The world’s talking about Ted Bundy. Between the Netflix series that emerged surrounding the famed serial killer and Zac Efron’s new movie, “Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile,” the world seems to have a crush on Bundy. It’s not hard to understand why. Bundy was known to be incredibly handsome and charming, which is how he manipulated his victims.

         Bundy had confessed to killing up to 30 women, but the actual number of murders is unknown. When he was held at trial, Bundy handled much of his own defense–something that was unheard of for the severity of his crime. Women flocked outside of the courthouse, professing their love for Bundy to the cameras. It was unnerving to watch, and it’s even more eerie to see similar behavior today. I watched “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” alongside my roommates.

          We all agreed that Bundy was handsome and charming, but to us, that only made him creepier. We were able to separate the man he portrayed to the public from the man he actually was. This didn’t seem like that difficult a task, but the internet has recently become littered with people praising Bundy for his looks and charm. It doesn’t help that Bundy’s film depiction is Efron.

         Everyone’s in love with Efron, but he’s not playing Troy Bolton here. Netflix seems to agree with my assessment as they have recently tweeted a statement that reads, “I’ve seen a lot of talk about Ted Bundy’s alleged hotness and would like to gently remind everyone that there are literally THOUSANDS of hot men on the service – almost all of whom are not convicted serial murderers.”

        This is important to think about. When you refer to Bundy as hot, you are glorifying the man. This is a man who used his attractiveness and charm to murder and rape women. His story is a fascinating one, undoubtedly, and that is why we are telling it today. But it’s not a story to be celebrated.

Photo courtesy of ReleaseMama.com