It is like facing a powerful person in court. It will be more difficult for her to fight his legions of stans, or at least the people who seem to hate her guts. People could be less willing to speak out about abuses made against them even if they don't name the person. Speak no truth, see no evil, hear no evil.
It is not just about the one case. It isn't just about how the decision will affect generations of cis women and AFAB trans people, it's also about how the other people are cheering. It isn't just about the mass shootings that have happened in the last three weeks, it's also about the swaths of people who think that guns aren't the problem.
It's more than just about the money Heard owes Depp, it's also about the people who don't support him but despise him. The point of the cruelty is that these are part of it. Being a woman in the world doesn't mean you're just punished by one man or event; it means having to tangle with a tapestry of subjugation.
If we don't get a chance to take a break from fighting, how are we supposed to keep up the good fight? How long can you be hypervigilant with so little proof that vigilance works? It's too early to say the death of #MeToo is over, but it certainly feels like a pendulum swinging hard in the opposite direction. It has implications for every woman who wants to come forward with her own allegations of abuse, from Evan Rachel Wood to any woman you know. Maybe the hope is that we get too tired to keep fighting. I don't like admitting that I'm close to quitting. I am too young to be disappointed.
The jury read the headline in the Washington Post op-ed that precipitated the libel claims from Depp. Those of us who believed her do too.
Our immediate trauma will soon mellow into a more manageable kind of collectivePTSD, as it has for every kind of disturbing and damaging current event in history. Most of us won't learn from it. I will get back up tomorrow. I will have more thoughts tomorrow. I will try again tomorrow. Maybe for now, it's okay to be tired.
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