What if a 58-year-old woman drank as much as Johnny Depp?
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The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial has riveted the public’s attention. And why not? It’s a slugfest between attractive, famous people who’ve revealed the most intimate parts of their lives, juxtaposing the ugly and the glamorous—drunken arguments on private planes to private islands. It’s like if a 17th century peasant got to watch dinner time in Versailles.
There are ongoing debates about who is telling the truth, since the trial has, unfortunately, become a referendum on the state of the #MeToo movement. But it’s clear that, at least on social media, Depp has emerged as a lovable scamp, while Heard has been portrayed as a combination of out-of-control hysteric and malicious vixen.
The lovable scamp vibe is in part created by his impish responses to questions about his drug and alcohol use. “A pint-sized glass of wine?” he smirked, when a lawyer asked about a very generous pour of red early in the morning. The pictures Heard took of him in various states of “passed out” are used, mostly non-judgementally, as proof that he wouldn’t have had the energy to abuse her.
While I have some questions about his liver, I actually enjoy Depp’s lackadaisical-avoidant attitude. The puritanical US culture of, “If you have more than one drink a day you’ll die of every cancer” is … clearly more culturally constructed than science based. Europeans drink more, but in healthier ways than Americans, who are more likely to drink alone as stress relief or cure for loneliness. And if it emerges as definitively as it can that he didn’t abuse Heard, well, who is he hurting by drinking to excess?
But something that’s been bugging me is that we would never—ever!—allow a woman, especially a mature woman, to be portrayed as charming and harmless imbibing that much. It’s un-womanly to pass out drunk fully clothed.
Why?
It’s drunk men who engage in the most socially harmful behavior caused by addiction. They drive drunk at higher rates, commit sexual assault at WAY higher rates, attack their partners, get into bar brawls.
Yet even relatively harmless over-drinking is presented as a shameful moral failing in women. Recall the coverage of early-aughts “party girls” like Paris Hilton and Tara Reade. In an episode of South Park, Hilton passes out and is sexually assaulted by a Butters. The scene is played not just for laughs but for us to cheer her getting what she deserves. Perhaps having learned by example, today’s successful influencers, like Kim Kardashian, maintain an image of steely self-control. Can you imagine Kardashian stumbling out of a car?
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