Baka

1. i can do this! after outlining everything i need to do, it doesn’t seem so bad. in fact it’s very methodical and easy to follow and i can do it.

2. oh my god its happening. its the end for me. i might as well be dead. everything is due now. i was put on this earth to suffer. i have two essays due in 45 seconds and all ive eaten today is half a goldfish cracker. i can only feel pain

I can name 68. I can tell you their names, their childhoods, their murders, their trials, their deaths.

Now, let me ask you something else: How many of their victims can you name?

I can name 0.

None. I’m wracking my brain, just trying to think of one number. I have been trying for 20 minutes. Nothing.

I can tell you how they died, in every horrific detail. I can’t tell you their names.

I can tell you the names of victims wer don’t know the killers of. The Black Dahlia. Elisa Lam. JonBenet Ramsey. I can tell you their names because we refer to their cases as “The ___ Murder”. If we knew their killers, we wouldn’t know their names.

So, let me ask you something – who were these people who were killed? And why can I tell you everything about the killer’s lives and nothing about the victims. Why do we just say “______ killed _ people”, instead of “(the victim) was killed by _____”. Why do we make them just a number in the body count.

It’s totally okay to be interested in true crime (I have a special interest), but I feel like so often we lose track of the fact these victims were real people. Real people died in horrible, horrible ways, and all too often we just say “Oh, that’s weird!” and “Woah, how wild!” and move on, without thinking about the fact that these people were real. 

So many people in the TCC community romanticize, glorifying, fetishize, and excuse killers. I see aesthetic blogs devoted to Adam Lanza, where people post pastel pictures of Dylann Roof and call him “daddy”. I see people who think that serial killers are made from a lack of love,like they’re children who misbehave and break a plate – not grown-ass men who murder because of misogyny, racism, albeism, and hate. People with no understanding of mental illness saying they’re “psychos” who are in love with real killers and rapists.

Toxic Masculinity causes these crimes, and when you romanticize these killers, you are adding fuel to the fire. 

Remember the victims, not the killers. Learn about their lives. Seek justice for them, and understand why they died, and work to make sure it never happens again.

Dylann Roof is getting what he deserves. His victims are getting justice, and that is what they deserve.