48 Anti-Fandom in Depp vs. Heard
Benien Al-Askar
COMM 3P18
Summative project
Lad Instructor: Suze Tkachuk
Professor: Derek Foster
Benien Al-Askar
Student Number: 7610637
Amber Heard, a Hollywood actress best known for her work on Aqua man and former wife to Jonny Depp also a Hollywood actor best known for his lead role in pirates of the Caribbean. On April 20th, 2022, Amber filled a domestic abuse charge against Jonny Depp, which lasted till June 1st, 2022. This is where Amber Heard’s anti-fandom started. Ant-fandom is when one dislikes the object or text of a fan for moral or ethical reasons. In this content analysis I will be arguing as why and how Amber Heard has a(n) anti-fandom group on twitter. Amber Heard had a very active anti-fandom. Many were posting about how lied multiple times on the stand and was trying to purposefully ruin Jonny Depp’s career. Within this content analysis we will analyze five different examples of anti-fandom.
What is fandom. Fandom is best defined as ““specific social and cultural interactions, institutions and communities that have formed through the close interaction of committed groups of fans in a subcultural context.” (Sandvoss, C. (2005) pg. 5) This is traditional fandom, where we used to know the people in our community of fans by name. However, the traditional fandom has changed into something new, that has grown with the growth on social media and the internet. Now there is fanification, this is best defined as “online fans essentially represent the way all audiences will interact with media from now on.” (Bird (2011) pg. 503) This is how now fans interact online and can be part of a much larger community than ever before.
Today there is yet another new term, hegemonic fandom, this is best defined as “everyone has to be a fan of something,” and negatively, since “everyone knows” that fans are obsessive.” (Hills, M. (2005) pg. 40) Hegemonic fandom shows how ever single person is a fan of something or another and that regardless of what we are a fan of/who, we are obsessed to a degree with it.
As a result of the Depp vs. Heard case that took place in the United States of America, Amber Heard found herself to be the recipient of anti-fandom comments. The two months of court hearings and claims she made were made into memes, and jokes, to show that the public did not believe her. The ant-fandom was so strong that it appeared to be that Amber Heard had very few supporters left. Twitter was filled with the hashtag #cancelAmberHeard show causing cancel cultural. Negative comments in regard to Amber Heard’s character, and a boycott of the next Aqua man movie as DC refused to drop her from the movie for weeks, before giving in to the public’s voice and firing her from the film.
Amber Heard’s first claim on the stand was that Jonny Depp had hit her and broken her nose. “We were struggling, he’s bigger than me. He hit me, I remember my nose being swollen, red.” (Locker, M. (2022, May 5) However, days after this incident she was in attendance at a red-carpet event in which she appeared to have no injury. When this came up, she stated that “it was makeup.” Seeing the photos that were submitted to the courts, her nose was red, and discolored. However, the event just a couple of days later she appeared to look perfect. These photos of Amber Heard’s alleged broken nose were circulating on Twitter. Experts in beauty came out stating that the injury she claims could not be masked with makeup, as well as stating the makeup compact, she stats was used was discontinued long before this matter. The makeup brand (enter here) took to Twitter to officially state that their product was not available for years before this issue. While unconfirmed, many believe that she was lying under oath, and was trolling the public.
https://twitter.com/search?src=typed_query&q=%22%23AmberHeardlsAnAbuser%22%20(from%3AFryingPan67)
Trolling is when “trolling seems to be sometimes motivated by the simple enjoyment of causing turmoil and seeing others react to aggressive or nonsensical posts.” (Quandt, 2018, p. 41). Regardless of the evidence put by the public through Twitter proving that what she is accusing Jonny Depp of doing could not be possible giving the information, she instated it to be true. Thus, trolling the public to get continued angry from the public. The audience took to twitter to voice their outrage using the hashtag #AmberHeardIsAnAbuser and taking screenshots from the next day after the alleged abuse took place showing her on television, looking no different than before the alleged incident. The use of hashtags throughout the course of the trail unfolding was great. #CancelAmberHeard, #BoycottAquaman2. Hashtags allow for greater reach. The best way to define hashtags is to say that it allows the public to track a topic as well as add to it. Due to the outrage that Amber Heard was instilling in the public and Jonny Depp. The audience became participatory fans. Participatory fans are fans who not only act as consumers but as producers as well. For example, the many accounts that were created to voice their concerns and outrage. The memes and the comments that were made as a result. The audience went from watching and reading the case to taking part in the matter by spreading the news and outrage.
