Investing in Discrediting Women

The Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial has been all over the news. By all accounts, both parties have done awful and abusive things to one another. If you get your news from social media, however, you will only know about the bad things Amber Heard has done. Johnny, according to his fans and friends, is an innocent victim.

This post is not really about Depp, nor is it about denying the fact that he did suffer during his relationship with Heard. Rather, this post is about asking: why are we condemning Heard’s abusive acts while ignoring Depp’s?

It turns out, there are people who are invested- as in, financially -in steering the conversation this way. Vice recently reported that conservative website The Daily Wire has spent thousands of dollars in promoting anti-Heard content. You might ask yourself, “Why would The Daily Wire care about Depp, who doesn’t align with them politically?” The answer is, as I stated above, that this isn’t about Depp or Heard. This is about disproving women. Amber Heard makes that easy. Evidence strongly indicates that she is ALSO an abuser, making her the perfect poster child for disbelieving women.

It has always been difficult to accuse powerful men of abuse. In the #MeToo era, there are groups dedicated to silencing women and questioning their credibility. One of the silencing tactics involves bringing a lawsuit against the accuser, as Depp brought against Heard. This problem is even more pronounced outside the US, where lawsuits are silencing women against the men they want to accuse of rape or abuse. When Cissi Wallin named the man she accused of rape, she was sued (successfully) by him.

Sadly, many women, especially fans of Depp’s, have bought into the one-sided narrative about the Depp/Heard relationship. Time will tell whether Depp will win the suit, but in the court of public opinion, he has already won, and he was helped by the money invested by a conservative website and the emotional investment of a willing public.