It was my birthday recently, and where better to celebrate than at Serial Killer – The Exhibition World Tour, appearing at The Vaults in London?
This says it all really – I chose this as a way to relax and unwind with my best friend and was actively looking forward to it. Is that weird? Gross? Distasteful?
Even if it is, judging by statistics I am by no means alone – the true crime industry is massive not just in the UK but worldwide (particularly in the US) and a recent article from The University of Derby states that:
The producers of the true crime podcast Serial revealed that their first series has been downloaded more than 211 million times, Netflix’s Making a Murder topped its 2018 list of most binged TV shows and there are three dedicated true crime TV channels in the UK that reach over five million people a month
This is just one of several studies into why we are so interested in the genre but this one touches on the reason why I think that I, personally, am gripped by it all. Firstly, I believe that as a woman, I am inherently aware that I am statistically more likely to become a victim than my male partner. As the article puts it: If you are more fearful, you are more interested in knowing more about how these situations can occur.
Essentially, as women, we are the potential prey. And the more we watch documentaries about these atrocities the more we are, theoretically, able to protect ourselves against an attack
You may have seen the recent interview with Saoirse Ronan on Graham Norton which went viral; if not you can watch the exchange here.
I remember walking home from the train station one night; it was dark, but I was walking along a footpath in a residential area with plenty of streetlights showing me the way. The problem was, there was no one else around, and man was walking at what I perceived to be an unnervingly close pace behind me. I did all the things I had been taught in Fresher’s Week at Uni, putting a key between my fingers to use as a potential weapon and pretending to be on the phone to someone.
Of course, this person was just minding his own business, and I got home safely but I was genuinely terrified, and this comes from someone who listens to true crime podcasts at night to get to sleep.
But what’s this got to do with the exhibition? I was fascinated of course, but three things in particular stood out to me:
Crime Scene Photographs
There is an unwritten rule not to publish explicit crime scene photos. Who needs to see those? And yet dotted around the many banners at the exhibition were fully explicit, naked photographs of some of the victims of these horrendous crimes. Where is the thought for their dignity? Why do we need to see these? The answer is, we do not.
In a similar vein, on one of the montage banners about the Moors Murders, a picture of Winnie Johnson (the mother of one of the victims, Keith Bennett, whose body was never found due to Brady and Hindley’s refusal to help identify the burial site) was casually placed next to a photo of Myra Hindley proudly receiving her degree from within prison. Why would this be appropriate?
Inappropriate Language
I’m not sure if this is just a true crime thing, but the term prostitute has generally been replaced with the term ‘sex worker’ which seems to be more socially acceptable and has been adopted generally by like-minded podcasters. What was interesting about this particular exhibition was that their original banners had clearly used the outdated term, as there were several cut and pastes with the words ‘sex worker’ covering up the original wording. Had someone seen the initial exhibition and drawn the organisers’ attention to the mistake? This seems like something which should have been obvious to the curators from the start.
Replica Exhibits
Don’t get me wrong, I was as interested as the next punter to peer at Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen’s real glasses, and the latter’s typewriter. However, the majority of the remaining exhibits bore labels such as ‘a replica of what the axe used by *insert killer here* might have used. It seemed like an attempt to shock and to keep up with the ‘real’ exhibits.
I’m not trying to criticize anyone here; it’s crucial, especially for women, to be aware of the potential dangers in the world around us. However, do we really need a model of a refrigerator resembling the one Jeffrey Dahmer used to store the remains of his victims, complete with fake blood smears? Probably not. What we truly need is for more people to grasp the message Saoirse Ronan was conveying while sitting on that sofa surrounded by men blissfully oblivious to the dangers we face daily.