TV - Movies
Families Of
Dahmer Victims
Speak Out About
Netflix Show
By JULIA SELINGER
The Netflix show "Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” despite surpassing 300 million hours viewed, has garnered a lot of criticism over the use of the “LGBTQ” tag for the film since Dahmer preyed on queer people of color. But most damning has been the reactions from the victim’s families, who called the film retraumatizing and exploitative.
Rita Isbell, sister of victim Errol Lindsay, stated that she was never contacted about the show despite it recreating her victim’s statement, and added "It's sad that they're just making money off of this tragedy. That’s just greed.” Another relative of Lindsay’s, Eric Perry, stated that the series was "retraumatizing over and over again, and for what?"
The Netflix show was created by Ryan Murphy, which disappointed many in the Black queer community since he also created “Pose,” a joyful series with a positive representation of Black queer individuals. Murphy reportedly set out to tell Dahmer’s story with the victims at its center, but for the victims’ families and many others, this goal was not met.