How the media perpetuates our sympathy towards evil when it comes to men
By BELLA PETERSON — arts@theaggie.org
Nothing is more powerful than an attractive face belonging to the wrong person — you may have heard it before: “pretty privilege.” What’s even more dangerous: when you have beauty, charm and all the natural advantages you would need in our society to get away with almost anything, but as a man. Pair that with a killer instinct, and you have yourself most of the leading, psychotic male characters we see in our everyday entertainment.
But it’s just fiction, right? What could be so harmful about this kind of portrayal of serial killers? To really answer this question, we must first travel back to the year 2000, when America was introduced to their very own psycho heartthrob: Patrick Bateman. “American Psycho” was originally a novel published in 1991, written by Bret Easton Ellis. Both a satirical and horror novel, the book confronts the concept of the ideal American man as he navigates leading a double life.
What was originally a piece of fiction written to open a discussion about psychology and gender has since devolved into something entirely opposed to that original idea. As the film ages, it receives a mixed interpretation from audiences — from women being infatuated with Christian Bale, who plays Bateman in the film, to young men online using the character as a picturesque bar they should all meet despite his very obvious flaws.
The film presents Bateman as completely dissimilar to what the audience views him to be. In multiple points of the story, it is revealed that Bateman’s view on reality is skewed — the truth that he is spoon-feeding to the audience is meant to be unreliable. Instead of questioning the character’s narration, the movie spawned a mass following of young males and beloved dedication from women.
Despite the questionable reality of Bateman’s actions, murderous or just cruel, the character is posed to be a monster of sorts. His demeaning views against women and toxic thoughts towards masculinity are a constant state of mind. But, under the shroud of his natural good looks and effortless charm, how could the audience not fall in love?
Once the world had gotten used to Bateman’s face, they were then met with a new handsome devil to be enchanted by: Dexter Morgan. The television show “Dexter” (2006) presented a new idea to the masses: What if a killer had a set of morals? The unique situation was not a hard one to get used to; with Michael C. Hall leading as the main killer himself, it wasn’t exactly an issue to be on his side.
In the show, Dexter consistently repeats his values to the audience through constant narration: that he’ll only release his killer urges against other “monsters.” In doing this, he puts himself on a moral highground of sorts — arguing that the audience shouldn’t feel the urge to question him because, afterall, he’s only taking out the bad guys.
As the show continues, there is a progression in Dexter’s character as he learns to become more and more human. The humanity in him is a key factor to garnering sympathy from the audience and the “killing thing” can really fade to the background when you see a guy have a soft spot for kids and his wife.
The brutality seen in Dexter isn’t necessarily the same as the kind seen in Patrick Bateman — it doesn’t stem from a place of hatred or malice towards specific groups of people. In the eyes of fans, the general concept of taking out “monsters” is more of a good rather than an evil. The show was a big hit in its prime, lasting eight whole seasons and branching off into multiple spin-offs with — you guessed it — Dexter Morgan leading the show. One way or another, he keeps finding ways to come back.
After the major success of “Dexter,” it should be no shock to anyone that a similar show then made its way onto the map in 2018: “You.” “You” can be related back to “Dexter” in a lot of ways — following yet another classically handsome male who believes that, despite his acts of violence, he is somehow above it all. For Joe Goldberg, there is always a way to rationalize his criminal acts. In the show, we see Goldberg not only embrace the life of a murderer, but the one of a stalker as well.
In a way, he is a manifestation of both Bateman and Dexter. Goldberg’s violence stems from a possessive view of women, yet he somehow always manages to redeem himself in the eyes of the audience with his moral code. With his “nice guy” persona, it can be easy to forget just how wrong all his doings are. At first glance, many might see his acts of violence to be endearing, as they come from a place of defensiveness for whoever his “love interest” (or victim) may be that season. In reality, as the season progresses, he falls into a devolution of sanity where even the woman he claims to love falls into his path of violence.
Villainous tropes have frequently evolved over the years, and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good antagonist now and then. But, what happens is that slowly the audience finds themselves more and more willing to forgive the despicable actions that in real life so many would condemn. It isn’t hard for the lines between fiction and reality to blur together. The easier it gets for our sympathy to be presented, the easier it gets for killers like the men above to get away with their crimes. During the trial of Ted Bundy, a real man not so different from the ones described above, he weaponized his charm in an attempt to gain the trust of the jury. Before his trial, he used many of the same tactics as Joe Goldberg to lure his women to their gruesome ends.
The uproar in praise these fictional men have received is not the fault of their creators. The interpretation of these characters is a direct reflection of the issues at hand in our current society. Dexter Morgan, Patrick Bateman and Joe Goldberg’s false images are all manifestations of everything that is wrong with our current state of media literacy and our romanticization of anything we find visually appealing.
It’s important to remember that not everything is as simple as it seems. We can’t help who we are attracted to or even who we find sympathy for, but we can remember that in the real world, men like this aren’t just handsome characters. They are a real evil that should be treated as such — pretty face or not.
Written by: Bella Peterson — arts@theaggie.org
