It’s not just that he‘s a man. He’s had run-ins with the law after trashing a hotel room in the 90s with then-girlfriend Kate Moss, he’s admitted to drug and alcohol abuse, and then there’s the business with Rocky Brooks. Confronted a paparazzi photographer who was after his pregnant girlfriend. He’s not a saint. He’s not a woman, which is the predominant demographic of domestic violence victims. But does that mean he’s not a victim?
When the news broke initially in May 2016 that Amber Heard filed for a TRO amid allegations against Johnny Depp for domestic violence, the world sucked in a collective breath and then the recriminations began. Barely anyone stuck around until the smoke cleared and the suspicious, conspicuous bruise washed off (see below). No one stuck around to find out that Amber Heard herself had a history of domestic violence, to read the statements of Johnny Depp‘s ex partners when they said that he did NOT have a history of domestic violence, or to read through the preponderance of evidence.
They vilified him out of hand, based on the accusations alone, and the sketchy bruise conveniently on Heard’s face, but suspiciously missing in the days after.
She filed on May 27, and is pictured here May 30. Fresh face, no bruising, no swelling, no split lip, no black eye, most notably no bruising or swelling on the cheek where she had make up applied just days prior to request the TRO. Photo from Us Weekly article here
It didn’t register initially with people that the girl who claimed to have been head butted in the nose, had her phone thrown at her face, her lip split, her cheek and eye bruised, her nose “nearly broken”... later showed up on James Corden mere days afterwards with no swelling whatsoever before she took off with her friends to Coachella.
No one was listening when Vanessa Paradis spoke up and said that in 14 years Johnny had never raised a hand to her or their children. Nobody was around when the judge dismissed her claims with prejudice, which in fact prohibits her from ever making allegations again. No one read statements from the 911 officers who responded to calls from Heard’s friends about domestic violence on that day in May 2016– Even though the officers found nothing, no evidence of injury, no evidence that the apartment was trashed as she claimed, NOTHING. But all of these things and more have been submitted in court in light of Depp’s 2019 defamation case against her, which has been pushed to next year thanks to fallout from the coronavirus.
Why is he suing her all of a sudden? In the past four years, she has continued to take up space, airtime, and speak out against domestic violence while purportedly being a survivor herself. The reason for Depp’s $50 million price tag on the defamation case is not only that none of that is true, but the reverse is actually the case. It was him and not her, and it has left many people scratching their heads in response because they don’t know what to do with a pretty little girl with a nasty little attitude and a man who essentially had his hands tied.
They don’t consider the fact that if he had ever raised a hand to her, it all would’ve been over with in a second. She would’ve had true evidence, with a “he said, she said” case where he could not prove self-defense. They do not consider the fact that without being able to prove that, he would’ve wound up in prison for something he initially didn’t do, and never would’ve seen his kids again. Johnny Depp was held emotionally hostage while being physically abused.
Yet the more one scratches the surface, the more insidious it becomes. Her sealed juvenile record. Her history of domestic violence in Seattle, Washington. The statements from people on either side of the camp who say that she was never injured, but that they witnessed abuse from her. The statements from people who worked for her who claimed she was abusive as well to them. The shenanigans that she pulled trying to get her dogs illegally into Australia. The audio tapes that she verified herself in her own video deposition. After a point it becomes clear that this is a person who will do anything she wants, will say anything she thinks will sway the listener, and will continue to spew nonsense and lies in the face of truth all while underhandedly sporting the status of a domestic violence survivor, sexual assault survivor, and advocate.
Johnny Depp was never the perfect victim, because people were not ready to acknowledge that a man in a domestic violence situation has his hands tied. He was never the perfect victim because we are not used to looking in that direction at all. And yet, men do wind up being attacked in domestic violence situations. Trans men, men in same-sex relationships, and yes, heterosexual men.
Some argue that to speak for men in domestic violence situations is to “all lives matter“ the significant portion of women in domestic violence situations. But that is a false equivalency. In the argument of unarmed black men being killed by police, there is no one speaking and screaming about white unarmed men being killed by police. Because it does not happen. They wind up getting walked out of whatever the situation is in handcuffs.
The better analogy here is breast cancer. It happens predominantly to women, but there are male victims. It does not mean however that we do not treat the men too! And that is the point that most people—feminists and general public alike—miss. You don’t ignore the suffering minority for the needs of the majority. Domestic violence is not a woman’s issue, it is everyone’s issue. No one should be left to suffer.
And yes, despite being a white, wealthy, famous man, Johnny Depp does deserve our support after years of being gaslighted and emotionally abused through the press at the hands of his ex-wife and her cohorts. For that reason, the next several blog posts will take apart Amber Heard’s profile as an abuser, the timeline of her abusing her husband over the course of their marriage, and the arguments as to why his evidence is compelling and truthful over hers which does not add up.
I will also take apart her video deposition and outline things that I notice from my own experiences as an interrogator, after conducting over 180 field interrogations in a theater of war. I promise you, if the Taliban or Al-Qaeda could not lie to me, some gold digging glorified Hollywood housewife certainly won’t.
The reason Johnny Depp was never the perfect victim is because of bias. And the reason, as one blog post on another site states, that Amber Heard was never the perfect victim is because she never was one to begin with.
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