Amber Heard’s avengers: her team in Britain fight back against online hatred

[IwantToRetire]

Heard has her own British support network — and while they may be unable to compete in numbers, they certainly can on skill, with expertise in criminal law, psychology and advocacy for abuse victims. They have been rallying around the actress in London and also working together to combat the abuse women face online.

Jaimi Shrive, 24, is an academic who researches political perspectives on violence against women; her wife Dr Jessica Taylor, 32, is a chartered psychologist and author of the Sunday Times bestseller Sexy but Psycho; Charlotte Proudman is a barrister who specialises in cases involving violence against women, and Kim Manning-Cooper is a domestic violence activist.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/amber-heards-avengers-her-team-in-britain-fight-back-against-online-hatred-5p3mbpbzr

Just to say I am posting this as I thought it was interesting, not just for the support Amber Heard is being and by who, but that parts of the media that publish articles about women's sex based rights are now using more tradional reporting methods of highlighting individuals and their back story. (Not grumbling) A bit like when there was the media getting all excited about JKR's lunch.

Just thought it was interesting on those 2 levels.

I'm over all of them. Each as toxic as the next and giving out their own abuse to women they don't like.

Does studying for a PhD qualify you to be referred to as an "academic"?

I have every sympathy for Amber Heard and the shocking way she was treated, but I can't say I'm a fan of either Proudman or Taylor, both of whom seem like self-publicists in the Jack Monroe mould rather than true feminists.

Conflicted about Taylor. I hear everyone's points about the way she comes across on social media and also the suggestion she used someone's story without their consent is terrible if true. However, some of her stuff around mental health diagnoses and busting mental health myths is great and she communicates it clearly and accessibly to a large audience.

hmmmmmm ... hadn't thought the focus would be on who the women are, but more this development (or media construct?) of highlighting groups of women that have some media profile forming support groups.

I personally like them all. Very credible. They attract a lot of hate. People are very jealous.

Jess Taylor is an absolute fraud.

It's a discussion forum, you can't control what direction the discussion takes.

Shit-flogging shysters, the lot of them.

Heard has absolutely no business positing herself as some kind of wronged angel when she proved herself to be a poisonous narcissist herself.

TinselAngel - thanks for yet another negative comment based on your preconceptions rather than reality.

Where did I say anyone had to do anything. I am interested in media manipulation whether it is favourable to views I agree with or not. A lot of threads on FWR are based on published material an comments go into the detail. I am interested in the motive.

But I am able to see that this isn't what stands our for those who have commented.

Next time, rather than have a jibe at me why not just interact as others have done.

Next time, rather than have a jibe at me why not just interact as others have done.
It wasn't a jibe at you, and I refer you to my previous point.

I love them. Infact I wish I could be in their little crowd, I could only dream of friends like that except I’m not clever enough but I do share their values. I may not have a PHD but I know jealousy when I see it. Good for them.

I believe Charlotte Proudman is another women who believes the term woman should be expanded to be inclusive.....

Yes she does.

I saw this thread earlier and my face did this 😬

No, not unless you're working in academia or are an emeritus academic who still conducts research according to the same principles. There are plenty of people working in the professions with PhDs who are not academics, and some doctors etc who publish in medical journals are both.

I don't think Jessica Taylor belongs within the latter category; last I heard she was a practicing clinician but not a medical doctor, and her research as far as I can glean is not peer-reviewed (not great for credibility) because of some strongly-stated anti-academic principles surrounding open-access publishing. (Incidentally, the major UK grant providers make open-access publishing a condition of stumping up any money). But I do think the ethical breaches thrown up by her latest book were unconscionable and I no longer follow her.

I have no opinion on the others.

Amber Heard was excoriated in the press. People (going by the vox pop) were simply unwilling to listen to any part of that story that didn't side with the beloved Hollywood male. The UK court found against Depp, a fact that's now conveniently brushed aside. A parallel to that situation is not Meghan Markle, as so many people keep saying, but Oksana Grigorieva. People refused to believe her account of events with Gibson despite unassailable evidence and audio recordings, and even then it had to be her fault because she's a 'gold digger' or in some way driven him to it. (His violent alcoholic outbursts were legendary, as were Depp's, but apparently that counts for nothing).

I have plenty of sympathy with Heard. If Depp deserves to get his career back, so does she. But it won't happen. Hollywood men are Teflon-coated and no woman stands a chance.

I don't think, however, that allies like Taylor will necessarily do her any favours.

I was referring to Jaime, but your points stand.

Divide and rule, divide and rule.

Ah, so I see, and should have read it properly! I don't know much about her. I do believe, though, that both she and her wife were the target of the kind of trolls whose antics have frequently been commented on on these boards (going back to before the ethics question).

That on its own is just as horrible, and shows exactly what happens to women who speak out about male abuse.

Good post Marie.

There's been a number of points that Jess has made in the past that have made me think but I'm just not sure what's going on there now.

I think she's on a tv prog soon.

SM crucified AH and perhaps choosing these SM women is how she hopes to gain some control back.

Jess Taylor is not a clinician. She has a PhD in psychology, not a clinical qualification.

@DworkinWasRight

She is a forensic psychologist by profession. Good luck to her for challenging the status quo around mental illness. I think she’s very brave and the world needs people like that.

My thoughts exactly!

But she is not a clinician.

This will probably go down like a lead balloon but here goes. I watched the whole of the Depp v Heard trial (I was at home on gardening leave). I am no Depp fan, I went into it thinking meh two toxic people fighting each other. I came out of it thinking Depp is an addict and all the crap that comes with living with that, but Heard, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was a sociopath. I was shocked at how traditional media was portraying it because that was not what I was watching.

I don’t agree with how she was treated on social media, but I don’t think Heard is the person to rally round on this one, I think it will come back to bite them.

I am also not sure why the UK trial is held up as some bastion of truth when we have completely different laws and the grounds the case was based on was different. It wasn’t even Depp v Heard for a start.

Fair enough. I haven't followed her since the ethical question came to light, so was vague as to the exact nature of her practice. At first I thought she was doing an amazing job in highlighting the fact that women are routinely blamed for everything. But some of the advice she peddles about pathologizing mental illness has been refuted by bona fide professionals and researchers as dangerous. I also do understand professional ethics and could not in all conscience get behind someone who behaves like this. To use someone's stories of sexual violence and trauma is particularly wrong, and I say that as a victim of sexual trauma myself. I believe the victims.