This outrage that the is being posted and said by anti-fans is called fan-tagonism. This is when angry and hostility is shown towards a creator/celebrity. For months Amber Heard and Jonny Depp were in the spotlight. When the trailil began and the world including her fans saw this unfold it brought a rise to fan-tagonism against Amber Heard. So much so that Amber Heard received thousands of death threats (Cohen, 2022). “fan-tagonism explicitly invokes an activist struggle to intervene in industry worlds” (Derek (2018) pg. 397)
One of these participatory fans went and created an account dedicated to the boycott of the Aqua man 2 movie. This account posts information about the trailer, Amber Heard, and the film industry part in this incident. The account calls for a boycott, of the film Aqua Man 2 due to release December 22nd, 2023. A boycott is when an audience refuses to be part or contribute to something as a form of protest. Many took to Twitter to show their displeasement in DC’s decision to keep Amber Heard as the main female lead. These a boycott was started on Twitter to let the creators know that should they continue to use her as the main female lead in the film, that they would not attend. This boycott has garnered the thousands of supports. However, Amber Heard was not dropped from the film. The reason that Amber Heard’s was able to retain her role in Aquaman is due to Elon musk. ““scorched-earth letter to Warner Bros. threatening to burn the house down” if she did not retain her part in the DC franchise.” As a result, the boycott is still ongoing, the goal is to have the film “flop” in theaters and lose large sums of money.
https://twitter.com/boycottaquaman2
Those who are boycotting the film are anti-fans. “Fandom is not a simple, life‐long and unproblematic relationship, but one where positives and negatives, fandom and anti-fandom are often present all at once.” (Liz. 2014 pg.53) In this example of boycotting they are also part of consumer fandom, this is best defined as “subcultures, groups, and/or communities of like-minded consumer, revolving around a unifying interest or object.” (Hao, 2020, p. 18) As the definition stats its “like-minded consumer, revolving around a unifying interest or object.” (Hao, 2020, p. 18) boycotting is a group of individuals who share a like-minded unifying interest. That interested being that they dislike Amber Heard and the film industries response to a delicate matter.
Ant-fans gather to these accounts and hashtags, for social interaction. Social interaction is defined as “[a] fan’s need for interacting with others of like interests for social support, friendship, and intimacy,” (Hao, 2020, p. 27) Twitter is a platform that connects millions around the world. With the majority off the world using Twitter, it allows for individuals to share opinions, interests, and find like-minded individuals. For example, when Amber first put out these allegations against Jonny Deep, Twitter was the platform that was used to spread the news of the boycott and allowing for accounts to be created in support of anti-fans, to have a voice and a place to voice their outrage. Giving them a sense of self-identity. Self-Identity is when “Affiliation and possessions with an object are motivated by a desire for positive distinctiveness from others. … Consumption plays an important role in the formation of identity and understanding the processes through which consumers expand their identities from objects, ideas, group, brands, or symbols of consumption has been of crucial importance for marketing strategy” (Hao, 2020, p. 26). Those who use the hashtags and are inn support of the boycott want it to be known. This is because it is part of their identity. They want to be seen as a supporter of the anti-fandom.
Self-identity leads to self-discovery, “to obtain access to social resources and facilitate the attainment of one’s future goals and to help one to form, clearly define and elaborate on one’s own preferences, tastes, and values” (Hao, 2020, p. 26). Self-identity and self-discovery work together. Twitter allowed for these social interactions to take place and have individuals voice their opinions and outrage at the matter. This resulted in many doing self-discovery to uncover that they also support this matter. For example, I myself, was not aware of this whole situation regarding the Depp vs. Heard trailer. I was aware of it taking place but not the full story. Going on Twitter and looking at the hashtags and boycott accounts showed me that I sided with them as well. Twitter let me self-discover what side I was more in support to rather than me going out of my way to read dozens of articles to figure it out.
