Monica Lewinsky has come out with scathing criticism for the general public in regards to the Heard/Depp trial.
By now, it's safe to assume virtually everyone in the US has heard of the hottest court case to hit the presses—the trial surrounding the defamation lawsuit between Hollywood stars Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.
The trial was a result of Depp suing Heard over a 2018 OpEd piece where she made allegations of abuse while not specifically naming him. The allegations led to Depp becoming somewhat of a pariah in Hollywood and losing out on prospective film projects and being dropped from others.
On June 1, the court made it's official ruling in favor of Depp, causing quite a stir in the celebrity world as stars and fans alike either celebrated or criticized the ruling.
One of these critics was Monica Lewinsky.
Lewinsky, infamous for her affair with former President Bill Clinton during his term in office back in the 90s, published an opinion piece in Vanity Fair in which she slammed the public for turning the trial into what she called "courtroom porn."
She wrote:
"Unless you’re a troglodyte, you’ve been exposed to something about the Depp v Heard trial in the past few weeks. Like many, I have averted my eyes—with guilty fascination—even as I’ve kept track of the defamation conflagration."
She then went on to relate the situation back to her own experiences.
“As we all do nowadays, we watch or we read or we media-graze about these private turned public spectacles in bits and bytes, fearing that the sheer rancor and vulgarity might leave a kind of virtual stench—or, in my case, worrying that prolonged viewing might be triggering. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Google: 1998.)"
Lewinsky was just a 22 year-old White House intern when her affair with President Clinton became public.
After the story broke, she fell under fire by the public and media alike and was the victim of widespread bullying and slut-shaming.
Lewinsky also scolded fans for creating and circulating misogynistic jokes and memes about Heard.
She wrote:
“I wasn’t surprised that the memes about Amber Heard far outnumbered those about Johnny Depp."
“I wasn’t surprised that the cruel and vitriolic discourse was predominantly aimed at the woman.”
She continued:
“[It] would be sad enough if it just impacted the personal lives of Depp, Heard, and their loved ones. It would be sad enough even if we just considered how it has impacted domestic violence survivors or those who have sought strength in the #MeToo movement."
“However, it’s the larger implications for our culture that concern me the most: the ways we have stoked the flames of misogyny and, separately, the celebrity circus."
“It’s not just the two individuals and how you feel about them or this situation; it’s the cultural collateral damage.”
Some Twitter users are backing Lewinsky up...
...while others disagreed.
Lewinsky ended her piece by stating that the result of the trial wasn't important when the public turned the trial into a "misogynistic circus."
She wrote:
“No matter whom the jury’s verdict favours…we are guilty."
