Suzanne Harrington: How did Amber Heard and Johnny Depp case become entertainment?

We want blood, we want tears. We want intrusion, humiliation, pain. Female, obviously.

Actors Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/Pool photo via AP

There are eye-level signs inside the Tube in London, amid the ads for fast food delivery and erectile dysfunction, which read, ‘Intrusive staring of a sexual nature is sexual harassment and will not be tolerated’. Which sounds about right; anyone – that is, any woman - who has ever had the eyes of some random drilling into her in an enclosed public space knows how uncomfortable this feels. How intrusive and unnerving. How disrespectful. How potentially threatening.

But this seems not to apply if the enclosed space is a courtroom, and the woman involved is being grilled not about sexual harassment, but about something considerably worse - intimate partner violence - while her every word and gesture is being livestreamed to our phones and laptops. Even if you have personally made a conscious decision to avert your eyes - and feeds – it’s been difficult not to stare. Even if you’d never heard of Amber Heard, you have now.