The WIRED world of culture is covered in The Monitor, a weekly column.
The cat has a wig on. From the bottom corner of the frame, a tiny plastic hand attached to an index finger swiped the orange feline's whiskered snout. The video cuts to a cat in a wig and bandana, and the narrator says that he was walking out of the bedroom. I said, "Johnny, you hit me" after he slapped me. Since reading about it in Rolling Stone, I'd been avoiding this video. It went missing after getting millions of views on TikTok. I love cat videos, but not that I dislike social media mockery of domestic abuse allegations.
Since the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard began in April, a certain kind ofstan culture has formed around it. Heard is being sued for $50 million for damaging his reputation and career by writing an op-ed for The Washington Post about being a public figure representing domestic abuse. The piece does not mention the actor by name. The jury in the trial is considering a countersuit from Heard. Scenes from the courtroom have gone viral on social media, particularly on TikTok, where users reenact or otherwise ridicule the testimony given. Heard's testimony is what the audio in that cat clip is from. A video that shows Heard on the stand is followed by a video from KimKardashian on Saturday Night Live, which has more than 5 million likes.
In 2005, Michael Jackson's fans showed up in Santa Barbara, California, to show their support for the singer. Thanks to the #FreeBritney movement, the attention has put the public eye back on overlooked stories, like Britney Spears' conservatorship. There is something unnerving about the brand of attention emerging from the trial. Supporting a celebrity in a legal case is one thing, but making jokes about someone who claims they were hit by their partner is another.
TikTok is no exception to the internet commentary's penchant for bad topics. TikTok has reportedly removed some of the videos using audio of Heard's testimony. People mock politics and politicians. This case is being used as a fodder for reenactment and reaction videos to get clicks, and it seems so targeted at one person, one situation, rather than a larger topic and the dozens of voices weighing in. Although most of the ridicule seems directed at Heard (an unnerving trend within the trend), both she and Depp are claiming damages to themselves and their lives in this case, so would it be too much to ask, as The Guardian did this week?
Supporters of the actor want him to get a fair shake and therefore are trying to destroy Heard. No matter how damning the evidence may look in court, social media tells a different story, with comments on social media intending to frame Heard as an actor putting on a show. The case will be decided by a jury, but the #justicefor johnnydepp and #justiceforamber have more than 10 billion views on TikTok. The Cut's Claire Lampen pointed out how a woman recounted how an extremely famous man allegedly abused her.
The internet has a rose-tinted memory, which may be part of the answer. The people who love you can ignore everything else if you remember your part in Pirates of the Caribbean. It can be recalled that you were once married to someone they liked and forgot that you were a person. There seems to be a deep-rooted distrust of women who make claims of abuse in social media. People who come forward will not be believed and will also be mocked. We want to see celebrities in the forms we want them to appear in. It makes them seem real. It can turn Depp into a swashbuckler and Heard into a TikTok sound. That is a trend no one needs.
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