While I await the election results, I have the time to comment on actor Johnny Depp losing his defamation case against Amber Heard’s allegations of domestic violence in a British court on Monday. None of the women who were previously involved with Depp accused him of domestic violence; in fact Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis stated that Heard's accusations against Depp did not describe "the person they knew." Depp apparently believed that his claim that he was only acting in “self-defense” against Heard’s own domestic violence was enough for him to win the case. Unfortunately for him, Heard’s domestic violence or mental state were not at issue; it was whether or not Depp had actually struck her as she claimed.
In retrospect, it was an impossible case for Depp to win, and the reaction to the case as a victory for domestic violence victims was predictable. Ignored were the leaked phone therapy sessions, where Heard justifies admittedly acting “irrational,” throwing brickbats and generally “losing it” by claiming it was “normal” for her to act that way, and Depp just needed to “get over it.” When Depp is heard to say that he just wants to get away from her and sit in a room alone, she claims that “Just because I've thrown pots and pans does not mean you cannot come and knock on my door.” When Depp reminds her that she also threw vases at him, Heard still insisted that wasn’t a reason to avoid her.
During a second “therapy” session, Heard--who had previously been in lesbian relationships but married Depp as a “trophy husband”--provided the usual political rationalization for ignoring domestic violence by women: “Do you know I'm a 115, well not anymore, but I was a 115lb, almost 115lb woman,” and then in a mocking tone says “You're going to get up on the stand, Johnny, and say, she started it? Really? You can please tell people that it was a fair fight, and see what the jury and judge thinks. Tell the world Johnny, tell them Johnny Depp, I Johnny Depp, a man, I'm a victim too of domestic violence." During the trial, Depp's bodyguard Sean Bett testified that many times he had seen visible injuries on Depp following incidents of abuse perpetrated by Heard.
Back in 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported that Heard had been arrested in 2009 in Seattle on a domestic violence charge by her then-girlfriend, Tasya van Ree, in an incident that occurred at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Perhaps not surprisingly, prosecutors declined to file charges against Heard. Ree later claimed that the incident was “overblown,” and that the female police officer who arrested Heard was a “homophobe,” although it was later revealed that the officer in question was herself a lesbian.
Now we really get into that “gray area” of pure hypocrisy and double-standards. A Suzana Rose, Ph.D., of the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, released a study in which “About 17-45% of lesbians report having been the victim of a least one act of physical violence perpetrated by a lesbian partner” and that “Sexual abuse by a woman partner has been reported by up to 50% of lesbians.” Also, “Lesbians who abuse another women may do so for reasons similar to those that motivate heterosexual male batterers. Lesbians abuse their partners to gain and maintain control"--like, say, Heard in her relationship with Depp.
Was Heard the “butch” partner in her relationship with Ree, on par with the “typical” male abuser? It doesn’t matter, actually. Rose reports that “In lesbian relationships, the ‘butch’ (physically stronger, more masculine or wage-earning) member of the couple may be as likely to be the victim as the batterer” and “Some lesbians in abusive relationships report fighting back in their relationship.” Does this mean that those who “fight back” are “abusers” too? Rose avoids the question, for reasons one may suspect. Rose then hypocritically (and predictably) punts on the question of whether a male, who may be physically stronger but does not have the temperament to act in a physically aggressive manner, can be the victim of a physically and temperamentally more aggressive female. You’ll only need one guess where Rose and nearly all other gender victim advocates fall on that equation.
Heard had “experience” with being a domestic abuser before she met Depp, yet we are expected to ignore the fact that she tried to control their relationship by acting in physically abusive way, and then pretended to be the “victim” when Depp--if we accept his version of events--acted in “self-defense.” Nearly everyone who was not familiar with the audio evidence--or for those who chose to ignore it for gender political reasons--bought Heard’s story, including the British court, which frankly had little choice in any case on how to rule. Heard and other so-called “survivors” like herself can continue to play the “victim,” and domestic violence by women once more gets a free pass by this society.
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