As a result of the large outreach that this platform has it has the power to implement subjective norms. Subjective norms are best defined as “the social pressure from others including friends and family, any significant others as well as fans of the same fandom” (Hao, 2020, p. 27). For example, the boycott of the Aquaman 2 movie has shown the public that seeing the film is wrong. Therefore, there is a lot of pressure on the general public including those who are not part of the anti-fandom to not see the movie, for moral reasons.
Between the hashtags, comments, boycott, and even death threats what would these actions be called? All the following listed above can be summed up into one word, fan activism. Fan activism is best defined as “intentional actions by fans, or the use of fanlike strategies, to provoke change” (Brough and Shresthova, 2012, para. 2.2) Everything that anti0fans have done is to spark a change. To remove her from Aquaman 2, to have her stop lying and to prevent the ruin of Jonny Depp’s career. Fan activism is no different from traditional activism. It is a method used to provoke a change. Why would a platform like Twitter allow all this to happen on its platform? It is because Twitter operates in an affective economy. An affective economy is best defined as “According to the logic of affective economics, the ideal consumer is active, emotionally engaged, and socially networked.” (Henry (2006) pg. 20) Twitter relays on individuals using its platform, when it comes to, two celebrities fighting it out inn court and over domestic abuse allegations the publics interest is peeked. After all, “success is determined by participation, interaction, and the sharing of seemingly ‘authentic’ emotion.” (Burgess, Jean, and Joshua Green (2009) pg. 95)
This is the most accurate meme for Amber Heard 🤥🤥🤡🤡#AmberHeardIsAPsycopath pic.twitter.com/40BobeCnc8
— X 🇺🇸 (@realXanderXjork) May 7, 2022
However, there are some anti-fans who may have a different agenda. This is dark participation. Dark participation is best defined as the evil flip side of citizen engagement” (Quandt, 2018, p. 37) It is also understood that dark participation is “a counter-concept to a ‘naïve,’ abundantly positive and ‘pure’ concept of user participation discussed in communication studies and journalism roughly around the turn of the millennium and the subsequent decade” (Quandt, 2021, p. 85) The death threats that Amber Heard was receiving for example are dark participation, telling her to go kill herself.
Amber lying and crying in court has resulted in hundreds on memes being created. These memes are a form of content that is used to spread information and ideas in a comical way. In today’s economy making memes is more than a comical hobby to showcase one’s opinion and creative side, but also a form of work. This is also called affective labour. This means that “Everyone in participatory culture is exercising their relative power” (Livingstone, Sonia and Kirsten Drotner (2011) pg. 410).
All the media attention that the Depp vs. Heard court trail has garnered has caused made the trail “inescapable” (Broderick, 2022). The case became a high-profile matter, that the world was watching. As such the pressure was on the court to handle this matter to the best of their ability as it turned in a political issue as well. This case was testing the American court and legal system. Politics of against played a role in this as well. Politics of against is when “politics driven by acts of dislike, rejection and anti-fandom. He termed this a “politics of against” or, “the essence of a political movement primarily formulated against a symbolic Other, devoid of any material objectives” (2019, p. 131) Toxic fandom did play a role in this “inescapable” trail. Toxic fandom is best defined as “Toxicity’ in this context is thus commonly, albeit problematically, positioned as an invasive and poisonous force within otherwise progressive fan cultures and communities, or perhaps simply an exposure of these always already present biases. (Scott, 2018, p. 143) The death treats which Amber Heard was receiving are a result of toxic fandom.
