CANCEL CULTURE HAS EMERGED AS A MORAL RECKONING, FROM POLITICS TO THE WORLDS OF FILM AND TELEVISION. BUT AS WEWITNESS MORE AND MORE PUBLIC SHAMINGS, ONE ASPECT REMAINS VASTLY UNEQUAL. ROSAMUND URWINASKSWHY SOME REPUTATIONS SEEM INDESTRUCTIBLE
WHEN JOHNNY DEPP RETURNED TO THE PUBLIC EYE IN MAY, he could barely have dreamed of a warmer welcome. Appearing at the Cannes Film Festival, the actor was greeted by thousands of adoring fans and a seven-minute standing ovation after the premiere of his new film, Jeanne du Barry, leaving him close to tears. During his protracted legal battle with his former wife Amber Heard last year, Hollywood insiders had debated whether Depp would ever appear on the big screen again. Cannes – alongside Disney refusing to rule out his return in a future Pirates of the Caribbean film – seemed to mark the comeback complete, with Depp officially uncancelled. Search for Heard’s name on social media, meanwhile, and you’ll still find reams of abuse from ‘Depphead’ fans.
We know the drill now on ‘cancellations’. It isn’t punishment by the state, it is censure by our peers. It usually starts virtually but can spill out into reality: jobs lost, reputations tainted, lives derailed. Social media has accelerated the way people can be shamed, with sites such as Twitter acting as a town square where the ‘sinner’ is put in the stocks and others throw stones. Sometimes this has been sparked by accusations of serious misconduct, but sometimes the person has simply posted an ill-judged tweet or expressed an unpopular opinion. Pile-ons gain momentum fast and the attacks can be performative, with people wanting to show they’re on the ‘correct’ side by publicly criticising the miscreant. To some, this is citizen justice, ordinary people claiming power; to others, it is mob rule and public humiliation doled out by a kangaroo court.
Yet one dimension of this process is much less explored: how men – particularly famous, successful or powerful men – are often handed a free pass or a metaphorical get-out-of-jail card. They get forgiveness, second chances and redemption tours to rehabilitate their careers and reputations, even when their sins or crimes are far more substantial than a bad-taste tweet. The Depp vs Heard case was undoubtedly complex: a UK judge determined that he had assaulted her; a US jury then decided she had made it up. But we do know that Heard claimed Depp kicked her to the floor on a private jet in 2014. Stephen Deuters, Depp’s assistant, who allegedly witnessed it, later texted Heard: ‘When I told him he kicked you, he cried… It was disgusting. And he knows it.’ Yet there are many people who have condemned Heard, claiming Depp was really the sole victim. These texts were excluded from the US defamation trial by the judge, but later released.
It isn’t just Depp and his standing ovation,
