"Often I am asked if there is any such thing as a female serial killer"
About this Quote
The phrasing matters. “Often” signals this isn’t a one-off curiosity; it’s a recurring misconception, a pattern of audience disbelief. “Any such thing” frames female serial killers as almost mythical, as if the category itself is suspect. That rhetorical distance reveals the subtext: we’ve trained ourselves to treat serial murder as a male archetype, and women as narratively incompatible with predation. When women kill, popular culture tends to reach for “exception,” “madness,” “self-defense,” or “victimhood” before it reaches for “serial killer.”
Brown’s profession tag - entertainer - is crucial context. She’s not delivering a peer-reviewed correction; she’s working a stage-ready premise shaped by TV’s true-crime economy, where shock and stereotype are both currency. The intent is to hook an audience with a taboo reversal (“women can be monsters too”) while positioning herself as the guide who will puncture a comforting myth.
It works because it exploits a tension we don’t like to admit: gender equality is easy to endorse in the abstract, harder when it requires equal capacity for cruelty. The line isn’t just about criminology; it’s about the stories we prefer to tell, and who we allow to be the villain.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Brown, Pat. (2026, January 14). Often I am asked if there is any such thing as a female serial killer. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/often-i-am-asked-if-there-is-any-such-thing-as-a-163179/
Chicago Style
Brown, Pat. "Often I am asked if there is any such thing as a female serial killer." FixQuotes. January 14, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/often-i-am-asked-if-there-is-any-such-thing-as-a-163179/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Often I am asked if there is any such thing as a female serial killer." FixQuotes, 14 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/often-i-am-asked-if-there-is-any-such-thing-as-a-163179/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
