A Serial Type of Love

When I think of dollhouses, I think of children's soft lotioned palms wrapped around wooden dolls with tutus. Plastic family figurines painted in matching sweaters lay on miniature furniture, and each room of the dollhouse is a home improvement TV perfect with its own aesthetic. Dollhouses remind me of bright Saturday mornings where sunshine spills in from the windows, vanilla Oreos and lemonade sit by your side as you create imaginative storylines for your toy family. No matter if your parents built you a dollhouse from scratch, or you bought a one from Toys R Us, dollhouses capture the fairy dust of childhood innocence.

But there is a new dollhouse on the market: The Serial Killer dollhouse. It's bloody, revolting, and each room has its own story to tell, that's for sure.  

When I first saw @cassierleighart1 constructing her mini Serial Killer dollhouse on my Tik Tok For You Page, I was understandably grossed out. Since she started the project in August, she has made each room resemble a crime scene from a different serial killer. John Wayne Gacy’s basement, Countess Elizabeth Bathory's "bloody bathroom," Jeffrey Dhamer's kitchen, and the Zodiac Killer's man cave are just some of the places she's built thus far. While there have been many comments (and I mean thousands) on her posts, inquiring as to whether her Serial Killer dollhouse is for sale, she lets these self-proclaimed true-crime fans down each time when she says, no, the houses are not for sale. But on her Etsy, you can purchase a single "Serial Killer room" handmade by her for $75. If you want to be even spicier, you can ask her to make you a custom killer room so you can admire your favorite murderer for days on end!

I almost spit out the coca-cola I was drinking when I found out she sells these things. I was skeeved out when I saw her making her dollhouse initially, but I figured to each their own. I have seen plenty of weirder stuff on the internet, and maybe she was making the dollhouse for a bizarre project — still creepy. But when I found out she was selling mini rooms and profiting off these horrible killers, it sent a chill up my spine, and my stomach suddenly felt like a rotting apricot. Who would want to buy these grotesque little rooms and have them up for display on their bookshelves as if they were cutesy ornaments for people to drool over? It's distressing to find thousands of people worshiping evil human beings and pretending as if the victims of these killers weren't once breathing people who had a family, a life, a future. But no. In the serial killer dollhouse world, these victims are just tiny characters for people's crafted homes. Their purchases bleed a blatant disregard for human life. 

Sadly worshiping serial killers is nothing new. In this golden era of media we live in, with new documentaries and tv series every week about violent killers, it is even easier for people to fall into the trap of idolizing serial killers. Some "fans" start to fall in love with them. From the courtroom in orange jumpsuits, serial murders like Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Jeffrey Dahmer have been able to capture the hearts of (typically) disturbed teenage girls and women — even after death. 

The term “serial killer” was first coined by FBI agent and profiler Rob Ressler in the mid-1970s. While lecturing at a British police academy in London, he heard the description of some crimes as occurring in series, including rapes, arsons, burglaries, robberies, and murders. There have been hundreds of documented cases of serial murder since the beginning of time. Still, until the 1970s, the public referred to serial killers as mass murders, which we now know are distinctly two different things. 

According to Psychology Today, mass murder is a “one-time event that results in the killing of multiple people in one location.” Whereas serial killing “involves multiple incidents of homicide—committed in separate events and crime scenes,” and in between murders, the perpetrator experiences an “emotional cooling-off period” that could last weeks, months, or even years. Ressler believed that serial killers are never fully satisfied and continue to strive to commit a perfect murder each time—one closer to their ideal fantasy, leading to a never-ending “serial” cycle of killings. 

But it wasn’t until a decade later that America’s fascination with serial killers truly exploded. In a news conference held by the Justice Department in October 1983, the FBI explained that at any given moment, there were dozens of active serial killers at large in the country who were responsible for thousands of deaths a year. Serial killers are honestly a uniquely American phenomenon. We have 5% of the world’s population, yet 67% of the world’s serial killers and over 50 % of America’s serial killers are white males. 

