#depp heard case
I can’t believe this circus has gotten to the point that I feel the need to say something, but I’m gonna say it: I believe Amber Heard.
I believe the case that proved 12 out of 14 cases of Johnny’s abuse of Amber to the civil standard. I believe the ex-girlfriend who has adamantly denied accusations of Amber abusing her. I believe the makeup artist who covered her bruises. I believe the hotel staff that had to clean up the messes of his violent rampages. I believe Ellen Barkin, a former partner of Johnny, who has also testified about his volatility. I believe Amber’s sister, who witnessed some of the violence. I believe her good friend, who was brought to tears while describing the fear she had for Amber’s wellbeing. And I believe Amber herself, when she says she feared for her life at times in their relationship.
I so wanted to dismiss this case as celebrity drama and move on, but the cesspit of social media has not allowed me to do so. Everywhere I go, I see reaction videos and memes. It’s being consumed like a fandom war—to the point that people genuinely thought it was acceptable to use a description of sexual assault as a tiktok sound. I don’t care if they thought it was a lie; the content was horrifying and triggering and not amusing at all. And it was rape culture at its finest (“Amber honey, that sounds like fun. Why are you complaining?”).
YouTube recommends videos of this case like it’s the next influencer cancel-war, and the comments are full of the most vile, misogynistic sentiments I’ve ever seen. “Hystrionic Personality Disorder” is being treated like a legitimate diagnosis (but only for women, of course), rather than the 21st century version of hysteria—aka a diagnosis specifically designed to discount the authentic distress of women. (Ever read Yellow Wallpaper?)
I do believe that men can be, and are, victims of domestic abuse. They deserve unequivocal support. But beyond the ravings of fangirls, the proof is simply not on Johnny’s side. To be fair, I actually believe Johnny about many things—I believe the multiple times he told witnesses (and was recorded admitting) that he cut his own finger. I believe his texts admitting that he wanted to drown then burn Amber and then rape her corpse. I believe that Amber hurled horrible insults at him and struck him, as abuse victims often do when provoked by their abusers. I believe the many, many vile things he’s said about/called women.
And yeah, it’s a real disappointment. I understand the nostalgia surrounding Johnny Depp. In many ways, he defined the media of my generation. But when I say I don’t give a shit, I really mean it. I believe he abused his wife. And I stand with Amber.
tbh i think in 5 years time you’re all gonna be reflecting on how horribly amber heard was treated and then without a moment of consideration pull it with another random woman
It isn’t even going to be a famous woman necessarily, we’ve got a bunch of people in their teens and early twenties marinating in vicious bubbles of victim blaming and internalizing the idea that they can discern Real Abuse with their TikTok-certified detective skills, and all of that is most likely going to get unleashed on some poor bastard they personally know, who doesn’t have a fraction of the money or fame to resist it. Some of them are going to have trouble identifying and working through their own abuse because of this shit! It’s nightmarish!
The spectacle around the Depp trial is being called a large-scale backlash to the MeToo movement, and I don’t disagree — but this is uniquely terrifying because I don’t think the mainstream MeToo movement was ever actually materially effective in the first place. In Walter Benjamin’s essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he writes that an oppressive structure “sees its salvation” in allowing the masses to express themselves freely in lieu of granting them their rights. Similarly, the mainstream MeToo movement offered temporary catharsis in place of systemic change; Hollywood play-acted a revolution so that its men could keep up their abuse unscathed. There is something phenomenally painful in watching a material backlash erupt in response to a movement that was never allowed to be anything more than aesthetic. Now that the state of discourse has moved forward without bringing women’s material conditions with it, men like Johnny Depp are able to benefit from violent systemic misogyny while posturing themselves as radical, anti-establishment activists. Recent events are not so much a pendulum swing as they are a pendulum being repeatedly beaten in one direction for fear it might one day gain a centimetre of ground.
-Rayne Fisher-Quann, “who’s afraid of amber heard? abuse, aesthetics, and assigning deviance to difficult women”
