More than 130 national women’s organizations and leading feminist experts launched an open letter Wednesday morning in support of actress Amber Heard, who lost a defamation lawsuit earlier this year against ex-husband Johnny Depp after she publicly identified herself as a survivor of intimate partner violence. .
“The defamation of Ms. Heard and the continued online harassment of her and those who have expressed support for her have been unprecedented in both vitriol and scale,” said the letter, signed by several national organizations for gender justice, including the National Women’s Law Center, the Feminist Majority Foundation, and the Women’s March Foundation. Gloria Steinem, as well as other leading feminists and domestic violence experts, signed the letter in support of Heard.
Heard and Depp were sued in May over a $50 million defamation lawsuit Depp filed against Heard. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor said Heard hurt his career and earnings when he publicly but evasively discussed domestic violence allegations against Depp in a 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post. In the op-ed, Heard discussed her experience of domestic and sexual violence throughout her life, later identifying herself as “a public figure who represents domestic abuse”.
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After six weeks of live testimony, a The Virginia jury found that the opinion piece written by Heard was defamatory against Depp. Heard was ordered to pay Depp $10.35 million in total damages, a steep price for never naming her ex-husband in the play. The “Aquaman” actor. filed a report last month pending the appeal of the decision.
But it wasn’t just the jury’s decision in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court that dealt a major blow to Heard and the many survivors of intimate partner violence who watched the trial live. The process was a full-blown media circus that woke her up fandom of Depp’s social media users (and a large number of robots) who spent the better part of two months dragging Heard’s character through the mud.
TikTok videos, tweets and Instagram posts flooded social media, examining Heard’s allegations and often accusing her of being a fame-hungry liar. Anyone supporting Heard on social media was immediately harassed and, in some cases, doxxed and quit social media.
“Much of this harassment has been fueled by misinformation, misogyny, biphobia, and a monetized social media environment where a woman’s allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault have been taken lightly,” the open letter continued. “The same tropes of misinformation and victim-blaming are now being used against others who have alleged abuse.”
At the time of the trial, many lawyers feared there would be a backlash against Heard’s allegations. a cooling effect about victims of sexual and domestic violence trying to come forward. Bell Abesti, one of the organizers of the open letter, said that the initial fears have come true.
“The reaction to this trial has only reinforced why so many survivors remain silent. Not only do we fear retaliation from the person who abused us, but we also fear being ostracized and harassed by others,” Abești, an abuse survivor who uses a pseudonym, said in a statement. “I personally know women who reconsidered reporting after seeing what happened online with Amber Heard.”
Defamation lawsuits are commonly used tools in the arsenal of perpetrators to silence their victims, especially perpetrators with more money or power. During the Me Too era, when many famous men failed at the top, defamation lawsuits were very common.
“The Depp v. Heard verdict and the continued discourse surrounding it indicate a fundamental misunderstanding of intimate partner and sexual assault and how survivors respond to it. The harmful consequences of the spread of this misinformation are incalculable,” the open letter reads. “We are seriously concerned about the growing abuse of defamation lawsuits to threaten and silence survivors.”
While pop culture may desensitize people to how these types of lawsuits affected accusers during the Me Too era, many of whom are famous and wealthy white women, celebrities aren’t the only people facing defamation lawsuits.
More than 1 in 5 student survivors who report an attack at their school face a defamation lawsuit report 2021 by the anti-sexual violence organization Know Your IX. Almost 20% are warned in advance by their school that if they go ahead with the complaint, they could be sued for defamation. And 10% of surviving students who come forward to their school have a retaliation complaint filed against them by their perpetrator. Half of those who suffer a retaliation complaint take a leave of absence from school or move.
“This case created a road map for abusers to use against those they abused,” Emma Grasso Levine, manager of Know Your IX, said HuffPost in June. “…This case is just one example of the disturbing and ever-expanding backlash against the survivor justice movement and abusers who use systems designed to support survivors to further hurt them.”
Head Here read the open letter in its entirety.
I need help? In the United States, call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for National Domestic Violence Hotline.
I’m a passionate and motivated journalist with a focus on world news. My experience spans across various media outlets, including Buna Times where I serve as an author. Over the years, I have become well-versed in researching and reporting on global topics, ranging from international politics to current events.