Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Why Are So Many Survivors Supporting Johnny Depp?

238 replies

CaptSkippy · 26/05/2022 21:51

Why Are So Many Survivors Supporting Johnny Depp?

OP posts:
CaptSkippy · 27/05/2022 11:45

mummyrocks1 · 27/05/2022 10:24

Please provide links to actual proof of all of these please. I have never heard some of these. Obviously that doesn't mean they aren't true but I grew up with JD since my teens.

There are several interviews mentioned such as the three separate Letterman interviews. Most of Letterman's interviews are still on YouTube and with a big star like Johnny Depp should not be that hard to find.

OP posts:
JemimaPuddlegoose · 27/05/2022 11:45

As a trauma survivor that's completely untrue for me, and untrue for many people. I went through an extensive period after my mother died where I just couldn't stop talking about my abusive childhood, and literally published an entire book about it plus written many magazine articles. Even my own therapist had to order me to stop because I was actively (subconsciously I don't know) seeking out triggers constantly, like I got obsessed with watching TV and books about one very specific thing I experienced even though it was massively re-traumatising me over and over.

Anyone generalising "ALL abuse survivors act like this" or "abuse survivors never ever do this" needs to go to hell. That's incredibly dangerous and stigmatising.

Depp is from an extremely abusive childhood too and we can frame Amber Heard as a very successful and powerful woman with her fame, money and dominant personality. Why do we need to frame women as weak all the time to make a point about abusive men?

Depp has been repeatedly violent and abusive for literally decades and has a history of arrests for assault dating back to the 1980s. Clearly he had a terrible childhood but he has the money and resources to go into therapy, but instead seems to celebrate violence and inciting fear.

There's no question that Amber Heard was abusive towards him as much as she was a victim of his own abuse, and that it was a mutually toxic relationship.

JetTail · 27/05/2022 11:48

I find it interesting that there are no character witnesses really for her?

YellowHighHeels · 27/05/2022 11:52

Rathmobhaile · 26/05/2022 23:01

Because she badly acts a victim of trauma. Trauma victims don't keep reoeating their trauma. They may be able to repeat it once. They can't keep repeating it as psychologically it may re traumatise them. So seeing Amber Herd getting emotional and revisiting trauma in such an emotionally emersed way repeatedly doesn't ring true. The way Johhny Depp describes his trauma of abuse both in childhood and as an adult is much more typical of abused people. Theres a detachment and matter of fact quietness to it that reflects the only way most trauma victims can talk of their trauma without revisiting and retraumatising. Its not an immersive experience for johnny depp as he can't let himself go there. Its not psychologically safe. Amber goes there because her trauma isn't real.

Just because shes female and hes male doesn't mean he has to be the abuser.

Finally someone is speaking for all trauma victims with blanket authority. What the world has been waiting for. I have no idea what the truth is with regards to Depp/ Heard but as someone who has experienced repeated trauma, including rape and physical violence, it has actually helped me enormously to be able to go over it several times as needed, and to allow my emotional reactions to take shape however they will. Sometimes detachment and calm, sometimes rawness and tears, sometimes even humour. Nice to know I'm a fraud for not being more Johnny.

iklboo · 27/05/2022 11:53

Anyone generalising "ALL abuse survivors act like this" or "abuse survivors never ever do this" needs to go to hell. That's incredibly dangerous and stigmatising.

And usually taken from TV soaps and films. No experience of trauma, its after effects and psychology of the victim.

JetTail · 27/05/2022 11:56

iklboo · 27/05/2022 11:53

Anyone generalising "ALL abuse survivors act like this" or "abuse survivors never ever do this" needs to go to hell. That's incredibly dangerous and stigmatising.

And usually taken from TV soaps and films. No experience of trauma, its after effects and psychology of the victim.

Are you speaking generally about the responses here?

ItsSnowJokes · 27/05/2022 11:58

I don't believe her, not due to it being different to my own experience and life but because I believe she is lying and doesn't have any evidence to back it up. I have made my decision purely on the evidence submitted. I don't like either of them and have been as unbiased as possible, but listening to the trial and viewing the evidence it does not hold true to me that he was physically abusive to her. I feel on the evidence provided it has been proven she was physically abusive to him.

