I don’t think D*pp’s reputation ever actually took a hit following his divorce and I’m going to keep saying this. I followed this case from the start and I don’t ever remember popular opinion being on Amber Heard’s side. When the divorce happened she was a gold digger. When those tapes got released years ago people didn’t even need anything more than out of context audio tapes to start demanding she be removed from Aquaman 2 and calling her an abuser.
I really think the explanation is more simple than rehabbing his public image because he really didn’t get fired from the WB until after he lost his libel case. Even after some fans called to replace him, the WB and world’s most famous transphobe JKR stood by D*pp. In this wonderful piece by the Hollywood Reporter. They lay out pretty clearly why D*pp isn’t getting work in Hollywood right now and he is unlikely to have his career post his libel case in the UK win or loose.
I think it’s so much more simple than people can imagine. It’s not ruining her reputation when people never sided with her. It’s not winning back his own career. It’s definitely not about winning the case (which many lawyers have said he is unlikely to do because defamation has SUCH high bar to clear. Since he has to prove she wrote that article with the intent to cause harm.) It’s just further abuse. He is doing this because abusers can use the courts to continue to abuse their victims. It’s just a way to keep abusing her. It’s really that simple.
And that it’s SO simple and obvious and people are doing his work and abusing her for him is wild. It shows you how short the #metoo movement was, and I deeply fear the way this will affect domestic violence victims. And it is one of the reasons I will continue to be so vocal about this. I support Amber. I stand with Amber. I will defend Amber. I stand with all victims of domestic abuse. I stand with people who hit their abusers back. I stand with people who didn’t leave for whatever complicated reasons they may have had. It is not on anyone to judge how someone handles an intensely traumatic situation. I see you. I believe you. I will support you. I will defend you.
so now women legally cannot even mention having been victims of domestic violence or sexual assault without it being defamation. I hope y’all demons fucking die in the most painful way imaginable.
Actually I’m not done because women who have been supporting Depp have been acting like rabid animals constantly talking about how badly they want to fuck him and how his graphic and violent texts to Amber are hot. Sexualizing a “victim” during his supposed abusive situation and his SA threats towards a woman is fucking CRAZY. Y’all are not right in the fucking head. Your entire support is held solely on the basis of your sick attraction and its revolting.
now apparently people are wanting brad pitt to pursue legal action against his ex wife angelina jolie too bc she spoke out about him supposedly being violent towards one of the kids on a flight or something.
now I don’t know a lot about that, I don’t think a lot of it has been brought out into the public, but even if you fully believe depp is innocent and heard is a liar, what the fuck does that have to do with the pitt/jolie case? literally neither of them have anything to do with this?
it goes to show to too many, this wasn’t about abuse or the truth. I doubt many of these people even actually know or care whether pitt actually did anything or not. this was about punishing women for speaking out.
So… I hate that I’m about to talk about this but I’m about to talk about this:
The Defamation Case wasn’t about whether either of them was abused, it was about the truthfulness of Heard’s specific claims in a magazine article and the financial impact of any lies in said article.
And she did lie in that article.
All through the rest of the trial she aired actual abuse, expressed that he -was- abusive, and he expressed that their whole -relationship- was abusive. And included specific examples that could be proven or disproven which defamed Amber in turn.
So she countersued him on those slanderous terms.
And they both won.
Amber told a whole bunch of stories about Depp that could be disproven. Does that mean all of his abuse didn’t happen? No. But there was stuff she made up in order to make him look worse (Like peeing in the mop bucket) that she had to pay damages over when it was shown to be a lie.
Depp told less false stories and they weren’t as damaging so he paid less. BUT HE, TOO, LIED.
So they both lied. And they both paid.
Was Heard abused? Fucking clearly. Was Depp abused? Fucking clearly in a significantly different manner and degree. Was their relationship fucked up to begin with? The texts showed they were both kinksters with neither boundaries set nor clear lines of consent, so fucking yes.
But the -trial- wasn’t about whether the relationship was abusive, and the fact that it was doesn’t negate that both parties lied publicly about abuse that never occurred within the relationship.
If you want to get pissed at someone in this situation about harming abuse victims, get pissed at Heard for lying about a bunch of abuse that didn’t happen when she could have just come forward about abuse that -did- happen. She had texts and pictures and shit that she could have provided instead of making up stories that could be disproven in court to play more dramatically in tabloids.
If she had not lied publicly about it, and instead told the truth, there wouldn’t be additional fertilizer for the “Maybe the Abuse Victim Lied” bullshit narrative that goes on in our society. She gave abusers a high profile and public example of victims lying about abuse, and no amount of proof that other abuse did occur can undermine that, now.
