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Hi! I’m Shaniya but I use the moniker Shanspeare on Youtube. I’m 23, use they/them pronouns, and love all things pop culture! My channel has a lot going on: think Shakespeare meets Baz Luhrmann meets insufferable jester in a relevant but silly costume. I have a bachelor’s in English Professional Writing (and basically Literary Analysis–long story) which aids me in the creation of my content. Above all, I wish to emphasize teachability and critical engagement through a fun lens.
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videos mentioned in this episode:
Pinely. “The Broken Morality of True Crime.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YWIcyachUY
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books mentioned in this episode:
Wilson, Eric G. Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck: Why We Can’t Look Away.
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Online Sources:
Wills, Matthew. “How Jack the Ripper Became a Legend.” https://daily.jstor.org/how-jack-the-ripper-became-a-legend/
Soth, Amelia. “The Paris Morgue Provided Ghoulish Entertainment.” https://daily.jstor.org/the-paris-morgue-provided-ghoulish-entertainment/
Wills, Matthew. “History’s Most Notorious True Crime Story.” https://daily.jstor.org/historys-most-notorious-true-crime-story/
Barnes, Naomie, “Killer Fandoms Crime-Tripping & Identity in the True Crime Community” (2015). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports. 726. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/726
Burger, Pamela. “The Bloody History of the True Crime Genre.” https://daily.jstor.org/bloody-history-of-true-crime-genre/
Amable, Jody. “The Murder Ballad Was the Original True Crime Podcast.” https://daily.jstor.org/the-murder-ballad-was-the-original-true-crime-podcast/
Lett, Phoebe. “Is Our True-Crime Obsession Doing More Harm Than Good?” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/opinion/true-crime-petito.html
Chan, Melissa. “’Real People Keep Getting Re-traumatized.’ The Human Cost of Binge-Watching True Crime Series.” https://time.com/5825475/true-crime-victim-families/
Dean, Michelle. “‘True Crime Addict’ and the Serious Problem of Internet Sleuths.” https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/true-crime-addict-and-the-problem-of-internet-sleuths
Ebesh, Shahed. “True Crime: The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly.” https://themedium.ca/true-crime-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
Pumphrey, Don Jr. “Internet Sleuths and True Crime: Helpful or Hurtful to Cases?” https://www.pumphreylawfirm.com/blog/internet-sleuths-and-true-crime-helpful-or-hurtful-to-cases/#:~:text=Although%20there%20are%20cases%20that,regular%20basis%20is%20extremely%20rare.
Pan, Ina. “The Fascination With All that is Morbid and Macabre.” https://reclamationmagazine.com/2020/08/22/the-fascination-with-all-that-is-morbid-and-macabre/
Bradshaw, Natalia. “The Degradation of Working-Class Status in Industrial France.”
Wikipedia. “In Cold Blood.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Cold_Blood
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timestamps:
0:00–4:18: intro
4:18–11:12: a brief history of true crime
11:12–18:25: the current state of true crime
18:25–25:20: why are we so fascinated by morbidity?
25:20–33:46: the consequences of TC content
33:46–40:03: next steps and (tentative) final thoughts
source
Imma still watch tho
Man i miss cayleigh elise she was one of the only true YouTubers that were respectful of the cases. Although she isn't around anymore i still watch her reuploads from fans.
Also Bloody mary is a good underrated channel too and she's respectful!
this was SO good and thoughtful and also your subscribers are so cool and smart holy shit
True crime has been one of my favourite genres for a long time. I have been into horror, gore, crime and thriller stories ever since I was 12 but as a 21 year old I now do realise how some content within true crime could be problematic, however if I introspect I find that most of the content that I consume related to true crime has been very factual, clinicals as well as empathetic towards the victims in the analysis of the crime, plus it has revealed to me a lot of pitfalls of the judiciary as well as the police in my country. I especially avoid true crime content where they try to turn it into something funny or clickbaity or where it seems like they haven't done enough research.
One person I love who does true crime .. Boze. She always respects the victim and doesn’t joke about it. When gabby petito’s case was going around… Boze refused after everyone begged her to do it .. she said that she was annoyed with people who were trying to make bank via exploitation of a tragic death.. forever will respect Boze. ❤️
Third comment – when you hear your first name being mentioned as one of the most famous sensationalized murder cases 😭
For a while my family believed we were related to Sharon Tate and it impacted our perspective on how the Manson murders were covered. There was a lot of frustration over how it was about them and how Sharon herself was barely mentioned. Even now that we know there’s no relation, I can’t shake off feeling like a family member suffered and then turned into a footnote.
I love Bailey Sarian, and Eleanor Neale. I can sit down and watch a Bailey video, but Eleanor goes in the back ground for me most of the time.🤷🏽♀️ I don’t find either one disrespectful, Baileys videos just have an added entertainment.
Dude thank god. I’ve been waiting for the day that people would start seeing how vile some of this shit is. My mom went missing when I was a child and her body/details of her passing were never discovered. I cannot express to you how many times I’ve had to tell someone this story and their reaction has comes from a place of morbid curiosity or desire to be entertained rather than empathy. I cannot tell you how many random people have asked me (with a straight face) “so do you think your mom was sex trafficked” “do you think one of her friends murdered her?”
