Depp Vs Heard trial: Its horrifying effect on domestic violence

This trial has taken over the internet by people of mainly two categories: Johnny Depp fans and anti-feminist bros. And if you are stating your opinions as the former, you have to be conscious of the fact that you are shaking hands with the latter. Here is what I think is wrong with the whole ‘internet sensation’ and my arguments for why people should stop.

Firstly, I think people are forgetting that this is not a legal show that has left them on a cliffhanger so they are making up their minds. This is real life and legal procedures are being followed, so even before I state the moral effects, I would use the most practical point that cannot be argued over: In law, before making a decision, you have to be 100% certain. People’s opinions are derived from ‘assumptions’ and not certainty. No matter how much you pull up pieces of evidence, you will never be certain. Why? BECAUSE YOU DO NOT KNOW THEM. In the end, your information relies upon what media you consume, and media will always feed you what you want to hear. And it is hard to acknowledge, but information can be very easily manipulated.

The second problem is the obsessive nature that people have developed for this trial, which is a product of the toxic celebrity culture. People are making memes, jokes, and content out of the trial, completely disrespecting the sensitive subject that domestic abuse is. Your assumptions are supported by your emotional attachment to the actors, and how you have seen them act in public. Maybe Depp is the victim, maybe Heard is the victim, maybe they both are- it is purely of the court to decide. It is important to remember that everyone acts differently in public, everyone is kind in public, and people with anger issues can be deceiving. But people are not realizing how their extreme opinions can affect the whole topic.

Yes, I agree we need to talk about men being abused because they too face domestic violence. But this is not talking- this is an obsessive and cheap attempt at supporting one’s favorite celebrity in the name of raising awareness. When did a woman getting domestically abused got this much clout and became an internet sensation? Statistically, women face DV more than men, and yet, when a woman speaks up, they don’t even get half the support Johnny Depp is getting. And now that the trial is so widely spoken about (its particulars blurred, the fact that both parties have evidence against each other ignored) more and more women victims would be afraid to speak up because they would be looked at with accusatory eyes and it would be even more horrifying for them.

In conclusion, it is neither legally nor morally correct for people to support something that they are not certain of, making jokes about it when it involves such a sensitive topic that deserves to be treated respectfully; it is disgusting and inhuman.