I read an article this afternoon from Vice News with the headline “We’ve All Failed Amber Heard” and it’s time that I break down why we don’t believe Amber Heard.

Prior to this trial I thought well, there goes one of my favorite actors. For the past few years all I’ve read were hit pieces on how Johnny was a “wife beater” and he was falling apart from drugs and alcohol. I’ve been a Johnny fan for many years. Long before Pirates of the Caribbean was a thing. I’ve seen The Black Mass and The Rum Diaries. I fell in love with his ability to evolve into his character watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I cried watching him yearn for his daughter in Blow. He wasn’t just Jack Sparrow to me. He was the person that could melt into a character like no one I’d ever watched on film. When the tabloids hit about his relationship with Amber, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in him and awful for Amber. This person that I had loved to watch on screen was not who we all thought he was.

And then this trial began…

I completely agree that there should not be memes and jokes being made of her appearance or wishing her or her child dead. We should not be tearing a person’s appearance or abilities as a mother down on social media. No one deserves that level of hate (unless you’re Casey Anthony). But, Amber Heard supporters are outraged by the amount of hashtags circulating social media such as #AmberHeardIsALiar and #JusticeForJohnny. Even going as far as claiming that the #JusticeForJohnny tweets and posts are bots in some way to “win” on social media.

In the midst of the Me Too movement, it is too hard for the public to believe that a man could be physically abused by a woman.

We have not “failed” Amber Heard. Amber Heard has failed the domestic violence survivors community. Her stories do not line up. Her blatant accusations of others committing perjury, are ludicrous. Her admission of “hitting” him but “not punching” him is an admission of physical abuse. Can you imagine what the rhetoric would be if Johnny had said those words? This conversation wouldn’t even be happening. We are so quick to set gender stereotypes on inter partner violence that we are now being accused of failing Amber Heard because we don’t believe her?

Heard’s sexuality has been weaponized throughout her fallout with Depp: tabloids have painted her as promiscuous and imply she cheated on Depp—all because she has dated both men and women.

From the Vice News article

She was not been accused of cheating on him because she has dated both men and women. We are not out here demonizing sexuality in this case. She is being accused of cheating because there is photographic and video evidence of Amber snuggling up to other men, such as James Franco, in the building that her ex-husband owns.

“This is an issue we should be taking seriously because this is one of the biggest public misinformation campaigns we've ever seen about domestic violence,” Khan said. “This case is shaping how young people view domestic violence.”

- gender justice advocate Farrah Khan for Vice article

This is a case shaping how young people view domestic violence. It’s stereotyping that a white woman in Hollywood can commit perjury and accuse a male of physical violence while she has admitted to committing her own physical violence against him. What about the young male community suffering from domestic violence? Isn’t this statement silencing that community? Creating fear in males to come forward because they’re not to be believed because they’re “bigger in stature” or “have more power”?

This case is also creating a “silencing” behavior for those that are standing up and telling their truth about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s lies. Jennifer Howell, close friend of Whitney Amber’s sister, has published information online indicating that her apartment had been broken into after her signed declaration bringing Amber & Whitney’s lies to light became online record. According to Vice’s article, people online are being silenced by Johnny’s “horde” in fear of being attacked online. What about the people that are being attacked, not online but in their own real lives for exposing the truth about Amber?

Jessica Reed Kraus from the formerly known @HouseInHabit became silenced just days after sharing information that outed Amber Heard’s head of PR as a sexual predator. Shortly thereafter her Instagram profile had been removed. After getting her account back she shared videos that were directly sent to her from Courtney Love sharing her sentiment on Johnny Depp. Moments thereafter, her account was gone, this time what seems as though, for good. Is this not an accurate representation of being silenced?

Furthermore, this is not a “public misinformation campaign”. This trial has played out live every day for the past 6 weeks. The testimonies & the evidence are all available to see online. As I said in the opening of this article, I am not disputing the public shaming, I am however disputing that this is a case wherein only Amber Heard should be believed. For those of us that have been watching intently, putting the rest of our lives on hold to provide accurate information to the public, there is clear evidence that the stories that Amber Heard has put out to the world, are false.

Today both parties rested their case and tomorrow we will see the final closing arguments before the case is handed over to the jury.

“I have no mercy, no fear and not an ounce of emotion, or what I once thought was love for the gold digging, low level, dime a dozen, mushy, pointless dangling overused flappy fish market… I’m so fucking happy she wants to go to fight this out!!! She will hit the wall hard!!!” Depp wrote in 2016, presumably about Heard after she filed for a restraining order against him.
“She’s begging for total global humiliation... She’s gonna get it.”

quote from Vice News article

Text messages indicating “She’s begging for total global humiliation… She’s gonna get it” from the man that has testified multiple times, all he wanted in this trial is for his story to be heard and his truth to be told. His story that Amber Heard described as “see what the jury & Judge think.. Tell the world Johnny, Tell them Johnny Depp, I Johnny Depp, I’m a victim too of domestic violence... and see how many people believe or side with you…”. The woman they want us all to believe, created these stories that are causing humiliation. She made the choices and it’s time that we start believing that not every white woman claiming abuse is to be believed.

Oops, I Gossiped Again...

Why We Don't Believe Amber Heard