Phyllis
Chesler, Ph.D, is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women’s
Studies at City University of New York. She is a best-selling
author, a legendary feminist leader.
The jury that exculpated Johnny Depp (vs Amber Heard) reminds
me that woman are as endangered as I feared we were—especially
when we fight back or dare to expose male violence.
Most
women are still not believed or respected; few are ever perfect
enough victims. Add to that the fact that, like men, women are
as close to the apes as to the angels and are capable of exaggerating
and lying, capable of committing High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Add to that, that women have been exposing and fighting back
against sexism and continue to face a backlash which is increasing
by the second.
Also,
Depp drew scads of screaming, swooning female fans. Perhaps
some women just dislike other, perhaps more beautiful women
and love, just love, Bad Boys. And some men may feel that Depp
is their pirate gladiator who fought back on their behalf given
the (unfair) humiliation levelled against all those men whom
the #MeToo movement brought down or tried to bring down: Bill
O’Reilly, Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein,
Woody Allen, etc.
I did
not view the Depp-Heard trial nor did I read any of the articles
about it. Celebrity culture does not really interest me. I do
not view most trials and such a trial as forms of entertainment.
They are more often blood sports and I am not a voyeur.
What
was Heard’s crime? I went back to the beginning, to her
December 18, 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post. It does not
mention Depp. It is a low-key, everyday feminist piece. I could
find nothing inflammatory, unusual, or wrong with it—but
that’s because I’m also a feminist. Heard writes:
“Like
many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the
time I was of college age. But I kept quiet . . . and did not
see myself as a victim…Then, two years ago, I became a
public figure representing domestic abuse and felt the full
force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.”
Heard
claims that she lost career opportunities and saw how “institutions
protect men accused of abuse . . . the #MeToo movement has taught
us how power like this works, not just in Hollywood but in all
kinds of institutions.”
Heard
argues for the re-funding of the Violence Against Women Act
and points out that former President Trump “has been accused
by more than a dozen women of sexual misconduct.”
Strange,
Trump has also not sued her for defamation.
Heard
refers to death threats and to having to change her phone number
and writes that she wants to “ensure that women who come
forward to talk about violence receive more support.”
I do
not see how this vanilla op-ed piece led Depp to bring this
lawsuit. However, people are telling me that she did, indeed,
“defame” him in countless media interviews, and
that he was moved to act so that his career would not be ruined
and his children would not think him capable of violence against
a woman. Not even when he was drunk and on drugs. Not even when
Heard had photos credible enough to help her obtain a restraining
order against him.
Well,
she may have hit him too. Or “provoked” him—so
all his female fans say.
Oh
yes, many women seem to be supporting him, not her. Well, our
people are known to write love letters to serial killers and
run-of-the-mill murderers—and to marry some as well.
Okay.
I wasn’t in the room. I haven’t read what the media
ran with when Heard was allegedly defaming Depp. I haven’t
read the trial transcript.
But
I must ask: What kind of man would actually bring a public defamation
lawsuit against his former wife? How great could her crimes
have been? How much was he quick to anger/how much had she aggravated
him?
Here’s
how such a man sounds in a series of text messages.
“Hopefully
that c—t’s rotting corpse is decomposing in f—g
trunk of a honda civic.”
In
another text, Depp fantasized about having sex with Heard’s
“burnt corpse” to make sure she was dead.
Finally,
Depp wrote that Heard was “begging for total global humiliation.
She’s gonna get it.”
He
also referred to Heard as an “overused flappy fish market.”
What
a nice guy.
Perhaps
justice was served by this verdict. But here’s what puzzles
me. Heard’s article is, as I’ve noted, entirely
vanilla and does not name Depp. Apparently, journalists around
the world kept asking Heard about Depp and she kept saying whatever
she said. (I admit it: I have not read or seen any of this).
If
the media truly defamed Depp, if they quoted Heard without checking
out the facts and/or without getting Depp’s side, I must
ask: Why hasn’t Depp sued the media? Oh, he did—but
he lost against the Sun. But the media apparently chose to keep
quoting Heard about the Depp. And We, the People ate it all
up, gossip sold the rags. And now this never-ending trial has
sold more rags.
One
cannot generalize based on single trial. Perhaps justice really
was served.
And
yet—consider the moment in which we find ourselves. Very
few “real” rape cases are ever prosecuted. Incest—rarely.
