The Monster of Milwaukee: Sexuality, Disorder, and the Myth of Jeffrey Dahmer
Abstract:
Jeffrey Dahmer, a resident of Milwaukee, committed a series of horrific crimes in
which he killed seventeen men, primarily targeting black gay men. He not only
took their lives but also preserved their bodies and, disturbingly, consumed some
of their remains. These actions left many baffled and prompted psychologists and
true-crime enthusiasts to seek an understanding of the motivations behind these
heinous acts. Interestingly, when examining true-crime documentaries about
Jeffrey Dahmer, one can observe a significant omission regarding the homophobic
and racial aspects of his crimes. Most psychologists diagnosed Dahmer with
psychopathic personality disorder, a condition often associated with serial killers
who commit crimes without clear motives. Notably, one of the diagnostic criteria
for psychopathy includes sexual perversion, leading to scrutiny of Dahmer’s
sexuality as a potential explanation for his gruesome actions. This scrutiny
resulted in the formation of a connection between Dahmer’s sexuality and his
violent crimes. During the 1980s, when AIDS emerged and was initially dubbed
the ‘gay plague’, mainstream culture associated homosexuality with violence and
death. Dahmer’s arrest only fuelled the homophobic narrative, further stigmatising
non-normative sexuality. This paper takes a closer look at Jeffrey Dahmer, not as
an isolated individual but as a product of the society in which he existed. It
examines the myths surrounding Dahmer, specifically those related to his mental
disorder and his sexuality. Drawing on the analysis of David Schmid, this paper
argues that true-crime narratives reinforce the idea that heterosexuality represents
normality while branding homosexuality as monstrous, primarily by establishing
an exaggerated link between homosexuality and violence. This analysis looks at
the construction of psychopathy in relation to sexuality to understand how
Dahmer’s depiction as a psychopath is primarily connected to his sexuality and
how the myth of Dahmer continues to demonise non-normative sexuality in the
popular psyche.
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