I Hate Celebrity Gossip, But Here's Why the Depp-Heard Trial Worried Me
Because powerful men with money still get to do whatever the hell they want
Welcome to the Trauma-Informed Take! This past week we’ve been dealing with the fallout from the bombshell news about Roe v Wade, and I’ll release an article on that next week. But you’ve probably read enough hot takes on that for this week (including my own, if you follow me on the socials!). This week’s topic remains relevant though: what do we do when faced with individuals or organizations who are determined to get away with whatever they want? Or determined to defend their egos and their belief systems at almost any cost?
I am basically allergic to celebrity gossip. I have no idea who’s in and who’s trend-setting or what the MET Gala is or even what movies have come out lately. But I did a pay a little bit of attention to the Depp-Heard trial when it was happening and the final verdict really concerns me.
The result feels personal, too. You see (and I’m going to be very *intentionally vague* here because I’m not looking for trouble...yet), I’ve had someone threaten a lawsuit against me if I write or speak my truth about my experiences that happen to involve this person.
I don’t write because I think my history is just that interesting, or because I like to dish about people in my life. No, I write to highlight the ways that patriarchy, Christian supremacy, white supremacy, etc. have been poisoning the ways we do spirituality, parenting, and mental health care. And as you may have noticed, I’m pretty outspoken about these things in my writing (a fact that may surprise people who know me in person!).
Amber Heard as well was trying to draw attention to a larger point in her Washington Post op-ed piece when she shared about being part of domestic abuse. “Two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse.” That one sentence – those 11 words – were all it took for Johnny Depp to sue and win a case for defamation1.
Depp lost his UK trial about libel, where it’s actually harder to lose (UK laws lean more towards the side of the person being written/spoken about, whereas here we have stronger freedom of speech rules and it’s harder to prove libel or defamation). But in the U.S., in a highly publicized, dramatized trial, he won against Heard.
He claimed that because of what she wrote, his acting career suffered (even though his drug addiction, immature / abusive behavior towards staff, and not-great films he had been acting in might have contributed as well?? The Pirates of the Caribbean peak was a long time ago…).
A lot of people are concerned about the effects of this trial on the #MeToo movement and people, particularly women’s, willingness to speak out or seek help from partners who are abusive. I am very concerned too.
But I’m also concerned about being able to write hard, critical, truth-telling things about or involving people who have status and power. People who also have a lot of ego — fragile ones at that — and may be charming and winsome. People who believe they are always right and will go to great lengths to preserve that narrative.
In my book and writing in general, I talk a lot about white evangelicalism’s thirst to hang on to power. As I unpacked the various religious tenets that caused many of us religious trauma, I noticed a pattern: time and time again, the rationale for the tenet could be boiled down to patriarchy and a need to maintain power and control.
Johnny Depp’s ego was hurt because of 11 words in a Washington Post article, so he exploded the whole thing into a lawsuit that he ended up winning. Donald Trump’s ego was hurt because he lost his re-election bid, so he told Big Lie stories about the election being stolen and casually organized a coup against the government that’s currently being dissected on national television, but people don’t care because they’re busy blaming Joe Biden for high gas prices.
Powerful, egotistical, influential men can do whatever the hell they want. And apparently the rest of us sit back and agree that’s okay with us.
Well, it’s not okay with me. So that’s why I keep showing up in my writing, typing away at my laptop during late nights and surprise client cancellations, drafting articles in the passenger seat of the car, writing sentences in my head on my runs. The work means something to me. I see the world around me and start to feel so helpless to do something, and writing lets me do something.
I know you have your something too, and I know you see and feel the injustices and pain of the world too or you wouldn’t keep showing up to this newsletter. We’re not going to sit back and say it’s all okay with us. Together, we create a community of people that show up in the world and show up against injustice and say you might try and intimidate me, but you cannot silence me.
Together, I hope we can throw our collective weight against this wheel set in motion by a powerful few to keep it from crushing us all.
I highly recommend the above article for a deep dive into the trial! Packed with readable info if you weren’t following along with everything and/or wanted to avoid the toxic nonsense on Twitter.
Another article I’d recommend (below) that demonstrates how the trial, gun violence, and toxic masculinity all tie together:
I Hate Celebrity Gossip, But Here's Why the Depp-Heard Trial Worried Me
Thanks for your courage in challenging the patriarchy and the status quo, Christine. Your blog writing inspired me to create my blog. As you said so well, writing lets us do something, and as you now know, your something inspired my something!