Domestic violence—a bit more than before but far, far
from having been abolished. Pornography and prostitution in
which women are “holes,” and/or “ho’s”
have only increased exponentially. Many of the poorest American
women are about to lose abortion. We are not even referred to
as “women” anymore. Gender identity speech codes
increasingly demand that we be referred to as “menstruating
people” or, in terms of surrogacy, as “breeders”
or “surrogate uteruses.”
Despite
some real progress for some women; despite the ways in which
feminist ideas and ideals have travelled globally; I still fear
that all women are now facing what always was—as well
as an ugly backlash.
COMMENTS
katrinka
Comment: You didn't watch the trial, so don't opine on what
it means, thank you. Allow me, someone who DID watch the trial,
tell you what happened: deeply disturbed woman was exposed
as an abuser and liar. Abuse victims everywhere, men and women
alike, celebrated the victim's vindication.
As a woman who was abused by another woman, I can tell you
Amber Heard is one of a type. There are thousands, probably
millions of women who have been the victim of their own Amber
Heard: girlfriends, mothers, sisters, frenemies, employers.
Yet others have said that Heard reminds them of their male
abusers, that abusive behavior isn't exclusive to one gender.
You're telling us that we're stupid, self-hating, easily fooled
by social media--I'm telling you that you're ignorant, arrogant,
and easily fooled by mainstream media.
The backlash against Amber Heard is because she lied, and
kept lying, and we watched her lie. As for the UK trial, that
one is dubious: the judge had conflicts of interest, excluded
much of Depp's evidence, and allowed hearsay evidence in Heard's
favor. Judge Azcarate herself (another self-hating woman,
I presume?) commented that she thought it was basically a
sham
Watch the trial, it's free online without commentary. Check
out the Australia audio of Amber stomping around in heels
(she testified she had walked over broken glass in her bare
feet that night), admitting she was high on several substances,
and tearfully apologizing and explaining she didn't mean to
hurt Depp so badly.
You're a professor? Rule number one, dipshit, is do the
research. God, you make me embarrassed to be a college-educated
feminist
Analyze2Death
Another "feminist" without empathy for men. Looking
only through a lens of labels and victimization.
emilyslagathor
This is just so sad! She says multiple times that she hasn’t
watched the case or read the transcript, hasn’t read
articles about it and hasn’t followed it in the media
over the years. Why would your completely uninformed opinion
be relevant then?? As a feminist, EVERYONE should be allowed
to have an informed opinion and it doesn’t have to be
uniform. Being a feminist doesn’t mean agreeing with
all women and siding against men no matter what. This type
of article is such a bummer.
PennyCoppersmyth
"I did not view the Depp-Heard trial nor did I read any
of the articles about it."So, admitedly she knows absolutely
nothing about this issue, but can't resist sharing her uninformed
opinion. Why do people like this exist?
eems04
I couldn't read past the first paragraph. I really hate that
people are making this about misogynistic issues and not the
truth. It's making women and feminists look f-cking stupid.
It's about the truth of these two people. It's not a statement
about the world as we know it. It's one man, who happens to
be a celebrity fighting back against the lies of a woman,
also a celebrity, who happens to have a severe personality
disorder.
Will it have other implications? Maybe. Some of those might
be great changes though, not negative ones. Maybe people will
recognize toxic relationships. Maybe men will come forward
with their abuse. Maybe people won't accept a tweet as fact.
All positives if you ask me. Accusations of this magnitude
SHOULD stand up to scrutiny, especially by a JURY. It's not
easy to meet that burden and he did. That's huge. I honestly
didn't think he had any hope of winning.
At the end of the day, no one should have to lose their career
or their reputation based on an unverifiable claim made in
the public eye. AH made this public, not Depp. She chose this
road. She didn't have to, but she did. I'm sorry, but I don't
think he had any other options here, regardless of what it
does to anyone else.
throwaway23er56uz
Not seeing women as complete humans with agency and with the
capability to do both good and bad things is misogynist. And
that's what this writer does.
tiffany
Ignorant post from an ignorant person who was ignorant about
the trial and is idiotic enough to fall for gaslighting of
such an obvious bullshitter
reader-comment
So, you admittedly know absolutely none of the facts, and
yet here you are, sharing your completely uninformed opinion.
That's absolutely amazing to me.
By
Phyllis Chesler
Remember
the Taliban
The
Writing Life
Transgender
Bending
Femicide:
A Form of Honour Killing
Secular
Islam on the Rise
