A number of photographs of children dressed in Jeffrey Dahmer Halloween costumes inspired by the controversial Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story have been making the rounds on social media, and people are rightfully incensed with this complete and utter lack of common sense on the parents’ behalf.
The children in the images appear to be no older than the age of five and aren’t in a position to know any better about the context behind the costumes their parents have chosen for them.
While it is fairly commonplace for Halloween costumes to depict fictional serial killers, we shouldn’t need to explain that it’s not fine to glamorize and celebrate real-life mass murderers by dressing up as them for Halloween.
It’s even worse to make the decision to dress your children up as such a divisive figure the world would rather forget.
Not only was Jeffrey Dahmer a real person, who murdered real people, but his actions vilified and did, and continues to do, genuine damage to the Black community.
There shouldn’t be a need for this article, or for Twitter users to be coming out and explaining why it’s unacceptable to dress up as a real-world murderer popularized by a Netflix true crime drama, yet somehow it happened.
There’s an argument being made by some that whoever dressed their children as Dahmer is an unfit parent and should have their child taken away.
It’s one thing for an adult to make a choice to dress up as a real-world serial killer in poor taste, but it’s even more deplorable to make that vile statement through one’s children.
We’re all for a fun celebration of the macabre this month, but let this be a reminder of what not to do.
This isn’t just a bad Halloween costume, this is a figure that shouldn’t be celebrated. This isn’t toeing the line, this is leaving the line in the distance.