Monica Lewinsky offered her own verdict as the world awaits the conclusion of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, stating, “we are all guilty” for watching and reacting to the courtroom drama.
In an op-ed published Tuesday in Vanity Fair, Lewinsky claimed that most viewers of the Depp v. Heard trial “dispense with critical thinking and substitute the cheap thrill” by consuming the trial via “narrow, cynical cycle of social media encounters” rather than watching it in real time.
“Such scattershot consumption hasn’t allowed for real comprehension. Instead, we experience only apprehension, knee-jerk outrage, and titillation,” she insisted.
Lewinsky went on to claim that people “think, subconsciously” they “have a right to look and watch. To judge. To comment,” and “courtroom porn” helps people make themselves “feel better in comparison” to the celebrities with whom they have “parasocial relationships.”
The activist added that said she “wasn’t surprised” to see negative memes created about Heard “far outnumbered” those created against Depp.
“I wasn’t surprised that the cruel and vitriolic discourse was predominantly aimed at the woman,” she wrote.
Lewinsky also attacked those who “seemed to idolize” Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez, adding that “girl-on-girl action” is “on Misogyny’s greatest-hits album.”
But what she found most concerning, Lewinsky said, were “the ways we have stoked the flames of misogyny and, separately, the celebrity circus.”
“The ways we have contemptuously co-opted the trial for our own purposes are a sign of how many of us, the social-media-mongrelized, have continued to devalue our dignity and humanity,” Lewinsky wrote.
“Having been on the receiving end of this kind of cruelty, I can tell you the scars never fade,” she added.
Lewinsky concluded by asking, “Does our opinion toward this case entitle us to feel so superior — or inferior — that we can create a meme or a TikTok or a tweet saying something that gets other people to laugh at someone who is already suffering?”
“Do we have a ‘right’ to get dopamine hits — or money — from our number of followers or retweets or clicks?” she further inquired.
“No matter whom the jury’s verdict favors — be it defendant Heard or plaintiff Depp — we are guilty,” Lewinsky affirmed.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star is suing his ex-wife for $50 million, claiming that her 2018 Washington Post piece — in which she described herself as a victim of domestic abuse — has harmed his movie career. Heard is countersuing for $100 million.
Closing arguments for the trial, which started on April 11, were made on Friday. The jury resumed deliberating on Tuesday.
Americans have been more interested in the Depp v. Heard courtroom drama than the current biggest news stories, such as the recent leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and inflation.
Meanwhile, most of the viral clips generated from the trial mock Heard and are pro-Depp. Moreover, the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp has garnered more than 10 billion views, while the hashtag #JusticeForAmberHeard had garnered only 39 million.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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