Dahmer: The Halloween Costume Issue

Dahmer, Monster:The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Official poster courtesy Netflix

Netflix

Dahmer, Monster:The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Official poster courtesy Netflix

Liliana Anderson, Journalist

Have you watched the new Jeffrey Dahmer show? This show recently came out and has brought a lot of attention to Jeffrey Dahmer. Not the good kind though. People have suddenly forgotten that Dahmer was an actual person. In other words, people are starting to idolize him.  

Because of this, we have a major problem when it comes to Halloween costumes. People, on social media have stated that they will be dressing up as Dahmer for Halloween.  Dahmer was one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, and the fact that people will be dressing up like him is sickening. It is not okay for people to walk around the streets dressed as a man who ended so many lives with no remorse. This needs to be stopped. 

One excuse people have been using is that people dress up like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees every year. While that statement is true, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers are fictional characters. They were made up one day and people love to dress up like them for Halloween. Dahmer was a real person, not a fictional character. That’s why dressing up as Dahmer is not okay. 

Dressing up like Dahmer is also very disrespectful to the victims’ families. Dahmer broke up many families, and with people dressing up like him for Halloween, that would just bring back a lot of terrible memories. I can’t imagine seeing somebody idolize and dress up as the man who ruined my family. Families, that were forever broken, continue to remember that horrible time in their life. This is not fair to those families. 

This all started when the show came out. The show, featuring actor Evan Peters who played Dahmer, made people think about Dahmer in an idolizing way. Evan Peters portrayed Dahmer in such a way that got people’s attention, so now, everyone is idolizing Dahmer, when they should have been idolizing Evan Peters. Idolizing a person as sick and disgusting as Dahmer is inexcusable. It’s also very disrespectful.  

I know that no matter how hard we try to stop this, some people will continue to dress up like Dahmer. People need to understand the damage they are causing to victims’ families, there are millions of costumes that people could use for Halloween, but people are choosing the most disturbing. People only want to choose this costume to hurt people. They want to hurt the poor families that are still grieving.  I hope the victims’ families know how sorry some of us are.