There may be other evidence that was not allowed to be entered into evidence that would have changed my opinion but going just on the current evidence I feel it has been proven he did not physicslly abuse her.

JetTail · 27/05/2022 12:04

ItsSnowJokes · 27/05/2022 11:58

I don't believe her, not due to it being different to my own experience and life but because I believe she is lying and doesn't have any evidence to back it up. I have made my decision purely on the evidence submitted. I don't like either of them and have been as unbiased as possible, but listening to the trial and viewing the evidence it does not hold true to me that he was physically abusive to her. I feel on the evidence provided it has been proven she was physically abusive to him.

There may be other evidence that was not allowed to be entered into evidence that would have changed my opinion but going just on the current evidence I feel it has been proven he did not physicslly abuse her.

Also agree with that. All recordings appear to only show her being abusive. She goes from anger, to pleading, to I love you Johnny, you're killing me, to something from the fucking Exorcist roaring STAY AND TALK TO ME YOU BASTARD! And then back to pleading, cajoling, crying, apologising, minimising, gaslighting and on and fucking on. It must have fucking awful for him to be honest.

wellhelloitsme · 27/05/2022 12:04

Especially since Kate Moss gave evidence that proved Amber was lying under oath.

Nope.

AH specifically said she had previously heard a rumour JD pushed her down some stairs.

She didn't state as fact that he had done so.

So that instance wasn't a lie under oath.

JetTail · 27/05/2022 12:05

I think he has some loyal people around him. The two who stick out for me are the Scottish bodyguard or butler or whatever the hell he is and his sister.

iklboo · 27/05/2022 12:06

@JetTail - more the comment that 'trauma survivors don't act like she does'.

I'm on neither side but the idea that trauma survivors all act a certain way is risible.

Pyewhacket · 27/05/2022 12:06

Buzzer3555 · 26/05/2022 22:47

Because not all women tell the truth and not all men are abusive

This.

wellhelloitsme · 27/05/2022 12:06

Vanessa Paradise was with him for 14 years but she doesn't have anything bad to say

She presumably has said some bad things privately since she found out he called her a 'French extortionist cunt' in messages to his pal Elton John.

peterpiperpickedapiece · 27/05/2022 12:07

As a survivor of DV, I usually take the woman's side.
Amber Heard reminds me of my ex-husband diagnosed BPD (100% NPD but hard to diagnose as they never admit they're wrong)
She triggers me in a big way, her mannerisms and language.
I feel that Johnny owns his demons and his part in the relationship. I truly feel that she was the abuser in this relationship.

CaptSkippy · 27/05/2022 12:08

Whereas he showed up to her place threatening to cut himself because of something she either did or refused to do. That's classic abusive emotional blackmail.

OP posts:
wellhelloitsme · 27/05/2022 12:10

@Rathmobhaile

Because she badly acts a victim of trauma. Trauma victims don't keep reoeating their trauma. They may be able to repeat it once. They can't keep repeating it as psychologically it may re traumatise them.

Bollocks. Trauma presents differently in everyone and as a PP said, for some people suffering with trauma that can mean frequently talking about it and / or actively seeking out triggers to relive it. Sometimes this is to try to process the trauma - a bit like when we have nightmares. It's such bullshit to say as a fact "trauma victims don't keep repeating their trauma". Nobody who works in relevant fields would state that as a fact.

knittingaddict · 27/05/2022 12:49

I felt the article was more interesting than utter shit written for idiots, particularly the part, and I’m surmising here that some women like to think they would act differently/better/faster/ than the victim as a sort of tool to protect themselves from believing that abuse could happen to them.

I love how some of the people who believe AH want to pigeonhole the people who don't as misogynists and lacking understanding of domestic abuse. It's incredibly insulting.

My daughter was a victim of domestic abuse for 10 years and we knew the abuser well. We helped her leave, helped her found a refuge, supported her emotionally and practically, read books about abuse, read the Freedom Course literature, meet other abused women. My brother was also a victim of a female domestic abuser.

I don't castigate anyone who finds it hard to leave and I certainly don't think it makes them inferior. The average number of times a woman tries to leave beofre she finally succeeds is 7. I know and understand all that, possibly better than some of AH's supporters.

