Memes about Amber Heard are in bad taste

The cat is wearing a blonde wig. From the lower corner of the frame, a tiny plastic hand emerges, attached to a finger, which touches the muzzle of the orange cat. The video then cuts to another image of the same cat, who now appears dressed up in a black wig and bandana; the voiceover says, “I was walking out of the bedroom. He slapped me in the face and I said: 'Johnny, you hit me' ". I'd been avoiding the video for days, ever since I read about it in Rolling Stone. It seems that before disappearing, the clip obtained millions of views on TikTok. But now I found it in my carousel of suggested videos on Instagram, where the algorithm understood that I love cat videos, but not that I hate when allegations of domestic violence are ridiculed on social media.

No, the video of the veal slices is not funny You probably know what we are talking about. It will have arrived as a chain on WhatsApp or you will have tripped over it on TikTok or YouTube. Maybe someone will have told you to look at it because it is very funny. Not true Since the libel trial between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard began in April, a particular form of stan culture has formed around the affair. Depp sued Heard for $ 50 million, arguing that an article written for the Washington Post in which the actress claims she is a "public figure representing domestic violence" damaged her reputation and career (l article did not mention the actor by name). Depp has denied the allegations and the trial jury is considering a counter-complaint from Heard. As the case draws to a close, scenes from the trial have gone viral on social media, and most notably on TikTok, where users reconstruct or ridicule testimonials. The audio of the clip described at the beginning of this article is taken from Heard's testimony. Another video, showing the actress on the stand, is superimposed on a clip in which Kim Kardashian exclaims "so cringe" on Saturday Night Live, which currently has more than five million "likes".

This isn't the first time fan communities have crossed paths with celebrities. The first case probably dates back to the crowds of supporters who showed up in Santa Barbara, California to support Michael Jackson in 2005. In some cases, the interest of fans has brought the attention of the public to little told stories, such as that of Britney Spears, which took a turn thanks to the #FreeBritney movement. But there is a particularly disturbing element in the attention paid to the trial between Depp and Heard. It is one thing to support a celebrity involved in a lawsuit, it is quite another to create memes that mock those who say they have been beaten by their partner.

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Arrow Comments on unpleasant topics find fertile ground on the internet, and TikTok is no exception (for what it's worth, it appears the platform has removed some of the videos that use the audio of Heard's testimony). People make fun of politics and politicians on any subject. But using this case to make videos for the purpose of getting clicks is a particularly despicable thing, perhaps because the goal seems to be targeting a specific person and situation. Although most of the teasing is apparently directed at Heard (a disturbing trend within the trend), both the actress and Depp claim they were harmed in this affair. Would it be too much to ask, then, as the Guardian did, to "take a serious matter seriously"?

Much of the memes surrounding the trial were made by Depp supporters, who demand that the actor fair treatment is given, and so they try to discredit Heard. But, as The Cut writes, "as overwhelming as the evidence may seem in court, social media tells a different story," with Instagram memes and YouTube comments going to great lengths to present Depp as a victim and Heard as a committed actress. in a staging. The trial will be decided by a jury, but in the meantime on TikTok the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp has exceeded ten billion views, while #justiceforamberheard has collected 39 million. After years of # MeToo, there is "a woman who recounts, in excruciating detail, the violence she would have suffered from an extremely famous man - underlines Claire Lampen of The Cut -. Why, in 2022, so many people seem to hate her for why? ".

Part of the answer may lie in the fact that despite forgetting nothing, the internet has a distorted memory. If you're a celebrity, fans may decide to remember your role in Pirates of the Caribbean and ignore everything else. How could they remember that you were once married to a figure they admire and forget that you are a person. There seems to be a deep-seated misogyny - and, more generally, a deep-seated distrust of women reporting abuse - in social media's treatment of Heard. But beyond that, there is also another moral: the people who choose to report will not be believed and maybe they will be laughed at. Online life is capable of making celebrities appear only in the form we want to see them. It makes them unreal. He can turn Depp into a braggart adventurer and reduce Heard's tearful testimony to a soundtrack for TikTok. It's a trend we didn't need.

This article originally appeared on sportsgaming.win US.