dressed up like his victims. These people demonstrate “Passive Hybristophilia” by trying to justify and make up excuses for killers no matter how despicable. Also, they put themselves in situations where they are manipulated and lied into believing they can change the criminal's behavior. As a result, these women delve into their delusional fantasies where they can save these murderers by their love.
Aggressive Hybristophilia
The opposites of passive hybristophilia. They are attracted to killers because of their violent actions and hope that their idols will reciprocate their love. They are open to contributing to the killings by being an aide. A few examples of Aggressive Hybristophilia is luring victims, covering crimes, and even hiding bodies.
So why is Hybristophilia so common amongst females?
A book published in 1991 titled, “Women Who Love Men Who Kill” by Sheila Isenberg went in-depth about hybristophiliacs and interviewed numerous of them. Isenberg states that many of these women led normal lives, such as being teachers and wives, etc. Although, the majority of these women had prior violent relationships. Psychologists presume that these women are forming these relationships so that they can somehow “rewrite” their abusive past relationships. This is easier when the man is behind bars and don’t have physical interaction with the women.
Let’s keep in mind that this was during the 70s. What happens nowadays is... Well, I’ll let you decide.
Since social media was established, the people who fantasize about murderers have expanded to new genres of showcasing their profound affection to these monsters.
They have Instagram fan pages, blogs and formed a community on Tumblr known as the “True Crime Community”or "TCC."
Now, the TCC as a whole isn’t controversial. Some of them merely discuss various criminal cases, and they do it respectfully. However, they have subgroups, and these subgroups have fandoms that act like your generic KPOP and One Direction fan pages. Except they do it with school shooters and serial killers. I am going to show content directly related to someone called Nikolas Cruz.
To reiterate, some of the material shown may be triggering, so feel free to stop reading here.
For some of you who don’t know what Nikolas Cruz did. He was the perpetrator of the Parkland, Florida shooting or sometimes known as the Stoneman Douglas Shooting. Cruz killed 17 people and injured 14.
This edit illustrates Cruz to be some sort of Wattpad boy that girls are meant to swoon over. I honestly don’t understand why there even is a heart eyes emoji, there is nothing beautiful about him. He committed a massacre. He is not a beautiful person. Period.
The people who are making these edits are confusing the whole I’m a fictional bad boy who wears leather jackets and smokes cigarettes to I’m a mentally disturbed school shooter.
Since practically forever, the dark, angsty boy-next-door characters were presented as heartthrobs. You have James Dean, Edward Cullens, and even Jughead Jones.
People love that mysterious, rebel concept so much that they try to apply it to anything possible. When school shootings became more frequent, and Tumblr’s popularity was increasing, more and more of these individuals started to fit school shooters into that I’m a bad boy persona — often creating their idealization of these killers, completely disregarding the actual identity of them.
“It’ll be awful,” what’s awful is the fact that people want to start a family with a Nicolas Cruz.
Let's compare this edit to another edit that my good friend made.
The gif on the right is an edit of the ship “Destiel” from the show, “Supernatural.” Shoutout to one of my favorite people who creates a variety of edits similar to this. She’s so talented and deserves all your praise. Her Instagram is @missolved :)
The primary difference from this edit is that... well.... THEY’RE NOT SCHOOL SHOOTERS. So that’s a plus. Edits like this are harmless; they are made out of pure enjoyment to entertain other shippers. They are not trying to make committing mass murders “captivating” or delineate murderers to be “boyfriend material.”
The "Destiel" edit is the type of positive influence that should occur on Tumblr.
But there’s more to it.
According to American Psychological Association, “The National Center for PTSD estimates that 28 percent of people who have witnessed a mass shooting develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and about a third develop acute stress disorder.” If a survivor of the Parkland shooting sees this edit, it can trigger their PTSD. Because according to WebMD, “Seeing a person related to the trauma may set off a PTSD reaction. Or someone may have a physical trait that’s a reminder. For example, if someone with a beard mugged you, other bearded men may bring back memories.”
This can occur if someone even resembles Nikolas Cruz. The survivors are looking at romanticized versions of the boy that tore their lives apart. This is a serious issue. Tumblr needs to take these post down immediately before something really bad happens.
When Tumblr implemented new community guidelines in December 17, 2018, they removed existing and will potentially remove future adult content. If Tumblr is taking initiative to do that, then they should do the same for the toxic part of the TCC.
The majority of the victims were teenagers, people my age, they never got to go to prom, go to college or start a family. It breaks my heart seeing that people think it’s okay to glamorize Nikolas Cruz when he is the reason that hundreds of people are suffering from the ramifications of his actions.
When I post this, it marks the one year anniversary for the Parkland, Florida shooting. I am sending love to all the friends and families affected by the Florida shooting. Gun violence has terrorized your community for too long. Enough is enough.
If you are interested in this topic, here are some of the links that I used to write this article!
I got my inspiration for this article from this video!! Check it out!!
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