On May 26, 2016 news was broke of Amber Heard filing for divorce from Johnny Depp. The Internet was shocked as to why the two were divorcing after only being married for 15 short months, but today the question was answered. Amber Heard was being physically and emotionally abused by Depp and was granted a restraining order against him.
Ever since news broke, people from all over the world are commenting on posts all over social media about the situation. People are calling Heard a gold-digger and going as far to say that she's making the whole thing up just because Depp denied her request for spousal support. This is what can be known as victim blaming.
What is victim blaming?
Victim blaming is the "devaluing act that occurs when the victim(s) of a crime or an accident is held responsible — in whole or in part — for the crimes that have been committed against them." In other words, it is the act of the victim getting blamed for the crime that was committed against them. In the media these days, victim blaming happens all too often and mainly to women who accuse other men of physical or sexual abuse.
Amber Heard was not the first to fall to victim blaming by the media and other people. In Kesha's famous case against Dr. Luke, who she claimed raped and abused her once he drugged her, she was not only victim blamed by people on the Internet that she barely knew, but by famous celebrities such as Wendy Williams as well. Lady Gaga stepped up to the plate and defended Kesha, asking the question that nobody knows the true answer to: why is the woman always labeled a liar?
In both Kesha and Heard's case on social media, people are labeling the both of them as liars who just want money, or out of a contract in Kesha's case. Maybe the ideology of woman being labeled negatively for speaking out about such topics can be predated back in our country's history to when hitting a woman and abusing her in other such ways deemed a man powerful. But times have changed and that was years ago, so why is it still this big of an issue now for a victim to come out and take action about being abused?
Is it because deep down, society still wants to see women as a weaker link than men? Can some parts of society just not fathom that women have minds and wills of their own? Though society is developing further every day with the large rise of a new feminist, it is still vastly seen as being a patriarchal society where man leads over woman. This can be seen as a reason why people are so quick to blame female victims.
There are so many more people in the world who are dealing with the same things that Amber Heard and Kesha may be dealing with, but are too afraid to come forward and get action taken due to the knowing response that somebody will victim blame them. Even though they know it is not their fault, somebody is bound to say that they just want money or that they should have done something sooner.
Victim blaming is a terrible social norm that needs to be abolished. Then maybe more people will come forward about their abuses and seek out help.