I don't think JD is without his faults and issues, but I do think AH was the really abusive one in the relationship.

fossilsmorefossils · 27/05/2022 13:00

The thing that I hate most about this is that if you say you don't believe Amber, who has been proven to have lied under oath, then you must be starstruck with Johnny Depp.

Plenty of us don't even like him and still think that her lies make her unbelievable. We're talking about an alcoholic jealous druggy here that sent some awful texts, she didn't need to lie about snything if he really did hit her.

Stellamar · 27/05/2022 13:04

Internalised misogyny.

The patriarchy.

I don't know. It baffles me, really. He's obviously a violent and abusive man, from his own texts, videos and recorded words, the evidence of his destruction of property.

It's scary that he thought he could win this. And appalling the way he is dragging her through court repeatedly.

MrsJorahMormont · 27/05/2022 14:03

It's a good article and I hope people read it.

AdamRyan · 27/05/2022 14:15

I love how some of the people who believe AH want to pigeonhole the people who don't as misogynists and lacking understanding of domestic abuse. It's incredibly insulting.
I think this is missing the point. I don't necessarily believe everything she said, I do believe she has proved he was physically and verbally abusive to her. Therefore she's done enough for him to lose this case.

To me people supporting depp and qrguing she lied must either:

  1. think he wasn't abusive ever or
  2. think there are some circumstances where its acceptable to be abusive

I think that is misogynistic because point 1 is contrary to all available evidence and point 2 is basically how abusive men feel justified to be abusive.

Whether or not she was abusive isn't the point of the trial so it hasn't been tested. I can well believe she may have been but innocent until proven guilty.

Interestingly I've argued with posters about various high profile rape and sexual assault cases (e.g. paddy Jackson, ched evans) and been called a man hater for questioning their version of events because "innocent until proven guilty, its entirely reasonable asking his mate for a go on her was enough consent if the court says it was".

So I am very struck by the double standards on how male vs female defendants are treated.

wellhelloitsme · 27/05/2022 14:28

I don't necessarily believe everything she said, I do believe she has proved he was physically and verbally abusive to her. Therefore she's done enough for him to lose this case.

This. For JD to win the case he has to have convinced the jury that he has never been abusive to AH.

That's regardless of whether she was also abusive to him - that isn't what the jurors in this court case are deciding.

ZeroFsKarma · 27/05/2022 14:42

I have watched the majority of the trial (actually sat & watched!), I had no opinion on either before & never really paid attention to anything going on with them prior to this but I do believe Johnny's version of events over hers based on the trial. I don't think he is 100% innocent but I think AH has exaggerated or falsified so much she can't keep up. She has seemed like multiple people throughout this trial. The way she addresses the jury seems a bit awkward too. It may be that she is just desperate to be believed & that's why she's all over the place. There are some things that seem like obvious lies though like how did TMZ get the tape, how did the paps know she was at court etc.

It does shock me that these days anyone can say anything about someone & just ruin their career because we all have to believe them so maybe I did have some unconscious bias towards JD based on that, but AH's story has changed during this trial. There's something very off about her but I do find all the booing of her when she arrives at court & social media hate completely over the top, I feel for her with that.

MGMidget · 27/05/2022 15:01

Perhaps it would be better if NDAs were unenforceable against witness testimony in court because how is justice served otherwise? Watching some of the testimony of JD's witnesses early on in the case I couldn't help wondering if they were subject to NDAs or other contractual terms or simply hoping to hang on to a lucrative job. It was the failure of one witness to recall much about JD on the plane flight and yet being able to testify in detail to brief conversation with AH on the flight that struck me as odd for example.

BeyondPurpleTulips · 27/05/2022 15:12

MGMidget · 27/05/2022 15:01

Perhaps it would be better if NDAs were unenforceable against witness testimony in court because how is justice served otherwise? Watching some of the testimony of JD's witnesses early on in the case I couldn't help wondering if they were subject to NDAs or other contractual terms or simply hoping to hang on to a lucrative job. It was the failure of one witness to recall much about JD on the plane flight and yet being able to testify in detail to brief conversation with AH on the flight that struck me as odd for example.

That reminds me - I remember seeing someone say "all her witnesses are biased, they're all ex-employees or friends", and me thinking "yeah, and all his witnesses are still on the payroll!" 😄