For six weeks, the trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard for the opinion column that the actress published in 2018 in the Washington Post was on all screens. Both accused each other of defamation, but the jury finally said that it found false three of her statements, although it also considered that the actor’s lawyer had defamed her. The consequences of this failure are still unpredictable. The only certainty until now is that, in times of social networks, the case has long since transcended beyond the show business.
The trial in this Virginia court was not the first. In 2020, Depp lost trying to prove that he was not a “wife beater” – as The Sun newspaper called him – and the judge in the United Kingdom considered that the phrase was “substantially true”. In that scenario, it was concluded that he had assaulted his ex-wife “12 times”.
The column written by Amber Heard, in which she describes herself as a victim of domestic violence, came at the height of the feminist #MeToo movement promoted by other Hollywood actresses, such as Uma Thurman, who revealed to the New York Times in 2018 that Harvey Weinstein (producer of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill) harassed her. According to the actress, the tycoon threatened to destroy her career. In fact, there were dozens of complaints of abuse and Weinstein went to prison.
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However, despite the complaints in the industry, the case of Depp and Heard can harm the fight against gender violence, says the sociologist and spokesperson for Manuela Ramos, Giselle Morales Vargas.
“Although we can say that violence has no gender -warns Morales-, that does not imply that it is lived in the same way. The case of Johnny Depp proves it. He is not starving, he is not suffering public persecution. It is important to understand and have empathy, but that is greatly minimized because violence is so normalized that we do not even understand it as violence.
Heard’s attorney has said she is going to appeal because the evidence was ignored. But beyond that, what happened on social networks and the massive support for Depp caused ridicule and humiliation. That may be one of the reasons why other women do not file complaints, adds the sociologist and promoter of women’s rights and dissidence.
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“There is a phenomenon that is called ‘the ideal victim’. Normally we have in our heads a stereotype of what a victim should be like, if the victim does not conform to that prejudice, they stop being a victim and we can distort, put together a totally different story. She has not been an ideal victim, she has also exercised violence, she is a woman who is not hegemonic, she is not the typical white, blonde, heterosexual, cisgender American woman, but rather escapes from what ‘should be,'” says Morales about Amber Heard, openly bisexual.
“In a social moment like the one the United States is experiencing, with a super strong fundamentalist and anti-rights wave, that has also promoted the idea that Amber is the bad one, the villain and we have to destroy her, if not that goes against my anti-rights agenda. “, alert.
With the sentence, certain evidence is downplayed, such as the text message that Depp wrote to his friends. “Then I f… her body burned from her to make sure she’s dead.” That is why The Guardian, when the result was known, headlined: “The trial was an orgy of misogyny.” And it is that, apart from the advertising machinery, the feminist struggle is questioned.
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“Many times what feminism is is misrepresented and it is due to mere ignorance, or fear of something that I do not know and I feel that it is threatening me. That’s a very human and valid thing, but if we’re not careful it can end up in these kinds of dangerous situations, like when they complain that Depp is the victim when she’s actually partly to blame. Imagine if it hadn’t been Amber Heard, but an ordinary citizen. Would you have had any kind of opportunity in this social trial?” Morales questions.
The numbers don’t lie
Meanwhile, the former Minister of Women, Gloria Montenegro, points out that the figures for attacks against women are overwhelming. In Peru, for example, until April, the Women’s Emergency Centers (CEM) attended to 53,254 cases of victims of violence, of different types: psychological, physical, sexual, as well as economic. Of this total, 46,108; that is, 87% were services to women and 13% to men.
He adds that the media must take into account the evidence. “These show that almost 90% of cases of violence, between January and April, are against women. And almost 50% of these are cases of psychological violence and that is where it starts. This violence escalates to physical, and that is decisive for cases of femicide”, she points out.
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However, despite the seriousness of these cases, it is not easy to demonstrate violence against women. Morales gives as an example what happened recently with the archaeologist Marcela Poirier, who, after denouncing on social networks that she had been a victim of bullying and harassment by the PUCP teacher and former Minister of Culture Luis Castillo, was sentenced to one year and eight months. of suspended prison, and to the payment of 180 thousand soles for the crime of defamation. But, in addition to Poirier, her own lawyer Brenda Álvarez was also sanctioned with 5 URP (Procedural Reference Unit).
“Unfortunately in Peru we are having a serious problem regarding basic and fundamental human rights and I think that a great example of how dangerous this can be is the case of comrade Marcela. It is a dangerous precedent. Unlike other crimes, gender-based violence does not always have such strong evidence. If you don’t have a psychologist, how do you demonstrate psychological violence? Or if you have not reported a case of sexual violence at the same time, how do you prove it later? There is no gender perspective when dealing with these complaints and unfortunately the judges in Peru do not have one because they are sexist. Those cases can very easily end up turning into retaliation,” explains Morales.
Along these lines, Montenegro regrets that today there is a setback in the gender agenda on the part of the authorities, since, he comments, on the one hand, the Executive has sexist people and, on the other hand, Congress is working on projects that affect advances in gender equality. “They wanted to put Valer in the PCM, we have Juan Silva and various aggressors and radical sexists,” he claims.
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The former minister adds that due to this there would also be a risk that women no longer want to report the violence of which they are victims, so a call should be made for them not to have any fear.
Defamation in accusations from both parties
According to the jury, three statements by Amber Heard in the Washington Post were false: “I spoke out against sexual violence and faced the wrath of our culture. That has to change”, “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of the anger of our culture”, “I had the rare advantage of seeing how institutions protect men accused of abuse” .
It also concluded that the actress was smeared by Depp’s lawyer by saying: “This was simply an ambush, a hoax, a trap.”
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Approach
The underlying issue (of the trial) is not whether or not there was violence, but how each one has expressed it. This takes on dimension because there are sectors that have also become polarized. There are groups and individuals who see the fight against violence against women as a threat to certain privileges that were held at some point, so they do see some advantage.
This does not mean that women cannot tell lies, that is something that can and does happen in any situation, but it is absolutely undeniable that violence is an issue that particularly affects women. It does not mean that there are no violent men, but it is not in the same dimension. This case should not cast doubt on the fact that gender-based violence affects women precisely because of their gender condition.
The probability that a woman will be raped in a robbery or kidnapping is much higher than for a man. It is an indisputable fact. In addition, they are not only victims of aggression, but of criticism. The figures have to lead us to common sense. Let this not make us forget femicides, men are not affected equally. Let us not forget the vulnerability of women of all ages to suffer sexual violence.
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reactions
Julia Fox, actress (May 2022)
“Mistake. She never had the power in the relationship to abuse him. Did she hit him? Yes. Was she an abuse? No. You have to have power to be able to abuse it. She was 25 years old. It is clear that he was always much more powerful, even physically and financially.
Rosa María Palacios, lawyer and journalist
“He got more than her. And he proved her point. You can’t defame. She severely harmed the cause of battered women by victimizing herself and lying. #JohnnyDeppVerdict.”
David Krumholtz, actor (May 2022)
“Drugs and alcohol turn a man into a monster (…). She (Amber Heard) is not innocent. But she is a victim. Johnny Depp’s petulance during the trial is sickening.”
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