The audacity that some people have to be able to causally probe me about a trauma so extreme that it almost cost me my life is deeply upsetting. My trauma has been treated like entertainment again and again because of how people perceive crime as ENTERTAINMENT and fail to realize that someone else’s life was ruined by it. I’m so over it. Thanks for making this video.
I absolutely love BAM. Stephanie does an amazing job with telling the stories. One of the books she's talked about has come to be a book I like. Yall should check it out. Also I agree with the point about giving Serial Killers cool names. They should get names that aren't cool and make them sound stupid. When they have names like Night Stalker or The Ripper, that boosts their ego and we shouldn't be doing that. I feel like when we sensationalize it, people think it's cool when it's not.
I swear everytime you upload a video I drop everything and rush to get a drink and find a place to immediately sit down and just listen because your video essays never disappoint
this is why I like Kendall Rae because she respects the victims and the families of the victima as well. She even raises funds and donates it to organization that helps women and victims of injustices.
Professor big titties got me ROOOOLLINGG😂😂😂😂😂
Completely unrelated but I love that fake beard.
A couple tc channels I’d recommend from my top 5 are That Chapter, Dreading, and CoffeeHouse Crime
Some of the quotes were mispronounced or had words skipped, was this mistake, is the one on the screen the quote or the one you say out loud?
Girl I started relating too much to the serial killers "abusive mother" "series of head injuries" I was like OMG……….we have so much in common….what if I become one, then I'd curl into bed and be afraid to leave the house because what if I just become a serial killer out of nowhere.
I myself watch true crime a lot. But they do it right. They don't have merch. They put ads in the begining. They give them the proper respect.
I listened to a lot of podcasts last year because I was working a job where everybody worked alone, and everyone wore earbuds or headphones all day. I found one that was a true crime podcast, and they made puns constantly. I found that really disrespectful, you know? That was my first wake up call where I was like, “Oh, yeah…maybe I’ll stay away from this kind of content altogether; it feels weird now.”
“Not in a fun queer way either” lmao
34:24 I had jury duty at 21, in the same county that Mr. Floyd passed away in. I need to know how lawyers and police think to protect people against an oppressive system. The best videos are nonviolent cases, but they are… Rare in the genre…
I tend to prefer true crime that is very matter of fact and tells what happened, but also focuses more heavily on what the ramifications were for the victim and their family etc. I also find it off-putting when the person telling the story injects too much of their own "this is awful. My heart goes out to the family" commentary. It's kind of jarring because it feels like an "I'm a good person" performance. Usually what happened actually speaks for itself and it's clear that it was awful.
The therapist/doctor is my favorite character of yours lol. Love the style of your videos!
Second comment – I LOVE your outfit portraying the romanticisation of true crime!!!!! Thank god someone's talking about it!!!! (I'm sure you'll dive more into it later on but I just wanted to comment while I remembered!)
I cannot recommend Hallie Rubenhold's book The Five and accompanying podcast Bad Women. It centers on the victims, telling their stories and in the process laying bare the precarious space women occupied in Victorian England. The research involved in doing this is clearly intensive and meticulous – largely done using archival records. But more than this the book and to a larger extent the podcast both critique the traditional coverage and commodification of their deaths.
True Crime when done this way is so much more than sensationalism.
Does anyone else find it a lot harder to follow the subtitles when they're in lowercase (and sometimes without punctuation)? I won't ask Shan to change it if it's (somehow) literally just me but I have processing issues and tend to need clear, accurate subtitles to be able to follow things sometimes. Not sure if there's any other reason than perhaps 'for the aesthetic' but if I'm not the only one who it really messes with when trying to follow along, perhaps it's a good idea to change it (or at least offer a clearer subtitle track in addition)?
I just cannot comprehend watching people eat while talking about true crime. I don’t think makeup is as bad bc normally they’re not talking about their makeup, they mention it at the start and end but talking true crime while they’re doing it. I dont actually watch them. I listen to them as podcasts in my pocket while I’m at work or driving.
21:29
During my freshman year my teacher had us listen to serial and we had to do a easy about it alough i did feel uncomfortable though because one we were listening about a murder and two we had to for a assignment
Wonderful as always. Your videos never fail to awe me, both in production and quality of discussion. Thank you!
I've always been a fan of true crime because I like learning about interesting cases. True crime content offers a convenient place for people to learn about tragedies they may never have otherwise. Not every crime has a Wikipedia page. I don't view true crime youtubers and podcasters any differently than Netflix documentaries and the shows on Investigation Discovery. I do think it should be done respectfully, but obviously that is a complicated issue because everyone has their own standards.
i will never forgive the true crimers for what they did to junko futura
I love Kendall Rea's approach. She shows a lot of sympathy for the victims and their family, she shared resources and raises money for the cases that need it, she explains parts of the justice system and how it works, as well as how the police are building a case. And no, she doesn't do her makeup while filming.
The true crime standom can't die fast enough. A podcast or channel or something by a professional is one thing – a buncha armchair detectives trying to "solve a case" regardless of whether it's been solved or not is unacceptable.
Of course, those who "stan" actual violent offenders just makes it all worse. I find it interesting to get some info from a pro, but not some crackpot theory from some idiot with a microphone and spooky music from the YouTube music library.
I really dislike the sanctimonious tone of content police like this
Not to sound like a hipster….but…..yeah. I grew up with a parent who did death investigations (not a cop, though)…so I was around it a lot. I've liked true crime for decades. When it started becoming popular a few years back I said "Yay, I am no longer a freak!"