I agree with everything you said here and thank you for this addition, it definitely gave me a bit of insight I didn’t have before. But again, her lying has nothing to do with any other victim.
Do I agree that her as a victim making stuff up is harmful? Yeah absolutely. But people using her to come at other women who have claimed things against other men and say they’re exactly the same with no evidence of that other than they too are also women and the supposed perpetuators are men is just misogyny.
And she has done a lot of damage if what you say is true, and I think the handling of this has been awful in general. It never should have been aired like it has. But there were always going to be people claiming she’s a liar solely because she’s a woman. Even if everything she had said had been the absolute truth, people would still claim she lied because she’s a woman and he is a powerful man.
Things are going to be even worse for victims because of all of this and I do hold her accountable for some of that. But the way people are coming at every other celebrity woman who has claimed something against man is down to their own misogyny as well. One woman being a liar doesn’t mean all are and them not understanding that is misogyny.
I have absolutely hated everything about this depp case and I think so many people aren’t recognizing the colder reality. All I’ve seen online is:
1.) The jokes about SA and turning it into something “sexy” and should be wanted if it’s by a popular enough man. Amber’s description of SA, whether you believe it or not, should not be turned into a meme on TikTok and used as “thirst traps.” Y’all are going to hell.
2.) White women (because who else) making threads about how you can create bruises with makeup. These are POPULAR posts btw. What’s worse is these women claim to be victims of abuse. I don’t think they understand how much this turns their own case against them if those images/tweets are used by their abuser. Let alone it harms literally everyone they did that.
3.) People now saying you must have 100% evidence against your abuser or practically be on the verge of death/severely beaten for it to even constitute as abuse. We’re back around to the “perfect victim” shit.
The worst thing is women falling for the idea that men are going to put forth effort in creating safe spaces for male victims, instead of using this as ammo for “what if a man gets falsely accused of rape/abuse?? We need to focus on that more!” Which is already starting with people like Marilyn Manson and just average users who are sharing their stories of abuse, getting compared to Amber. This entire thing has shown me that people did not give a shit about male victims. They were more excited for the possibility of a woman abusing a man. Very weird behavior.
Abuse culture: A culture in which certain groups are treated as problems rather than people.
Let’s not pretend that abuse is “only a family problem”. In every setting, in every aspect of society, abuse runs rampant. Everyone not seen as “normal” is treated violently and inhumanely-whether it be through physical, financial, or emotional violence. Abuse is so ingrained in society that members of the group “normal” can say they believe other don’t people deserve to be happy, don’t deserve to be accepted, don’t deserve to express their feelings, or don’t deserve to live, without any repercussions whatsoever.
That, needless to say, is a huge problem. And navigating through the sea of abuse culture colors our lives in every way imaginable.
i don’t EVER want to hear “ughh why do people care about this celebrity drama they’re both bad it’s not that deep” again. if you cant see the sweeping ramifications of this you’re blind or dumb or both
It began as petty nonsense and turned into a horrifying blow against real justice. I don’t give a shit if people believe Depp is an innocent victim, the verdict does nothing but hurt all victims of domestic abuse, men and women, because it sets a precedent that they can be sued for ever coming forward *even without naming who abused them.* That’s goddamned twisted.
So apparently some people actually don’t know this, but the depp trial literally was not done to determine who abused who, and the verdict was not that Johnny Depp didn’t abuse Amber Heard. The judges determined that he committed domestic violence multiple times, the jury never disagreed with this, and their official stance was that both individuals committed forms of abuse. This didn’t matter, because it wasn’t the subject of the lawsuit.
It was ONLY a defamation lawsuit, so the trial was only about whether Heard committed defamation/slander by publicly stating that she has been abused, in an article that never even specified the abuser.
Because the general public could “tell” the article was about Johnny Depp and it impacted his reputation, the jury’s verdict was that this fully constituted abuse allegations, and that abuse allegations legally constitute defamation. It didn’t have to be “false” allegations or not. ANY allegations.
This means - and this is the IMPORTANT part - that if Johnny Depp was in fact a pure innocent cinnamon babymuffin softboy who never laid a single finger on anyone while some evil witch tortured him for no reason at all, she could have sued him and won if he had been the first one to talk about it.
Let’s reiterate: this trial decided that –>NEITHER<– person should have been allowed to talk about their abuse in public without the risk of being sued. Neither of them.
If you don’t know how “legal precedent” works, it means that courts can be required to apply the same verdict to cases with the same facts as a previous trial.Every single person celebrating this as a “win” for “male abuse victims” is celebrating something that would only force more abused men (along with anyone else) into hiding it more than ever. Depp threw them all under the bus for the forseeable future just to punish his ex.
