Alex PattersonPodcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
If you’ve opened up any of your social media feeds recently, you know that American serial killer Ted Bundy is the talk of the town.
Two documentaries have been released on him, and a biopic starring Zac Efron is currently in the works. Bundy was incredibly notorious for being charismatic and relatively attractive, something that many say made him so “successful” as a killer.
After the release of the documentaries, some people took to online spaces to gush about Ted Bundy’s attractiveness. This prompted immediate backlash from others online, condemning them for finding Bundy, a man who killed over 30 women, attractive. Why gush over Ted when there are many attractive men out there who weren’t killers?
To dig deeper into the Ted Bundy discourse, I sat down with opinion section volunteers Christine McManus, a third year psychology student, and Bree Meiklejohn, a first year classics student.. Over the course of our conversation, we touched on the portrayal of violent men in films, the treatment of victims in media, and why we’re so fascinated with serial killers.
Our biggest takeaway was certainly that the framing of Bundy in media has important implications for how we treat violence against women in our everyday society. Take a listen to the segment to hear more about our thoughts.