Now Americans also had a face to put to the word “serial killer”: Ted Bundy. 

Bundy, who had been convicted and sentenced to death in Florida in 1979, quickly became the poster boy for serial murder. Due to his confession to 30 murders (even though he was suspected of killing more than 100), and because if there is one thing America loves more than apple pie and the Fourth of July, it’s the good ol’ American white boy. 

Bundy was handsome, charming, had aspirations to be a lawyer, and many people believed, "he just didn't look like the type to kill somebody." At his sentencing, Judge Edward D Cowart told Bundy, "You're a bright young man, you would've made a good lawyer, I would've loved to have you practice, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don't have any animosity towards you. I just want you to know that." 

Suppose a person of color had brutally raped, beaten, murdered, and disfigured nearly a hundred women. In that case, there is no chance a judge would have sung practically a lullaby for them to float on as they spent the rest of their days waiting for execution. 

But as Melanie Hamlett, writer of "I'm Tired of Men Telling Ted Bundy's Story," explains, society has been trying to understand the white antihero "from the news cycle to Breaking Bad" for ages. While there is nothing wrong with that, the media fails to address the long-lasting effects these men's selfish actions have on their victims. 

In 2019, thirty years after the execution of Ted Bundy, Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes—a four-episode limited series was released by Netflix. That same summer, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile starring Zac Efron as Bundy debuted on the platform, and "Tednation" was re-born. Following its release, Netflix had to write a statement that people shouldn't stan serial killers. 

In 2017, Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer, sex offender, and cannibal who peaked in the 1990s had a film about him starring Ross Lynch. Charles Manson, a cult leader whose followers carried out several notorious murders in the late 1960s, has had over 25 documentaries and films made about him and his Manson family. The list goes on and on. 

So what’s the deal with people falling in love and obsessing over serial killers? Well, hybristophilia answers a part of that question. Hybristophilia is the type of paraphilia in which people get sexually aroused by the thought of someone committing a violent or offensive act. As defined by Merriam-Webster, paraphilia is “a pattern of recurring sexually arousing mental imagery or behavior that involves unusual and especially socially unacceptable sexual practices.” The paraphilia is also described as ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ syndrome because likely the person involved is like Bonnie, an incredibly faithful partner to the “violent Clyde.” 

Sheila Isenberg, the author of Women Who Love Men Who Kill, says there are two types of women who fall in love with convicted killers. The first is the type to love the “ordinary” killer because there is a good in them that others do not see. The other type is the one to love the “notorious” killer, following them like puppies, because they are drawn to the spotlight. 

Many mental health experts compare infatuation with serial killers to an extreme form of fan-fiction. Even if you met Timothee Chalamet at Tompkins Square Bagels one day, he will not magically invite you to be his date at the Oscars. But Timothee also won't break up with you in your fantasy world. Loving a celebrity is contained, just like loving a serial killer. These young women essentially have "the perfect boyfriend" because they know where he is all the time, and they don't have to endure the day-to-day responsibilities of a real relationship. 

Loving a serial killer is not attractive. Making serial killer dollhouses is not cute. Glamorizing murderers is disgusting. There is absolutely nothing wrong with educating yourself on these vicious criminals and exploring the psychology behind it all — because it is worthwhile and necessary to curb the serial killer epidemic, as long as you know which lines are not okay to cross. Penn Badgley, the former star of Gossip Girl, shouldn't have to fight off fans who loved him as a murderous stalker in Netflix's TV series, YOU. People who idolize serial killers have deep emotional traumas and psychological pains that lead them to an unhappy and distressing life. 

No more airtime for the monsters like Bundy, Dahmer, and Manson. We need to hear stories from survivors, like Kathy Kleiner, who narrowly escaped Bundy after he hit her over the head with a crowbar. It is time for this country to look at itself through its red, white, and blue mirror and acknowledge how the criminals we have poured endless attention to have been distracting us from what matters all along. That this country gives white men an infinite amount of chances to be “good citizens” even behind bars, while the voices of victims and survivors are glossed over until it is too late.