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In December 2017, several women, including Drew Dixon, accused hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of rape. She had been silent for more than 20 years. Dixon claimed that the secret felt like an ominous cloud hovering over her. But in late 2017, she noticed a change in atmosphere.
After 20 years, Dixon, a writer, producer, activist and former executive at Simmons record label Def Jam Recordings, stated: “I said ‘me too’ because I felt like this was the moment where I would be heard and there would be a fundamental expansion of compassion.” (Simmons denies her allegations.)
However, Dixon felt like the clouds were gathering again as he watched Johnny Depp-Amber Heard’s trial for the past few weeks.
The “dizzying mockery” that seemed to follow Heard particularly troubled Dixon. Despite not knowing anything about Depp before the trial, Dixon’s 17-year-old daughter showed her a pro-Depp meme that illustrated how ubiquitous the trial had become in culture. Online viewers tuned in to the live-streamed trial in droves, and Depp enthusiasts, believing he could do no wrong, flooded social media with their support.
Dixon said it appeared that “the floodgates were opened in terms of the harshness with which survivors would be received” ahead of the verdict. She was concerned the damage had increased after a jury found the ex-spouses defamed each other on Wednesday, awarding Depp $15 million in damages and Heard $2 million. It seemed like she received a thorough and complete scolding.
After many women accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct in the New York Times in October 2017, the #MeToo movement gained momentum. A 2019 study by the Tobin Center for Economic Policy found that reports of sex crimes increased by 10% in 31 countries in the six months after the Weinstein allegations were made public, despite the hashtag originally targeting mostly women’s behavior of work and their male bosses and colleagues.
While the phrase “women believe” never gained the popularity some hoped, more and more women began to believe that people would trust them. The Depp v. Heard ruling and Heard’s online harassment during the preceding trial raise concerns, according to many experts in the fields of gender discrimination and domestic violence, that it could undermine the confidence of women, who might otherwise report abuse allegations and slow down or sweep the #MeToo movement.
Depp filed a $50 million lawsuit against Heard over an opinion piece she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 in which she identified herself as a public advocate for domestic violence without naming him. He also accused his ex-wife of abuse. Heard sued Depp for $100 million after Depp’s attorney, Adam Waldman, dismissed Heard’s allegations as fabrication. The trial took place at the Fairfax County Courthouse because The Post’s printing machines and servers are located in Virginia. (In the lawsuit, The Post was not a defendant.)
The trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard was used to “coopt and pervert” #MeToo, according to a statement on the #MeToo movement’s official website on Saturday.
“Over the past six weeks we have been ridiculed, shamed and blamed. There are countless headlines proclaiming the demise of #MeToo. Our screens were quickly inundated with clickbait headlines that have nothing to do with the actual effort. There was no mention that this trial wasn’t primarily about sexual abuse, nor did the headline ask the crucial question, “What do we have to do?” do so no one else has to say #MeToo? “
The word “me too” was first used by Tarana Burke in 2006 as a kind of shibboleth for women who had suffered abuse before becoming a trending hashtag more than a decade later. Responding to negative comments following the verdict, Burke tweeted Thursday morning, “The me-too movement is not dead, this system is dead.” She said, “You can’t kill us. This movement is very LIVELY. We left the hashtag behind.
However, many observers are concerned about the lessons the trial’s verdict will teach survivors. In an email to The Post, Leigh Gilmore, author of Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives and a book about the #MeToo movement due out in 2023, said the decision shows how Vulnerable survivors to defamation are campaigns when making claims.
“One of the most important achievements of the #MeToo movement was that it collectively created credibility. In both court and court, #MeToo dispels mistrust of women, she wrote. Men get away with violence and women are ruined for having the courage to say “enough” in the “bad old days of he said/she said,” such is the spectacle of this trial and the verdict’s catastrophe.
Leslie Silva, a family and marriage law specialist at Tully Rinckey in Albany, New York, believes the public’s reaction to the celebrity case will not deter ordinary people from considering a complaint. I would think most people would recognize this as a fairly unique set of facts and circumstances that may not really apply to them, she said, adding that her typical clients “are not millionaires spending a year in “I could totally understand how overwhelming the spectacle this process created could be,” she continued.
Advocates for domestic violence survivors are also concerned that what they have seen on TV could undermine the people they spend their days helping.
“When you speak out, there is often a fear that you will not be believed and that you will be judged. Maureen Curtis, vice president of criminal justice programs at the New York non-profit organization Safe Horizon, “I think this case showed that survivors are not believed [but] judged and regrettably as portrayed in the media, sometimes ridiculed and ridiculed.” “I believe this will be a significant setback for the survivors.”
Upcoming author of the memoir Everything I Never Dreamed and executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Ruth M. Glenn is also unhappy with what she has observed. It’s a big disappointment, Glenn said. “As a survivor today, I feel like, ‘Here we are again. Once again as an organization we felt that someone had brought a case and I felt the same as a survivor.
Glenn claimed that survivors are already grappling with a number of difficulties in life, including the need to both seek shelter and be heard. The public reception of the process also conveys the message: “‘You will be mocked. You will be criticized. You will suffer humiliation,’ she continued, unable to say how this affects victims of domestic violence.
In an email to The Post, Linley Beckbridge, director of communications and advocacy at Doorways, an Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit that provides shelters and other supportive services to victims of domestic and sexual violence, said many survivors may have, too Fear of making any allegations of abuse that are already an underreported crime for fear of a defamation lawsuit. “The overall effect will undoubtedly be further decommissioning and isolation of survivors, particularly women,” the article said. “Although the support offered to Johnny Depp may suggest a positive movement towards faithful male survivors of intimate partner violence.”
Dixon agrees the trial will be depressing.
According to her, many victims are already ashamed or blame themselves for their abuse. Their cases often fall into the “grey area” where the only people who saw the abuse were the two people who were already involved. According to Dixon, it’s common for abuse to escalate before the victim can identify it, and it can take time for a victim to walk out of the relationship. On the journey, they might feel remorse, shame, unworthiness, or even try to make their wrongdoer feel better.
People underestimate the strength of character, courage and will it takes to speak openly about one of life’s most distressing experiences, she added. Each victim silently scales a giant mountain before ever saying “Me too.”
In the years following the #MeToo movement, the mountain didn’t exactly disappear, but Dixon claimed that “you could see the top.” Dixon believes many survivors will conclude the climb is just too difficult after seeing the glee with which Heard was vilified and the verdict that prompted her to accept the man she claims that he had harmed her, to pay damages. I just think the mountain has gotten immensely bigger.
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