Content note: this article contains mentions of domestic violence and abuse

The court will rule what it will rule, but in the kangaroo court that is TikTok, Johnny Depp won long ago. In his $50 million defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard, who has described herself as a victim of domestic abuse in an op-ed in the Washington Post, Depp has managed to conduct a thriving parallel campaign to rectify his reputation.

Watching the barrage of YouTube compilations, Tik Tok montages and the trending #johnnydepp, Depp has not only cleared his name of any allegation of abuse, he has somehow managed to seem like a cool, calm and witty anti-assault warrior. Fist-bumping his lawyer, hinting that his ex-wife is fat, Depp is perceived online as an epic underdog, outwitting his abuser.

Yet the sleaze-misted clout that follows the former Jack Sparrow is misplaced when it comes to a real court case, concerning real people. One which has unveiled a real, disturbed, heart-twisting marriage. As an apparently abusive and manipulative partner, Heard is deserved by no-one, but the deification of Depp and the incredibly misogynistic backlash to the case are harmful not only to the film stars themselves, but to women, and to victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault everywhere.

“Finally! A woman you can hate entirely, enjoying every tool sexism and women-hating have in their arsenal”

From confessing to hitting Johnny, through to recording her ex-husband in his most fragile moments and lying about the makeup-kit she used to cover her alleged bruises, Heard definitely does not come off well. And yes, it is important for feminism - a movement attempting to liberate all people from the violence of domestic abuse - to recognise cases of women abusing men, and to acknowledge the various forms in which domestic violence can take. To reject Heard as a feminist symbol makes complete sense, to speak out about the fact that men can be victims of abuse is as important.

However, that is not what we are seeing right now. TikTok audios make fun of her testimony documenting sexual assault and domestic violence. Millions of teens every day watch other teens make aroused faces to the voice of a woman describing sexual assault, or watch women act out supposed inconsistencies in her testimony. Johnny Depp reads aloud texts in which he jokes about burning his ex-wife and having sex with her corpse, and at the same time users piece together clips to music glorifying his blase, quippy demeanour at trial.

That is where the public mind leaves the Heard case and lets loose that vicious misogyny carefully buried, but in a shallow grave. Finally! A woman you can hate entirely, enjoying every tool sexism and women-hating have in their arsenal. She is a liar, she is a cheater, she is manipulative, and of course - she is fat, apparently the most degrading insult a woman can suffer.

Honestly, Heard might be all of those things (besides the last one, objectively), but so might Depp, and no quantity of memes or fake news can turn misogyny into an acceptable or articulate opinion. Yes, Heard is damaging women, because so many victims’ accounts are already called unnecessarily into question - but these never should have been up for such casual debate in the first place.

“Women don’t owe it to society to eliminate the occasional Heard in order to keep fighting for the safety and equality of so many vulnerable targets”

Women don’t owe it to society to eliminate the occasional Heard in order to keep fighting for the safety and equality of so many vulnerable targets, and to use misogyny solely against women you deem ‘bad’ people only means you have buried your sexism that bit deeper. Misogyny cannot be a tool, even towards cruel women, because to respect women as humans means to always judge them as humans - for good and for bad - not to grant them a temporary human-card until they lose points and morph back into whores and liars.

Testimonies of sexual assault, even if you decide they are false, should never be treated as a joke. People might think they are mocking only Heard, but they are actually showing women all around the world what people might do with their most vulnerable points if trial by popular opinion doesn’t go their way.

Heard and Depp are a cautionary tale of what happens when we lose respect. By conducting an extremely public trial regarding their most private moments, they let the public detach the discussion from the grave matters at hand and turn them into the cruelest, most vapid gossip. And all is fair in love and gossip - or so Depp fans think.

By treating the case as a hero-villain movie, the media has revealed its craving to see women cast as manipulative liars, and the recklessness with which they will treat any case that might seem to fit that genre. More than we need justice for Depp or for Heard, we need more respect, thought, and human decency in the way in which we watch people’s lives.