Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has officially become one of Netflix’s most-watched show, but has raised concerns over its portrayal of the serial killer.
The disturbing drama is told through the lives of the victims who were impacted by the systemic racism ad homophobia that allowed Dahmer to continue his killing spree before eventually being imprisoned in 1992.
Dahmer, who identified as gay, was convicted of brutally killing 17 victims in total, all male, between the years of 1978 and 1991.
Although many viewers expressed their disgust at the 10-parter, Evan Peters’ portrayal of Dahmer has been met with high praise.
According to Variety, Monster has been viewed for 496.1 million hours so far, with at least 56 million households who have tuned in for all 10 episodes.
The series premiered on the streaming giant on September 21 to an audience of 196.2 million.
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However, psychotherapist Noel McDermott has warned the series fuels fears that being LGBTQ+ is ‘abnormal’.
Netflix recently came under fire after it added the LGBTQ+ tag under the controversial series, with fans claiming: ‘This isn’t the representation we’re looking for.’
McDermott stressed to Metro.co.uk that Monster only adds to ‘the pathologising of being gay.’
‘The Metropolitan police are on special measures in part because of their homophobic refusal to investigate crime against gay men, for example, because they labelled certain types of criminal behaviour as normal for gay men and they ignore complaints from gay men about very serious crimes including being murdered,’ he said.
‘The only criminal justice link to being gay and involved in crime is that you will be ignored if you report crime.
‘It’s not a risk factor in terms of committing crime and it’s not a risk factor in terms of abnormal psychology, frankly, it’s quite revolting that any links are being made and maybe even constitutes hate crime.
‘Being gay is a normal healthy psychological state.’
McDermott explained similar true crime ‘misrepresent a number of issues’ and accused Netflix of ‘manipulating’ its users through ‘well-known’ marketing techniques’.
‘Hardwired aspects of the brain looking for survival, through avoiding death from predators and finding mates for continuation of the species, and they are being manipulated to increase Netflix’s income,’ he said.
‘Netflix has no concern for the issues only the extra subscriptions the publicity gives them. We haven’t even begun to look at the psychological damage this programme does to the survivors of his victims.’
The sister of one Dahmer’s victims, Errol Lindsay, who was killed by the monster when he was 19-years-old has said that her family have been ‘retraumatised’ by the series.
McDermott said the surviving family of Dahmer’s victims could be experiencing ‘disenfranchised grief’.
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Netflix for comment.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is available to stream on Netflix.
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