Depp-Heard trial shines light on issues of domestic abuse and feminism

The courtroom drama between former spouses Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, in which he is seeking $50 million in damages for her allegations of abuse during their marriage while she is reiterating the accusations and countersuing for $100 million, has been drawing a lot of attention — and not just because it’s a sordid saga involving Hollywood celebrities.

There are real issues involved, from domestic violence and its relationship to gender, to feminism and the principle of believing women’s accusations of abuse.

To the dismay of some feminist commentators, things are not going well for Heard in the court of public opinion. Hashtags like #AmberHeardIsALiar have been springing up on Twitter. Claims that Heard herself was abusive to Depp and that she made up many of her shocking accusations against him have been getting a sympathetic airing, amplified by Depp’s devoted fans.

Heard’s bad rap, says a chorus of pundits across a wide range of publications, is all about sexism: A woman who accuses a man of mistreatment gets trashed and branded a liar. It's a "misogynist frenzy" of bullying, we're told, as well as a #MeToo backlash that threatens to undermine and reverse all the progress made in persuading society to believe women and take domestic abuse seriously.

Yet most of Heard’s defenders acknowledge that the facts are messy and not always in Heard’s favor. While Heard has depicted herself as a victim of domestic violence crusading for other victims, there is plenty of evidence that she herself has been physically and verbally abusive to Depp. (What’s more, between the two of them, she’s the only one with a prior arrest record for domestic assault — in 2009, toward her then-girlfriend, though the charge was ultimately dismissed.) And many of her claims of abuse by him seem likely to be exaggerated.

To Heard supporters, all this merely makes her an “imperfect victim.” Some invoke claims by domestic violence advocacy groups that mutual abuse is a "myth" since, even if both partners are behaving badly, one nearly always has more power. But that perspective is more political than research-based. Actual studies of domestic violence show a complicated picture in which women are more likely to be severely abused, but male victims are not uncommon and mutual abuse is typical.

Did Depp have more power because he was larger than Heard and had more material resources? Such a view ignores the fact that, in Heard’s case, her gender was a resource: Whatever biases against women may exist in other areas, women generally get much more sympathy and credence than men as victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Heard appeared to know this; one audio of a telephone conversation between her and Depp shows her taunting him about it. “Tell the world Johnny … I, Johnny Depp, a man, I’m a victim too of domestic violence. … And see how many people believe or side with you.”

When Heard first made her accusations against Depp, he was roundly vilified and lost movie roles. Now, Team Heard has expressed alarm that the current sympathy for Depp and backlash against Heard may be weaponized by emboldened woman-haters from online communities that peddle misogyny in the guise of “men’s rights.” Unfortunately, that may happen. But there’s an excellent way feminists can take this issue away from misogynists: Stop denying that abusive women exist, and that abuse can be a two-way street. The message that women are strong and should be treated as men’s equals should not come with a disclaimer for cases of domestic abuse.

Opinions expressed by Cathy Young, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, are her own.

By Cathy Young

Cathy Young is a writer for The Bulwark.