Before we dive into the bitter feud between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, we request the readers to acknowledge that it is an assessment based on statements and facts revealed in the media during the ongoing trial and the following piece only attempts to analyse the repercussions it may carry into related social matters, and how it may affect the lives of other similar victims. Nonetheless, it is safe to say that there are some uncertainties that cannot be clarified with the presented facts, but certain other things are crystal clear to the eye.

In a rather distasteful exchange of messages, it was revealed recently that back in 2016, Depp texted a friend stating how he wished to ‘kill Heard’ and ‘later have s-- with the corpse to make sure she was dead’. There's a video showing Depp shattering kitchen cabinets as Heard attempts to calm him down, saying, "All I did was say sorry!" At one point she instructs him to "throw his smokes out on someone else” in an audio clip, to which he responds, "Shut up, fat a--."

He has acknowledged to hitting her in the head, but claimed it was an accident. Heard had a mark on her cheekbone from where she claimed Depp threw a phone at her when she went to court to seek a domestic violence restraining order against him.

Depp sued The Sun, a British publication, for calling him a "wife abuser" in 2018. Because the defendant bears the burden of evidence in the United Kingdom, proving libel is substantially easier than in the United States. Depp's lawsuit was dismissed and a court determined that 12 of the 14 incidences of Depp's claimed abuse of Heard happened, concluding that The Sun's claims were "basically accurate."

The Present Scenario

Depp is now suing Heard in Virginia for $50 million, alleging that she defamed him when she identified herself as "a public figure representing domestic abuse" in a Washington Post opinion piece that didn't mention Depp. Even if he were completely innocent, the British judgement was well-known, and Heard was referring to what she represented, not what she supposedly went through (She is suing for $100 million in retaliation.)

If Depp wins, similar cases against other women who claim to have been abused are likely to follow. Marilyn Manson has already sued his ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood for defamation, one of numerous women who have accused him of sexual abuse.

But Depp doesn't have to win in court to achieve his goals. Heard was "begging for utter worldwide disgrace," Depp said in a 2016 email to his former agent, Christian Carino. This broadcast trial has sparked an outpouring of anger and mockery directed towards her. The temperamental actress is far from a model victim, having been aggressive with Depp at times and failing to follow through on a vow to donate her whole divorce settlement to charity. As a result, she was the ideal target for a #MeToo backlash.

The Media Trial

On the internet, there's a degree of mass abuse focused towards Heard that puts all past social media trolls to shame. On TikTok, there’s a slew of videos criticising Heard's testimony, including one by 'NSync member Lance Bass.' Even a beauty business got involved in the anti-Heard backlash, producing a TikTok video that contradicted her lawyer's account of how she covered up bruises. Meanwhile, there appears to be fawning pro-Depp memes on every platform. A Vice headline read, "Why Does It Seem Like the Entire Internet Is Team Johnny Depp?"

It's not only the internet, though. Chris Rock recently remarked, "Believe all women, except Amber Heard." Last weekend, a "Saturday Night Live" parody converted one of Depp's most outrageous charges against Heard into a skit, portraying her as a laughingstock and him as a charming scamp.

This doesn’t mean that the situation is easy to understand. Heard has acknowledged to punching Depp and has been caught on tape criticising and dismissing him. "It was a matter of pride to her, if she felt mistreated, to begin a fight," the couple's marital counsellor testified, noting of Heard.

From all the accounts disclosed so far, it is understandable that neither one between Depp and Heard can claim to be completely innocent. What is it then – a case of mutual abuse?

Mutual abuse, according to some domestic violence specialists, is a myth, since while both parties in a toxic relationship might act badly, one generally has control over the other. Even if you agree Heard acted inappropriately, the notion that she was the main aggressor — against a much larger guy with significantly more resources, who was videotaped abusing her for daring to speak in an "authoritative" manner — defies credibility.

Indeed, one of the most lurid elements from the trial — the one that has been used to mock Heard in every form of media — could just as well be a victimhood narrative. You may recall that Depp accused Heard or one of her pals of defecating in her bed as a form of retaliation, and his security said that she admitted to a joke gone bad. Heard claimed that one of their dogs contaminated the bed after becoming incontinent following consuming Depp's cannabis as a puppy. "It wasn't exactly a joyous moment," she remarked, "and I don't think that's humorous at all." "That's repulsive."

If she's speaking the truth, it's amazing how thoroughly Depp and his crew have tarnished her reputation. The hashtags #AmberTurd and #MePoo became viral after Depp's testimony. Heard's image, which is synonymous with bombshell blond elegance, is now inextricably tied to faeces. If she isn't a psychopath, she is the victim of a particularly heinous reputational assassination.

The Vicious Online Campaigns

It's worth mentioning that Heard's attorneys engaged Bot Sentinel, a firm that analyses online disinformation and abuse, to investigate the social media campaign against her in 2020. "Everyone thinks any action against them is bots or anything," said Chris Bouzy, the group's founder. However, part of it was in this case — According to Bouzy, there were 340 "fake" Twitter accounts dedicated to defaming Heard and promoting petitions demanding for her to be sacked from acting and modelling jobs. "On Twitter, a tiny number of accounts may influence conversations," he remarked.

Even though trolls and bots contributed to the anti-Heard craze, there are clearly many actual individuals involved. Some of them are Depp aficionados; as Kaitlyn Tiffany of The Atlantic pointed out, there's a history of online groups fixating "on beliefs that the male objects of their adulation were being exploited and tortured by less-famous, female love partners."

However, there appears to be a larger sexist frenzy at work, which is indicative of the very retrograde period we're in. "She'll slam against the wall!" Depp wrote to Carino in an email. He almost seemed to be aware of the immense support and the fandom behind him, moreover the trial has not been hailed as a watershed moment in the #MeToo movement, possibly because some of the organisations supporting it have been shaken, or perhaps because this is a case about the intricacies, messiness, and even tragedy of a broken marriage, rather than professional power relations. While Depp's laughter, grins, and one-liners on the stand pleased some, no one missed the sunglasses-wearing actor's virtually complete absence of eye contact when Heard was testifying. 

Although the ‘MeToo’ movement has been largely mute on the Depp-Heard case, late-night comedians and even a touring Chris Rock have had much to say in what has proven to be a dysfunctional celebrity buffet for an often-unflappable America.