You all think the memes and edits made infantilizing Johnny Depp and demonizing Amber Heard, picking her apart from the makeup she said she used to cover up bruises and mocking the way she cries, didn’t affect the jurors’ decision? This wasn’t an isolated jury and they had access to all of the media, especially the huge influx of pro-Depp propaganda. The man who was 25 years old when he dated Winona Ryder, who was 17 years old at the time, the man who texted Paul Bettany “Let’s drown [Amber] before we burn her!!! I will f-k her burnt corpse.” I hope you all are ashamed. This will impact victims of abuse. No one is saying that men can’t be abused, for the last time. We’re saying that she was abused and you all are more likely to protect abusive men than abused women.
btw the idea of child psychopaths helps erase signs of child abuse. most young children with antisocial behavior experience or witness abuse, especially from parents or at home in general. there is a documentary (which I will not promote because the form of treatment used is abusive) on a toddler who, on the surface, people would think is literally the devil, but actually went through severe abuse at an even younger age, and all you had to do to figure it out was talk to her about her home life!!! imagine that!!!
when I was little I had some antisocial behavior and…just generally insane behavior that caused a lot of issues at school. I wish someone would have talked to me too instead of shoving me into ‘treatment’ I physically rejected. I wonder if I would be doing better now, had people realized my home life wasn’t safe.
children don’t have the mental capacity of adults. trauma shapes their development. they will learn to accept and replicate behavior of adults close to them, because they see it as normal. in fact, some abused children will enact abuse on other children their age that they witness or experience (this is NOT meant to invalidate any victims of child-on-child abuse fyi, it’s a possible explanation, not excuse).
just in general, learn the signs of child abuse instead of dismissing children as hopelessly evil. if you don’t, things will only get worse.
the deep and unforgettable public humiliation of speaking about being abused only to be scrutinized, mocked, and gaslit is actually soul-rending. it is something that so many survivors have either suffered or stayed quiet in order to avoid. for me, the deepest and most enduring wound of being raped was not the rape itself, but watching the people around me minimize + doubt me in order to justify their continued support of him. it shut me up quickly and completely destroyed my self-esteem, sending me free-falling into a dark + erratic place, the symptoms of which were used to further invalidate my experience.
survivors see you calling heard things like “psycho cunt” + sexually humiliating her and they see you dismissing her based on her mental health + her body language in court and conclude that your feminism + empathy only extends to women you like, leaves your body when a woman is not a perfect victim. it does not matter if you, personally, believe her, because we are now seeing every survivor’s worst nightmare play out on court tv while thousands of so-called feminists cheer it on.
any vestige of hope i have gained from “me too” has vanished and been replaced by what i have always known: people do not want to believe us unless it makes for a juicy scandal. if people do not believe us, we will be ignored at best, humiliated and harassed at worst. we have to be perfect victims, never showing the emotional impacts of suffering lest we be dismissed as crazy liars. i have spent so many years trying to beat into my head that i am just paranoid, that i would be believed today, that the culture has changed, only to be slapped in the face with the conditionality of this new wave of “feminism”.
aaron taylor johnsonandcharlie heaton were both groomed by older, more powerful women when they were new to the industry. terry crews spoke of being sexually harassed by an executive. brendan fraser was sexually assaulted and the experience was so horrible for him that it spiraled him into a depression, affecting his career. his assaulter never faced charges. the kevin spacey trial is coming up where he is being charged for sexual assault.
if you GENUINELY care for male victims, at least famous ones, you’d make some noise about these cases. however, these past few months, i have hardly seen a bolstering of these cases. instead i see a campaign of inappropriate memes and edits being made. is that your way to show you “care about male victims” lmao?? by making a mockery of a case discussing dv topics?? i think people like to hide behind the guise of caring about male victims when it’s really just an excuse to engage in inappropriate, obscene behaviors.
brad pitt is already suing angelina jolie for defamation for calling him abusive so now seems like a good time to say:
angelina has maintained this entire time that all she cares about is the safety of her children
their oldest child maddox literally refuses to speak to brad
angelina has also said that she was deeply uncomfortable with brad because he chose to continue working with harvey weinstein after weinstein assaulted angelina. brad knew this but still worked with him anyway
when they divorced, the court ruled that angelina was allowed to sell her share of the vineyard she and brad co-own, and she offered to sell her share TO BRAD but he declined, so she sold to a company called stoli. stoli is now suing brad for mismanaging funds, so he’s suing angelina as a big distraction and because he thinks this will get her shares back to him, if he can prove she “lied” to destroy his reputation
brad is also lying and saying stoli is pro-russia, but the owner is a huge putin critic and has been for over 20 years. the owner is even banned from entering russia because of all their criticism of putin, but brad is lying to destroy this person’s reputation too
ps: brad’s also specifically asking for a trial by jury. wonder who he learned that from?
“When I use the term “whiteness” I do not solely mean that white women are overrepresented as protagonists. I also include whiteness as a hegemonic force used to subjugate and oppress people of color. Although these white protagonists often act violently upon themselves, through various forms of self-harm, eating disorders or engaging in dangerous sexual acts, to regain control of their lives, they also externalize this violence onto those they can get away harming. Their primary targets are often people of color, mainly Black people.”
“These fictional depictions of the white disaffected woman have real-world parallels. In an episode of the Red Scare Podcast titled “Shia Labuse,” hosts Dasha Nekrasova and Anna Khachiyan mock FKA twigs, who opened up about the abuse she endured from Shia LaBeouf. Dasha, who diagnosed herself with “girl, interrupted syndrome” and is heavily associated with the waif aesthetic, calls twigs “attention-seeking” and “aggressive” in reference to the New York Times article where she exposed Shia. One can only assume she felt comfortable making these cruel remarks because Black women are not afforded the same vulnerability that white women are able to capitalize on.”
