`IT'S EASY FOR WOMEN TO HATE'
Heard's pal lashes out at Depp supporters
“It's easy for women with low self-esteem to hate AH (Amber Heard) or justify their prejudice towards archetypal feminine strength/beauty by denying their envy of it.”
Eve Barlow
Amber Heard's friend has taken aim at the army of fans who have thrown their support behind Johnny Depp as the former couple wages war in a Virginia courtroom.
Eve Barlow, a British journalist, claims that women “hate” Heard, 36, in part because they are envious of her looks.
“It's easy for women with low self-esteem to hate AH (Amber Heard) or justify their prejudice towards archetypal feminine strength/ beauty by denying their envy of it,” Barlow tweeted this week.
“They perceive an afforded power that's truly a myth, and excuse their own inefficiency at being resilient against misogyny.”
She continued, “It's much easier to get behind a woman who plays the damsel in distress than it is to empathize with a woman who has to liberate herself.” Depp, 58, is suing Heard for $50 million, claiming that her 2018 Washington Post op-ed defamed him when she described herself as a survivor of domestic abuse. The article never mentioned the Pirates of the Caribbean star by name, but Depp maintains the article implied he was the abuser and impacted his acting career.
Heard has counter-sued for $100 million, arguing Depp smeared her by calling her a liar.
Barlow's argument came in response to a tweet by Dr. Charlotte Proudman, who tweeted to her followers: “Do women hate other women? And if you think they do, why?”
During her testimony last week, Heard painted a picture of an allegedly controlling and abusive Depp, who, as he was known to the world as one of Hollywood's biggest film stars, was a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde-like “monster” behind closed doors.
Heard spoke about allegations that Depp abused her with a liquor bottle during an explosive fight in 2015 and threatened to “f---ing kill me.
“I didn't know if the bottle he had inside me was broken,” she said. “I couldn't feel it. I couldn't
feel anything.”
When he took the stand last month, Depp alleged that Heard abused him, and severed the tip of his finger.
“She has a need for violence. It erupts out of nowhere,” Depp said.
Barlow also lashed out at a new TikTok trend in which users of the social-media platform have repeatedly mocked parts of Heard's testimony.
“Listen, anyone protecting the TikTok abuse of Amber Heard is acting in bad faith,” Barlow tweeted this week. “You can't argue that it doesn't have a chilling effect on survivors from coming forward. Anyone actively mocking testimony about abuse is contributing to that silencing. Period.”
One video making the rounds overlays a clip of Heard crying on the stand as a robed Kim Kardashian bangs a gavel and says, “Ew, this is so cringe. Guilty.”
According to Variety, videos with the hashtag “amberturd” have been viewed more than 1.2 billion times to date.
Those include a video in which TikTok user @sansanjovs ridicules the Aquaman actress as she mock cries. So far, the clip has notched 2.1 million likes and was captioned, “A fun little web we're spinning.”
Elsewhere, Heard was also trolled online when she included a detail about how her “dog stepped on a bee” during one of her many alleged fights with Depp.
The viral videos take Heard's “My dog stepped on a bee” anecdote and splice in new rhymes.
Canadian TikToker Jeff Rad stitched together a clip that had amassed 873,000 likes in which he said, “My dad has to pee,” while user Cloeann Hardee adds, “I forgot my house key.”
In another video, which has 359,000 likes on Vinyl Haus' TikTok page, an animated bee cuts in to say, “Amber's telling lies about me.”
Meanwhile, Snapchat had to dispel a rumour that its new crying face filter was inspired by Heard crying in court.
TMZ reported that the filter, which was released on Friday, had been in the works for six months, long before Heard's tearful testimony.
Heard is expected to finish on the stand next week with Entertainment Weekly reporting that both her sister Whitney Henriquez and actress Ellen Barkin are expected to testify on behalf of the defence.
During the 2020 U.K. defamation case that Depp lost, Barkin reportedly testified that the actor threw a wine bottle in her direction during a heated moment in a hotel
room.