By Tisa Tollenaar
After spending the past week and a half following the developments on the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp case, I have a confession to make: I’m sick of pop culture media.
That’s a hell of a thing to say if you’re a journalism student.
Maybe it’s because I’m constantly harped at to “remain objective” at all times, yet I can’t help but notice the blatant bias pop culture writers have when reporting on this issue.
If you go to Google’s news section and search “Amber Heard,” you’ll find headlines that include words such as “liar,” “blackmail” and many references to Heard’s sexuality. However, if you were to perform the same search with “Johnny Depp,” the headlines are much less harsh. An article posted by US Weekly details how Johnny Depp was “met with cheers” after coming on stage at a music concert he performed in Stockholm only days after Heard came forward with abuse allegations. This stark difference could be because the press may be hounding her a lot more than they are him, but there are still many other things that leave a stomach uneasy.
While articles of Depp’s ex-girlfriend, their daughter and his friends defending him against the allegations are easy to find via a simple Google search, an article published by Daily Mail in which Amber Heard’s ex-boyfriend comes to her defense is much harder to come by. (No, really, who knew about it before reading this post?) Reportedly, the divorce filing came just three days after Depp’s mother passed away and some outlets are all about using this against Heard.
Many articles claim that Amber Heard is after her husband’s money. People released an article detailing Heard’s income versus her expenses and found that she spends more than she earns—and somehow, it seems people are more interested in this than they are the physical injuries Heard has suffered. Comments on that article are scathing and offensive, and demonstrate just how little people care about the alleged violence. “Go pay for your own candy you gold-digging wh*re!!” one person posted. “Wow, that was one expensive piece of ass. And that’s all she is ……. a piece of ass,” another person said. “The lesbian was in it for the money from day one,” someone purported. “Anyone who believes Amber Heard the Gold Digger deserves to go to jail,” another declared. The list goes on, as people drop names like “hussy,” “slut,” “tramp” and just about every other insult you can imagine.
Somehow, her sexuality has become core to the conversation—despite the fact that it’s really not relevant to the situation. Heard has been open about her bisexuality since before her relationship with Depp. Now, many outlets are somehow using that fact to depict Heard in a negative light amidst the filings. Some publications have referred to Heard as “Johnny Depp’s Bisexual Wife” in lieu of her name. Many are alleging that Heard’s bisexuality was an issue in her marriage to Depp. Some even go as far to as to say that Heard had an affair with another woman.
First off, I apologize for the link overload but it’s hard not to do when there are so many he-said-she-said points of view that are being published every second. Secondly, the bigger issue is being ignored here—Amber Heard was physically abused and sustained injury from it. She is a victim, and the mass media is failing to recognize her as such. Rather, they are using their resources to paint the picture of a not-so-famous “gold digger” who is trying to extort her much more famous husband for money.
What kind of message does this send to domestic abuse victims? That you’re going to be scrutinized and ripped to shreds in the presses if you so much as speak out and defend yourself? It sends a particularly hopeless message to those with attackers who are influential and powerful. The reports of Heard’s finances show she isn’t going to have the same standard of living after the divorce and that she isn’t very likely to be able to support herself afterwards. Sadly, there are many women—famous or not—who might find themselves in a similar situation. While it isn’t the first of its kind and certainly won’t be the last, the coverage of the Heard/Depp case is sure to show how the system handles domestic abuse cases.
So far, it’s looking like money talks. And so does reputation.
In my ideal world, as a future journalist, the media would be using this topic to bring more light to the issue of domestic abuse. It’s clearly still a prevalent problem in our society—and it’s not being taken seriously or viewed as legitimate. However, it seems as though people only care about this story to shame Amber Heard and almost ignore the actual abuse entirely. It’s not fair, it’s incredibly biased, and not very professional for journalists. This opinion piece isn’t very objective, either, but I digress. The only thing to do to hone in on what really matters in this developing story is to watch from a distance and take in just the facts. It’s so hard to read all of the articles when you can’t stand them.