<h1 class="left">The internet is in love with Luigi Mangione. The 26-year-old Italian-American, charged in the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has gained hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter since his arrest. Fan pages have materialised all over social media. On Instagram, an artwork of him with a halo around his head declares him ‘the Patron Saint of Healthcare as a Human Right.’ On TikTok, creators have returned to ‘mob wife inspo’ for their ‘Mrs Luigi Mangione era.’ T-shirts featuring Jesus embracing Mangione (“They called me guilty too”) are on sale. Mangione’s Goodreads account, UPenn education and love for Pokémon have made him the most eligible bachelor of 2024.</h1>
<h1 class="centre">But these are not the only reasons he is the white boy of the month. The criminal act that thrust Mangione into the spotlight—more specifically, its radical nature–is ultimately what has made him most attractive to audiences. “The reason people are resonating with Luigi Mangione is for decades we’ve tried every peaceful means of bringing change to our corrupt system and at every turn the system chooses profits over people,” explains a tweet with over 3,000 likes and 800 retweets on Mangione’s public image of a Robin Hood of sorts.</h1>
<h1 class="right">Needless to say, Mangione is not the only outlaw that the internet is obsessed with. In September this year, con artist Anna Delvey’s performance on Dancing with the Stars was deemed ‘camp’ thanks to the bejewelled ankle monitor she sported. Photos of her en route to her weekly parole meetings, dressed to the nines, make the rounds on Twitter every few weeks. Exactly a year ago, it was impossible to log onto social media without finding a new Gypsy Rose Blanchard interview. And on a similar track record, the Menendez brothers became a viral style inspiration on TikTok; where on Twitter, users are hopeful the brothers will be freed from prison soon.</h1>
<h1 class="centre">This fascination with crime is hardly new. In 2019 and 2022, actors Zac Efron and Evan Peters’ respective portrayals of serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer were criticised by many–including victims’ families–for glorifying both men. Disturbingly, both Bundy and Dahmer already had cult-like fan followings before their deaths, receiving bags full of marriage proposals, gifts and love letters daily in prison. But has the axis tilted on who rules on judgement day? The convicted waiting for verdicts by the system now have a chance for a new lease of life in the court of public opinion. Being out on parole and starring on television shows are not mutually exclusive, and the possibility for meet & greets during prison hours could very well be part of this warped reality.</h1>
<h1 class="centre">“Hybristophilia is sexual interest in someone who commits crimes,” states psychotherapist Sanjana Nair, “It can be explained by a fawn response, where the only way to respond to a person you subconsciously see as a threat is to submit to them.” This reaction plays into the famous (and toxic) ‘I hate everyone but you’ trope from romantic novels. “You see them as someone you can slowly change or someone who can protect you because they’re powerful,” Nair elaborates, “The feeling of risk-taking is also attractive to many. You may see riskiness as a personality trait that the offender has, which will give you the ideal rollercoaster relationship.”</h1>
<h1 class="left">Britney Spears sums up this feeling in her 2011 hit single ‘Criminal’, crooning about the man she’s in love with (violent, leather jacket-clad, bike-riding) being ‘a bad boy with a tainted heart.’ The appeal of the anti-hero has existed for centuries. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) to Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), characters arouse more interest and are considered more appealing when they have a dark side.</h1>
<h1 class="left">Especially in an age where celebrities’ public images are tightly controlled and sanitised, their brand and social media are carefully curated to be clean, and audiences seem to be gravitating towards more exciting personalities who are less afraid to say and do exactly what they want to. It is why Anna Delvey’s announcement that she is taking away “nothing” from the experience of being on Dancing with the Stars is iconic. And while Mangione, Delvey and the Menendez brothers specifically became famous due to their crimes, even mugshots of celebrities like Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan (all of whom grin coyly at the camera; some of whom have admitted to glamming up before the photo was taken) regularly circulate on the internet, with users confessing that they miss the scandalous, messy era of celebrity. Perhaps the appeal is also in the willingness of these individuals to enthusiastically and unapologetically submit to their internal Mr Hyde. Let’s not forget Naomi Campbell, who so famously made her exit in a floor-length metallic sequinned Dolce & Gabbana dress for the cameras, giving further proof of the zero-fucks attitude that finds newfound resonance with these modern-day criminals-turned-celebrities.</h1>
