How Does Jeffrey Dahmer's Influence On American Culture

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In 2022, Netflix released a crime TV show called “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” The show was based on one of America’s most famous serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer. It gave an overview of his life before he died. It incorporated most aspects of his life, but didn’t include every detail. The show provided his background information, exposed all the crimes he committed, how he did them, how he got caught, his trial, and finished by showing how he died in prison. Jeffrey Dahmer was a young man born in 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Jenkins, 2019). His crimes left a lasting impact on the American population because not only did he murder his victims, but he also ate them and engaged in sexual intercourse with their corpses. In total, he was …show more content…

The appearance of paternalism, objectivity, and more show how white supremacy was present in the scene. One of the descriptions of paternalism indicates that it happens when “those in power often don’t think it is important or necessary to understand the viewpoint or experience of those for whom they are making decisions” (Okun, 2001). When Konerak Sinthasomphone was helplessly seated down at the front steps of the apartment building, the police did not really care for him. They were asking questions such as “Son, you know this guy?” or “Son, how old are you?” (Brennan & Murphy, 2022, Episode 2: “Please Don’t Go”) and not getting any adequate responses. This should have raised red flags, but did not. Although there were already signs that Konerak was physically ill, for instance, his pale body, the police officers decided to listen to Jeffrey Dahmer. On behalf of Konerak, they made the decision to let him stay in Dahmer’s apartment. The neighbor’s child even emphasizes, “He’s got blood dripping down his head!” (Brennan & Murphy, 2022, Episode 2: “Please Don’t Go”). Although Jeffrey gave an explanation as to why he was bleeding, it was not quite reasonable, and the officers should have investigated more. They did not put themselves in Konerak’s shoes and were unable to …show more content…

This was evident when the crime scene was later examined to construct his trial. Therefore, “The citizens group charged it was the officer’s insensitivity to the gay community that allowed Dahmer to escape arrest and continue his killing spree” (Jentzen, 2017). In addition to insensitivity, they should have also been accused of a fear of conflict because, due to his sexuality, the officers were hesitant to properly question him and enter his apartment. Before entering, one of them even asked, “You gonna have anything weird in there?” Jeffrey responded, “What? Like, uh. like gay stuff?” and he then said, “We just don’t want to catch anything” (Brennan & Murphy, 2022, Episode 2: “Please Don’t Go”). The response was somewhat skeptical because it was unclear what he meant by “catching anything.” However, it shows how reluctant they were to enter Jeffrey’s apartment because they probably thought they might find items that openly displayed Dahmer’s sexuality, such as an LGBTQ+ flag or something similar. Additionally, the officers didn’t want to engage with him due to a fear of conflict, which can also be connected to white supremacy culture and the characteristics outlined by Tema Okun. Fear of conflict occurs when “people in power are afraid of expressed conflict and try to ignore it or run from it” (Okun, 2001). As a gay person, they automatically

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