“Black women are not afforded the luxury of dissociation due to the continuous cycle of racial violence we are forced to confront.”
As a verdict is possibly hours away, a sense of dread has been building in my stomach for what it will mean for Amber’s future, as well as all victims of intimate partner violence (IPV), particularly as women’s basic rights continue to be under attack in the United States. Like many people who are following the case, I have personal experiences with abuse. Much of my research focuses on IPV, specifically, the disparities in resources and services that are available for survivors to leave their abusers, such as economic, social, geographical barriers. It’s a topic which is deeply tied to my own personal experiences and academic career.
I initially was ambivalent to Amber Heard. Before I began to research the case, I was firmly in the “they both suck” camp, having only briefly glanced through articles. I started to pay more attention to the media coverage over the past six weeks and was really staggered by how Heard was being portrayed as a lying, crazy, gold-digging woman through narratives that were not only going unchallenged, but were heavily perpetuated in the public discourse. Even worse, that the abuse she experienced had been capitalized on by “true crime” junkies and mocked in TikTok videos and Youtube compilations. So I began watching the trial live and found that there was far more evidence and far more substantial evidence which shows that JD was the perpetrator of abuse within their relationship.
Is she guilty of fighting back? Absolutely. Shenever liedabout doing so, even dating back to her 2016 deposition. However, fighting back against a man who has beaten you, sexually assaulted you, controlled your career, finances, and who you can associate with does not equate to being an abuser. It’s simply surviving. And yes, I’ve heard those audio tapes, the in which she’s expresses her incredulity at him for stating their fights were fair when she feared he would kill her.
His case has relied upon deeply misogynistic narratives to discredit both her claims and her character. She was after his money all along, even though she refused the 30 million dollar fortune she was legally entitled to, as there was no prenup. She painted on bruises, even though a makeup artist testified to covering up her swollen lip and two black eyes. She cut off his finger, even though multiple texts and even an audio recording showcase him admitting to doing it in the midst of a bender. She didn’t donate her money, even though she and the organization created a 10 year plan for her to make yearly payments (in my personal opinion, what she does with her money either way is nobody’s fucking business). Also worth noting, an ACLU representative testified to her being ahead of schedule until Depp began suing her. She made up a hoax, because she documented her abuse - as we advise all people who are in abusive situations to do. She’s a liar, because women are inherently deceitful liars.
I don’t know whether Amber Heard will win her case. We’re witnessing a radical right-wing political swing to control and criminalize women’s bodies with Roe v. Wade under attack right now. To be blunt, I have very little faith in the justice system and that a jury - in Virginia of all places - will rule in favour of an abused woman over her charismatic, powerful ex-husband. However, I think it’s important to remember that Amber did everything right, that is, everything we tell women to do. She documented her abuse, left her abusive partner, and was granted a restraining order - and she’s continuing to be punished for doing so. If Amber, a privileged white woman with access to economic resources, is still struggling to escape her abuser, how can we expect women without those privileges to?
Retaliating against victims of domestic violence in court is so common it is considered a form of abuse in itself.
An organization I like to donate to is the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, the only org in the US that works to defend victims of domestic violence who have been charged with crimes, usually for harming their abusers in self-defense, “failing to protect” their children in dv situations or “kidnapping” their children while fleeing violence. Thinking about them as we’re thinking about legal retaliation against domestic violence victims!
in 10 years, people are gonna look back at this depp-heard trial, realize how awful the misogyny surrounding it was, and say, “we behaved horribly.” yeah, leave me and others out of that ‘we’, because a bunch of us have been warning about how awful the disinformation is and how harmful it is for survivors to see. but ofc, any reasonable takes are drowned out by ridiculous things like a viral tweet of amber blowing her nose which has been framed as her ‘snorting coke in court’. you people have been behaving like demons and i can’t wait for your asses to realize how stupid some of you acted.
i am actually disgusted by the absolute hordes of women who bought into this spectacle. who edited tiktok videos of the trial with wii music playing in the background, who made snide remarks about foundation and fake bruises while posting makeup tutorials, who are currently celebrating on twitter as though this is some sort of reason to rejoice. how can so many people be both brainless AND heartless. you sided against and demonized an abuse victim all these weeks & the precedent this case sets now puts YOU as fellow women in danger too. there are no words
Amber Heard losing this defamation case is a loss for male survivors, not a win. I’m seeing many posts written by Johnny depp supporters that claim to be feminists who care about male victims. Well, as a male victim, I call bullshit. I do not feel supported by you. I do not feel supported by you thinking an abuser suing their victim for writing an oped that doesn’t even mention them by name is justified. Honestly, you scare me. You trigger me. You make me feel hopeless. As a male victim, I don’t want your support. I want support from people who actually care.
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
Good morning. Just your friendly reminder that a judge who carefully reviewed Amber Heard’s evidence over the course of months found that Johnny Depp was proven to have abused her on at least 12 occasions, a ruling reviewed and reinforced by another judge, meanwhile a jury that sat at home able to look at Camille Vasquez #girlboss TikToks for a month deliberated only 12 hours to decide she lied but then couldn’t even fill out the form right.
in ten years when they come out with their Why We Failed Amber Heard As A Society op-eds I’ll be there chanting NOT ME BITCH!!!! NOT ME BITCH!!!!! THAT WAS YOU! THAT! WAS! YOU!
a case that sets precedent for men to sue their abuse victims for defamation and silences thousands of women is not just a woman and a dude beefing