<h1 class="right">If stars use social media to manage their public images, it is also social media that adds to the fascination with lawbreakers. Only hours after Mangione’s identity was revealed did internet users manage to dig up his Twitter account, Goodreads reviews, and high school yearbook. “Social media humanises the accused, making us see them in a more multifaceted way,” explains Nair, “When you realise this individual also played among us, went to Japan, graduated valedictorian, it forces you to somehow come to terms with the fact that this is not a 2D picture with a criminal record. It’s a human being with a past.” This difficulty in categorising people as good or evil, black or white, arouses interest, forming fan pages, and communities to discuss these figures and their motivations.</h1>
<h1 class="centre">In 2007, actor Lindsay Lohan was ordered to wear an ankle monitor after being arrested for driving under the influence. Photos of her posing in a bikini and high heels, monitor on display, went viral, inspiring Chanel to release ankle bags for their Spring/Summer 2008 collection. Her 2024 comeback with Irish Wish and Our Little Secret sees a Lohan with a cleaner, more mature public image (and a younger face that the internet cannot stop discussing).</h1>
<h1 class="centre">It’s clear that social media users are bored of the same PR-trained, hyper-good celebrity who never says anything wrong and advocates for world peace. Instead, they crave the drama and fearlessness of the 2000s era of mugshots and ankle monitors–the celebrity who seemed messy and human, just like us, rather than someone unattainably perfect and out of touch. There have been palpable undercurrents of rebellion since the onset of COVID-19 (when celebrities like Gal Gadot and Jimmy Fallon were criticised for singing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ from their condos as the pandemic raged on), the income gap has widened globally. As health care, housing and survival costs skyrocket and the job market becomes tougher to break into, public figures who flaunt their wealth have become less relatable to an uprooted population. There is a sentiment of rebellion and anti-authoritarianism in the air, reflected by the mass response to events such as the Queen’s death or the Titan submersible sinking, declared to be ‘the funniest days on Twitter.’ In such a time, figures like Mangione and Delvey are deemed heroes for breaking the rules and outdoing a corrupt system. It helps if they like Pokemon–or of course, that they’re unbelievably hot.</h1>
<h1 class="full">The internet is in love with Luigi Mangione. The 26-year-old Italian-American, charged in the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has gained hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter since his arrest. Fan pages have materialised all over social media. On Instagram, an artwork of him with a halo around his head declares him ‘the Patron Saint of Healthcare as a Human Right.’ On TikTok, creators have returned to ‘mob wife inspo’ for their ‘Mrs Luigi Mangione era.’ T-shirts featuring Jesus embracing Mangione (“They called me guilty too”) are on sale. Mangione’s Goodreads account, UPenn education and love for Pokémon have made him the most eligible bachelor of 2024.</h1>
<h1 class="full">But these are not the only reasons he is the white boy of the month. The criminal act that thrust Mangione into the spotlight—more specifically, its radical nature–is ultimately what has made him most attractive to audiences. “The reason people are resonating with Luigi Mangione is for decades we’ve tried every peaceful means of bringing change to our corrupt system and at every turn the system chooses profits over people,” explains a tweet with over 3,000 likes and 800 retweets on Mangione’s public image of a Robin Hood of sorts.</h1>
<h1 class="full">Needless to say, Mangione is not the only outlaw that the internet is obsessed with. In September this year, con artist Anna Delvey’s performance on Dancing with the Stars was deemed ‘camp’ thanks to the bejewelled ankle monitor she sported. Photos of her en route to her weekly parole meetings, dressed to the nines, make the rounds on Twitter every few weeks. Exactly a year ago, it was impossible to log onto social media without finding a new Gypsy Rose Blanchard interview. And on a similar track record, the Menendez brothers became a viral style inspiration on TikTok; where on Twitter, users are hopeful the brothers will be freed from prison soon.</h1>
<h1 class="full">This fascination with crime is hardly new. In 2019 and 2022, actors Zac Efron and Evan Peters’ respective portrayals of serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer were criticised by many–including victims’ families–for glorifying both men. Disturbingly, both Bundy and Dahmer already had cult-like fan followings before their deaths, receiving bags full of marriage proposals, gifts and love letters daily in prison. But has the axis tilted on who rules on judgement day? The convicted waiting for verdicts by the system now have a chance for a new lease of life in the court of public opinion. Being out on parole and starring on television shows are not mutually exclusive, and the possibility for meet & greets during prison hours could very well be part of this warped reality.</h1>
