The beautification of killers and the erasure of mental illness on TikTok
By Coligny Dana ‘22
At the pinnacle of its popularity, TikTok fostered spaces for romanticizing killers.
Glamorizing killers on social media is not a new phenomenon. On Tumblr and Twitter, there have long been spaces where young people shared their fantasies about infamous serial killers, like Ted Bundy or Jefferey Dahmer.
The trend has now migrated to TikTok, an easily accessible social media platform for creating videos. Teenagers and young adults have created point-of-view (POV) videos acting as notable serial killers.
Additionally, the Twitter fad of ‘fan cams’ (edited videos that focus on a specific celebrity, combined with popular music) has moved to TikTok in an unsettling format. Users will take public videos of killers or serial killers from the courtroom and edit them with trendy effects and music.
Isabella Guzman, a twenty-five year old girl from Aurora, Colorado, gained traction on TikTok seven years after brutally stabbing her mother 79 times in their home. People became fascinated with her outward beauty and sassy behavior while she was on trial; videos from the courtroom were made public.
Catlin Gabel School (CGS) senior and avid TikTok user Alexis Smart expressed the fascination with killers online.
“There’s so much focus on serial killers in media… it’s so easy for people on social media to directly translate that into ‘Wow, this person is so attractive.’”
She explained how social media is a tool for sharing our deepest thoughts, no matter how disturbing they are.
“I think it’s really easy to see one side of a story,” Smart continued. “Especially when we’re fantasizing about somebody and romanticizing them.”
CGS high school counselor Dan Petrocelli shared similar thoughts on this topic.
“It almost makes me think of video games with killing… it’s a place of curiosity, and now [people on social media] found a way to use more than just video games… they prey on people’s most curious thoughts.”
He added that there is an abundance of shows that depict killers, to a point where people are rooting for the bad guys.
“It grabs people’s attention and captivates them...it’s an escape.”
Petrocelli emphasized that romanticization erases the mental health issues behind the killers and creates trends out of complex conditions.
“I feel like [mental illness] has already become trendy.” He explained that terms like “my OCD” and “my ADHD” are harmful to people who truly have these conditions, and it creates a casualness of serious mental health disorders.
Erin Gilmore, another CGS high school counselor, weighed in on the glamorization aspect.
“We’re glamorizing someone who did horrible things, and people aren’t educated enough to see that it’s glamorized.”
She highlighted the widespreadness of social media and how much harder it is to monitor what goes on.
Gilmore continued the notion that the posts share a limited perspective.
“Posts on social media are one-sided, and they don’t look at the whole of this person, their trauma.”
Smart, Gilmore, and Petrocelli all expressed the normalization of killers on social media and how terrifying it is.
Gilmore shared her final thoughts.
“This topic on social media kind of makes [conditions] seem crazier. It almost encourages people not to get help because that could pull them away from this glamorization.”
With the growing popularity of TikTok and its accessibility to young kids, trends like romanticizing killers can be extremely harmful.
TikTok user @caligarlicabinet reminded viewers how dangerous romanticization can be: remember there are real victims behind these videos.