The Bundy Archive: Genealogies of White Masculinity

Louisiana State University communications professor McCann (The Mark of Criminality) argues in this provocative but unconvincing blend of true crime and cultural critique that the resurgent fascination with serial killer Ted Bundy is linked to “escalating authoritarian and fascist tendencies in mainstream politics and popular culture.” “Even those among us who wish Bundy would simply disappear from the public scene can recognize that his ubiquity is a site of meaning making,” McCann writes early on, setting the stage for his efforts to parse that meaning. Analyzing cultural touchpoints from Trumpism to Animal House (which McCann suggests “reif[ies] the same white masculine logics the serial killer enacted at his many crime scenes”), McCann attempts to compile an “archive” that helps explain both the forces that permitted Bundy to kill nearly 30 women and the reasons his legacy endures. Along the way, McCann weaves in bits of memoir, discussing his abusive childhood and his experiences of universities as “a purveyor of white supremacist violence.” Unfortunately, he casts far too wide a net, diluting his argument with risible jargon (the phrase “fungible feminine flesh” appears more than once) and ill-fitting examples. It’s a misfire. (Jan.)