Amber Heard. Credit:Getty Images

And yet, there is still a rush to dismiss her allegations with some of the most textbook plays you're likely to find in the But Women Lie handbook. Apparently her failure to file police charges when officers were called to the couple's home indicates she's making it all up - because victims of domestic violence have historically always had so much confidence when it comes to reporting their assailants to authorities, and never refuse to file charges out of fear or even a remaining sense of love for their abusive partner.

Then there's the character testimonials being provided by Depp's family members and former lovers - don't you know he could just never be violent towards anyone? After all, it's not like any perpetrator of gendered violence has ever been publicly supported by their family and friends, all of whom will swear to the heavens that this person is simply the nicest, kindest, most caring human being you could ever meet and no one respects women more than he does.

Finally, her application for spousal support is being used as the great 'A Ha!' moment that evidently proves this is all part of some nefarious plot to rob a great man of his hard-earned fortune. Listen, whether or not you agree with that move is irrelevant to the fact of whether or not intimate partner violence was a bedfellow in the Heard-Depp home. Given the demonstrated likelihood of public backlash and suspicion against a woman alleging domestic violence against a famous man in particular, do you really think someone would be foolish enough to think those claims would strengthen a case for spousal support? As women are so often instructed to do, use your common sense.

When you look at just what awaits a woman who comes forward with allegations of assault against a well-respected man, the question of why more women don't report abuse when it happens becomes null. A better question is why any woman reports it at all, given how comprehensively her own character will be torn apart by a society that still cannot come to grips with the fact that the violence it so consistently warns women to avoid stumbling into is actually perpetrated by real people and not mythical Shadow Men who live somewhere between the curtains of this world and the next. Instead, it simply yells at us to start being 'more sensible' and demands to know 'why don't you leave' and then turns around and screams 'INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!' whenever allegations surface that shift the spotlight away from women's stupidity and onto men's proactive culpability.