I found this article on the front page of the New York Times this morning (5/09/22) and it just irritates the heck out of me. Although the author, Jessica Bennett, doesn't come out and declare that AH's situation is 'just like' that of Monica Lewinsky, Britney Spears or Pamela Anderson -- women who were "vilified, usually over something sexual in nature, and are now being "reclaim(ed), redeem(ed), refram(ed) and reconsider(ed)" as women who were "always misunderstood from our recent pasts," there is a very strong hint that AH might just be destined to become one of the 'redeemed ones' someday.
To wit, "Last week the actress Amber Heard took the stand in a defamation trial against her. She is being sued by her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, over a 2018 opinion essay she wrote, in which she called herself a victim of domestic abuse. (Mr. Depp has denied abusing Ms. Heard and has accused her of abusing him.)" She continues...
"The outcome of the trial is still weeks away, and there are plenty of reasons to express skepticism about either side’s narrative. And yet it is Mr. Depp’s fans who flank the courthouse daily, waving from the galley, while social media — and the trial’s livestream — is inundated with anti-Heard memes and insults, calling her a “gold digger,” “fake,” “bipolar” and “manipulative,” to the extent that she has reportedly had to hire security."
Just HOW is it that a NY Times Opinion section editor, doesn't have the time to research this case? Even modestly look into the facts? She talks about the assumptions of our society that seem to insure that celebrity women are going to be falsely tarred with sexual innuendo. What about men? Are there no men across time whose reputations have been tarnished because of the words and deeds of a woman? Nonsense.
And we, the fans, are nothing but mindless creatures who can't see beyond our beating heart support of Mr. Depp? Years of investigation done by men AND women comes down to "anti-Heard memes and insults"? Frankly, it feels to me that this uninformed writer has just pasted us with the same kind of sexist thinking she complains about in her article. At the heart, what we've been dealing with for years is a failure to see Mr. Depp as a human being who has had his entire life upended by manipulation and fear. If anything deserves further examination it's the wholesale neglect of Mr. Depp's case by serious media organizations. Honestly, I don't think media types think independent anymore -- all in someone's pocket.