Forensic fandom also played a role on Twitter. Forensic fandom is best defined as the following “becoming a (political) fan with its associated need to select from the plethora of associated media content across different platforms … is a means of building media literacy” (Sandvoss, 2012, p.79) The account that were created for the sole purpose of providing the public with accurate and up to date information on the trail. These are individuals and groups of people who went through all the information, gathered it and placed it in a convenient place for the public to understand and gage what was happening.
Cancel culture was also very prevalent in this case as well. Due to the number of anti-fans for Amber Heard, there was a large outcry for her to “canceled.” Cancel culture is when those deemed to have made a grave error, morally, ethically or in any way that upsets the public and social norms is ostracized. Many celebrities, politicians, and even micro-celebrities have fallen as a result of cancel cultural. Micro-celebrity is an individual who has yet to reach celebrity level but has garnered a large enough following to be known to a niche group of people. Amber Heard being a celebrity who plays large roles in films has been subject to cancel culture as a result of the trail. Her actions during the court hearing did not sit well with the majority. #CancelAmberHeard and #JusticeForJonnyDepp began to circulate. While the public were unable to have her removed from the Aquaman 2 movie, the outrage was impactful. May in Hollywood now do not wish to work with her or hire her to play in their movies after the backlash that was received online for the Aquaman 2 movie. Amber Heard is no longer on twitter due to the backlash she received.
While Amber Heard was being introduced to cancel culture. Jonny Depp was being introduced to stan culture. Stan culture is when fans are highly engaged and supportive of the celebrities they care for. For example, it is known that Jonny Depp is a fan of alpacas. When the trail was going on a fan brought two alpacas and dressed them up with a sign saying, “we’re with Jonny”. This is a clear difference between the cancel culture treatment that Amber Heard was facing in comparison to the Stan culture that Jonny Depp was experiencing. Every day the trail was being held there were crowds of people around the courthouse showing their support for Jonny Depp, with many holding up signs that they created. A hashtag was in support on Twitter was created as well #WeSupportJonnyDepp.
Lavoie, D. (2022, June 2). Lawyer: Heard was “demonized” by depp team, social media. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/amber-heard-johnny-depp-entertainment-virginia-297e088df7baadcc768339997db7bc58
Due to the defamation that Jonny Depp faced while going through the matter long before his court date, he lost millions. He lost he’s contract with Dior, he’s role in pirates of the Caribbean, and many other movies. Before he was awarded his win, and before he went to trial many were concerned that the allegations were true and therefore, he lost it all. However, after the court deemed, he was not guilty and awarded him his innocence, many still did not want to admit they were wrong in letting him go. Today Jonny Depp has been offered his role back in pirates of the Caribbean and he has accepted to return. However, no formal public apologize was given and thus Jonny Depp fans are still outraged that they won’t admit to their wrongdoing by letting him go to start. This is similar to the Dylan Mulvaney case in lecture. When Dylan Mulvaney posted a Bud light stating he was partnered with them, however when the backlash started, they did not help her or stand by their decision. Instead, they decided to do damage control, by saying that her claims are incorrect and that she acted on her own.
In conclusion the case of Depp vs. Heard was a very public matter that was viewed by the world. This case showed us participatory audience/fan activity in the contemporary networked media era. We saw how social media effected the case in court, how it viewed and affected Amber Heard as well as how social media viewed and affected Jonny Depp. We see how anti-fandom played a role in their trail and how it affected each party. The ant-fandom group against Heard, hindered her position, and caused numerous issues for her. While the anti-fandom in turn help in supporting Depp through it all.
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Lavoie, D. (2022, June 2). Lawyer: Heard was “demonized” by depp team, social media. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/amber-heard-johnny-depp-entertainment-virginia-297e088df7baadcc768339997db7bc58
This is the most accurate meme for Amber Heard 🤥🤥🤡🤡#AmberHeardIsAPsycopath pic.twitter.com/40BobeCnc8
— X 🇺🇸 (@realXanderXjork) May 7, 2022
https://twitter.com/boycottaquaman2
https://twitter.com/search?src=typed_query&q=%22%23AmberHeardlsAnAbuser%22%20(from%3AFryingPan67)
