Defending Amber Heard Plays Into Society’s Glamorous, Rich, White Victim Mythology

And hurts the people who truly don’t have a voice

Amber Heard may have lost the trial against Johnny Depp, but she won over the media. Articles have been dropping at lightning speed calling the defamation verdict favoring Depp a setback for women, a win for the political right wing, and a stand against survivors of abuse.

The Guardian even claimed “The strange, illogical, and unjust ruling has the effect of sanctioning Depp’s alleged abuse of Heard, and of punishing Heard for speaking about it.”

Why is editorial media so desperate to exonerate Amber Heard? The insistence that Heard was wronged plays right into the hands of society’s most persistent mythology: the narrative of the ever-victimized glamorous, rich, white female.

Supporting #metoo and victims of abuse is important. But defending Heard is not the noble narrative many believe it to be. Rather, it reveals a troubling tendency to believe glamorous white women who cry victim and to excuse their bad behavior.

Amber Heard has her own history with abusive conduct and victimizing those without her social status.

In 2009, airport security worker Beverly Leonard arrested Heard for misdemeanor domestic violence. Leonard watched Heard grab her then-girlfriend Tasya van Ree by the arm and rip a chain off her neck. The attack left rope burns. Ree declined to prosecute, and accused arresting officers of misogyny and homophobia for arresting Heard. Leonard, an openly gay everyday working woman, was now marked by a smear she had no power to defend herself against.

Another victim of Heard’s is her former assistant and sexual assault survivor Kate James. James testified that she shared her assault story with Heard, who later stole and twisted the details into her own abuse account against Johnny Depp. That Heard would “use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative” distressed James, who also shared that Heard spat in her face and verbally abused her. But like Beverly Leonard, Kate James was an everyday, average person without recourse against Heard.

Over a dozen rebuttal witnesses at the trial— nurses, drivers, assistants, security guards, a building attendant, a hotel manager, responding officers, a paparazzo— directly contradicted countless stories by Heard. Stories big and small –from staging an injury photo op for TMZ, to lying about Depp wrecking a hotel room, to leaving feces in Depp’s bed and blaming the dog. These witnesses have no clout. They are everyday people whom Heard, a wealthy, white woman and designer-clad celebrity, expected to steamroll, like she had Beverly Leonard, Kate James, and others in her wake.

The ACLU and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles have also fallen victim to Heard’s machinations. She claimed in 2016 to have “donated” $7 million to these charities. She said again that “the entire amount of my divorce settlement was donated to charity” under oath in the UK, and said it again in the US. These turned out to be lies — lies that victimized the people counting on support from these charities.

Heard also has a credibility problem with survivors of a abuse, many of whom have pointed out that her language and behavior reminds them of their own abusers’.

Nicque Marina, a Puerto Rican woman who served in the United States Air Force, recounts her abuse at the hands of her white female commanding officer. Marina says Heard triggered her because she “recognize(s) so much in her mannerisms, cadence, tactics.”

Marina recalls an audio clip of Heard mocking Depp: “I didn’t punch you; I was hitting you … You’re such a baby, grow the F*** up Johnny!” And goading him, “Tell them: I, Johnny Depp, a man, am a victim too of domestic violence … see how many people believe or side with you.”

“The same kind of language was used toward me,” says Marina, explaining the tactics her commanding officer shared with Heard. Marina’s white, female abuser would aggress against her, and then enforce her silence by saying, “Who are they going to believe?”

Jey Flores, another woman of color, survivor and activist wrote: “As a real DV survivor, please do not look at Amber Heard as someone who can represent us with integrity. This charade has been grotesque on her part.”

Yet legacy media outlets have circled the wagons to protect Heard, excusing her abusive history, lies, and problematic language. We have an appetite in this country for beautiful, rich, white female victims. Jane Fonda once noted that Harvey Weinsten’s victims grabbed the media’s attention only because they were “famous and white.”

But there is a dark side to giving unvetted benefit of the doubt based on status and glamour: it allows white women to get away with abusive behavior themselves. Let’s not forget the cautionary 1955 story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy accused by a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, of inappropriately accosting her. He was lynched shortly thereafter, while Bryant faced no consequences.

The general public who watched the Depp/Heard trial seems to understand that demographics don’t tell you who to believe.

Depp’s post-verdict statement amassed over 19 million likes on Instagram, breaking into the top 10 Instagram posts of all time. That number is too large to be explained by misogyny. Heard’s statement has just under 450k likes.

Yet much of our media seem blind to the not-so-complicated truth as they continue to attack Johnny Depp and his win.

The verdict is not the right wing at work; it’s not an “orgy of misogyny.” It’s a wealthy, white, female celebrity being held to account for her lies — probably for the first time in her life.

As Heard sat down with Savannah Guthrie for The Today Show this week, she unwittingly revealed the privileges she can’t believe she no longer benefits from. The privilege to be believed by “average people,” the privilege to be believed above “paid employees,” and the privilege to be believed above “randos,” whose testimony should apparently be dismissed because of their irrelevance in Heard’s Gucci-clad world.

But “randos” know something Heard doesn’t want you to know: that identity group does not determine victimhood.

Thousands of survivors around the world have repudiated Heard as their spokesperson. It’s because they stand with victims — not with stories.

If we really care about survivors, we should demand our media stop treating them as a monolith defined by shared politics and demographic traits. To suggest the verdict hurts all women, or is a win for a political party, is the real source of harm.

The truth doesn’t hurt actual victims of abuse. But a media agenda committed to mythologizing rich, white actresses as ever-victimized just might.

A reversion to treating survivors as individuals, assessing each case on its merits, and honoring survivors’ struggle by understanding their differences, is the only fair option we have.

I’m Marina. I occasionally write about business, leadership, and culture. Connect with me at glazzie.com or on twitter for more funsies.