The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial: Insufferable Celebrities or Post-Modern Martyrs?
Why So Many Americans Are Invested in the Depp-Heard Decision
There’s nothing like a juicy celebrity defamation trial to take our minds off gas prices, war in Ukraine, and nearly daily mass shootings. Especially when the celebrities have lots of money and little self-control. Yummy.
Ordinarily, such trials end, and so does our interest. After all, there’s no shortage of celeb misadventures, bitter rivalries, and ego-flexing to glom onto. But that’s not what happened here. The end of the trial was only the beginning of a disturbance in the Force of pop culture as hordes took to the airwaves, blogs, and social media to cackle, gloat, and wring hands about Doomsday. Sure, Jeff Goldblum, sometimes “A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking, and in Central Park, you get rain instead of sunshine.” But sometimes it flaps its wings and all we get are people flapping their gums. Sound and fury—signifying nothing.
How the Depp-Heard Trial Is Like the Bible
The Depp-Heard trial is exactly like the Bible. (Have faith, dear reader, I’ll get there. )
The U.S. is about 65% Christian, yet only about 20% of Americans have read the entire Bible—and that number includes non-Christians. Being generous, that means 45% of Christians haven’t read the Bible, the words that they claim come directly from the God they worship and which contains directions for how to behave. They base their moral, and often political, opinions on a moral system they’ve only been told about from others.
I’m not really talking about religion (however one arrives at their faith is their business). We could say the same about most Americans: 57% haven’t read the U.S. Constitution, the document that defines America. We invoke the Civil War all the time in today’s politics, yet only half of Americans know when the Civil War took place, and 82% don’t know exactly what the Emancipation Proclamation did. But everyone has opinions about what America is and should be, even though they haven’t read the document that we fought two wars over.
Which is what’s going on with the Depp-Heard trial.
The case is about whether or not Amber Heard defamed Johnny Depp based on a short opinion piece (that never mentions his name, but the inference is clear) that appeared in The Washington Post in 2018. First, do you have an opinion about the trial? Second, have you read her opinion piece? (You can read it here.) If you answered yes to the first, but no to the second—that’s how the trial is like the Bible (or the Constitution). So many people have heatedly expressed their firm opinions about the trial without ever having read the actual words. For them, the trial was merely a means to express their personal biases. Mostly, their hatreds.
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Guys Say the Darndest Things
Let’s be realistic: this trial will have no major effect on anything. Despite the elated celebrating and pessimistic teeth-gnashing, nothing has changed. #MeToo’s important and necessary mission is in no way diminished or compromised.
Those who think men have won some victory are mistaken. Our judicial system still gives weight to the accuser, while also requiring a standard of proof. Accusations have never been enough without proof, yet, women have discovered time and time again that sometimes accusations with proof aren’t enough. All the #MeToo movement is doing is bringing attention to these miscarriages and giving support to women who fear reprisals or that they won’t be heard. What kind of people wouldn’t support that? Only those with something to fear.
What’s interesting—but mostly sad—is how invested some males are in celebrating the outcome. Their vitriol and aggression toward Heard is way out of proportion to the actual event. Here’s a typical headline: “Jury Finds Amber Heard DEFAMED Johnny Depp In Big Win Against #MeToo Insanity.” This YouTube discussion is reminiscent of a bull session in a freshman dorm among a group of “C” students. First, they accuse The Washington Post of “hiding behind” the fact that it’s an opinion piece, obviously not understanding how opinion pieces work in newspapers across the country. Next, they berate Heard for not writing the piece herself, but with the help of the ACLU. Again, they don’t seem to be aware that many famous people don’t write everything attributed to them. Some of the most respected speeches in history were written by that person’s speechwriter.
As for the “#MeToo Insanity” in the headline, what exactly is insane? Where is the measurable evidence that something has gone terribly wrong?
Perhaps the most telling thing about this video—aside from the painful desperation of the sword, gun, and guitar on the wall—is a woman’s voice that occasionally chimes in to agree with the boys discussing the trial. We see them throughout—but not her. Nor do they address her or her comments. She’s a disembodied voice of cheerful compliance but of no consequence to them. Yet, it got 106,852 views.
Add to that an investigation by media non-profit the Citizens for VICE World News that concluded that The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro’s conservative outlet, “so far spent between $35,000 and $47,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads promoting articles about the trial, eliciting some four million impressions.” This is significant because The Daily Wire is the second most popular news publisher on Facebook. They know their audience of young, disaffected, white cis males hunkering down in fear of competing against women.
Why So Much Hate
The real agenda here is to diminish women, their voices, their stories—and especially their increasing power in society. As if the tidal wave of anti-abortion rights didn’t signal our retreat into the past—an insidious backlash from the gang in the clubhouse with the “No Girls Allowed” sign nailed to their door. It reminds me of a scene in the wonderful Say Anything when Lloyd (John Cusack) is discussing being a guy with two female friends, DC (Amy Brooks) and Corey (Lili Taylor):
D.C.: Lloyd, why do you have to be like this?
Lloyd Dobler: 'Cause I'm a guy. I have pride.
Corey Flood: You're not a guy.
Lloyd Dobler: I am.
Corey Flood: No. The world is full of guys. Be a man. Don't be a guy.
The world is full of guys. Too bad so many don’t like real women, just their juvenile fantasy idea of women.
This isn’t about Johnny Depp or Amber Heard. Their battle is nothing. But the way we have fetishized them into symbols is detrimental to our cultural well-being.
Kareem,
Couldn’t agree more. I want to thank you for your honesty courage and hope reporting truth to power with evidence. We love you.
Hi, Kareem, new subscriber here.
I did my best to avoid reading/hearing any more about this trial than I had to. As far as I'm concerned, there were no winners, just two people wanting attention and everyone covering it wanting it too. America loves to watch rich/famous/infamous people behave badly in public, and this was just another example of that, as well as "whoever hires the most expensive lawyers wins." Now that it's over, Americans will just sit back and wait for the next circus to roll into town--because there's always the next circus.