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Johnny Depp and the Other Side of Domestic Violence
Men can be victims. Women can be abusers. Welcome to equality.
Several years ago, film star Johnny Depp was branded a domestic abuser when his now-ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, claimed he had been “verbally and physically abusive” throughout their four-year relationship. While some sided with Depp, The Atlantic noted in May 2017 that “his public profile has collapsed” due to the allegations. Meanwhile, Heard became a hero to many, particularly after the rise of the #MeToo movement; she became a women’s rights ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union and a human rights advocate for the United Nations.
Now, newly disclosed audio recordings of conversations between Depp and Heard suggest that she may have been the primary abuser in the relationship— or, at the very least, that the abuse was mutual.
So far, reactions have been muted. Sites that led the charge in condemning Depp — The Daily Beast, The Mary Sue, HuffPost — have not said a word about the new information. No organization has distanced itself from Heard.
At this point, we have no idea what other sordid revelations will come in this story of dysfunction. But it seems clear that there was a rush to judgment against Depp and in favor of Heard.
In 2016, Vox suggested that any doubts about Heard’s story could only be the result of misogyny (“it doesn’t really matter how women act when they accuse men of hurting them. … We’ll find a way to call them liars no matter what they do”). Time spotlighted her public service message on domestic violence. The Washington Post gave her a forum to assert that she “felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out” about abuse.
Heard’s image as a woman fighting for victims was untarnished even by the revelation of her own 2009 arrest on charges of assaulting her then-partner, photographer Tasya van Ree, at the Seattle-Tacoma airport — a case that was apparently dismissed because both women lived out of state. (Ree backed Heard, claiming the incident was “misinterpreted and over-sensationalized” and blaming “misogynistic” and “homophobic” biases by the police; however, the Heard-unfriendly TMZ website reported that the arresting officer was an out-and-proud…
