Serial Tendencies
By RazzaTazz 5 Comments
For those of you that still read these blog entries you will know that starting around April that I got hooked on the Grimm Fairy Tales series from Zenescope. I have progressed from the main series to the secondary series (Myths and Legends, Wonderland) and now actually like them better as they have a bit better scripting and remain loyal more so to the original vision of the series. In the past couple of weeks I have been piecing together missing parts of the series and reading more of the tie-ins than the core books. This has meant reading more of the things like annuals and one-shots than stuff which is necessarily related to the series. In the process of catching up on Myths and Legends last week I came across for the first time in all the stories a serial killer that likes to kill prostitutes. This is a pretty dark subject of course, but is maybe no more dark than a lot of other subjects which are dealt with (suicide, pedophilia, rape and so on) but this is maybe one which is handled the least poorly among all of these taboo subjects. Criminology is not one of my main fields of interest, so I can’t really explain the thinking that goes into it, but it is a sad fact that serial killers quite often target prostitutes. This is likely because of one of two reason though – that it is relatively easy to get a prostitute to do what you want her to, and that prostitutes represent a form of feminine corruption to the criminally insane. In the course of a few issues today, there were two more stories about killing ladies of the night to go along with the one that I read last week. Recently I also read a book called “The Natashas” which detailed the horrific conditions which women undergo who are kidnapped or duped into prostitution from poor areas of the world and who are essentially forced into sexual servitude (which constitutes rape.) One of the reasons that I like Grimm Fairy Tales so much is because I like how they create strong female characters to lead their series. Characters that have flaws and yet still manage to see the light in things. From my perspective though if the creative teams want to continue occasionally showing serial killers killing prostitutes that it might be better served by showing the point of view of the killed and not the killer. Showing the killer does definitely highlight the crime, but the tragedy is not seen as well until the women themselves get a voice, just like in fiction as in reality.
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