The mother of one of Jeffrey Dahmer‘s victims has slammed Halloween costumes of her son’s killer. As she fkn should.
Shirley Hughes‘ son Tony Hughes was a deaf, non-verbal Black teenager who — along with 16 other predominantly queer, Black men and boys — was killed by Dahmer. He was only 17 years old when Dahmer murdered him in 1991.
Shirley, along with other families who lost loved ones to these murders, is sick of seeing her tragic loss used for profits. First by Netflix for its controversial drama series based on Dahmer starring Evan Peters, and now by vendors who are selling costumes of the serial killer as if he wasn’t a real person who destroyed the lives of dozens of people.
The aggrieved mother told TMZ she had seen Dahmer costumes sold on eBay — complete with blonde wigs, wire-rimmed glasses and striped button-up shirts.
if you dress up as Jeffrey Dahmer for halloween i hope someone knocks y*u out. he was not a fictional character, nor should he be a costume. he was a heinous human being who murdered and mutilated young boys and men.
— The Notorious J.O.V. (@whotfisjovana) October 14, 2022
She said seeing all the paraphernalia and money that has come out of her son’s murder “hurts”, especially because she and the other victims’ families never saw a dime from Netflix. Instead, they are expected to relive their trauma again and again for the sake of entertainment. Which she says she wouldn’t have to do if the series was never aired.
Shirley accused people who sell these costumes of simply exploiting the victims of Dahmer and re-traumatising their families. She called Dahmer “pure evil” and said she couldn’t understand how people partake in the gross sensationalising of Dahmer and sleep at night.
ICYMI, videos and pictures of Jeffrey Dahmer costumes began circulating on social media last week, no doubt inspired by Netflix’s hit drama series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Some were ads from eBay vendors selling the costumes, others were DIY TikToks and Instagram posts.
The series itself has been the subject of immense backlash given it essentially turned the tragic murders of queer POC into entertainment fodder, without consulting and respecting the victims’ families or actually tackling the race politics involved head on.
It’s prompted a larger conversation on where we draw the line with true crime, which so frequently becomes trauma porn devoid of any real empathy for victims. How is it ever ethical to take people’s real stories of loss and churn out sensationalised documentaries and TV series that don’t have their blessing or input?
And that’s without discussing the way Dahmer content rarely does the race politics involved justice. I mean, he was a white man that targeted mostly Black, mostly queer men and boys in racist America. Queer POC were easier victims for him to attack because police were less likely to look for them after they went missing, which is something that is still true today.
FFS, please do not “Cosplay” or dress up as Jeffrey Dahmer for Halloween. Stop idolizing a horrific human that committed atrocious crimes. It’s fucking weird. Go to therapy to work through your weird ass obsession, too. That shit is not healthy.
— Audree | She/They (@DarlinSincerest) October 10, 2022
Jeffrey Dahmer was not a fictional character, and therefore there should be no “costume”. He was a real person, who caused real harm, who murdered real people. And those people’s families are still around and have to deal with people trivialising their deaths as some kind of grotesque plot twist in a TV show instead of a real thing that actually happened.
Though I guess the desensitisation this society has to the suffering, trauma and deaths of Black people shouldn’t shock me.
