Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered

August: Serial Killer Stans, Netflix True Crime, and Youtuber Ethics

A screengrab of Bailey Sarian, true crime Youtuber, in her video about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re all enjoying your summer, and a warm welcome to any new subscribers! I want to say I’m sorry for my radio silence in the month of July. I spent three weeks last month in America, seeing family I hadn’t seen for over 18 months. With the best will in the world, work became somewhat sporadic. Nonetheless, I have a very sincere desire to make it up to all of you. So I’ve decided that August is going to be something like a Sisters Under the Mink bumper issue.

Every Friday morning of this month, you will get an email from me - meaning FOUR dispatches for August. I’ll be tackling the wildly popular and much-discussed subject of the true crime genre, and the fact that women are purportedly its biggest consumers.

Zac Efron, left, in character as serial killer Ted Bundy, right, for the film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), dir. Joe Berlinger

Be it via essay or a video segment, I’ll be thinking through the endless cinematic retreads of the Ted Bundy story; Netflix’s true-crime-industrial-complex; and Bailey Sarian’s wildly popular murder-mystery Youtube channel (in which the professional makeup artist does her makeup while conversationally sharing chilling true crime tales). Over the next few weeks, I’ll also be leaning on the help of experts in various fields to examine how the genre trafficks in both feminist catharsis and dubious ethics, handily deploying the victimhood of white women and sometimes propping up a belief in harsher policing. Looking forward to digging in with you all beginning this Friday!

And finally, to change the subject completely, I have some lovely parting news. Sisters Under the Mink has won a UK Freelance Writing Award for Best Newsletter of the Year! Winning this award is a) wonderful and seeing it also made me realise it is b) ironically well-suited to being used as a murder weapon in a film noir. Seems on brand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for subscribing to Sisters Under the Mink, by me, Christina Newland. If you want to upgrade your sub to the paid version, you can do so below. If not, no pressure - continue to enjoy it!