TopicalThe Week on Twitter

The Week on Twitter | Johnny Depp, Asking For It, & Bono

By Jade Hayden

This week, we weren’t Asking For It, Johnny Depp was cast in the Fantastic Beasts series, and Bono became woman of the year (?). Lots of people also tweeted about their #OneIrishDay, and tried to get Radiohead tickets.

#JohnnyDepp is cast in Fantastic Beasts franchise, much to the dismay of many

A couple of weeks back we heard that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is to be made into a five movie series. It’s a little book with about 100 pages but we got over that. We sighed and we shook our heads and we accepted that, yeah, we’d probably go see them all when they come out anyway.

But this week it was revealed that Johnny Depp had been cast in the role of Grindelwald, a very dark wizard who is evil but apparently not so evil when he is young which is when Depp will be playing him (maybe). Ordinarily this would have been fine. A lot of people still think it is fine, and are quite excited that Depp has become attached to the project. Others are reminded only of the domestic abuse case recently held against Depp by Amber Heard, and are left frustrated that a man who allegedly abused his wife could be cast in a series of movies mere months after the case was settled.

Of course, this is no surprise. Powerful and popular men are accused of doing horrible things to women all the time, and whether they are foud guilty or not, it’s rare that the careers of these men are ever “ruined.” More often than not, it is the woman who is called a liar, a golddigger, and a bitch for being brave enough to stand up for herself. It is the woman who has her sexuality used against her. It is the woman who is forced to prove that she is telling the truth, that she doesn’t care about money, that she still deserves to be cast in movie roles, to make music, to just live.

It’s been over two months since the domestic abuse case was settled. Since then, Depp has been cast as Grindelwald. He has been honoured at award shows. His devouted fans have attacked anyone who even dares to sugget that maybe he’s just not a great person. Amber Heard has been cast in her fair share of movies too. But she has also been forced to announce that she is giving her $7m divorce settlement to charity. She has been demonised for being bisexual. She has been accused of “ruining” Depp’s career for money; a statement which this week alone has proven to be simply untrue.

People aren’t just angry that Depp has been cast in Fantastic Beasts because they don’t like him. They’re angry because, yet again, another man has emerged from an assault case unscathed, when if the same case were to be taken against a woman, she would spend years rebuilding her career.

#Bono is woman of the year… No, really

This week, Glamour magazine named Bono their woman of the year despite him being, y’know, a cis male. According to Glamour editor in chief Cindi Leive, Bono was given the award because he does a lot for women’s rights. Leive also admitted that they had been considering giving the award to a man for a few years now, but had worried that the decision would appear “outdated.”

Lots of people on Twitter agreed with Leive. Not about Bono getting woman of the year, but about the decision being outdated. And odd. And wrong. And a smack in the face to all the women out there in the world doing incredible things who have, once again, been outshadowed by a man.

Bono said that he wasn’t sure he deserved the award, but that he was thankful all the same.

Louise O’Neill’s #AskingForIt documentary stuns Twitter

On Tuesday night, Asking For It aired on RTE2. Taking the same name as Louise O’Neill’s stunningly important novel (and featuring the woman herself), the documentary discussed the very real issue of consent in Ireland, rape culture, masturbation, and why we should never be afraid to talk about sex.

The reaction on Twitter to the programme was astounding. It dominated hashtags, it led to discussions of the state of Ireland’s sex education classes, it got just about everybody talking.

Naturally there were those who took it upon themselves to post all over Facebook about how they didn’t need to watch the show, it was unnecessary, they would never rape someone, rapists aren’t like you are me. Except they are. Statistics in the documentary proved it. As did all of the brave people who spoke out afterwards.

https://twitter.com/emmetbroaders/status/793576062504562689

#Radiohead tickets sell out in one minute

On Friday at 9.00am Radiohead tickets went onsale. And on Friday at 9.01am Radiohead tickets were all sold out.

Many twitter users were angry about this, because they love Radiohead and they didn’t get tickets and they wanted to see them and they’re sick of Ticketmaster’s bullshit. Some other people were delighted because they actually managed to get tickets. There are not many of these people.

https://twitter.com/mckeevs1977/status/794467845283467264

Everyone tweets #OneIrishDay

This week, One Irish Day was trending. It was a tag filled with the ordinary, the mundane, and mostly the beautiful things that people got up to in Ireland one day.

There was a lot of landscapes, some dogs, a bit of food, many selfies, and a shoutout to Pokemon.

It was good.

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Jade Hayden 144 posts 0 comments

Jade Hayden has an MA in journalism, a degree in English, and a house rabbit who sleeps in her bed sometimes. You'll often find her wearing glasses, fixing her fringe, and complaining about the amount of time she spends on public transport. Jade is also the editor of HeadStuff's topical section, and she'd love if you sent your submissions over to [email protected].

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