The desire to turn Johnny Depp into a victim, despite all he has done, despite the Rolling Stone interview and allegations against him, is astounding. Especially when it comes at the expense of wanting to tear down Amber Heard in the process.

CBR reports on the existence of a “Remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2” petition created by a person who will remain nameless on this site, and it has over 36,500 signatures out of a goal of 50,000.

“As Amber Heard is a known and proven domestic abuser, Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment should and must remove Heard from their Aquaman 2 film project,” the petition states. “They must not ignore the suffering of Heard’s victims, and must not glamorize a domestic abuser.”

Reports from April have stated that Depp tried to blacklist Heard, his ex-wife, at Warner Bros., since he works on the Crimes of Grindlewald movies with the blessing of J.K. Rowling. Most information I’ve researched about Heard’s alleged domestic violence come from Depp support sites. But I know that there are a lot of people, who will always, always, view Heard as a talentless woman who dragged Depp down. I know this because from the moment they got together, that was the narrative.

I’ve spoken to people who love Johnny Depp so much that they are willing to consider her a “gold digger” even after we found out that Depp has been house poor. Why? Because we still view young, bisexual, women as vultures and the enemy when it comes to men we idolize. I also grew up loving Johnny Depp, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to believe him when there is evidence to the contrary.

However, more than anything, I think stories like this are necessary to remind us how people want perfect victims and such a thing does not exist. In the podcast “You’re Wrong About…” they discuss the O.J. Simpson case and the lessons we “learned” from it, and one of the things the hosts bring up was how it was held against Nicole Simpson Brown that there were times she stood up for herself and slapped O.J., or that she stated with him because she enjoyed sex with him, or that she was basically not a perfect passive player in her messy marriage.

I don’t expect anyone to change their mind because I bring up these comparisons, but I find it endlessly upsetting that anytime there is a chance that Amber was not a perfect victim that it erases the reality of the pictures we saw. I highly down Heard will be removed considering Depp has no been removed, but I hope that the people who stand by Depp are in it because they truly believe in him and not just because they love Jack Sparrow that much.

If there was anything Depp said or did that made me have any doubts about the allegations maybe I’d understand it, but all he has done is pretend he is blameless. There is just too much there, but I do hope he does get help for his issues because it is clear that surrounding himself with “Yes men” has helped him dig into a deeper hole.

(via CBR, image: Warner Bros.)

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