<h1 class="full">“Hybristophilia is sexual interest in someone who commits crimes,” states psychotherapist Sanjana Nair, “It can be explained by a fawn response, where the only way to respond to a person you subconsciously see as a threat is to submit to them.” This reaction plays into the famous (and toxic) ‘I hate everyone but you’ trope from romantic novels. “You see them as someone you can slowly change or someone who can protect you because they’re powerful,” Nair elaborates, “The feeling of risk-taking is also attractive to many. You may see riskiness as a personality trait that the offender has, which will give you the ideal rollercoaster relationship.”</h1>
<h1 class="full">Britney Spears sums up this feeling in her 2011 hit single ‘Criminal’, crooning about the man she’s in love with (violent, leather jacket-clad, bike-riding) being ‘a bad boy with a tainted heart.’ The appeal of the anti-hero has existed for centuries. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) to Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), characters arouse more interest and are considered more appealing when they have a dark side.</h1>
<h1 class="full">Especially in an age where celebrities’ public images are tightly controlled and sanitised, their brand and social media are carefully curated to be clean, and audiences seem to be gravitating towards more exciting personalities who are less afraid to say and do exactly what they want to. It is why Anna Delvey’s announcement that she is taking away “nothing” from the experience of being on Dancing with the Stars is iconic. And while Mangione, Delvey and the Menendez brothers specifically became famous due to their crimes, even mugshots of celebrities like Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan (all of whom grin coyly at the camera; some of whom have admitted to glamming up before the photo was taken) regularly circulate on the internet, with users confessing that they miss the scandalous, messy era of celebrity. Perhaps the appeal is also in the willingness of these individuals to enthusiastically and unapologetically submit to their internal Mr Hyde. Let’s not forget Naomi Campbell, who so famously made her exit in a floor-length metallic sequinned Dolce & Gabbana dress for the cameras, giving further proof of the zero-fucks attitude that finds newfound resonance with these modern-day criminals-turned-celebrities.</h1>
<h1 class="full">If stars use social media to manage their public images, it is also social media that adds to the fascination with lawbreakers. Only hours after Mangione’s identity was revealed did internet users manage to dig up his Twitter account, Goodreads reviews, and high school yearbook. “Social media humanises the accused, making us see them in a more multifaceted way,” explains Nair, “When you realise this individual also played among us, went to Japan, graduated valedictorian, it forces you to somehow come to terms with the fact that this is not a 2D picture with a criminal record. It’s a human being with a past.” This difficulty in categorising people as good or evil, black or white, arouses interest, forming fan pages, and communities to discuss these figures and their motivations.</h1>
<h1 class="full">In 2007, actor Lindsay Lohan was ordered to wear an ankle monitor after being arrested for driving under the influence. Photos of her posing in a bikini and high heels, monitor on display, went viral, inspiring Chanel to release ankle bags for their Spring/Summer 2008 collection. Her 2024 comeback with Irish Wish and Our Little Secret sees a Lohan with a cleaner, more mature public image (and a younger face that the internet cannot stop discussing).</h1>
<h1 class="full">It’s clear that social media users are bored of the same PR-trained, hyper-good celebrity who never says anything wrong and advocates for world peace. Instead, they crave the drama and fearlessness of the 2000s era of mugshots and ankle monitors–the celebrity who seemed messy and human, just like us, rather than someone unattainably perfect and out of touch. There have been palpable undercurrents of rebellion since the onset of COVID-19 (when celebrities like Gal Gadot and Jimmy Fallon were criticised for singing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ from their condos as the pandemic raged on), the income gap has widened globally. As health care, housing and survival costs skyrocket and the job market becomes tougher to break into, public figures who flaunt their wealth have become less relatable to an uprooted population. There is a sentiment of rebellion and anti-authoritarianism in the air, reflected by the mass response to events such as the Queen’s death or the Titan submersible sinking, declared to be ‘the funniest days on Twitter.’ In such a time, figures like Mangione and Delvey are deemed heroes for breaking the rules and outdoing a corrupt system. It helps if they like Pokemon–or of course, that they’re unbelievably hot.</h1>